In this regular column, Sally Caple and the teachers of Charlton Primary School share with us a few of their most visited websites…

A very big thanks for their pearls of wisdom!

	www.echalk.co.uk - this site provides a good selection of free flash animations that can be used on the Interactive Whiteboard. There are animations for both primary and secondary stages for English, Mathematics and Science. The picture opposite shows the Polygon Tool.
www.mapzone.co.uk - this is a free site created by Ordnance Survey that aims to teach children, aged between 7 and 16 years, mapping skills in a fun way. There are a number of activities for children to take part in including writing about their favourite places and having homework help. You can also download three programs: a map of Great Britain, a map of Europe and a map of the World. You can show different things on the maps, e.g. rivers and major cities. You can also add symbols and text to the maps. To download the programs, click on the Garage.
	Another good site for map work is www.multimap.com. Search for a postcode or place. When the map is loaded, you can click on the button that has a camera and Aerial written on it. An aerial photograph of that area will load. If you move the mouse around, you will see the OS map overlaid on top of it. It is worth noting that this only works on 1:25,000 scale.
Lastly, there is www.boohbah.com. This is a site which is suitable for Foundation Stage and KS1 children who need practice with their mouse control skills. There are various games that the children can play that require them to move the mouse to control objects. For example, in this picture, the children have to control the mouse so that the person jumps on all the chairs.