Thursday 27 March 2014

Sports Review: Sumo Wrestling

Sumo Wrestling is uncommon sport in most countries, but is the national and hugely popular sport in The Land of The Rising Sun aka Japan!. It is most watched programme on Japanese TV according to viewing figures apart from anime. Here's a few websites which detail the basics of Sumo Wrestling: http://www.sumotalk.com/rules.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumo
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/virtual/sumo/sumo01.html
http://www.sumo.or.jp/pdf/en/sumo_introduction.pdf
http://www.sumo.or.jp
http://japanese.lingualift.com/blog/what-sumo-eat-wrestlers-diet/
For those more reluctant encyclopaedia/websites learners here's a few videos, both entertaining and humorous:
http://tinyurl.com/SumoNatGeo
http://tinyurl.com/SumoNatGeo2
http://tinyurl.com/SumoTakeshi'sCastle
http://tinyurl.com/SumoSmartBeepAd
http://tinyurl.com/SumoPepsiAd




Plus a hilarious sumo GIF: http://tinyurl.com/FunnySumoGIF !!!!!!!!!!!


Barcelona Football Team

This website is really good because it has lots of information about Barcelona football team. It doesn't only have information about Barcelona, it also has information about other football team.
Here is a the URL for the website http://www.uefa.com/teamsandplayers/teams/club=50080/domestic/

History of Korea

I have recently found this website about Korea (an amazing country)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea


check it out to find out about korea





both korea flags

Sport

this is a website that is all about Chelsea fc


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/Chelsea



You should check this out to know about Chelsea




Thief

I am going to Review the game Thief. It is a stealth based stealing game. The age rating is 16+. the main character is called Garret he is a master thief and has to help from a female thief (I forgot her name)

Slave abolition website

I have found a Slave abolition website called "The Abolition Project" it has loads of info from "what is slavery?" to " Abolitionists" It is a good website for Y8's doing The Slave Trade. Here is the URL for this website: http://abolition.e2bn.org/index.php

By Sam Shackleton

Sunday 23 March 2014

Gaming Review: Minion Rush

Minion Rush is a free game for iOS and Android and Windows Phone devices in which you run along collecting items (bananas and Bapples in this case) as a comedic banana-shaped minion from the Despicable Me franchise. It has been defined as "Temple Run meets Despicable Me" expect with humour, minions and running across iconic locations from the movies such as Gru's Lab and El Macho's Lair. The objective is to jump, slide and evade through and past ledges and objects that appear for long as possible. Game over occurs when your yellow one-eyed homunculi bumps into a obstacle or falls over a ledge. A humorous aspect of the game is the ability to dress up the minions in idiotic,but playful costumes such as a referee or baby, which increase the capabilities of power-ups.

 You can also collect a daily reward by finding 3 hidden Bapples (Minionese for apple) in different zones, which can unlock new character costumes or stashes of bananas and Gru tokens. The freemium aspect is the only true disappointment as certain items and costumes are only available through paying real-life currency to buy a stockpile of virtual currency to acquire these, although they are not a necessity and only improve the gameplay very slightly, these are only embedded since this is a pleasant ad-free game and only option for the greedy developers to make money. I will also mention the tediousness of the game as the environment/visuals of areas may change, but the gameplay/content is very similar, as with most running games, although with frequent/monthly updates, with new zones or mini-games and extras such as banana-ridden secret areas or seasonal themes (e.g. Christmas Gru's Lab and Halloween Residential Area) the developers find differing ways to keep you entertained.

Download the game: iOS: http://tinyurl.com/MinionRushiOS 
 Android: http://tinyurl.com/MinionRushAndroid Windows: http://tinyurl.com/MinionRushWindows
Screenshot of  my own minion in Gru's Lab.

Thursday 20 March 2014

History Review: Japanese history

Here are a frenzy of recommended websites which showcase information on Japanese history of samurai, ninjas and video games and much more!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~malokofs/SCA/Persona/History/samurai.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2127.html
http://www.history.com/topics/samurai-and-bushido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2295.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario
http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/mario_history.shtml
http://www.mariowiki.com/mario#History
http://mario.ign.com
http://classicgames.about.com/od/consoleandhandheldgames/p/Super-Mario-Bros-The-Game-That-Saved-Video-Games.htm
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/History_of_Pokémon
http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/pokemon-history/
http://www.gamesradar.com/history-pokemon-box-art/
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Corporate/Nintendo-History/Nintendo-History-625945.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_manga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli#History
http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/
http://doraemon.wikia.com/wiki/Doraemon
http://harumelati.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/doraemon-cartoon-history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doraemon

A collection of weird and wonderful websites and obscurity to do online now-March 2014

Here's a awesome abundance of obscurity I recommend some of which may be both for entertainment or education or even entertaining education.

1. Typing Games. First up is Sesame Street Fighter, which is a fighting/typing game crossover of Sesame Street and Street Fighter, created from a inspiring image on devianART which improves your typing while playing a fighting game with modified loveable Sesame Street characters copying the appearance of Street Fighter fighters. It has simple topics such as animals to insane topics such as Russian cities. While being educational in typing and spelling is great for gamers of all ages, although is partially incompatible on iOS devices. Next up is Flappy Bird Typing Tutor in which the short-lived Vietnamese phenomenon is converted to assist your typing and spelling skills by typing as quickly as possible to travel the flappy, little bird through the pipes, which is alas also not compatible on iOS devices.

2. Brick Brilliance. With the recent release of The Lego Movie, everything Lego in March/February 2014 is awesome! First up is videos, firstly here's the lyric video of infuriatingly catchy Everything is Awesome by Tegan and Saga feat. The Lonely Island which is a humorously great song, which you'll have heard many times already if you seen the movie. Next up is a fantastic Simpsons Lego Movie crossover Couch Gag by French-Canadian stop-motion animator MonsieurCaron. Finally is Build With Chrome, in which on a collaboration with Google Chrome and Lego in which people build Lego online, which once submitted can viewed all across the world, there was been insanely huge models created ranging the USA to Malaysia.

3. 2048. 2048 is a Italian number game in which you slide tiles of numbers and the same numbers add and merge into one another and you try to create the number 2048. It is highly addictive but mathematically fun.

History- World War 2 Rationing Recipe's

This is an amazing website especially if you are in year 9 and are doing the WWII  home front project. This website shows what people were able to make with their weekly rations. The creator of the website eats only what their weekly ration would allow and write about the recipes they make. It also tells you about the different meals it will tell you how to make each one.

http://1940sexperiment.wordpress.com/100-wartime-recipes/

There is a lot of interesting information that you should definitely try out :D



Monday 17 March 2014

Recommended sites for Maths, Science, MFL and Geography

Sorry for my recent lack of posts but here I hope get back up to date. ;)

Maths

Pearson active learn is a great resource for students to use outside of school. It means that students can access their textbooks, to get help with homework or to work on things they are struggling with. It is also useful for stretching yourself and having a go for those A* questions you didn't have time for.
It currently only has GCSE textbooks on there, so is very useful for years 10/11 but less so for younger years; although if you think you are ready for it go ahead!

www.pearsonactivelearn.com


Science

If you are interested in science or technology pick up a copy of focus magazine (available in the library). It features lots of interesting articles and is great if you want to know more. This month is about memory; how big is our brain's capacity?, Will our brain become full?, Can we implant false memories?

MFL

wordreference.com is a great website for translating between many languages, it provides an online dictionary so unlike Google translate it will show you all of the translations of a word and associated phrases, this means you will get a more natural and more correct translation. Hopefully you will find it useful!

Geography

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is a great website to track natural disasters, earthquakes or other world events. It is great for extending your background knowledge and it may surprise you how many earthquakes are happening around the world every day, some even under your feet!

Friday 14 March 2014

Happy π (Pi) Day!

Happy π Day everybody! It is the 14th of March (3.14 = Pi to 2 decimal places, 3rd month, 14th day!)  . So I'll recommend some awesome delicious as π websites. First up is http://digitsofpi.com in which on its home page explains the basics of Pi and then you type and ask to calculate π to up to 100,000 decimal places. Second is http://www.joyofpi.com which celebrates everything joyous π which has humorous and interesting facts about π. Finally here's http://www.piday.org/ which celebrates Pi Day and has a interesting sections on Pi's history and how people around the world celebrate Pi Day. Now here's π to 12.1 trillion digits condensed in a computation since it was discovered by Japanese mathematician Shigeru Kondo on 28th of December 2013!!: 
3.

Geography Review: CIA World Factbook

The CIA World Factbook is a reference website created by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It features world maps and regional maps in both political and physical format to view for free. It also has detailed information and statistics on every country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. It includes information and statistics from the country's history to transactional issues (and of course its geography!)

 It includes flag descriptions of every flag, and has downloadable photos of every country with lengthy, intricate captions. There is also a printed book version available updated every year and a iOS app.


Site- https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
2014 Edition book: http://ow.ly/uBeV9
iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-cia-world-factbook/id412637620?mt=8&uo=4


Geography website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/geography.shtml



I like this website because it is very easy to use and helpful as well for ages 4-11 for help on geography 


What my favourite bit about geography is the flags of different countries

Wednesday 12 March 2014

GeoGuessr

I know that there was a short introduction on this amazing website GeoGuessr done by Jacob.
http://rcdigitalleader.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/website-review-geoguessr.html#comment-form
Click the link above to see the general overview of what the website is.

 
 
Since the last blog on this The Geoguessr website it has changed a bit. You can now set a time limit for when your playing with others and they are just taking FOREVER, as well when you set up the challenge it will give the web address which you can give to friends or family to complete to see who is the best at geography.
The website now has a help section for new comers that are not so sure how the game works. The Controlls are easy to use and many of the sites around the world are abouoltly amazing. Some that I have come across are Waterfulls, Beaches and famous landmarks. although sometimes if are in a very remote area you may not always be able to move.

Saturday 8 March 2014

French Help!


MFL week!
It is a French game, where it lets you play as well as learning how to speak French...

http://www.digitaldialects.com/French.htm

Including Fruit and Veg
Coulors
Animals
Clothing
Verbs
Time
Food
Days and months
Numbers and many more.

The game are all interactive which help learning much easier and fun!
Even if this app is good for mostly KS3 it can always be a way to remind you when you have to look over them again as you have forgotten.

-Heidi

Friday 7 March 2014

Modern Foreign Language Websites!

Salut, bonjour! Hallo, guten tag! Hola! Konichiwa! I love Modern Foreign Languages and here are some websites to use to revise or to practice or to learn!

Pronounciation websites:

http://voki.com/

http://www.pronouncehow.com/

Here is a learning/practicing/revising website:

You may have to pay for subscription, or you could get your school to use this: http://www.linguascope.com/

Here are some translating websites, but they are not always correct so try not to use them a lot:

http://translate.google.com/

http://www.babylon.com/

Have fun learning/revising/practicing Modern Foreign Languages!





Thursday 6 March 2014

Learn Japanese! 日本を学ぶ!

Konnichiwa! For my MFL blog post, I'll reviewing websites which help you learn my favourite language JAPANESE! First up is anime-manga.jp. Which helps learn basic phrases using anime and manga style characters with a interactive manga comic and audio to learn pronunciation of words.

Next up is http://www.erin.ne.jp which also uses child-friendly cartoony characters although includes more detailed lessons with real-life Japanese people videos, suited more for beginners.

 Finally is http://marugotoweb.jp, my favourite of the three websites which also uses cartoony characters and real-life Japanese people videos similar to Erin's Challenge-I speak Japanese! website although is more intricate than the others creating you from a unknown to a fluent. With a wide variety of topics ranging from Basics to Food to Holidays.

The only disappointment of the sites is the requirement of Adobe Flash Player making them non-mobile/tablet friendly in this modern age of technology.



Tuesday 4 March 2014

BBC bitesize review.

After finally having some spare time I was able to write a review as well as doing some revision.

The website I would like to recommend is BBC bite size, I find this website very useful especially when it comes to revising.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/science/

the different elements you can study are:

 
Organisms, behavior and health
Life processes, cells, health, variation and classification, feeding relationships

Chemical and material behavior
Solids, liquids and gases, periodic table, pH scale for acids, bases and alkalis
Energy, electricity and forces
Energy, forces, electric currents and magnetism
The environment, the Earth and the universe
Rock types, astronomy, and the environment
This is very useful if you are trying to revise these subjects BBC bite size is one of the best learning website on the internet.

-Heidi