BrainPOP Jr. – Lesson Plans for K-3 Teachers
A friend of mine recently sent me a link to BrainPop Junior. There is also BrainPop and BrainPop Espanol. After spending a little bit of time on the website I am REALLY EXCITED ABOUT IT. Subscriptions are going to run $115-255 per year, depending on the plan you choose, but right now you can register for a FREE 5-day free trial.
I spent the most time on the BrainPop Junior website before rushing to my blog to make this post to make sure none of you missed out on the opportunity for this free trial. But, from what I can see, all of the sites follow the same basic format and offerings—they are just geared towards different ages or are in Spanish.
According to the website:
BrainPOP Jr. provides educational movies and homework help for K-3 students. Each animated movie has quizzes, games, vocabulary, and activities for kids. BrainPOP Jr. is a great resource for teachers and homeschools, offering lesson plans and lesson ideas that develop critical thinking and inquiry skills.
The available subjects are: Science, Writing, Social Studies, Health, Reading & Math
Within each subject you can:
- Watch an animated movie on a topic related to the subject
- Color & cut out an activity (you print worksheet which can be used in notebooking or lapbooking or left as a worksheet)
- Learn a joke (this is just fun for kids, especially young kids and while its not exactly educational, it is fun)
- Read a Cartoon from “Belly Up” section (again, this is just a fun feature and not educational—unless they are learning to read)
- Learn new vocabularly words. This is both an interactive web experience and a print out that you can then use for notebooking or lapbooking.
- Draw about it. Using a mouse and the web software you can draw a picture online and then print it out. You are prompted to draw a picture pertaining to the lesson.
- Write about it. You are prompted to “write” about something online pertaining to the subject, and then you can print it out.
- Read about it showcases 3 suggested books to check-out from the library. Just the covers and title and author name are shown.
- Talk about it. A question is posed that students should talk about with their parent or teacher to make sure they understand the concept that was reviewed or taught.
- Play a learning Game. The one I saw had to do with Math and you did part of it online and then printed it out to complete.
- Take a hard or easy quiz online or on paper that reviews the material again.
Other parts of the website include:
Lesson Ideas
Bulletin board that showcases the artwork and writings of kids
The real draw to the website is of course the animated movies. You cannot find those on the web anywhere for free and they are engaging and educational for kids.
Check it out and let me know what you or your kids think.
