Brain Pop that is! Brain Pop Jr. is hands down my favorite website to use for science! If you don't know about Brain Pop it is a website that does require a membership (often bought by schools) but you can get some videos for free. You can try out the free trial and see if you think the membership is worth it too.
It includes super fun engaging videos that feature science in a kid friendly way. Moby and Annie the characters of the videos are great with vocabulary and explaining science! There are pauses where Annie asks questions like good scientist do and so you can explain further. There is also follow up activities at the end of the video such as games, word walls, and mini quizzes. I always do the mini quizzes online because it's a great way to assess whole group and my students love to do them!
If you haven't been there try it out! Brain Pop Jr. is for K-3 and Brain Pop is for 3-6!
Extra special thank you to Tara from at 4th Grade Frolics who awarded me with the I heart your blog award! I will post soon all the wonderful blogs I heart! I feel so honored to have received awards for my blog! Thank you Tara and all my followers!
Hi Jess, thanks for sharing about using the quizzes on BrainPOP. They are a great pre-assessment activity, and it's useful to know your students' background information about a topic before getting deeper into it. Do you do the quiz as a whole class activity? Do you use the interactive white board? Would love to hear more. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteAndrew,
ReplyDeleteI do the quiz whole group with my class but there is an option to print and do a pencil paper quiz if you wanted to or log each student on to take the quiz. I have used the interactive white board with brain pop jr. and it is amazing...it's so much easier to use while teaching. I currently just use a presentation computer with a projection screen. It works pretty well but I have to stand next to the computer and can't walk around. It's a good thing my students are so engaged in the video! Thanks for commenting! If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask!
Jess