Advent Calendar with Games

The calendar uses simple child friendly navigation designed to used independently or with minimum support. In contrast to most web based advent calendars which usually have either pictures or ‘interesting’ Christmas facts, our calendar has a new game or creative activity behind each door. Recommended to CTM by Ian Bean - many thanks!

Adventure Maker

Want to be a story maker? Now's your chance. Fill in the missing words and create a fun story usign a whole range of new words in different ways. Mouse click on the icon each time it appears and you'll have six words / symbols to choose from. At the end you can print out your story to share with friends. A great activity from the CAP Club.

Alarm Clock on your PC

What better way to help those with issues around understanding time and remaining on a task for set periods than a lovely big on-screen clock with a programmable alarm? Thanks to Dave Lane, there's one that can be linked live whilst you're connected to the Internet (or downloaded if you search in the downloads section).

Alien Experiment

Not for the fainthearted! This excellent interactive animation features a pink alien in a lab. Users decide what will be it's fate from a selection of squashing, squishing, vanishing and worse... You can use this with switch users if you first click in the animation window with keyboard shortcuts tab (to move around choices) and enter (to action). Additionally this will work well with touch screen users wanting a bit of practice targetting. Thank you to www.iainwebber.co.uk for pointing us in the direction of this horribly fascinating game that's immense amounts of fun.

Art Pad - A good alternative to MS Paint

This needs a little intervention to get going but is accessible enough to warrant a link here. Choose different sizes of paintbrush, text or paint bucket splodge to create your own beautiful piece of art with a mouse. Helps to brush up (sorry) on your dragging and clicking skills. If you like this, try Art Rage and Jackson Pollock Art, both linked to Check The Map. More thanks to Mandy at Southview School for another gem.

Askability - NEW symbolised website

The Askability website was inspired by The Children's Society Solihull branch, after watching children at their project misunderstand the news about the war in Iraq. They decided that there was a need for a website which was presented entirely in symbol to enable children with learning disabilities to become informed about ongoing current affairs and also create a central forum for children to express their views and opinions.

Boohbah Activities

There's no easy way to describe this site but i'll try: A wonderful collection of very colourful flash activities that interact with mouse clicks. A front screen takes you to lots of different things to explore and do. I like the synchronised blob dancing best. Go see. (Many thanks to Sarah Anderson and the pupils of Delamere School for recommending this).

CBeebies Balamory for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. This game's all about money and prices. It also uses early maths comparative terms such as "cheapest" and "most expensive". Most instructions are read out clearly, though non-readers will need a bit of help. Play with one or two switches as well as standard access methods.

CBeebies Chit Chat Chest for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. Listen to the sound, and then guess what each object is. Requires a little bit of switching skill to navigate through the game, and provides good practice. Play with one or two switches.

CBeebies Debbie Duck for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. Debbie Duck's all about matching sounds to animals on a quest. Find all of Debbie's friends to send them back to her pond and you will be rewarded with an animal concert. This is a nice game for switch users getting used to single switching with timing or discriminating between two switches. Uses all the same access methods as the other CBeebies links here.

CBeebies Old Macdonald for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. This is the switch accessible version of the Old Macdonald's Farm link above. Play with one or two switches, and have fun with Old Macdonald's animated farm.

CBeebies Snag a Snoot for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. To snag a Snoot you need to be able to use just one switch, and press it in a time frame set by the level of the game that you choose. On the easy level you have up to six seconds to snag each Snoot that pops up on screen, falling to about four seconds on the medium level and only two at the hardest level. Snag as many snoots as you can in one minute and get a cool animated, musical reward. Another way to make the game more difficult is to choose the Migo level, where points are taken off for snagging Rockit by accident. This game is great for those motivated by scores too. If none of this makes sense, click the link and have a go yourself.

CBeebies Startastic Captain Jake for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. This game has two levels, that both test colour matching and direction and gives lots of switch practice. Level two gives more choices and so is slightly harder. You can also draw star patterns in the sky. Play with one or two switches, concept or intellikeys board. This game requires very good switching skills as there are a lot of presses to reach the rewards.

CBeebies Teletubbies Peek-a-boo for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. This is a game of timing and observation skills that can be made very easy or quite fast. Wait to see the Teletubby, then click your mouse, touch the screen or press your switch in time and the Teletubby will pop up and greet you.

CBeebies Tikkabilla for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. Follow Tamba the dragon as she searches for her lost toy and work out how she feels during the story. The voiceover is clear and you must select from five emotions: happy, sad, suprised, excited and angry. Access by standard methods as well as one/two switches.

CBeebies Tots TV -Counting- for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite characters from Tots TV. This game works on counting up to ten in French and English with both words and numbers. Play with one or two switches, concept or intellikeys keyboard, mouse or touch screen.

CBeebies Transport Snap for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. Transport Snap matches a photo to either another photo, a symbol (Makaton), a sign (basic BSL as a cartoon) or an audio prompt. Great for working on specific prompts / visual media. In addition to usual access methods you can also use one or two switches, concept or intellikeys board.

CBeebies Tweenies Music Max for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. Max's music uses two switches and gives switch users lots of practice in choosing the correct one to press on cue. Listen to the names of different musical instruments and the sounds that they make, then choose four to create your own unique tune. You can listen to this as many times as you like, or start again with four more choices.

CBeebies What Am I? for switch use

Inclusive Technology and CBBC have combined efforts in a joint project to give switch users the chance to play with their favourite CBeebies characters. Boogie Beebies is a guessing game - great for people stimulated by music and dance. Lots of animation and a catchy tune. Play with one or two switches, or concept/intellikeys keyboard. You can use your mouse or touch screen too of course. Have fun.

Candlelight Stories Online

Eight different cartoons and excellent 3d animations. Happily, most play full screen and the material spans different age groups. Text is used in some cartoons. Help is probably required for most students to click on download links. Download times are generally quite short.

Cartoon Games from SVT

From the Swedish TV Network that brought you Horse Harmony, this site is very funny, very addictive and great for practising mouse skills. This link takes you to the home page. Press START to enter, then mouse over the screen to find musical cartoon links to lots of other games. I guess it helps if you speak Swedish, but if like me you don't, it's all still pretty easy to work out. Tons of games, tons of fun.

Choice and Voice

We are a group of people with Learning Disabilities who have set up our own website for other people with Learning Disabilities. We hope the site will grow through the contributions and involvement of other people with Learning Disabilities wherever they live. We would love to hear from people and get contributions and ideas from people who have visted the site and would like to use it more. The more contributions and ideas we get the better the site will be.

Counting To Ten

A simple counting animation. Good to use when reciting "Ten Green Bottles". Not a switch accessible site but you could replicate the left mouse click with a switch interface to give a switch user access to this activity.

Croatian Fairy Tales - Animated

These lovely stories use traditional music and beautiful ilustrations. Where there is text it is clearly read out. Navigating to the stories requires quite a lot of mouse control, though once loaded, some will just play through with no interaction required. On other stories students can explore pages and find different sound effects that help explain and give context. Worth a look.

Dance Mat Typing

A free typing tutor with animations, spoken instructions and a colourful, fun interface that can be made full screen. The program has different levels of difficulty and simple typing exercises with visual feedback at each stage. Our thanks to Ann Middleton for this useful link.

Election Special - In Symbols

An area of symbolworld dealing with the election. Loads of information about parliament, What is an MP, What is an opinion poll etc, plus simplified statements from the main political parties, all in symbols.

Facial Expressions

Fireworks

The premise is simple - clicking anywhere with your mouse (or setting a switch to emulate a left mouse click) will produce a satisfying and never ending stream of fireworks. Great for early, simple mouse / touch screen/ whiteboard work or paired activities between mouse and switch users. Thanks to May and Frank who have given permission for us add this link.

Help Kidz Learn

HelpKidzLearn is a collection of free software for young children and those with learning difficulties to play online.

Horse Harmony

This is a bizarre and funny site, a horse quartet! Click on the horses to get them singing and click on them again to stop. Simple, great for practising early ICT skills and very entertaining.

ICT Games

This site provides ICT activites linked to the English National Curriculum. Divided into literacy and numeracy there are tons of wonderful resources and games that cover topics such as: counting, subtracting, number bonds, weights and measurements, division, multiplication, more & less, shapes, clocks, fractions, decimals, percentages, money... and then, for literacy... phonemes, initial letters, letter forming, spelling patterns, high frequency words, sight recognition, reading, listening, rhyming.... and there's so much more. Many useful teacher tools that are great for whiteboard work are to be found here too. The site isn't switch accessible and you need Flash Player to run the games. It's a fabulous bank of learning tools and makes everything just that little bit more fun... All games are designed, made by and © copyright 2005 of James Barrett.

Jackson Pollock - Create some Abstract Art

Thanks to Charlie Danger for telling us about this beautiful site. Use your mouse, headpointer, rollerball or joystick (or finger on a touch screen / whiteboard) to create the next masterpieces of the art world. To change colour click your mouse etc. This is a brilliantly simple program with no confusing buttons or distractions. Have fun.

Knee Bouncers - switch games selection

These are designed for a younger audience, but make wonderful switch/early keyboard activities with simple cartoon graphics and sound effects. Choose from 'Underwater Adventure' (any key press gets an animation); 'Guitar, Piano and Drums' - any key press generates a sound - fantastic for switch group work; 'Jump & Float', and 'Peekaboo' are great for sustaining holding down a switch or key - the longer you hold the key down the longer you see the picture; 'Balloons, Bubbles & Flowers' is a nice sensory activity where each key/switch press creates a bubble that floats upwards then pops satisfyingly. Lastly, there's 'All Aboard' when a train chugs into view and each key/switch press animates a bit of the train. My favourite is Jump & Float - but you be the judge. Our thanks to Jim Robinson of 'Punch' for permission to add this to Check The Map.

Loomy Accessible Portal

An accessible portal for people with learning disabilities. This site makes surfing the web easier, with clear graphics, accessible layouts and speech feedback. Thanks to Martin for recommending this site so we could share it on Check The Map

Magic Balls from Trans-active

One of the many games you'll find on Trans-Active, a fantastic site supported by Mencap for teenagers with and without learning disabilities to work together. Fire different coloured balls to make rows of two or more. Play with the keyboard (space & arrow keys) or set up for a switch/ touch screen user. Nice sound effects, though the time runs out quickly. The Check The Map Team's best score is 6588. Let us know when you beat it!

Make a Snowflake

This is brilliant. Use your mouse, touchscreen or whiteboard to touch falling snowflakes, or move on to the more creative business of 'cutting' out symmetrical shapes to make your own, unique snowflake. Check The Map's shoddy effort is gallery number 10539500 but we're sure you can do a lot better! When you're satisfied with your snowflake, you can print it off as a jpeg for all sorts of uses. Thanks to David Fettes for pointing us in the direction of this addictive resource.

More fireworks

If you liked the previous fireworks link and want more, this is for you. Same thing, more colours... Great for early, simple mouse/ interactive whiteboard / touch screen work or paired activities between mouse and switch users.

Mouse Skills - Dub City Rockers

This is perhaps the coolest activity we have on Check The Map and many thanks to Simon Judge for pointing us to it. Improve your mouse, interactive whiteboard and touch screen skills by choosing beats, screen changes and animations from this collection of dub beats. There's a vast choice and this will really motivate students to target, click and drag. Have fun.

Mr Picasso Head

We absolutely love this - create your own Picasso portrait by dragging and dropping with a mouse, touch screen or IWB. Then authentically sign your masterpiece. Massive thanks to Mandy Griffin of Southview School for sourcing this.

Ninja Balloons

A great game for introducing the mouse or learning to press and hold a switch with a partner. Instructions are on the site so I won't go into them here. Needless to say it's easy to play with a nice colourful screen and tons of levels. Have fun.

Old Macdonald's Farm

This version of Old Macdonald's Farm not only gives you wonderful flash animations of the animals whilst singing the song, but also the chance to use your mouse to see extra cartoons. It is accompanied by some Makaton symbols for early signing. Make the screen full size and then get your students to click on, drag and drop animals, farmer and house on top of one another. Great for exploring and early mouse / touch screen work.

Online Colouring Books

This is a lovely resource - part of the ton of books, puzzles and games for children of all ages on Magic Keys. Use mouse or touchscreen to choose from standard painting tools and a range of colours to create your own picture. There are loads of outlines to keep you busy - from flowers to footballers. Great practice for struggling mouse users, or for those budding artists that find an adapted mouse / touch screen access much more successful than using a paintbrush. You can print outlines to colour off the computer or your finished work to show off.

Penguin Hitting

Hours of fun to be had here. To play you just have to click/ touch the screen twice. Switch users can play too - just set your switch to mimic the left click. The first click sends the penguin down the slide. The second swings the Yeti's baseball bat. My personal best is 292 meters. Can you beat it??? Great age appropriate flash animation game to teach timing skills. Many thanks to Hilary Shannon for telling us about it.

Play the Steel Drum

Use your mouse to roll over the different sections of the steel drum. Simple, easy and lots of fun. Turn up the speakers and it'll be like Nottinghill Carnival..er, well, almost. This link has been given by www.iainwebber.co.uk

Poisson Rouge

Loads of wonderfully animated simple games with sound effects. There are jigsaws to make, pictures to colour, counting games and letter games in French and English, some simple mouse skills games, games that can be switch adapted if you use space bar and arrow keys... lots of recommendations to add this and our thanks to members of SENIT.

Popping Bubble Wrap

Ease away your frustrations and improve your mouse skills! Credited to www.iainwebber.co.uk, this lovely bubble wrap pops just like the real thing as you mouse over it... and, unlike the real thing, if you run out you need only press space bar for a renewed sheet. Brilliant!

Priory Woods - Kids Only

Visit our award winning Kids Area. Symbol-supported online fun and creative activities. Here you'll find sections on 'colour and draw', 'story and rhymes', 'fun and games' and 'find out about' - created with the help of pupils at Priory Woods School in Middlesbrough, for the benefit of all visitors.

Reactive Colours

Reactive Colours© provides an engaging, accessible computer environment for spontaneous imaginative play and learning, in which even the most anxious autistic individuals may relax and communicate. Click on 'Gallery' to play online with your mouse/touch screen or set switch box settings to left mouse click. As an Internet based research project Reactive Colours© aims to provide a software interface through which individuals with autistic spectrum differences and learning disabilities can be encouraged to use computers, and through which they can develop mouse, keyboard, programming and screen skills. This is a truly superb and ground breaking project. Try it for yourself today.

Roy the Zebra

Free interactive reading games, perfect for using with your interactive whiteboard or on a computer. Words that rhyme, full stops, capital letters, high frequency words and much more...thanks to Suzanne Sear of Charlton School for spreading the word about this very useful and entertaining freebie.

SEN Switcher - 132 activities for switch progression

This is surely the single most useful resource for switch assessment work on the Internet. High contrast, simple screens which take you from experiential levels, right through to timed switch pressing, targetting and scanning. Works for touch screen/ interactive whiteboard users too. Play online or free to download. Simply excellent.

Sky Writing

Skywriting is taken from the growing bank of free to use tools and resources created for teachers who are teaching with an interactive whiteboard (IWB) on their main site www.iwb.org.uk For pupils learning about letters, large motor movements can really help to make the activity fun and memorable. This is a wonderful whiteboard / touch screen resource for group or individual work.

Something Special

To accompany the popular CBeebies TV show, you'll find a lot of interactive games, stories, signs, songs and clips of Mr Tumble to enjoy. A colourful and entertaining resource, perfect for learning early signs and ICT skills.

Starfall - Learn to read

You'll find lots of interactive online games to help early literacy here, from letter recognition to non-fiction and comics. Aimed at younger children, different short activities are easy to work through with lots of fun animations. There are also many classroom ideas and activity sheets for teachers to download.

Sticky Art from the Blue Man website

Now it's not just paint you can chuck into your own collage - but marshmallows, crunchy bits, jell-o, balloons and twinkies (what are they?). This excellent, interactive site gives your mouse / switch / touch screen users the chance to make their own artwork and send it to their friends. We're not admitting which one in the gallery belongs to Check The Map but know you'll do considerably better. Incidentally, marshmallows and crunchy bits only stick to something sticky.... enjoy. Many thanks to Trish Davidson for this great find.

Story Books

This site links to lots of online books. Some with flash animations and sound; some have text read out. Unfortunately the site has pop ups and other links so students may need help navigating to the stories. Lots here for all ages and some lovely illustrations.

Symbol World

Dedicated to the use of symbols, a wonderful site with tons of free symbol-supported stories, news, games, jokes

Teenzone from Trans-Active

Teenzone, by Mencap, contains all sorts of useful, accessible stuff centred around Teenage issues. Click the link to go to a page where you can find out more about transition, play on a beat box, make faces, play games and more. Fairly good mouse control is needed for the activities on this site, though a lot of the information is simple and clearly read out as you move your mouse over pictures, videos and words.

The Cat Came Back

This link opens to a busy front page so look for the picture of the cat and click on it. You will then find a lovely little cartoon and song. Watch the cat thwart his owner's many attempts to get rid of it. Thanks to Richard Walter from Meldreth Manor School for recommending this.

The Dancing Hippo

Everyone loves this great switch or touch screen activity so much we thought it deserved a special mention. If you haven't seen this, have a look. We guarantee you'll love it. The hippo is brought to you by Ian Bean and the pupils of Priory Woods School...

YAP - Interactive Lifestyle Website

An interactive lifestyles website for young people designed by young volunteers with a learning disability. It has music, fashion, video clips and lots more. Yap is a website for all young people made by young volunteers with a learning disability. On this website you can see young people doing the things they like to do and there are some fun things you can do too. All the ideas and the things to do on this website came from the young people involved in making it.