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A Free Alternative to Twinkl Create For SEN Teaching Resources

Table of Contents

    Use Twinkl Create For SEN Activities

    I was approached by Twinkl to have a look at the resources their site features, the main area of interest was the Twinkl Create teaching resource maker. If you work in SEN you will become adept at adapting resources, very few off-the-shelf teaching resources will meet the needs of your learners.

    One of the most interesting things I found on the Twinkl teaching resources site was the “create” feature, this allows you to build a range of resources from displays to interactive games to worksheets. Now I’m not the biggest fan of a worksheet but with a bit of laminating, they can easily turn into a folder task. I hate seeing folders of random sheets that all use different fonts imagery etc. If I am creating a pack for a topic it is much better that all the resources have a common look and feel. It just looks more cohesive and planned. 

    Twinkl create teaching resources.jpg

    How To Use Twinkl Create with the Interactive Whiteboard

    What I really like using with my class is the Interactive whiteboard. I usually use Smartnotebook to create interactive resources. Again using Twinkl create allows me to create a cohesive resource set that links my own resources with the ones from the main site.

    An Interactive Lifeboat Activity

    So I thought I would use Twinkl create to make an interactive lifeboat activity that linked in with our transport and community topics. Twinkl already had a lifeboat in their image collection so I don’t have to worry about licensing or trawling the web for a suitable picture.

    twinkl create rnli lifeboat activity for Interactive whiteboards

    The hot spot activity is a simple image overlay idea where the child touches the + sign to reveal more information about a feature. I used it to support a labelling task. For some of my class I had to use Communicate in print to add AAC symbols to support their reading (even have to adapt our own resources).

    Creating A Matching Wordmat

    To make a wordmat to go with it presented me with a bit of an issue as I wanted to use areas of the image and the create tool doesn’t seem to allow this. an easy fix was just to screenshot the areas I wanted and upload them. You can then easily select the ones you want for any resource you create. Once created they are then all accessible via the site so no need to panic if you forget to save them or need another copy.

    A Free Alternative to Twinkl Create

    Canva for Education

    Since I initially wrote this blog technology has moved on. There is a reluctance in some circles to the twinklisation of classrooms, the font and style became ubiquitous especially in worksheet packs sent home during the pandemic. Some primary schools have now banned the use of twinkl worksheets. I can see the benefit in terms of workload for teachers to be able to log on and find a decent resource exactly matched to their curriculum. However, teachers are generally very creative people and new apps and software provide great ways to develop their own resources.

    Canva – an online graphic design platform is rapidly expanding the Canva for Education offer that provides free design tools for education staff. You can easily create modern bespoke worksheets, graphic organisers, anchor charts and other resources using it’s bank of images, clipart and design features. One of the benefits of twinkl was the consistent look/style. Using Canva you can use templates to create your own style with logos etc.

    Examples of teaching Resources Made using Canva for Education
    Examples of Resources Made using Canva for Education

    AI Enhanced Teaching Resource Creation

    Canva also has started implementing AI (Artificial Intelligence) into it’s offer. This can greatly speed up the process of creating content and resources. It can generate design templates for your worksheets and books quickly. This is easy to access and requires no real knowledge of how it works. Anyway check it out if you have Twinkl fatigue.

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