LearnEnglish Kids is the British Council’s website for children who are learning English as a second or foreign language. The activities are designed for learners to do at home, on their own, with friends or with their parents, although many parts of the site can also be used very effectively in a classroom situation too.

NEW LearnEnglish Kids
NEW LearnEnglish Kids has just been released. The new site has a much more attractive design for children and is easier to navigate. You’ll still find all your favourite content on there, and you will find new features too such as videos and comments from children. You can visit the site at its new address: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/

This guide will help you to explore the content of the new site; show you what’s new; and tell you how children can become members.

Where is everything?
You will still find all of your favourite resources on LearnEnglish Kids, and as usual you may use any of the materials on LearnEnglish Kids in your classroom.

• In the games section you will find online games and activities about topics that feature in many textbooks and syllabuses.
• In the listen and watch section you will find animated stories and songs especially written for children. Many of the stories and songs have worksheets that you can download and use in the classroom. You will also find videos, and online activities designed to practise listening skills.
• In the read and write section you will find worksheets that you can download to help children develop their reading and writing skills. You may use these in the classroom. There are also activities in this section that are designed to encourage children to send written contributions to the site.
• In the make section you will find online activities in which children can create something. There are also arts and crafts worksheets which you can download and use in the classroom. Watch the videos here of children making things.
• In the explore section children can find help with using LearnEnglish Kids, and a list of topics. They will also find a list of links to websites that are suitable for children learning English.

You will find a list of topics in alphabetical order in explore:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/explore
With one click you will be taken to all the material connected to the topic you are looking for.

I’m looking for…
If you are looking for something specific from ‘old’ LearnEnglish Kids, you can:

• Click the ‘where is it?’ tab on the teachers’ page. This will give you a guide to where you can find all the resources from the ‘old’ site
• Look at the site map
• Use the search facility which is on every page. Just put in the name of the resource and you should find it!

What’s new?
Have a look at new content on the site:

• Did you know? –  find fun facts on the home page linking to content
• Tongue twisters – find these on the listen and watch landing page.
• Jokes – Laugh at illustrated jokes on the games landing page.
• Kids talk – watch videos and listen to kids talk about their lives in the listen and watch section.
• Craft downloads – as well as finding the craft worksheets in the make section you will also find some videos of children making the items.
• Your Turn – in the read and write section, there’s a space for students to send us their work.

More content and features will be added to the site over the next few months, including versions of the site in Arabic, Russian and Chinese.

Become a member
One of the new features of the site is that children can now become members.

• Who can become a member? Any child aged 13 and under can become a member of LearnEnglish Kids.

• Why should children become members? Members can take full advantage of everything the site offers. They can contribute to the site by writing comments and telling us what they think about games and stories. They can also send in writing to be published on the site in Your Turn. Members will also be able to join clubs. There will soon be a Book Club, a Film Club, an Art Club and a Games Club where members will find other children who share their interests.

• How to become a member? There is a ‘user login’ box on every page of the site. Users should click on ‘become a member’ or visit this page: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/user/register

There is a simple form to complete. Children will have to give an e-mail address, as this is where the password information will be sent. If your students don’t have their own e-mail address they will have to join with the help of their parents. This is a good idea anyway so that parents are involved in the process.

• How to choose a username? During the registration process, children will select a username. Children should choose three categories, then click on ‘generate username’ to get a selection of names to choose from. Children can repeat the process as many times as they like to get a good username. This username will be used whenever a child contributes to the site.

• How to create a character? Once children have registered and logged in, they can create a character, by choosing the body parts, clothes, accessories and background. This can be changed at any time by clicking on ‘My account’ and then on ‘Edit’ in the ‘Change It’ box.

• Choosing a password: Passwords can be changed at any time to one that can be remembered easily. To do this click on ‘My account’ then ‘Edit’ in the ‘Change It’ section. Enter the chosen password in the ‘Password’ and ‘Confirm Password’ sections and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click ‘Save’. Please note that the password must have a capital letter and some punctuation in it.

Security
We want LearnEnglish Kids to be a fun place for children to practise English – and we want it to be a safe place.

• All members are encouraged to get permission from parents before joining
• All personal information is kept private and we have a strict privacy policy
• Members cannot contact each other and comments appear with username only
• Members must follow house rules and may not give out personal information
• All comments are moderated by the LearnEnglish team before being published

We hope that this information has been useful. LearnEnglish Kids is ready to use now but it is still being developed, and you may note that there are some things that still need some improvement! If you have any comments about the new site, or any queries or suggestions we would love to hear from you. Please send a message to: learnenglish.kids@britishcouncil.org

From the LearnEnglish Kids team:

SparklingJewelFire (Kim Ashmore, British Council, UK)

GreenMetalPixie (Jonathan Rowland, British Council, Hong Kong)

MissLuckyMouse (Jo Budden, British Council, Spain)

• Login or register to post comments
• Printer-friendly version