[senco-forum] Was Nessy, now other games

Also, the Crossbow games often come in a downloadable form quite cheaply so
you an make them up yourself. And don't forget GAMZ, which are fantastic
because you can differentiate so carefully with them, to the precise
spelling and reading patterns you want. Although these games are designed to
play as card games, if you want to include spelling you can use them as
source material for "Read and Spell" games such as the one someone described
recently. I have a variety of home-made boards (made using Word and images
from Google images) so that I can indulge each child's obsession. For
example, on one board if you land on a Dalek you have to read a word and if
you land on a Cyberman you have to spell it. The pieces are Dr Who and his
current assistant, printed, laminated and cut out. I have another that looks
like a big spider's web, and the pieces are plastic creepy-crawlies. And so
on and so on ...
Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of chris white
Sent: 03 November 2007 11:47
To: 'senco forum'
Subject: RE: [senco-forum] nessy learning programme

You've made some good points Kate,
I've got a low boredom threshold! Consequently I like to use a combination
of Nessy, Word Shark, Starspell,  and also to 'dip in' to the hundreds of
free games that   can be found on the internet.
For example the 'Starword' game for commonly used words on the BBC website
is great. I also like the R and R spelling that has recently been
recommended....and all this week everyone has been playing Halloween Hangman
as recommended on here. That not only taught the Halloween words but also
reinforced the alphabet!
For card games in my opinion the Crossbow take a lot of beating. Incidently
a couple of years ago I asked Bob Hext from Crossbow to come and do a
training day for the support assistants on Dyslexia and on using games to
teach literacy skills and he was very good. (And no I don't have a
commercial interest!) 
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Kate Barnes
Sent: 03 November 2007 09:12
To: Ruth Wilkinson
Cc: 'senco forum'
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] nessy learning programme

This is well discussed on the forum, but I know the archives can be tricky
to access. Try using this link.
http://lists.becta.org.uk/pipermail/senco-forum/
I do like Nessy, but you do need to think how and what you want to use a
programme for. Children in groups? in classroom, with support?
independently?
Nessy is great to provide variety, and you get loads of card/ worksheets
games as well. However....
The card games and sheets are very repetitative.
Nessy cannot be "locked down" like wordshark to limit access to certain
games and wordlists
You cannot view children's errors etc like you can in wordshark
The games are more fun/better graphics than wordshark, but less time is
spent actually reading /spelling.
Nessy has far fewer games than Wordshark, although the Nessy games are great
fun I have found kids get bored with some of them, very quickly,
particularly at the lower levels. In contrast there are so many games in
wordshark that, although kids dont like certain games, they can always find
another.
I had wordshark, and found Nessy well worth the money as an addition - as
much for the phonic card games/sheets as the computer games.
But...I would always want wordshark first....
(can I have my commision now Rik!)
Kate

----- Original Message ----
From: Ruth Wilkinson <ruth at ruthwilkinson.f9.co.uk>
To: senco-forum new <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Thursday, 13 September, 2007 5:27:23 PM
Subject: [senco-forum] nessy learning programme

Has anyone used the Nessy Learning programme?  The demo disc looks good and
it would be nice to have an alternative to Wordshark but I'd like to be sure
it's worth it before I try to persuade the head to buy it.

Ruth W