Primary Mainstream Links

Lesson Plans and Classroom Resources

• Asia Education Foundation

  Teaching resources, cultural information and useful links (Australian).

• Clip Art Collection

  Copyright-free clip art (simple line-drawings) for use by language teachers. Designed to be culturally and linguistically neutral,the drawings are grouped under - verbs, adjectives, nouns and pronouns.

• EverythingESL.net: Activities for Newcomers

  When new English language learners first enter your school, it can be overwhelming for the teachers responsible for their instruction. Here are some activity-based tips to get you started.

• Graphic Organizers: Schools of California Online Resources for Education

  Check out this site for its variety of downloadable graphic organisers.

• Hot Baked Potatoes - Half Baked Software

  You can use this software to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises. Enter your data and the programme will create the web pages for you. You can even include feedback that leads the students who are having difficulty to the correct answers.

• Japan: Kids Web

  A fun site that introduces Japan to students from other countries. Sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• Korea for Kids

  Three interactive activities - numbers, words and virtual journey. Companion site to the Australian text book "Inside King Sejong's Gate".

• Migrant Education-Secondary Sheltered

  Individual units of work that together make a course of study for students at the elementary level.Suitable for intermediate or secondary school students in reception classes. (North Central Educational Service District - NCESD.)

• Paragraphs Game

  Drag the pictures of a road accident or a cricket game into the right order. Practise sequencing sentences to build a paragraph (BBC - Skillswise Words).

• Targeting Text: A Guided Writing Project

  A project focusing on using guided writing to teach text types. Plenty of practical ideas. (Department of Education, Tasmania.)

• Thinking about How Language Works

  This Assessment Resource Bank resource describes sentence structures, how ideas are linked within and between sentences, and how information is condensed in academic writing. Useful for teachers and students.

• Aesop's Fables @Web English Teacher

  A collection of lesson plans for Aesop's Fables from Web English Teacher.

• Asian Studies Links

  Cultural, news and other links organised by country (Pacific University).

• AskAsia.org

  Classroom resources and cultural information. From the American Asia society.

• asTTle What Next: Writing

  Learning intentions for level two to six writing and links to 'What Next?'.

• Babel Fish Translation

  Translate school notices, classroom material here. Does not include Pasifika languages.

• Barnaby Bear Goes Down Under (BBC)

  Short story with some animation.

• Beehive.govt.nz - The Official Website of the New Zealand Government

  Includes news releases about current issues and archival material.

• Brainpop

  BrainPOP is an educational program, with short, animated movies in science, maths, English, social studies, health and technology. Subscription needed.

• British Council - Search English Engine

  A news, information and networking tool for English language teachers.

• British Council Language Assistant

  Teaching materials for the ELT classroom.

• Certificate Creator

  This site offers a variety of templates teachers can customise to reward a student or celebrate an achievement.

• China Virtual Tour

  This site takes you along the route of an Australian teachers' study group tour. Each stop includes resources and a curriculum guide for primary and secondary school teachers.

• Chinese New Year Theme Page

  Links to a wide range of resources on Chinese New Year (from Teacher Planet).

• Color Coded Parts of Speech

  Kinesthetic group tasks focusing on parts of speech.

• Common Mistakes in English by Language Background

  Typical mistakes made by different language groups. No sound files, but links to commonly used pronunciation books.

• Cornerstones

  A technology-infused approach to literacy development for students who are deaf and hard of hearing (can be used with other students who learn well visually). Includes guided reading, shared reading, and independent reading.

• Crossword Puzzle Generator Maker - Crossword Puzzle Creator

  This is an easy to use crossword maker. To add language value adapt the crossword so that each student has some of the answers and some of the clues and each student must find the missing clues/answers by asking their partner.

• CyberSmart! Lesson Plans

  Lesson plans on introducing safe, responsible and effective computer and internet use in the classroom.

• Dave's ESL Café Idea Cookbook

  Lots of ideas here for teaching and learning activities for ESOL students - from twenty ways to get your students into groups to how to teach maths to your ESOL students.

• Digger and the Gang (BBC)

  Interactive stories aimed at three different age groups.

• Digger and the Gang - Maths, Science and English

  Interactive literacy site from the BBC.

• Digital Conversations

  Check out the latest selection of video conferences added to the NZ Digital Conversations website. Students can chat with experts in the areas of writing, theatre, music, motivation and goal setting, sport and environmental issues.

• Discovery School

  A puzzle generation tool - visit this site to create your own puzzles that recycle the vocabulary you have been teaching.

• DiscoverySchool.com

  A mainstream site for teaches and students. Includes lesson plans plus tools to make teacher materials such as worksheet generators.

• Don't Buy It (PBS Kids)

  Worried about your students being sucked in by pop culture and advertisements? Media literacy education can help students become more discriminating in the use of mass media. Activities are intended for L1 students ages 9-11, but can be adapted for ESOL students.

• Dual Language Showcase

  A case study of the use of dual language books and audio tapes, for use at school and at home (Thornwood Public School).

• DynaMo's Den (BBC)

  Interactive reading, spelling and number games. Suitable for English language learners in middle and senior primary school.

• EFL/ESL Lessons and Lesson Plans from The Internet TESL Journal

  A wide range of resources.

• EMA: Online Support for Ethnic Minority Attainment

  Bilingual and EAL resources for teachers, plus professional development and links to many sites. Funded by the UK's Department for Education and Skills.

• English Listening Language Lab Online

  A wide variety of listening tasks with varied accents. For advanced students.

• EnglishLearner.com: Resources for Teachers of English

  Traditional activities.

• eThemes

  An extensive database resources organised around specific themes. You can search by keyword or year.

• Events Calendar

  Information on festivals and other multicultural events. You can add your own event. Downloadable as a poster. From the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Division.

• Everyday Routines

  An activity focusing on the present tense and its use for talking about everyday activities. (The ESL Wonderland).

• Folktales: Aaron's Storybook

  Folktales from China, Korea, Iraq, Iran Vietnam and many other countries. Simply told, without graphics.

• Fonetiks.org

  Online language laboratory, this page focusing on vowel sounds (British English).

• From Caveman to Spaceman

  Listen and read. A cartoon on the evolution of the human species. From BT Education.

• Games and Activities for the English as a Second Language Classroom: A Project of The Internet TESL Journal

  This is a page on which teachers can share games and activities that they have found useful in the classroom.

• Graphic Organizer Worksheets

  Just about every possible graphic organiser is here for you to download (EnchantedLearning).

• Graphic Organizers

  Graphic organiser, concept mapping, and mind mapping examples.

• The Graphics Gallery

  Graphics, including animations, organised thematically and copyright free.

• In2 Edu

  Links to a large number of downloadable or printable resources but teachers may find access to downloadable certificates, awards, posters and freeware equally useful.

• Integrating Mathematics, Science and Language: An Instructional Prgramme

  Examples of lesson plans designed to assist ESOL students in junior classes develop language skills while learning mathematics and science.

• Internet TESL Journal

  A monthly web journal with articles, lessons and activities.

• Internet4classrooms

  Interactive educational games with audio that focus on beginning literacy and numeracy.

• Karin's ESL Partyland

  Printable materials that focus on key grammatical challenges for ESOL students, also discussion forums and employment opportunities.

• Kiz Club - Learning Resources for Kids

  Educational activities suitable for years 1-3 students. The 'Stories' section offers 3 levels for reading aloud to students. Available in both English and Korean.

• Korea: Grandfather's House

  Take a virtual tour of a traditional Korean house. Interactive activities for students. Includes teacher resources.

• KS1 Bitesize (BBC)

  Interactive literacy games aimed at students in their first years at school. Includes phonics, sentence construction, punctuation, pronouns.

• The Language Menu

  Site includes tools for teachers to generate their own resources, and multilingual interactive language exercises for students. Free site although you need to register.

• LearnEnglish Kids

  LearnEnglish Kids is for young students who are learning English. Includes games, songs, stories and lots of activities (British Council).

• Learning Style Survey for Young Learners: Assessing your own Learning Styles

  Designed to assess senior primary school students' general approach to learning.

• Learning with iAdventures

  Problem solving activities in which students determine the direction and outcome of a content-rich storyline, using resources available on the Internet.

• The Linguistic Funland

  Internet based resources, journals, software, study options and networking for ESOL teachers and students.

• Literacy and Learning: Literacy Strategies

  This site contains a wealth of clearly explained strategies that build language skills - PDFs.

• Local Noise

  Local Noise is an Australian Research Council funded project led by Mitchell and Pennycook from the University of Technology, Sydney. Its focus is on the localisation of hip-hop in different cultural, societal and educational contexts. Local Noise has been looking at hip-hop as an educational tool, expressing people's stories. The focus is on its success in the face of a general failure of education policies for marginalised groups in society, both in urban and rural settings.

• The Magic Key (BBC)

  Unlock the secrets of sentence writing and work out new words with characters from 'Magic Key'. Suitable for English language learners in junior and middle primary school.

• The Magic Key - Adventures

  Interactive English literacy games, worksheets and teacher resources. Topics covered include sentence structure, words and descriptions (BBC).

• Make Beliefs Comix

  Students create 3-panel comics using tools provided. Can be used for activities such as vocabulary practice, prewriting and summarising

• Making Faces

  An interactive game that allows you to drag and drop different sets of eyes and mouths on to blank cartoon faces to create a range of different facial expressions. From BT Education.

• Making it Real: Teaching Pre-literate Adult Refugee Students - 2006

  This American book (116 pages) describes techniques and activities that are appropriate for pre-literate students from refugee backgrounds.

• Module Maker

  This site shows teachers how to create online research modules for their students. By Jamie McKenzie.

• Monster Exchange

  Uses paired communicative activities to build reading and writing skills while integrating internet technology into the global classroom. Partnered students exchange their descriptions of monsters via email and the internet.

• My Monster

  In this interactive site, students write their own monster poem using similes and adjectives.

• Myths, Folktales and Fairy Tales

  Teaching resources from Scholastic.

• National Geographic Xpeditions

  A great site, although not specifically for ESOL students, with an interactive learning museum and many activities and lesson plans.

• A New Life in a New Home – A Resource for Schools

  Australian classroom resource for learning about refugees.

• The Office of Ethnic Affairs

  A referral and information service for ethnic communities and policy advice to government.

• OnestopEnglish

  Macmillan Publishers' site. Plenty of lesson plans with worksheets, games, professional readings and more.

• Our Digital Storehouse

  This section of TKI hosts a growing number of literacy related digital learning objects produced as a result of the Learning Federation initiative. Registration is necessary.

• Pacific Salutations

  Greetings and phrases in a number of Pasifika languages (Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs).

• Pasifika Learning Materials (Learning Media)

• Paving the Way: Materials and Resources for ESOL Tutors

  Resources developed to give literacy practitioners guidance teaching ESOL learners. Classroom resources in the methods and materials section may be useful.

• PB Wiki

  You can create a free class or course webpage which can then be collaboratively built and edited.

• PIZZAZ! ... People Interested in Zippy and Zany Zcribbling

  Simple, creative writing and oral storytelling activities with copyable handouts for use with students of all ages.

• Punctuate This!

  From the Eats, Shoots and Leaves site, a quick test of your punctuation skills.

• Quotations for Teachers: Be Inspired

  A collection of quotations.

• Read Write Think

  International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English site with resources for literacy teachers.

• Reading - Interacting with Texts

  Directed activities related to texts (DARTs) help students engage with texts and make them more critical readers (the British Council, BBC).

• Reading a-z.com

  30 books, at different reading levels, with accompanying graphics, for you to download and print. Teacher notes and worksheets.

• Reading Signs in English

  An American photo collection of commonly used signs.

• ReviseWise English: Reading

  From the BBC, an interactive reading site for primary school students that includes activities on deduction, reading poetry and reading non fiction.

• School Journal Teachers' Notes Part 3 & 4

  The School Journal Teachers’ Notes for Parts 3 and 4 are available online only. They follow a similar format to those for Parts 1 and 2, with a focus on teaching purpose.

• School Zone: Evaluations

  Find publishers'information on their digital learning resources and teachers' evaluations of them.

• Science Netlinks

  Resources for primary and secondary science educators, including lesson plans and reviewed internet resources. All site content is organised around American benchmarks for science literacy.

• Self-Study Idiom Quizzes

  From the Internet TESL Journal.

• Sentence Construction Game

  You must jump on the correct logs to complete the sentence and get Bryan the beaver safely to the other side. This game has sound. (BBC Skillswise Words)

• Ship or Sheep.com

  English language pronunciation practice with minimal pairs. Uses Flash.

• Sofweb

  State of Victoria, Department of Education ESL Unit initiative. A wide variety of information, including progammes, curriculum and texts, as well as links to their multicultural site.

• Songs for Teaching: Using Music to Promote Learning

  Research about the value of using music in the classroom. There are tips to get you going and even songs to help you teach reading skills.

• Spelling Bank Activities

  Online, interactive games to help students understand spelling rules.

• Spellits: BBC Schools Literacy

  Interactive activities to improve spelling. This site is best viewed using Flash, and with sound. Printable versions of all the spelling activities are available in the non-flash version. For advanced students.

• Stories (PBS Kids)

  Stories with key words highlighted and explained. Each story leads into a related language game. Suitable for English language learners in middle to senior primary school. No Audio.

• Stories to Read Online with Audio

  A portal site from Beenleigh State Primary School, Queensland.

• Talking with Kids about the News

  This web site deals with process of talking through the issues associated with what children see on "the News".

• TalkWorks Comic Online

  An animated comic book with games and exercises that help build communication skills. For primary, intermediate and secondary school students. From BT Education.

• The Teacher's Corner

  This site contains a wide range of lesson plans and activities, organised by subject area.

• Teachers' Guide to International Collaboration on the Internet

  Resources for cross-cultural interaction and collaborative project work developed to help teachers and students interact globally (U.S.Department of Education).

• Teaching Resources: Literary Lessons

  A structured approach to running book reading groups in the classroom. Useful graphic organiser templates that help scaffold the students' responses to the text.

• Teaching Strategies

  A list of strategies useful in English from the Tasmanian government Office for Curriculum, Leadership and Learning

• Teaching with the Web

  Links to WWW resources for language teaching.

• Teachit's English Teaching Resources

  In the UK this resource fills a similar role to English Online.

• Telling Stories: Using Drama and Multimedia with ESL Students

  Storytelling through drama provides opportunities for students to develop language and higher order thinking skills. It also offers students the opportunity to use their background experience.

• Tiger Aki Stories

  Tiger Aki's adventures. Some animation.

• Tools for Reading, Writing, & Thinking

  This site has a wide variety of graphic organisers.

• Tumble Book Library

  Animated, talking picture books. Queens Borough Pubic Library have taken existing picture books, adding animation, sound, music and narration to produce an electronic picture book which you can read, or have read to you.

• United Nations Literacy Decade

  For those with an interest in literacy globally, in literacy statistics and best practice by region.

• Using Fairy Tales to Debate Ethics

  Suggested tips for running an ethics debate in the classroom (Education World).

• Using Live Insects in Elementary Classrooms for Early Lessons in Life

  The University of Arizona Centre for Insect Science and Education Outreach has put together this printable collection of twenty integrated lessons with science and math activities that use live insects.

• Virtual Picture Album

  A computer archive of photographs and drawings with suggestions for ways to incorporate these pictures into classroom activities. Can be downloaded free of charge for educational purposes (Less Commonly Taught Languages Project, CARLA).

• Vocabulary Builders' Page

  Worksheets and activities for developing content area vocabulary.

• Wacky Web Tales

  Students supply individual words and the programme creates a wacky story using the words. Includes a focus on parts of speech.

• Weblogg-ed: Learning with the Read/Write Web

  Will Richardson's site dedicated to discussions and reflections on the use of weblogs, wikis, RSS, audiocasts and other read/write web related technologies in classrooms.

• WebWise - The Internet Made Simple By the BBC

  Learn how to use the Internet step by step.

• Words and Pictures (BBC)

  Interactive games to teach phonics and high frequency words (Year 2).

• Wordsmyth

  An online dictionary with other facilities such as teacher generated glossaries, crossword puzzles and quizzes. Registration is free.