‘Interactive- Resources.co.uk’ Review

‘Interactive- Resources.co.uk’ is a fantastic website which could be used in the classroom to make maths more interactive and engaging than just using a plain interactive whiteboard screen. It includes various interactive mathematical games including looking at Venn diagrams, tally charts and ‘mission addition’. The instructions are very easy to follow and each of the games involve the children interacting with the whiteboard in different ways. For example some are through dragging and dropping and some are through clicking. There are a large range of activities available for various different ages, ranging from early years to year six.

For example, the great thing about the activity shown above is how it can be used for different year groups, but using the same principles. I also like how a timer can be set on the ordering of the numbers and how the amount of eggs can also be changed. This game can also be changed to be used on an interactive whiteboard instead of just a normal computer. I think this is a really good idea as it helps to engage the children more in the activity. In this particular activity, number sequences would be learnt as the children would try to remember the value of numbers ranging from the smallest to the largest. The teacher’s role here therefore would be to encourage remembering the sequence and prompting the next sequence of numbers.

One tool which I thought was very useful and effective for teachers to use was the resources finder. The role of the teacher in this case would be to input what they wanted to teach in the lesson and search for interactive resources.

This is incredibly useful as it refines all of the activities across the website by: ‘strand’, the year group it is aimed towards, an objective that the teacher wants to work towards and finally suggested activities based on the previous answers. The learning in refining these activities would heavily depend on the chosen activity. For example in the screenshots above, the learning taking place would relate to telling the time on an analogue clock by moving the hands. This activity example could be used on the interactive whiteboard, by getting the children to come up and move the hands which need to display the time on the screen.

My favourite game on the website is called ‘Wipeout wall: Multiplication Facts (2)’, and I think this game is fantastic because it is very interactive. The level or ‘wall’ is chosen at the beginning of the game and this can range from one to three numbers (to compare the factors). Once chosen the game shows a page with a series of mathematic equations and above this, the answer to one of the equations below. I really like this game because I think that the time limit could make it more competitive and also get them to think rapidly. I think this game is also clever as they use a range of different sums but also the same sums in a different order. I think this is a really good idea to check if the child knows the answer because they have worked it out, or because they remember the sequence ‘2x3’ (for example), off by heart.

This site could be used on an interactive white board by the class teacher to assess the children’s learning. This means that it could be used at the end of a topic and at the end of the lesson where the topic was first introduced. The site could be used as an interactive source, getting the children involved and inspiring them to be interested. The teacher’s role when using this site would be encourage the children to have a go and be confident with their answers. In some cases the teacher could read out the question to the children (especially if the whole class is attempting the question). During the time when the website was being used, the children could learn a variety of knowledge including reinforcing multiplication tables and how to tell the time.