Homework Help – Kids' Blog

Explore ANZAC day and WW1 with these great websites

admin23 April, 2015

Are you looking for reliable online info about World War One? We have created a lit of great websites that you can go to for info on the causes of the war, the treaty that ended that war, ANZAC Day and Gallipoli, New Zealand’s involvement, and websites that provide info on casualties and gravesites.

Websites about the causes of World War One

The BBC has a great site dedicated to WWI including a section on the causes of the conflict: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/25365441
BBC’s Bitesize section (tailored to the English school curriculum) has a section on the causes and interactive tests: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir1/
Closer to home, the New Zealand History site has a page dedicated to the origins of the war: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/first-world-war-overview/origins
Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand also has a war origins page: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/first-world-war/page-1
The Imperial War Museum, one of the best war museums, has a page on their website about the ‘path to war’: http://www.iwm.org.uk/history-terms/first-world-war/path-to-war
FirstWorldWar.com has a comprehensive page on how the war began: http://www.firstworldwar.com/origins/index.htm (this site hasn’t been updated since 2009 so we suggest checking any information you find against other websites).

Websites about the Treaty of Versailles

Good for answering ‘what is..?’ questions, Wisegeek has a section on the treaty: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-treaty-of-versailles.htm
The Museum of Australian Democracy has images of the treaty with information about its significance: http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-23.html
FirstWorldWar.com has a primary documents page that focuses on the treaty, and includes a breakdown of the treaty’s articles: http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/versailles.htm
Omni Atlas contains an interactive map of Europe that illustrates the impact of the treaty on the boarders and alliances: http://maps.omniatlas.com/europe/19190628/
BBC history has a page about the treaty that’s pitched at a secondary school level: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/versailles_01.shtml

Websites about ANZAC Day

New Zealand History provides information about the history of the day, the ceremony, and modern ANZAC day: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/anzac-day/introduction
The government’s site for Gallipoli2015 (100 year anniversary) has information on the 2015 commemoration: http://www.gallipoli2015.govt.nz
The government also runs an official site for ANZAC day with lots of good information: http://anzac.govt.nz
The returned Services Association (RSA) has some brief information on ANZAC Day, and is good for finding out about what happens at an ANZAC Day service and where they are happening: http://www.rsa.org.nz/anzac-day-%E2%80%93-25-april
For the Australian perspective, the Australian Army has a page with information: http://www.army.gov.au/Our-history/Traditions/ANZAC-Day and the Australian War Memorial has a site that includes speeches, photographs and historical facts: http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac-day/
Information about the red poppy can be found on the New Zealand History site: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/anzac-day/poppies, the RSA site: http://www.rsa.org.nz/poppy and the British RSL site: http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/how-the-nation-remembers/the-story-of-the-poppy

Websites about New Zealand’s involvement

Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand has a comprehensive section on the war from the New Zealand perspective: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/first-world-war
Similarly, New Zealand History has lots of information about our involvement in the war, including media such has campaign maps: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/nz-goes-to-war
The National Army Museum website has stories about individual New Zealand Soldiers: http://www.armymuseum.co.nz/kiwis-at-war/voices-from-the-past/

Websites with ANZAC Poetry

Australia’s ANZAC day site has a list of poetry with an ANZAC theme: http://www.anzacday.org.au/anzacservices/poetry/poetry01.htm
The Australian War memorial site has 2 poems about the ANZACs: http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/customs/poems/
New Zealand’s ANZAC Day site has an order of ceremony for ANZAC day: http://www.anzac.govt.nz/today/orderofceremony.html

Websites with casualties, wounded, and graves information

FirstWorldWar.com has a list of the dead, wounded and missing from each country involved in the war: http://firstworldwar.com/features/casualties.htm
New Zealand History provide a month-by-month breakdown of New Zealand casualties for the war: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/first-world-war-casualties-month
New Zealand History also have a memorials register: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/memorials
A UK site dedicated the World War One has information about records of the dead and war graves. Also contains links through to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/research/military-records/ww1-war-dead-records.htm#recordsbritishcwealthdead
Commonwealth War Graves Commission has information about burial grounds and memorials: http://www.cwgc.org/
Auckland War Memorial Museum have a online cenotaph register: http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/cenotaph/locations.aspx

Websites with primary sources

DigitalNZ is an online resource for images and other media: http://www.digitalnz.org/ Use their search box to find World War One (or Great War) media.
Papers past is a digital archive of New Zealand Newspapers: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast Search for World War One, Great War, or individual battles and campaigns. You can limit the results by date, region and title of publication.
Christchurch City Libraries has a online digital archive of primary resources: http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/DigitalCollection/WarsandConflicts/WorldWarI/

General World War One sites

BBC: http://www.bbc.com/ww1
BBC Schools page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/
Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/first-world-war
New Zealand History: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/first-world-war
WW100: http://ww100.govt.nz/
Imperial War Museum: http://www.iwm.org.uk/
FirstWorldWar.com: http://www.firstworldwar.com/
Archives New Zealand: http://archives.govt.nz/world-war-one
The British Library: http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one
National Library New Zealand: http://natlib.govt.nz/ww100

You are also welcome to chat live with an online librarian, who will help you with your research and finding online resources. AnyQuestions is a government-funded homework help service for New Zealand School Students. It’s open 1pm – 6pm Monday to Friday. Go to the site, type in your question, and chat to a librarian who will help you with your question and finding online information sources. It’s fun and free!

Back to school – here’s a website to bookmark

admin20 April, 2015

So long holidays, hello school. We hope you enjoyed your April School Holidays (despite the weather) and managed to read heaps of awesome books and do cool stuff. Did you get along to any our the Libraries’ awesome holiday activities?

But now that you’re back to school, you’ll need to know about where to go for homework help. Here’s two great starting places:

AnyQuestions.co.nz and ManyAnswers.co.nz

These two NZ websites are designed to help school students find online information for their school work. AnyQuestions is a live service – which means you chat live with a librarian who will help you find helpful websites with the information you need. AnyQuestions in open Monday – Friday from 1pm to 6pm. All you need to do is visit the website, type in your question, and you’ll be chatting live with a librarian very soon. The librarian will talk to you about your question and the information you need, and then will help you to search for helpful and trustworthy websites.

ManyAnswers is open 24/7 and has lots of great tips about where to find online info for heaps of topics. Use the search box or topic cloud to find advice on how to search for your topic. this is a great place to visit when AnyQuestions is not open for a live chat.

Back to school!

admin2 February, 2015

So long holidays, hello school. We hope you had a great summer holiday and managed to read heaps of awesome books.

But now that you’re back to school, you’ll need to know about where to go for homework help. Here’s some great starting places:

AnyQuestions.co.nz and ManyAnswers.co.nz

These two NZ websites are designed to help school students find online information for their school work. AnyQuestions is a live service – which means you chat live with a librarian who will help you find helpful websites with the information you need. AnyQuestions in open Monday – Friday from 1pm to 6pm.

ManyAnswers is open 24/7 and has lots of great tips about where to find online info for heaps of topics.

Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

In Māori, Te Ara means ‘the pathway’. The Te Ara Encyclopedia will take you on a journey of discovery! Constantly being updated, this site will eventually be a comprehensive guide to New Zealand – its peoples, natural environment, history, culture, economy and society. The site also includes New Zealand’s last official encyclopedia from 1966. It is published here in full, with all the original drawings, maps and photographs — and there are some very neat illustrations!

The following info sources can be found on the Library’s My Gateway page.

Encyclopedia Britannica

This online encyclopedia has more than 73,000 encyclopaedia articles, both short and book-length — and is a great place to start looking for information for all kinds of projects. It also includes a world atlas, thousands of images and videos, an online dictionary and thesaurus and links to helpful websites.

LanguageNut

LanguageNut is a fun way to learn different languages for kids and adults. There are songs, stories and games for each language so you’ll be adding to your vocabulary without really realising it! The non-English languages you can learn include te reo Māori, Indonesian, Mandarin (Pinyin and Hanzi), Italian, Arabic script and many others. There is also an option to learn English if you speak another language.

Back to school!

admin13 October, 2014

The school holidays are over and it’s time to go back to school! We hope you had a great two week break.

Your teacher is bound to start giving you projects and homework to do – and we’re here to help!

Have you heard about AnyQuestions.co.nz? It’s a live online homework help service where you can chat live to a New Zealand Librarian who will help you find the information you need online. It’s a free service and open Monday to Friday 1pm – 6pm. the service is available in English and te Reo.

If you need help outside those times you can go to ManyAnswers.co.nz. This is the sister website for AnyQuestions.co.nz and has information about where to find information online for thousands of homework topics.

Of course you can always visit your local Wellington City Library after school and ask the librarians for help finding information -they’re always happy to help!

Give it a go!

AnyQuestions – live online homework help

admin7 November, 2013

Need help with those pesky school work questions? AnyQuestions is here to help!

It’s a website designed to help NZ school students learn how to find information online. You get to chat live with a friendly librarian who will help you find the answer or information you need and will teach you some cool online searching tips and tricks along the way. It’s free, fun, friendly and helpful.

AnyQuestions is open Monday to Friday 1pm – 6pm. If you need help outside those times you can visit their sister website – ManyAnswers, which has info and good website links about many of the most popular subjects and topics you get in school.

Need information fast?

admin13 June, 2013 2 Comments

AnyQuestions is a great website set up to help New Zealand School Students find the information they need for whatever they need it for.

It’s free, safe and reliable.

Here’s how it works: jump on the website, type in your name and your question or information need, then a NZ librarian will chat to you live and help you find a helpful website. Afterwards you chat will be emailed to you so you will have all the directions and websites in your inbox.

AnyQuestions is open Monday to Friday 1pm – 6pm. If you need help outside those days/times you can visit AnyQuestions‘ sister website ManyAnswers.

ManyAnswers is where lots of websites and information is kept about heaps of topics. Use the search box or word cloud to find your topic.

New Non Fiction: Homework Help, Sweet treats for winter and Boredom Busters!

Katie4 June, 2013

One Day: Around the world in 24 hours.

This is a beautifully illustrated book that gives children an introduction to the idea of time and time zones. This book follows the story of 15 different children around the world and the time zones they live in throughout one day. There are 24 hours in a day, so there are 24 time zones. Discover and learn all about time zones around the world, how they work and what’s happening on one side of the world while the other side sleeps. This book is a great resource for homework help and assignments on time zones around the world.

Transport.

For anyone who wants to study and explore the history of cars, bicycles, scooters, trains and even an oil tanker, this is the book you must read! So hop on board and take an express journey through every vehicle and travel known to man and how each engineering milestone has changed and transformed world history. This book is a great resource for homework help and assignments on the history of transport, vehicles and even a section on the history of the wheel.

A troop of chimpanzees, and other primate groups.

How do chimpanzees use tools? Why do chimpanzees groom each other? What does it mean when one chimpanzee grins at another? Find out all the answers to these questions and more by reading this book on chimpanzees and primates. You will also discover and get to explores the behaviors and daily life of a chimpanzee troop, as well as their habitat, environmental threats, and the advantages of group living. Great for children of Primary and Intermediate school age.

Explorer Tales.

This is a great series to read if you are interested in finding information about famous landmarks and destinations. These are great homework resources to use for projects on world exploration. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay climbing to the Mount Everest, why not have a read of one of the books from the series, Mount Everest. Reread and relive how Hillary and Tenzing being the first men to climb one of the most dangerous places to explore. How about exploring New Worlds? Read all about them in New Worlds, where you will read and learn all about famous first voyages to new and undiscovered lands and famous explorers like Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo and Captain James Cook. In South Pole, readers don’t just learn about this cold and dangerous location. They also learn about the explorers who went to great lengths to discover it! I think you will also like reading all about The Amazon, which is home to many amazing plants, animals (Jaguars that wait ready to pounce and piranha fish fish that strip the flesh off your bones in five minutes – Wow!) and land forms that runs over 6,000 kilometers across South America. You will also read stories about people who have explored and survived in the Amazon.

100 yummy things to cook and eat.

With winter around the corner, why not make some tasty treats and goodies to share with your friends and family, like a good old fashioned apple crumble?, a spicy bean soup or vegetable casserole? You will find the recipes and more in this book. This cook book, published by Usborne has 100 yummy sweet and savory recipes to choose from for some good old comfort food during the cold, blizzardy days and nights. There are also a lot of fantastic baking ideas for school fairs and gifts. I liked the recipes for Oranges and Lemons and Chocolate dipped fruit. I am fan of the recipes for Marzipan toadstools and chocolate nests. This is a book that can be enjoyed by both children, parents and adults.

Look inside a burrow.

This is a great picture book for young children (or for parents and teachers to read to children) about creatures that interact within burrow habitats. You will read and learn about all the different types of burrows. (I must confess I wasn’t aware there was more than one type of burrow.) Lots of amazing pictures of various types of animals that live in burrows, including a photo of a toad flicking its tongue, a close up of ants carrying food back to its nest and an even bigger close up of a centipede’s face!

The Usborne Big Book of Holiday Things to make and do.

School holidays may be a while away, but still now is the time to think ahead of ideas of banishing boredom in the long school holidays. How about reading this book from the Usborne Activities series? You are bound to find ideas for seasonal activities for each holiday, such as reindeer wrapping paper and an Easter egg card, sit alongside things to make and do all year round including a coral necklace, a pirate cutlass and fairy wings. You will find easy to follow step-by-step instructions and photos for each activity. Great book to use for gift ideas .

Got questions? We have the answers!

admin28 May, 2013 1 Comment

Do you have some tough homework, an assignment due in, or just don’t know where to start finding info? You need to know about this website then – anyquestions.co.nz

AnyQuestions is a New Zealand website set up to help NZ school students find online information. It’s a live website that open Monday to Friday from 1pm till 6pm. during those housrs there are librarians waiting to help you find online information to help answer your questions or to help with your school work.

It’s really simple – just state what your information need is, then chat live to a librarian who will help you find what you are looking for online. Not only will you discover reliable and helpful websites together, but the librarian will also give you hints and tips on good internet searching. Cool, right?

Sometimes you’ll need help when AnyQuestions is closed (like late in the evenings, in the mornings or on the weekends). But we’ve got that covered too.

ManyAnswers.co.nz is the sister site to AnyQuestions and contains helpful information, website links and search tips for heaps of topics. We carefully look at all the types of questions and topics we get at AnyQuestions, and write up information about how to find info about really popular topics and common questions over at ManyAnswers.

These two free websites are great for helping you find info for school, or just answering some of life’s tricky questions. Check them out today and impress your teachers and parents with how much you know.

How are marbles made?

admin18 April, 2013

Marbles is such a fun game, but have you ever wondered how they are made? I found this cool video that explains the process.

We have a couple of great books about marbles and how to play. Check these ones out:

New Non Fiction: Skills, Homework Help and Getting Dewey Decimal.

Katie12 April, 2013

New books! Grab them before they all run out the door!

Do you Know Dewey? Exploring the Dewey Decimal System.

This is a fun, informative book about the Dewey decimal system the young reader will enjoy. The ultimate resource that all kids, parents, teachers and librarian must have!

Caring For your Turtle.

Did you know that turtles are cold blooded animals and don’t have teeth? These were facts that you can read about in this new book: Caring for your turtle. A great resource for young children to have that goes through all the basics of how to care for your turtle. You will also learn which turtle breeds make good pets.

First Aid Basics.

A great resource for young children that takes you through all the basics of first aid. Comes complete with color photos and simple text describe first aid for cuts, bee stings, choking, and other medical issues. Also includes note to parents and teachers.

The Quick Expert’s Guide to Building a Website.

Here’s another awesome read from the Quick Expert’s Guides, focusing on how to build a website. Great for ‘tweens’ who are interested in learn how to create your very own, personal, fantastic website from scratch, how to master HTML programming, embed content galore and get the scoop on how to keep your click rates sky-high.

You may also like The Quick Experts Guide to Starting your own business. Also check out last month’s blog post on Skills that every kid should know.

Extraordinary Animals.

Extraordinary Animals looks at some of the most incredible animals on the planet. This is the book to read if you want to read about the ugliest fish alive, poisonous frogs and naked rats. This book is also full of fascinating facts like the hag fish eats its prey from the inside out, the giant salamander is the size of a dog and the bee hummingbird is so small that it is light as a few grains of rice.

I Wonder Why Soap Makes Bubbles.

Why does soap make bubbles? What force stops us from slipping over? Can liquids change shape? You will find all the answers to all these tricky questions in this new and exciting read! This book is full of colorful and surprising information that will set thousands of young minds buzzing full of information that gives children a perfect introduction to science, featuring rainbows, fizzy drinks, musical instruments and much, much more.

For more help on big questions and amazing answers, check out Any Questions and Many Answers.

Meta