What's New for Back to School 2026

There's a reason teachers describe BrainPOP as the fastest way to get an entire class on the same page. Set the same foundation for every student, with a common starting point. A BrainPOP movie before the discussion, before the reading, before the deep dives—and suddenly everyone's working with the same vocabulary and background knowledge. Regardless of reading level or what they walked in with.

This year's updates build on that. Each one is designed to extend what the movie opens—helping students process what they learned, practice with more support, and participate more fully in what comes next.

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Table of Contents:

• New movies, every month

• See It All in Action

• Unplugged Activities

• AI Literacy Collection

• Hints and Rationale

• Live Mode

• Bookmarks

New Movies, Every Month

BrainPOP adds new topics every month—expanding the library of topics teachers can use to build background knowledge, introduce new concepts, and create shared understanding across every subject.

The movie is where everything starts. It takes a concept that might feel too abstract, too dense, or too far outside a student's frame of reference—and makes it make sense. Through story, pacing, humor, and characters who speak to students rather than at them, a BrainPOP movie creates the foundation that makes everything else in the lesson possible.

See It All in Action

Get a walkthrough from Deb Rayow, Vice President of Learning and Content Strategy at BrainPOP, in this recording of a recent sneak preview event for our educator community.

Watch the recording

Unplugged Activities

Unplugged Activities are low-prep, offline learning experiences that turn a BrainPOP movie into discussion, collaboration, and interactive thinking—no devices required. Use them to introduce the topic before the movie, or deepen understanding after the movie.

Some of the strongest comprehension moments happen when students have to explain something in their own words, work through a problem with a partner, or debate a question at their table. Unplugged Activities are designed to create those moments—giving students a way to actively think about the movie's concepts and apply what they've learned.

For example, before the movie, ask students to predict the meaning of the word "pharaoh" by drawing a home for a powerful leader. This piques their curiosity—then during the movie, they'll pay extra special attention when pharaohs are introduced!

What students get:

• A chance to consolidate understanding through talking, listening, and doing

• Collaboration and movement that deepens retention

• Practice the communication skills that transfer across every subject

What teachers get:

• A ready-made bridge from the movie to a deeper classroom conversation

• Offline extensions that don't require extra materials or planning time

• A concrete answer to screen time concerns that doesn't sacrifice instructional quality

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AI Literacy Collection

BrainPOP's AI Literacy Collection are short AI spotlight movies with Pause Points—developed in partnership with Digital Promise—that teach students how AI actually works, where it goes wrong, and how to think critically about it.

The collection covers eight topics, each mapped to real questions students and teachers face:

AI and Plagiarism Is it cheating to use AI for schoolwork?	AI and Misinformation Can I trust the information AI gives me?
AI and Chatbots Is it okay to treat AI like it's a friend?	AI and Bias Why are AI outputs sometimes unfair?
AI and Personal Data How does AI use our personal information?	AI and Ethics How can we use AI responsibly?
AI and the Environment Why does AI use so much water and electricity?	AI and Probability How does AI use math to respond to questions?

These aren't standalone lessons that require a new course or a technology background to teach. Each movie lives on an existing BrainPOP topic page, connected to the subjects teachers are already teaching—like ELA, science, social studies, or math. In other words, it’s AI literacy embedded in instruction, not tacked on.

What students get:

• The vocabulary and context to understand AI before they're asked to use it or evaluate it

• A digestible, simple  way into the hard questions about ethics, privacy, and bias through story

• The critical thinking habits that transfer from questioning AI to questioning anything

What teachers get:

• A way to teach AI literacy without being a technology expert

• Entry points into conversations that students are already having

• Coverage that maps to the AI literacy standards and state requirements coming to your district

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Hints and Rationales

Hints and Rationales are built-in supports that appear inside BrainPOP quizzes—helping students work through a question when they're stuck and understand why an answer is correct.

One of the most common challenges in independent practice isn't getting students to answer questions.

It's helping them understand the reasoning behind the right answer—especially when a teacher isn't right there to explain it.

Hints give students a nudge in the right direction without giving the answer away.

Rationales (or, as we show to students, Explanations) show the reasoning behind a correct response, so students walk away understanding the concept, not just the answer.

What students get:

• A way through a roadblock that doesn't involve guessing or giving up

• The reasoning behind correct answers, not just the answer itself

• More confidence during independent practice

What teachers get:

• Less re-teaching after students practice independently

• A clearer sense of where understanding actually breaks down

• More productive practice time without more prep

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Live Mode

Live Mode is an interactive quiz experience that lets teachers lead the whole class through BrainPOP questions together, in real time.

Teachers already know what it feels like when the whole class is in it together—answering the same question at the same time, finding out instantly whether they got it right, the room coming alive around a correct answer or a surprising misconception. Live Mode brings that same energy directly into BrainPOP, right after the movie ends, when students are ready to show what they know.

The questions are built from the movie content, so Live Mode isn't a separate assessment layer teachers have to build. It's already there, already connected to what students just watched, ready to run.

What students get:

• A high-energy, low-stakes way to show what they learned from the movie

• A reason to participate, even if they're not usually the first to raise a hand

• Learning that feels shared rather than individual

What teachers get:

• Real-time visibility into where the class is before moving on

• A fast way to check understanding without grading anything afterward

• A natural transition from the movie into discussion, with the class already warmed up and engaged

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Bookmarks

Bookmarks let teachers save any BrainPOP topic, unit, or activity to a teacher dashboard—so the content they return to most is always one click away.

Teachers build their BrainPOP practice over time. A movie that's perfect for introducing a tricky concept; an activity that works for a specific group of learners; a unit that anchors an entire month. Bookmarks make it easier to hold onto those resources without having to find them again from scratch every time.

What teachers get:

• A personal library of what works for their students

• Less time navigating and more time teaching

• An easier way to build repeatable routines around content they trust

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Why This Matters

BrainPOP has always been the part of the lesson that makes the rest of it easier. The movie that gets every student to the same place before instruction begins. The activity that turns what they watched into something they can actually use. The quiz that tells you where understanding broke down before you find out the hard way.

This year's updates make that even more true—with more ways for students to practice and still get the support they need, more ways for teachers to see what's landing in real time, and more ways to take the curiosity sparked by one five-minute movie and the millions of aha moments that follow. 

Michelle Strom is Associate Director, Product Marketing at BrainPOP. She holds a Master’s in Educational Psychology and is committed to keeping learners at the center of how products are built, marketed, and understood. She is a fan of procedural crime dramas and carrot cake. Her favorite BrainPOP character is Nat.