Babelnet Theme Park

I found this site called Babelnet Theme Park. At this web site you can find four various themes that are called Nature Reserve, Castle, Services and Attractions. In the different themes you can play games, practise grammar and words and find tasks that are listening comprehensions, oral or spelling tasks. All the tasks are in different difficulty levels so you can always find something that suits your pupils.

You can find the web site here:
http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/index.htm


How the Babelnet Theme park site can be used by teachers

This site has different themes that could interest most pupils in school. When you click on the Site Map you will find a list of all the games and tasks that are on the site. They are divided in the different themes so it is easy to find what you are looking for. The exercises on the site are a great complement to the teaching in class. They deal with the words and grammar in various ways in the exercises and I think that the pupils will find it fun to work with them. As a teacher I need to have chosen the exercises on the site that the pupils are supposed to work with before the lesson. Otherwise I believe that the pupils will try to do tasks that are too difficult for them.

As a teacher I can see that there are many tasks and exercises that I can use as ideas in the classroom. E.g. in the theme Services the pupils are going to write about when they have been pick-pocketed. This is something you can use in drama class and let the pupils write a play about the episode and give a performance.

There is a link bank where you can find other sites with tasks in English within the themes that are on the Babelnet site. I think that these links are very useful to give you more ideas about what you can do with your class.


How the Babelnet Theme Park site can be used by pupils

When the pupils are doing the exercises they will get response right away. They will be able to see if they are right or wrong in their answers. Doing the exercises I think the pupils will have fun and will be learning spelling, grammar and talking at the same time. With a few clicks the pupils have done one exercise and can continue to do it again or move on to the next one.

It is not necessary that the pupils work individual. The exercises and games can be done in pairs and a lot of discussions will be done while they sit together trying to solve the tasks.


What you may need to think about when you use this site

As the teacher you need to have been looking through the site so you know what you will be able to use with your pupils or not. There are a lot of exercises, games and links in different levels so it will take some time to go through them but I think it is worth the time. I am sure that you and your pupils will have a lot of fun with this site.
Many of the tasks are trial and error exercises. I therefore believe that it is necessary that the pupils are a little bit familiar with the words before they start to work with them on the computer. If not I think that some pupils only will click on the different alternatives and never consider why.

You only need a computer that is connected with the Internet. Start having fun!