The web site learnenglishkids is a site from the British Council who have worked with language and cultural relations for some 80 years, so it´s a trusted source and a well built web site packed with different language learning on-line tools. The site is made for three categories, kids, teachers and parents. The kids part of the site is for kids up to twelve years. I would say that it works best for kids age 9-12. But younger and older learners (I had fun trying it) can also use it.

The web site is, as it sounds, a site on the internet so in order to use it you will need a computer, an Ipad or a smartphone and an internet connection. The site is free and you can use it with or without becoming a member. Of course if you become a member, which is free, you will also be able to download more information and material.

What´s on it then? Well, it´s divided into the following areas: games, listen & watch, read & write, make, speak & spell and grammar. It also has a part called little kids which is for very small children. In the games part you will find lots of fun and cool games where you, for example, learn words and practice spelling. In listen & watch there are songs and stories that you can listen to. You can also download and print lyrics and texts as well as exercises that follows every story. In read & write you can communicate with other kids that uses the site by making comments on excercises or songs, like a blog. Make is a part where you can make stories or draw pictures. Here you can download material that you want to use or that you have made. Speak & spell is, as it sounds, a part where you practice speaking english, like pronounciation and spelling easy or tricky words. The grammar part I find the most interesting because I haven´t seen anything like it before. Grammar is mostly something you don´t teach kids in early years, unfortunately. But this site makes it easy and fun. They have grammar quizzes, grammar videos, grammar games and grammar tests.

Here are three more specific examples on what you can do on the site: Let the pupils listen to a story or watch a video. Either by themselves, in groups or the whole class. Then let them play the games that comes with the story, for example a wordsearch. Then they can continue with answering questions on the story to practice their understanding. After that they can work with a worksheet that you can download. Finally they can read the story from the text that you can download. Let the pupils practice spelling and how to pronounce words with Speak & spell-tricky words. First they listen to the words and look on pictures representing the words. Then they practice to pronounce the words by saying after a voice. After that they get some pictures but only one word which they listen to and then point to the right picture. Finally they listen to the word and try to spell it right. When practicing grammar you can let the pupils first watch a video explaining a grammar rule, then play a grammar game and do a grammar quizz on the same rule and finishing by doing a grammar test. It´s fun and they will learn grammar.

Of course there are more to this web site than I can fit into this blog post but I recommend you to try this useful ICT-resource and it also has a part for parents and teachers. In the teachers part you will be informed on how to use this site as a teacher and in the parents part you get a whole lot of good information on kids learning english. I can really recommend that part.

You can use this web site as a complement to your ordinary english learning material, but for the younger learners this ICT-resource could easily be their only english learning material at school. If all students can go on-line at home they can also practice english by their own or with a little help from their parents, or you can use it as a homework.

www.learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org