We all use computers, but how much do we really know about hardware and software? These lessons look specifically at hardware, introducing students to what computers are all about in an accessible way. The course is delivered in 3 x 60-minute lessons, using stimulating PowerPoint presentations with embedded videos, and includes worksheets to accompany the lesson, plus a Kahoot quiz. What is a computer Input devices Output devices The CPU and storage Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practising teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback. Teacher/Author: Barrie James

I introduce students to programming through Scratch, and then extend this into the world of coding through Python. The lessons use Trinket as a simple interface for entering and running Python 2 and Python 3 code - no downloads required. This series of 5 one-hour lessons for absolute beginners looks at what is Python using strings and performing maths operations functions, variables, loops and comparative operators creating a Magic 8 Ball game in Python using user input exploring if statements and adapting the game to SenseHat Each lesson comprises: a fully animated PowerPoint with explanatory slides embedded videos worksheets and self-evaluation files Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practising teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback. Teacher/Author: Barrie James Search words: computer coding programming Babbage Lovelace function loop variable

The ever expanding CodeClub first promoted Scratch, and I loved it – creating and successfully delivering a range of lessons for Junior students. Code Club is now promoting Blender and I think I love it even more! I’ve created and delivered a series of lessons for Junior students this year, and the response was overwhelming. Students loved learning about 3D graphics and went on to produce some amazing creations of their own. While I thought it might be too advanced, students as young as 8 have grasped and loved using it. 3D GRAPHICS REALLY IS A USEFUL SKILL FOR THE DIGITAL FUTURE. The lessons assume absolutely no knowledge and build up in a gradual way Lessons 1-2 (FREE) What is Blender The Blender interface Navigating the 3D view port Lessons 3-5 Transforming objects Creating, selecting and duplicating objects Project: create a snowman Lessons 6-9 Rendering, colours and lighting Editing objects Project: create a donut Lessons 10-13 3D Text Box modelling - extruding, loop cuts, insets, bevels Project: create a Treasure Chest Lessons 14-15 Animations using Timeframes Animations using Rigid Bodies Each lesson is delivered via an animated PowerPoint with an accompanying Workbook, and follows a similar format: A short video to inspire (embedded in the PowerPoint) Explanations about any new concepts and skills A demo of what will be covered (Blender demo files included) Working together trying out these new concepts and skills (Workbook and Blender exercise files are provided) Free exploration A project bringing it all together (a finished Blender file is provided) Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback.

This is a series of 8 by 45-minute lessons designed to support the Switched On Computing unit 4.5, and has been written with year 4 pupils in mind, but is also suitable for older pupils. Each lesson is presented through a colourful and stimulating PowerPoint presentation, with clearly defined Learning Objectives and embedded videos and is accompanied with worksheets. **Note - the wiki example is created in wikispaces.com (no longer available) but can be adapted to any similar wiki hosting site. ** The lesson objectives are: - understand what a Wiki is - become familiar with the web’s largest Wiki - Wikipedia - practice Google search skills - develop formatting skills - write for a target audience (your peers) - create Pages in our Wiki - develop proofreading and editing skills - peer review and self assessment ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested”, and continually updated to maximize their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback.

The ever expanding CodeClub first promoted Scratch, and I loved it – creating and successfully delivering a range of lessons for Junior students. Code Club is now promoting Blender and I think I love it even more! I’ve created and delivered a series of lessons for Junior students this year, and the response was overwhelming. Students loved learning about 3D graphics and went on to produce some amazing creations of their own. While I thought it might be too advanced, students as young as 8 have grasped and loved using it. 3D GRAPHICS REALLY IS A USEFUL SKILL FOR THE DIGITAL FUTURE. The lessons assume absolutely no knowledge and build up in a gradual way Lessons 1-2 (FREE) What is Blender The Blender interface Navigating the 3D view port Lessons 3-5 Transforming objects Creating, selecting and duplicating objects Project: create a snowman Lessons 6-9 Rendering, colours and lighting Editing objects Project: create a donut Lessons 10-13 3D Text Box modelling - extruding, loop cuts, insets, bevels Project: create a Treasure Chest Lessons 14-15 Animations using Timeframes Animations using Rigid Bodies Each lesson is delivered via an animated PowerPoint with an accompanying Workbook, and follows a similar format: A short video to inspire (embedded in the PowerPoint) Explanations about any new concepts and skills A demo of what will be covered (Blender demo files included) Working together trying out these new concepts and skills (Workbook and Blender exercise files are provided) Free exploration A project bringing it all together (a finished Blender file is provided) Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback.

The ever expanding CodeClub first promoted Scratch, and I loved it – creating and successfully delivering a range of lessons for Junior students. Code Club is now promoting Blender and I think I love it even more! I’ve created and delivered a series of lessons for Junior students this year, and the response was overwhelming. Students loved learning about 3D graphics and went on to produce some amazing creations of their own. While I thought it might be too advanced, students as young as 8 have grasped and loved using it. 3D GRAPHICS REALLY IS A USEFUL SKILL FOR THE DIGITAL FUTURE. The lessons assume absolutely no knowledge and build up in a gradual way Lessons 1-2 (FREE) What is Blender The Blender interface Navigating the 3D view port Lessons 3-5 Transforming objects Creating, selecting and duplicating objects Project: create a snowman Lessons 6-9 Rendering, colours and lighting Editing objects Project: create a donut Lessons 10-13 3D Text Box modelling - extruding, loop cuts, insets, bevels Project: create a Treasure Chest Lessons 14-15 Animations using Timeframes Animations using Rigid Bodies Each lesson is delivered via an animated PowerPoint with an accompanying Workbook, and follows a similar format: A short video to inspire (embedded in the PowerPoint) Explanations about any new concepts and skills A demo of what will be covered (Blender demo files included) Working together trying out these new concepts and skills (Workbook and Blender exercise files are provided) Free exploration A project bringing it all together (a finished Blender file is provided) Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback.

I introduce students to programming through Scratch, and then extend this into the world of text based coding through Python and Python Turtle. The lessons use Trinket as a simple interface for entering and running Python code - no downloads required. There is enough material for approx. 3 to 4 one-hour sessions, and of course, once students get started, they can easily develop their own ideas. I’ve already delivered it to Year 5/6 students, and they have absolutely loved it. The lessons are delivered through a fully animated PowerPoint with explanatory slides and embedded videos (can be extracted if required). In addition, there is a workbook of activities. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practising teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback. Teacher/Author: Barrie James

This is a series of 7 one-hour lessons on the topic of Electricity covering: what is electricity - an introduction circuit diagrams and simple circuits circuit investigations buzzers and motors insulators and conductors safety around electricity Each lesson comprises: a fully animated PowerPoint with explanatory slides loads of painstakingly selected, embedded videos worksheets and tasks plus a Kahoot quiz I have used it very successfully with students in years 4 through to 6 (with slight modifications), and all have absolutely loved the topic. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practising teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback.

The entire series of lessons on Micro-organisms provides enough material for over 10 one-hour lessons, but you can be selective. (bundle available) The series covers: Introduction to Micro-organisms The Microscope and Microscope Art Bacteria, The Immune System and Antibiotics Viruses, Vaccines and Virus Art Fungi & Fungi Art Additional misc. activities The 5-star rated lessons have proven extremely popular with both teachers and students and comprise: self-contained PowerPoint lessons packed with thought provoking material lots of painstakingly selected, embedded videos (if you need to detach the videos, see here) Worksheets (with answers) in Word providing individual and class activities. Note that there is no Preview File to download. Instead, Session 1 (Introduction) is FREE to give you a feel for the material - you won’t be disappointed. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximize their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback. Teacher/Author: Barrie James Search words: quarantine, vaccinate, pasteurisation, germ, antibiotic, inoculate, immune, yeast, immunize, pathogen, inhalation, microbe, virus, bacteria, fungus, organism, disease, microscope, electron, contaminate, epidemic, pandemic, electron, light, metric, lens, convex, concave, optical, symbiotic, exponential, infectious, infect, antiseptic, plaque, toxin, toxic, compost, mucus membrane, quarantine, vaccinate, pasteurization, germ, antibiotic, inoculate, immune, yeast, immunize, pathogen, inhale, habitat, spore, parasite, mushroom, toadstool, species, volva, gills, mycelium, disperse, mould, mildew

The entire series of lessons on Micro-organisms provides enough material for over 10 one-hour lessons, but you can be selective. (bundle available) The series covers: Introduction to Micro-organisms The Microscope and Microscope Art Bacteria, The Immune System and Antibiotics Viruses, Vaccines and Virus Art Fungi & Fungi Art Additional misc. activities The 5-star rated lessons have proven extremely popular with both teachers and students and comprise: self-contained PowerPoint lessons packed with thought provoking material lots of painstakingly selected, embedded videos (if you need to detach the videos, see here) Worksheets (with answers) in Word providing individual and class activities. Note that there is no Preview File to download. Instead, Session 1 (Introduction) is FREE to give you a feel for the material - you won’t be disappointed. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximize their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback. Teacher/Author: Barrie James Search words: quarantine, vaccinate, pasteurisation, germ, antibiotic, inoculate, immune, yeast, immunize, pathogen, inhalation, microbe, virus, bacteria, fungus, organism, disease, microscope, electron, contaminate, epidemic, pandemic, electron, light, metric, lens, convex, concave, optical, symbiotic, exponential, infectious, infect, antiseptic, plaque, toxin, toxic, compost, mucus membrane, quarantine, vaccinate, pasteurization, germ, antibiotic, inoculate, immune, yeast, immunize, pathogen, inhale, habitat, spore, parasite, mushroom, toadstool, species, volva, gills, mycelium, disperse, mould, mildew

The entire series of lessons on Micro-organisms provides enough material for over 10 one-hour lessons, but you can be selective. (bundle available) The series covers: Introduction to Micro-organisms The Microscope and Microscope Art Bacteria, The Immune System and Antibiotics Viruses, Vaccines and Virus Art Fungi & Fungi Art Additional misc. activities The 5-star rated lessons have proven extremely popular with both teachers and students and comprise: self-contained PowerPoint lessons packed with thought provoking material lots of painstakingly selected, embedded videos (if you need to detach the videos, see here) Worksheets (with answers) in Word providing individual and class activities. Note that there is no Preview File to download. Instead, Session 1 (Introduction) is FREE to give you a feel for the material - you won’t be disappointed. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximize their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback. Teacher/Author: Barrie James Search words: quarantine, vaccinate, pasteurisation, germ, antibiotic, inoculate, immune, yeast, immunize, pathogen, inhalation, microbe, virus, bacteria, fungus, organism, disease, microscope, electron, contaminate, epidemic, pandemic, electron, light, metric, lens, convex, concave, optical, symbiotic, exponential, infectious, infect, antiseptic, plaque, toxin, toxic, compost, mucus membrane, quarantine, vaccinate, pasteurization, germ, antibiotic, inoculate, immune, yeast, immunize, pathogen, inhale, habitat, spore, parasite, mushroom, toadstool, species, volva, gills, mycelium, disperse, mould, mildew

The entire series of lessons on Micro-organisms provides enough material for over 10 one-hour lessons, but you can be selective. (bundle available) The series covers: Introduction to Micro-organisms The Microscope and Microscope Art Bacteria, The Immune System and Antibiotics Viruses, Vaccines and Virus Art Fungi & Fungi Art Additional misc. activities The 5-star rated lessons have proven extremely popular with both teachers and students and comprise: self-contained PowerPoint lessons packed with thought provoking material loads of painstakingly selected, embedded videos (if you need to detach the videos, see here) Worksheets (with answers) in Word providing individual and class activities. Note that there is no Preview File to download. Instead, Session 1 (Introduction) is FREE to give you a feel for the material - you won’t be disappointed. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximize their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback. Teacher/Author: Barrie James Search words: quarantine, vaccinate, pasteurisation, germ, antibiotic, inoculate, immune, yeast, immunize, pathogen, inhalation, microbe, virus, bacteria, fungus, organism, disease, microscope, electron, contaminate, epidemic, pandemic, electron, light, metric, lens, convex, concave, optical, symbiotic, exponential, infectious, infect, antiseptic, plaque, toxin, toxic, compost, mucus membrane, quarantine, vaccinate, pasteurization, germ, antibiotic, inoculate, immune, yeast, immunize, pathogen, inhale, habitat, spore, parasite, mushroom, toadstool, species, volva, gills, mycelium, disperse, mould, mildew

Pleases ensure that your students are OK with flashing images, etc… and show slides accordingly. Students absolutely love these - and for many, it’s the very first time they’ve seen optical illusions. It’s so much fun to watch their expressions - “Mr. James…these hurt my brain! WOW” The slides present the illusion, and then additional slides try to break down some of the illusions and explain how they work. The PowerPoint contains over 50 illusions, and I’d suggest showing just a few at a time - maybe as a weekly or fortnightly 15 min filler. The PowerPoint also contains an embedded video with extremely powerful, moving illusions. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximize their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback.

This is a collection of miscellaneous literacy worksheets that I have created and use in class and that are suitable for home learning assignments. In alphabetical order: analogies apostrophes for possession and contraction capital letters and full stops commas for lists fronted adverbials homophones jumbled sentences personification plurals and possession relative pronouns sentence structure direct speech spelling - making plurals verbs - modal verbs verbs - perfect tenses Note that these may not be of the same high quality as my other published lessons on TES, but I am providing them free of charge in the hope that they may prove useful to fellow teachers in these uncertain times.

Embedding videos in a PowerPoint presentation is a really useful feature, but if you are using an older computer to display the slideshow, or an external monitor, the video playback may flicker. The simplest solution to this is to save the video as an mp4 file, and then play back with whatever video player you normally use outside of PowerPoint.

This is a great brain challenge to fill 15 mins. Each slide shows a word or phrase written in reverse (rotated 180 degrees on the X axis). Children are asked to write the words correctly on their whiteboards. Barrie James

Having been a substitute teacher in over 200 different classes in countless schools, I have learned a thing or two over the years - really! The absolute most important is - establish your expectations right at the start. The day is then productive and enjoyable for both you and the children. I use this PowerPoint EVERY time I teach a class for the first time, or as a reminder if I am returning to a class after a period. It guides me and the class through the critical first 30 minutes of the day. Slides are accompanied with detailed Notes where appropriate to explain how the slide is best used. ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested”. Before I publish, my lessons are tested in the classroom by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. Let me know if you have any questions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be).

This PowerPoint illustrates the fairly well known “Stroop Effect”. Slides show color-words written in different colors and the task is to first read the word, and then to say the color. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximize their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback.

Doodling is FAR more important than we let on… Most of us do it at some time or other. It helps us stay alert and focused. I encourage children to doodle in a “doodle pad” at various times (e.g. when listening to a story) and to share their doodle creations with the class if they choose to. Children just LOVE doing this, and it allows them a degree of self-expression rarely found in other subjects. Give it a try - you’ll be amazed! Check on youtube for loads of inspiring examples.