POPtalk

Eyes skyward for some cloud spotting with Tim & Moby! Spotlight on Sky Spirits.

Topics included in the Spotlight on Sky Spirits:

• Autumn Leaves
• Clouds
• Humidity
• Hurricanes
• Rainbows
• Seasons
• Snowflakes
• Sun
• Thunderstorms
• Tornadoes
• Water Cycle
• Weather
• Wind

We’ve come up with some weather-related activities you can try with your pupils and, as it’s getting warmer, most of them involve getting outside! Fresh air = good for the Brain.

1. Me and my shadow (7-11 year olds)This is a fun activity to do on a dry day. What your students will need:

• bright chalk
• playground/pavement/path/patio
• a sunny day (come on sunshine!)

What to do:

Make sure you have permission from an adult for this activity.

Working in pairs, head outside in the morning (it’s best to start at around 9am) and stand in a sunny spot where there are no shadows. Have your partner trace around your shadow on the ground with the coloured chalk.

1 hour later, return to exactly the same spot and have your partner trace around your shadow again. Repeat the activity, hourly, as the day progresses.

At the end of the day, see if you can answer these questions:

1. What happens to your shadow outline?
2. What happened to your shadow in the middle of the day?
3. Does it look anything like Moby’s?

2. Cloud spotting with Tim & Moby (11-13 year olds)

This works better on a sunny/cloudy day (rain will not do!)

What to do:

Download our Cloud_Spotting_worksheet and pick a week, from Monday to Friday, to do the activity.

Look out of the window at any time of day for some cloud spotting. When you look out, see if you can spot any interesting shaped clouds.

Make a picture of what you see! Use coloured pencils or pens, paints, or even tissue paper and cotton wool.

See if you can name the types of cloud you spot and, after the week is up, try to answer these questions:

1. What type of cloud did you spot the most? What does this say about how the temperature affects moisture in the air?
2. Did you find the weather was too wet or too clear for clouds? What does this mean?
3. Did you happen to see a cloud shaped like Moby? (If you answer yes, luck you!)

3. Capturing sky spirits (7-14 year olds)

Have you got a camera handy?

We’d love it if your students could take photos of interesting skies; fluffy sheep-like clouds, strange shaped clouds (there must be a Moby in the clouds somewhere!) or, how about some lovely snaps of birds flying?

Maybe you’re a dab hand at nature photography? Now is the time to show off your skills!

Email your best sky spirits photos to info@brainpop.co.uk with “capturing sky spirits” in the subject line.

If we get enough submissions, we promise to do something fun with them!

4. Google weather snapshot! (11-14 year olds)

We’d love it if BrainPOPpers could help us create a weather snapshot. We’ll be doing this one too.

Wherever you are in the country on 23rd April at 11am, make a note of what the weather’s up to by answering these questions:

1. What direction is the wind blowing?
2. If you have a thermometer, what’s the temperature?
3. Is it sunny, rainy or cloudy?

E.g. Today in Summertown, Oxford the wind is blowing south-easterly (blowing from the south east). It is about 9 degrees celcius and cloudy.

Email your first name, location* and answers to info@brainpop.co.uk with “weather snapshot” in the subject line.

We’ll post the weather snapshot here when it’s done.

*We will not use this information for any other purpose. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information.

We’ve thought long and hard about how we can make being a BrainPOP UK subscriber even more beneficial than it already is. On that note (drum roll please) we’d like to introduce you to a brand new feature: Spotlights.

Being part of BrainPOP UK  should be rewarding, providing a sprinkle of inspiration each time you log in. So a subscriber-only space where we bring together movies, additional content, and fun stuff all in one place seemed to be just the ticket.

The main aim being? To create a place of inspiration for teachers and students alike and ensure you get the most from being part of BrainPOP UK.

Hence, Spotlights. We’re unveiling them this week. But, what are they?

Spotlights bring together hand-picked movies relating to a central theme. They also provide additional content in the shape of fun experiments, info sheets, lesson plans, links to handy Spotlight-related websites and POP Spot; a special Spotlights area of POPtalk.

We’ve come up with a different Spotlight for each month of the year so hopefully you’ll find something useful for lessons.

To help you plan, here’s what’s coming up:

Spotlight on…stupendous structures and oustanding construction. Gravity, compression and tension at work.

Spotlight on…wet, windy and wonderful weather. Eyes skywards for some cloud spotting with Tim & Moby.

Spotlight on…your world. Up for a rescue mission? Taking responsibility to reboot, reuse and recycle.

Spotlight on…growing up. Can you blame it all on the hormones? Yes you can! Tim & Moby help with a few growing pains.

Spotlight on…the human body. It’s an amazing machine. Learn how it works, and how to look after it properly, with Tim & Moby.

Spotlight on…a galaxy far far away. Tim & Moby journey into Space, avoiding the Death Star, to investigate planets, stars, galaxies and more.

We’ve made our first Spotlight accessible to all to start with so that everyone gets the chance to try Super Structures on for size.

Your feedback is like gold dust to us so let us know what you think – any suggestions welcome!

We’re doing much nail biting in anticipation (eugh!)