Latest news with #Mrs.Wordsmith
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Banish back-to-school anxiety with top-rated children's toys that are 'fun and calming'
Beat the back-to-school nerves with these top-rated toys that are fun, calming, and perfect for helping kids feel relaxed and ready a new term The back-to-school season is nearly upon us, and along with thinking about school uniforms and accessories, it's worth thinking about mindful toys and games that can help your kids calm down during stressful situations. Anxiety among kids and young adults is on the rise, not only during term time but also throughout school holidays, when the lack of routine can leave many feeling unsettled. Therapeutic games and calming activities are a fun and gentle way to help kids feel more in control and do more than just keep little hands busy. Not only do they help calm little ones down, but they also distract their eyes and minds from educational books to distracting fidget toys and anxiety-reducing plushies, we've rounded up all the games you need starting from £5. Silicone Sensory Activity Board, £11.89 This portable silicone sensory board helps kids develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and focus through fun play. Easy to clean, safe, and screen-free, it's a calming, creative activity that's perfect for travel or quiet moments. Toymania Future Fidgets, £11.99 These are perfect for children who are feeling overwhelmed, as using a fidget toy can help focus their attention and energy. They're pocket-sized, making them easy to carry and the perfect portable toy for school or on-the-go moments. They can help reduce stress and anxiety while boosting focus, which makes them great for both kids and adults. Micro Monster, £18.99 If you've got a child nervous to start or head back to school in September, this adorable, fluffy monster toy can act as a little buddy to pop inside their backpack for some courage. The Big Book of Feelings, Mrs Wordsmith, £17.99 This handy book from Mrs. Wordsmith helps kids express themselves and build emotional intelligence while being engaging and educational. Each day, a new illustrated feeling is revealed to spark conversations about emotions, while the back of each page features thoughtful prompts, stories, and activities. Emma Madden, Headteacher at Fox Primary School says: "A fantastically fun way to develop phonic knowledge. The audio tracks ensure correct pronunciation, while the tiered decks allow differentiated instruction." Learning Globe, Leapfrog, £89.99 This interactive world globe helps kids learn through fun facts, games, and videos, making education both exciting and engaging. The playful characters and hands-on activities also provide a soothing distraction for children with anxiety, helping them focus and relax while they explore. Mindfulness Cards, Amazon, £5.48 These affordable mindfulness cards from Amazon teach kids calming exercises, breathing techniques, and sensory activities to help them focus and relax. Perfect for use at home or on the go, they offer a fun, portable way to reduce anxiety and encourage a sense of calm. Foodie Friends Activity Pack, Crayola, £6 A great way to kids away from the screens is with creative activities like drawing. This Crayola activity set keeps kids entertained with colouring, stickers, and fun Foodie Friends games while helping them learn shapes and numbers.
Business Wire
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Wire
Roblox Launches New Learning Hub to Engage Students Through Play
SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Roblox Corporation (NYSE: RBLX), an immersive gaming and creation platform, today announced that its new Learning Hub is now available to all users looking to access dozens of engaging educational experiences from leading educational providers and Roblox creators. Whether it's sharpening online safety skills in Google Be Internet Awesome World, boosting vocabulary through Words of Power by Mrs. Wordsmith, or competing in the Math Tower Race by TeamRy—learners can naturally pick up valuable lessons through play and share them with their friends. Users will also soon be able to put their geography skills to the test in a new British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Bitesize experience called Planet Planners. The experience, created by the BBC's renowned study support service and built by Playerthree, is designed for students aged 11 to 14. It will offer a new way for users to learn about some of the world's most pressing challenges—from preparing for natural disasters to managing large cities—and be mapped to national curricula in the UK and K-12 standards in the U.S. Roblox's Learning Hub points users to interactive and collaborative learning experiences across a broad range of topics, from life skills and brain games to more traditional school subjects like arts, computer science, and math. For educators and parents, this curated collection of experiences and games offers a way to focus avid Roblox fans on learning while playing during this summer break and beyond. 'Our new Learning Hub becomes available just as many students around the world are out of school for summer break,' said Rebecca Kantar, Head of Education at Roblox. 'Whether students are looking to try building a game for the first time or to practice skills they'll need again for the fall, our Learning Hub serves as a convenient front door. We aim to give more and more Roblox users globally access to subject- and grade-level-appropriate content that will ignite their genuine interest in learning.' Sesame Workshop, the global nonprofit behind Sesame Street and creator of the STEM-focused Sesame Street Mecha Builders on Roblox (featured in the Learning Hub), has already garnered 70 million visits to its engaging educational game. Sesame Workshop's Senior Vice President of Marketing, Aaron Bisman, said, 'Roblox has built a vibrant global community where creativity, learning, and collaboration thrive. We're excited to be part of the new Learning Hub, where friends and fans can explore STEM and other valuable skills through immersive experiences like ours.' Oonagh Jaquest, Executive Producer, BBC Bitesize, BBC Education, said, 'BBC Bitesize is committed to offering world-class educational experiences to all learners, and game-based learning is a great way for students to engage with complex subject content while developing skills like critical thinking and problem-solving. The Roblox team has worked collaboratively with us to develop a really rich experience, which lets young people explore diverse locations around the world, see their decisions play out tangibly in the environment, and even play as class groups.' Here are nine examples of educational games and experiences from the Learning Hub to try at home or in summer camps as a start: Domain Rangers: Understand vibrant marine ecosystems and their effects on the ocean's future through immersive adventures with friends. Ecos: La Brea: Experience what the planet looked like long ago and how animals survived during the time of the dinosaurs. Google Be Internet Awesome World: Learn online safety lessons through action-packed games, from spotting phishing scams to creating strong passwords and being mindful when sharing information online. Lua Learning: Master the popular coding language Lua on Roblox by using an in-game script editor, tailored curriculum, and safe sandboxed code execution in a hands-on environment. Math Tower Race: Boost and show off your math skills when speed is of the essence to win the game's races. Mission: Mars: Explore the rough and rugged Red Planet on a mission assigned in the Museum of Science's educational experience. Sesame Street Mecha Builders: Work through a series of challenging and fun STEM-focused puzzles using different Mecha tools to help solve problems. Studio Lite: Learn game development with easy tutorials to help build, script, and publish amazing games on Roblox. Words of Power: Improve communication and boost vocabulary skills by using words in a fast-paced action role-playing game while strengthening emotional literacy. Visit the Learning Hub via the More tab and look for the Learn icon in the Roblox desktop and mobile apps. For press kit click here. About Roblox Roblox is an immersive gaming and creation platform that offers people millions of ways to be together, inviting its community to explore, create, and share endless unique experiences. Roblox's vision is to reimagine the way people come together—in a world that's safe, civil, and optimistic. To achieve this vision, Roblox is building an innovative company that, together with the community, has the ability to strengthen the social fabric and support economic growth for people around the world. For more about Roblox, please visit ROBLOX and the Roblox logo are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of Roblox Corporation in the United States and other countries. © 2025 Roblox Corporation. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Nation's Report Card spurs calls for change as reading and math scores circle the drain
The Nation's Report Card is sparking calls to action as dismal scores on reading and math show students across the country have failed to academically recover from the pandemic. Data released Wednesday in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly referred to as the Nation's Report Card, showed reading scores have fallen even further for fourth and eighth graders than they did in 2022, while math scores show only slight progress for fourth graders but still not enough to catch up to prepandemic numbers. 'These results are both heartbreaking and tragic,' said Alicia Levi, president and CEO of Reading is Fundamental. 'We need to take action. … We are calling on, leaders from all sectors, public and private, to join us in this fight.' Increasing investment, preparing educators with new ways to teach subjects and acknowledging students are moving up grades without the fundamentals are all crucial for fixing the problems, according to experts. Reading scores took the biggest hit, with the percentage of eighth graders able to read at NAEP's basic line at the lowest in the assessment's history. The news is even worse for the lowest-performing students: Those in just the 10th and 25th percentiles for both fourth and eighth grade had the lowest scores since NAEP's first reading assessment in 1992. Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, president of Mrs. Wordsmith, a group that seeks to improve children's literacy outcomes, called it 'a state of emergency.' 'We know that 70 percent of incarcerated people read below fourth grade level. We know that literacy is deeply tied to our economic opportunities and our health outcomes. So, particularly coming out of $190 billion in ESSER funds, it's a tough day to hear that we have not made progress and actually lost ground in our reading proficiency across the country,' Cardet-Hernandez said, referring to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER). Seeking to combat the problem, numerous school districts and states in recent years have required educators to switch how they teach reading to a method called the 'science of reading.' Previously, those educators used the 'balanced literacy' method, which focused on teaching students how to read using cues or context in the text. The science of reading instead focuses on ensuring students understand phonics when learning to read. Whether NAEP's flagging scores are an indictment of the method cannot yet be determined, according to experts. New York City, which holds the largest public school district in the country, switched to the science of reading in 2023, giving only one academic year between the concept's implementation and the NAEP's assessment. 'It's way too soon to have expected to see the trickle down from state level policy initiatives being implemented and then actually enacted at the school level in ways that would support faster development on the part of a student,' said Karyn Lewis, director of the Center for School and Student Progress at NWEA, an education research group. 'I think in education we are often way too reactionary and want to pull back before we have full evidence about whether a policy or an initiative is working,' Lewis added. Math scores saw somewhat better outcomes, though they are little cause for celebration. Fourth graders had a 2-point gain in math but were still unable to overcome the 5-point drop that was seen in the subject when the pandemic began. Eighth graders had no significant changes in their math scores. Math has been assisted by extra federal dollars going toward tutors and after-school programs, and critics say that type of investment was not made for reading. 'We're not making the investment,' Levi said. 'I see today that there is such public and private sector investment in STEM — the idea that science and math and technology are the future and that we need to double, triple, quadruple our investment — and you are seeing the results of that is reading has been left behind.' Experts say reading is also a harder subject to play catch-up on when students fall behind, and how teachers are trained for this problem needs to change. 'We know that math is made of more discrete skills that are probably much easier to target for intervention,' Lewis said. 'You can identify, for instance, that a student is struggling with long division, and then you know the specific steps to intervene there and get them caught up with that specific skill set. In contrast, reading is cumulative.' Adult literacy has also fallen, according to numbers released last month. The National Center for Education Statistics, part of the Department of Education, released data in December showing 28 percent of adults in the U.S. are ranked at the lowest levels of literacy, compared to 19 percent in 2017. As students' progress through the grades, reading goes from a subject that is taught to a subject that is assumed. After third grade, students are expected to be expanding their knowledge through reading in new subjects, and educators are not expected to teach how to read the material. 'I think we are seeing the effects of the fact that early elementary students, early elementary teachers, they're the most well-prepared to teach those foundational skills,' said Lewis. 'And we've got students leaving those early elementary grades missing some of those foundational skills due to the school disruptions, and they're coming into the classroom of more advanced teachers who may not be prepared to support those foundational reading gaps.' 'I think we're seeing a mismatch between the needs of students and the preparation of our teacher workforce,' she added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
