You have all heard of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" but today I want to talk about another
"Twinkl" which is also a star.
No I haven't spelt it wrongly.
It is Twinkl.
But what is it? you ask.
Well before I tell you exactly what it is, what I use it for, and what a great resource you will find this to be; I want to explain that I heard about this from my daughter-in-law and then met someone who works for this website in a Facebook blogging group we are both members of. Due to all this I was offered a year's free subscription membership to the website in return for an honest review of the site.
So let's look at just what Twinkl really is:
Well it is a website full of educational resources made by many different people. Some items are free to download and some require a subscription membership fee.
There is also the facility to make your own resources on their site and to offer your own resources for use there.
This is how they describe their site:
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Screenshot of part of the Twinkl Homepage |
My daughter-in-law is a Primary
(Elementary for our US friends) School Teacher and her school has a subscription to the
Twinkl website.
She uses it for Posters, Banners, Games, Worksheets and especially loves it for Themes throughout the school year.
When I heard of it I thought of how I love to look at any types of resources with templates, worksheets, pictures etc. because they just might have something to suit some of the things I am involved in but I wasn't a Primary School teacher in fact I wasn't even a Mathematics Teacher any more.
However I have been involved in doing Kids Sunday School Curriculums in 3 different churches and I can always hope to find something to help me in that.
Then also I had just done a TESOL course and visuals would be very helpful in teaching basic English in a class we were setting up in our current church.
Although neither my daughter-in-law or myself have been involved in Homeschooling I know this would also be a great resource for all those
Homeschooling parents around the world.
Now let's look at just how good Twinkl really is:
I'm going to show you some of the ways I have used resources from Twinkl for both of the things I mentioned above that I am involved in with our church.
Kids Work at Church
I'm always on the lookout for good pictures to illustrate items for the Kids Work and not just something for a Bible story. We like to have posters to decorate the room, attractive memory verse handouts, attendance incentives, nicely designed games and worksheets that the children will enjoy.
Twinkl also comes up with excellent resources that we can use.
They have PDFs to provide Flash Cards for bible Stories like the story of Easter
Printouts to make flip books
Pictures to illustrate stories that the children can colour in
Backgrounds for powerpoint presentations
Pictures for using as game cards
and powerpoints of songs
Their illustrations are good, well-suited to children and very varied so you do not need to worry about everything looking the same and the children getting bored.
Teaching English as a Second Language
So far I have used some of their products for different teaching levels in almost all of my English classes and I especially like the variety of the many items like
worksheets,
games,
posters,
powerpoint presentations, etc.
The first basic English lesson we taught was using the ipad to mirror to the TV screen and the subject was Food.
What better than the flashcards from Twinkl - they looked great on the ipad screen itself and also mirrored to the TV.
A few weeks later we tackled the topic of Colours and used Twinkle pictures in a powerpoint presentation.
A week or so later we were onto clothes for another powerpoint display
Then of course for using to teach the alphabet they have lots of cards etc. and when printing out you can make them the size to suit you for whatever project you want so you can have small cards like the size for playing a game of snap
or large cards for wall displays.
Instructions for games are also included in the PDFs you download
One of my favourite games to use is the Game of Concentration (matching game) and it is so easy to get resources for this in Twinkl
Another great game they offer in may different topics is Bingo
At the start pf each PDF you have a page which you do not print out but gives info on copyright so you always know how you are permitted to use the product.
Having had a long period of time to hunt through the website and see what resources I could use for specific topics I have been very pleased with the standard of the materials as well as the quantity. I have also looked at other items that I would not need for my interests but which I know my daughter-in-law has used and would use for her school activities and I can definitely say I know why she loves this site.
Have a look around the site
www.twinkl.co.uk and join up for the free membership to try out some of the resources.
Disclaimer:
If you like the site and decide to take a free membership or a paid subscription membership I WILL NOT benefit in any way.