Infant Encyclopedia

Last year our KS1 department began teaching about 'castles' - a new topic which they'd never covered before. As usual, I set out on the search to find relevant websites on the topic for the children to use to carry out independent research with on our laptops. Even with a few helpful suggestions from Twitter however, the majority of the sites I came across, in my opinion, were just completely inappropriate for 5-7 year olds - being much more aimed at older pupils who are likely very confident in scanning long paragraphs of text to pick out key facts and able to move about quite complicated navigation systems with ease.

 

After getting a bit frustrated, I decided that the only way to get a site which would meet the requirements of a young child user would be if I were to build one myself. A weekend of researching and programming later and the Infant Encyclopedia was born. It contained several illustrated pages of information about the history of castles suitable for our infants, including: text in a large size, highlighted key words and an option for them to press a button to have the whole page read out to them (something which I think is especially important for emergent readers). Additionally, I also ensured that the navigation was simple for them to perform - either by clicking on colourful icons or by using a basic key word search tool.

After a few initial trials with it in school I soon went on to add a variety of interactive and multimedia elements to help enhance and liven up the content further, including links to: on-screen activities I made using 2DIY, videos from the BBC Learning Clips gallery and a few Google Streetview panormas.

Following the success of the castles topic, I then realised the potential that the site could have if other topics were covered by it in a similar way. Many hours of work later over a period of about six months and the site now contains information and activities on 20 different topics, all presented in a way that is easily accessible for young children.

 

Now I am more than happy to continue adding to the site as I can clearly see the uses it has in infant classrooms, but as my only experiences of using it are with the children in my school, I would really appreciate it if you were to write a comment below to let me know what your experiences of using it are and in what ways you think it could be improved (the contents pages for each topic is one part which I still think could be made easier to use, for instance). I would genuinely value your feedback on this as I don't want to waste my own free time working on something which people think has flaws - I look forward to reading your comments!

Comments

[Fiona Johnson]

Simon - this is totally brilliant. You have spotted a gap in the market and you, luckily, have the skills to do something about it. I think your site is wonderful and I will pass it onto my early years teacher straight away to use with her 5-7 year old class. Fortunately, she is doing a study of living on an island using the Katie Morag books. I will happily give you feedback on how the children get on with it. Well done you & what a lot of work!

[Angie Lee]

I agree with previous comment! Our children have already enjoyed using the Infant encyclopedia but with all the added resouces will be using it even more. The addition of the sound facility makes it a brilliant resource for infants and SEN children of all ages.

[Anne]

It looks really good Simon. I've already posted the link on our VLE! One thing I noticed was encyclopedia is spelt incorrectly on the blue bar at the very top of my screen in IE. Other than that looks brilliant- will let you know pupils reaction when we start using it. Thanks again.

[Simon Haughton]

Well spotted Anne - have corrected it now! Thanks everyone so far for your comments and it's nice to hear that you are liking the site.

[Fiona Johnson]

Showed IE to my staff and they instantly loved it. Said it was the best website for classroom use they have ever seen! They loved the BBC clips. The voice takes a little while to come...but maybe that's just our system.

How did you make it? Is it a particular web bulding program? Would love to know.

We thought that it would be very good to use at assembly too.

I'll let you know what the kids say:) Thanks again!

[Lisa Wilson]

Hi Simon,
I stumbled across your site today. The infant encyclopedia looks great. I was particularly interested in the Australia part as it is my home country.
I did find some small mistakes with the information in the infant encyclopedia.

Koalas are not bears. They are not even related to bears. Many Australians object to them being called Koala Bears. They are marsupials and have a pouch.

Australia has at least 3 time zones - Eastern, Central and Western. During daylight savings we have 4 time zones. Eastern time zone is GMT + 10hrs, Central is GMT + 9 and a half hrs, Western is GMT + 8hrs.

Australia's inland and northern region is known as 'the outback' however it is not just one large desert. The Northern Territory is also part of the outback. It has some of the most amazing waterfalls and mangrove swamp areas along with deserts.

Keep up the great work.

[Simon Haughton]

Thank you for spotting those mistakes in the 'Australia' section - I've now corrected them and added some videos and Purple Mash activities too - http://www.parkfieldict.co.uk/infant/australia/contents.html

[Sophie]

Just fantastic! I teach Year 4 but my daughter in year two has just spent an hour on the site. She loved it. She didn't seem to be able to print any of the activities that were made in 2DIY. The title and name box printed but not the completed activity.
Keep up the good work.

[Simon Haughton]

I've just tested the printing and it seems to only work in Internet Explorer for some strange reason. An alternative (albeit a bit long-winded) is to press the 'PrtScr' key on your keyboard and then 'paste' in Word to put a screenshot of the activity into a document which can then be printed out. Glad your daughter is liking the site :-)

[Sophie]

Must be that - I was in firefox. She went into school and showed her ICT teacher the site today!

[Grace]

I'm so pleased that I found your website. It is great for my Year 2's and we have been using it for the finding information ICT unit and to support our history, particularly the great fire of london.

The children love the make a report feature you have included.

I don't seem to have the option to play the sound with firefox at home while at school with explorer it works. It'as not a problem for me but I thought I I would mention it.

One request, if you plan to develop the site further would be to have a hotlink on your highlighted words that give glossary pop ups. This would support the non-fiction glossary work in Literacy.

Hope you will be adding more topics :>) Thanks

[Rebecca]

After years of being extremely frustrated by the lack of age appropriate research materials, I have stumbled upon this. Absolutely superb. Thank you for taking the time to put together such a useful resource.

[Diane Cassidy (Djcass64)]

Thanks for this fab resource. I will def use it and I will pass it on to my ICT coordinator tomorrow.

[paul coats]

Brilliant! You have saved me the torture of telling the children about the gunpowder plot.

[Brenda]

Nice, well done!

[margaret]

So pleased to have found such a well thought out and child friendly site. Looking forward to using it very soon.

[Jeanette]

I have used a lot of your ideas and they have made my ICT teaching a lot more interesting for me and the children. I also love the Infant encyclopedia I will be using this next half term it is absolutly brilliant. Thank You!