Posts on “ BrainPOP Jr. ”

Chris Carter’s saga with BrainPOP ESL in Germany continues with week 6… Day Twenty Five What a day!  This morning started out with surprise treats brought in from one of my student’s parents to celebrate a birthday. Everyone filled their bellies with chocolate and other sweets, resulting in 20 kids on a serious sugar high at 9:00 in the morning. How did BrainPOP Jr. fit into today’s routine?  Well, it provided me with about 15 minutes of calm in the classroom.  This turned out to be just enough time for me to recompose and change my plans to better fit their manic energy. Day Twenty Six The sugar high seems to have continued, as my students were just as boisterous and giggly as yesterday.   Again, BrainPOP Jr. gave me a period of calm while the learning continued.  Of course I don’t want to use video, even interactive video, to sedate my students but I also don’t want to understate the peaceful beauty of a quiet and fully focused class.  I’m glad Moby had my back. Day Twenty Seven Ah, finally a semi-normal day.  We were on a roll, so decided to stick with BrainPOP Jr. again this morning.  This time… Read the Rest»

Before the school year comes to a close, check out new and exciting content on BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr. & BrainPOP ESL! The Latest on BrainPOP: ♦ Queen Elizabeth II ♦ Bicycle Saftey The Latest on BrainPOP Jr.: ♦ Helen Keller ♦ Long A ♦ Multiplying by 0 or 1 ♦ Percussion Instruments ♦ Verbs New on BrainPOP ESL: Level 2, Unit 5 is now live on BrainPOP ESL! The five new lessons cover comparative adjectives and adverbs; superlatives; adjectives that end in -ed and -ing; word order; and prepositions of time.

Keep this list of BrainPOP movies handy, and check the BrainPOP Educators online Curriculum Calendar for additional tie-ins. ♦ May 1: The Empire State Building opened its doors on this date in 1931. Get the “stories” (all 102 of them!) on this NYC icon with our Skyscrapers movie. ♦ May 3: Just breathe … On World Asthma Day, show our BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. movies on Asthma, along with Peak Flow Meter (BrainPOP). ♦ May 5: Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with our Latin Music (BrainPOP) and Mexico (K-3) movies. ♦ May 7: On Astronomy Day, look to the stars with topics including Galaxies, Milky Way, Solar System (BrainPOP) and, for K-3, Sun and Moon. ♦ May 8: On the anniversary of VE Day, explain its significance with our World War II movie. ♦ May 11: Physicist Richard Feyman had a big impact on a very “small” field. On his birthday, show our Nanotechnology movie. ♦ May 15: What moves Mickey Mouse? On the anniversary of his 1928 debut, talk about Traditional Animation. ♦ May 17: Children’s author Eloise Greenfield celebrates a birthday today. ♦ May 19: Our Malcolm X movie profiles the influential civil rights leader on his birthday. ♦ May… Read the Rest»

Chris Carter’s  saga with BrainPOP ESL in Germany continues with week 5… Day Twenty There’s a bug going around the school, maybe all of Berlin! I was sick on Monday, so we will return to BrainPOP ESL tomorrow. Day Twenty One We are back in action with BrainPOP ESL, we are at Level 1, 3.4 Any Cookies?. The Warm Up! activity was more difficult than the You Can Do It! activity.  The Play It! game was a challenge too.  Not only did it require more reading, but it involved more critical thinking, which I like.  I read the questions out loud and the students tried to choose the correct answer.  I’ve noticed that the activities are repeated at different levels, so the next time we do these, they should be easier. Day Twenty Two We watched the Thanksgiving movie on BrainPOP Jr.  This movie was easier to follow than the Rainforests movie we watched last week.  We played the game afterwards.  It was called Moby’s Match.  It’s a memory game that reviewed Thanksgiving words from the movie.  Everyone could play because Annie read the words aloud when the students clicked on them.  We had to play twice so that everyone… Read the Rest»

You know what sounds pretty good right now? Our Spotlight: Music, with topics from Blues, Jazz and Latin Music to Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, and Mozart. K-3 topics include Pitch, Tone, and Beat; Musical Alphabet; and Musical Instruments. Work these movies into one of three great lesson plan ideas from BrainPOP Educators.

We were thrilled to hear from one of our dynamic BrainPOP educators, Karyn Keenan. She shared with us her summer funding project to bring BrainPOP Jr. into her classroom, and how she uses it to increase student engagement and energize her lessons. Karyn is in her third year of teaching and is currently pursuing her certificate to teach English Language Learners. Each day her students’ excitement about learning inspires her to provide them with an enriching educational environment. This summer, I decided to work on getting a subscription to Brain Pop Jr. through Donors Choose.  Within twenty days my project was funded and we were looking at starting the school year with Brain POP Jr. My students quickly learned that the catchy BrainPOP Jr. theme song meant Annie and Moby would be teaching them something new and making them laugh. The first thing I do when using BrainPOP Jr. for a lesson, is for us to watch the movie. We watch the movie through one time to get started. Then, we watch it a second time, stopping the movie on the blinking pause sign and answering the questions that come up on Annie’s notebook. Sometimes, I will have students write their answers… Read the Rest»

The Latest on BrainPOP: ♦ Elapsed Time ♦ Fungi ♦ Hip-Hop and Rap ♦ Sally Ride The Latest on BrainPOP Jr.: ♦ Gravity ♦ Homonyms ♦ Colds and Flu How do you plan on introducing new BrainPOP content into your learning environment? Post a comment below.

Kassie Jackson is a 1st grade teacher for the Great Falls School District in Great Falls, MT. She recently received her masters in technology and is passionate about engaging her students with technology. She shares her experience of leveraging a local grant opportunity to enrich her students’ lives with BrainPOP Jr. I am so excited to bring technology into the schools and into my classroom. I believe that technology is the key to engaging students these days. Most of my students in my school come from low income families and don’t have computers at home. I think it’s important for my students to use technology every day. Every lesson I teach, I try to incorporate technology with my interactive white board. I recently came across BrainPop Jr. when I was looking for an introduction video for place value. During the video, I noticed all my students were engaged and loved it!  I instantly wanted my students to have access to BrainPop Jr., as it is a great resource for the classroom.  Although there are many free resources available through BrainPOP, I needed additional funds to obtain the full subscription. I came across a grant opportunity with our local TV station… Read the Rest»

Karyn Keenan is a recent recipient of a donorschoose grant. She teaches 2nd grade in Chicago, and she’s chock full of great ideas! Thanks, Karyn. This summer I decided to work on getting a subscription to Brain Pop, Jr. through Donors Choose.  Within twenty days my project was funded and we were looking at starting the school year with BrainPOP Jr. My students quickly learned that the catchy BrainPOP Jr. theme song meant Annie and Moby would be teaching them something new and making them laugh. The first thing I do when using BrainPOP Jr. for a lesson is for us to watch the movie. We watch the movie through one time just for watching. Then we watch it a second time, stopping the movie on the blinking pause sign and answering the questions that come up on Annie’s notebook. Sometimes I will have students write their answers to these questions on an exit slip. Other times I will pick a squirmy member of class to be in charge of pushing the pause button on our SMART board. Whenever we watch a movie I use the closed captioning feature. Closed captioning and viewing the movie twice helps my students, especially… Read the Rest»

Have you checked out BrainPOP Jr. today? We’ve made a few ch-ch-ch-changes that help improve usability. Most notably, we increased the size of our movie-playing window on the topic page, so it hooks in students and captures their attention immediately. Users can now play the movie right in the topic page with closed captioning on! Want to see it bigger? Select the “Movie Size” button for your choice of small, medium, or full screen. In the full screen mode, the movie will take over your entire screen–perfect for sharing with the whole class! Just click on “Esc” or click on the “Movie Size” button to exit the full screen mode. The medium screen mode is particularly helpful for interactive whiteboard users–you can have your tools or flipcharts open and play the movie at the same time. Of course, closed captioning is available on all modes. Please note where we put the Lesson Ideas button, right at the bottom. That’s where you can access each topic’s background information and suggested activities for the classroom or for home. And of course, you still have the same access to all of BrainPOP Jr.’s leveled quizzes, activities, graphic organizers, writing prompts, and other engaging… Read the Rest»