Well, the weather left so much to be desired, what else were we to do but camp out at BrainPOP HQ and come up with great new resources and features to delight subscribers this Autumn term? They sure are tasty delights, even if we do say so ourselves.

Go on, take a back to school bite!

NEW! Graphic Organisers

Story Mountain Graphic Organiser

A whole library of resources for you to take advantage of. We hope you can use these printable worksheets in all kinds of lessons, whether you use BrainPOP for the lesson or not.

NEW! Back to School Topic

Back to School Topic

In this movie, Tim and Moby give some sound advice on how to start the new school year in style. You’ll begin by learning how to stay safe on your way to school, and then get some tips at what to do at break time, how to behave in class, and why you should be nice to your teachers! You’ll also see how to set up a good place to do your homework after school and why staying up late is totally over-rated.

“A Back to School topic’s all well and good” we hear you cry, “but what about Scotland? It’s like we’ve been back for months already!”

And to you we say – dinna get crabbit! We’ve been adding new movies every week all through the summer break so you’ve a veritable feast to, erm, feast your eyes and ears on. See the latest additions here: New Movies.

NEW! Improved Keyword Search

1. Explore and discover new topics and resources – they are all searchable
2. Predictive search allows means you don’t have to be a spelling whiz – if spelling isn’t your strong point, have a play with the search
3. The search doesn’t only return topics and spotlights – you can now search across the whole site

BrainPOP Buzz

We’ve been meaning to do this for ages but it’s only recently we had a minute to get it sorted. We’ve always had teacher testimonials on our homepage which we love and we recognise are incredibly valuable little gems from some of our most admired BrainPOP teaching crew. But do you know who the other important BrainPOP users are?

Kids and parents of course!

So, what do they think of it all? See for yourself:

• Kids’ Talk
• Parents’ Talk

We’ll still be answering the phones if you have any questions and Tim & Moby will still be answering your questions all summer long.

1. Send Tim & Moby home to Mums and Dads.

BrainPOP is a great tool for encouraging parental engagement. If you have a 24/7 school subscription we’ve provided a letter template for you to alter as you see fit and send home with the kids at the end of term.

Simply download the template, alter as you see fit, send home with your pupils, and the learning can go on all summer.

Download the letter template

2. Get a BrainPOP hit every day with our Daily Featured Movie.

As well as featuring a different movie for free on the homepage every day, the same movie features on our free featured movie App and our POPbox.

You can download our free App from the iTunes store to access our featured movie on your iPhone, iPad or iTouch.

Or, if you fancy seeing our featured movie on your own website or blog every day,  request a POPbox .

3. Have no fear, Tim & Moby will be here

You might have a fresh set of eager minds to engage and inspire in the new school term and we’re sure you’re already thinking of ways to tackle the post-summer gloom (or, back to school over-excitement!) with gusto. Let Tim & Moby help your students get back in their learning stride.

Use Deep Beep, our curriculum matching tool, to see if there are topics mapped to the curriculum you’ll be following in the new term.

And remember that we add new topics to the site every week – and we’ll keep it up all summer long! We’re certain there’ll be a few new bright gems to capture your own bright gems’ attention: What’s new?

One final point…remember to stay safe in the sun and don’t let an orange robot anywhere near your suntan lotion. You have been warned.

In History alone this year we’ve added Maya Civilisation, Aztec Civilisation, Inca Civilisation, Sumerians and Homer to name just a few! And they all slot nicely into our four main History categories:

• Ancient – the history of major civilisations
• Evidence – sources from the past
• Famous People – inspirational people that changed the world forever
• Modern – find out about UK, European and World History

But, for the History fan, what’s coming up in the next few months?

Feudalism

Feudalism – If you like knights in shining armour, kings, queens, lords, ladies (and plagues) you’ll love this topic! Discover how the Roman Empire broke apart into small, independent kingdoms, and how rulers kept their territories strong by giving land to loyal supporters. Learn about the privileges granted to rich medieval lords, as well as the hardships faced by poor serfs, who performed backbreaking labor for very little reward. Finally, find out what happened to end the feudal system, and how Europe took its first tentative steps toward modernity.

About 90% of the medieval population was completely uneducated – it’s amazing how a few hundred years can change things isn’t it?

Middle Ages

Middle Ages – Life in Europe was pretty tough after the Roman Empire fell. Trade and commerce collapsed, travel was dangerous, and the educational system was so poor that kings couldn’t even write their own names! Nevertheless, the Middle Ages saw the rise of great military and political leaders, as well as amazing artistic, poetic, and architectural achievements. In this forthcoming movie you’ll hear about Charlemagne and William the Conqueror, learn about the feudal system, and find out why tens of thousands of men fought in the Crusades.

So put on your armour, mount your trusty steed, and joust along with this movie!

Black Death

The Black Death – Tim and Moby take you back to 1347 and introduce you to the horrible pandemic that was the Black Death. Discover how many people died and why people may have been so susceptible to it. You’ll also learn about some of the consequences of the resulting mass death, including how the Black Plague contributed to the social changes of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.

Thank goodness for modern medicine!

Vikings

Vikings - These vicious raiders from the frozen North would attack without warning, loot monasteries and villages, and slaughter anyone who got in their way but if you thought that Viking life was all about violence and plunder, think again. In this forthcoming movie, Tim and Moby explain that these Scandinavian warriors were actually quite civilised, with an advanced legal code, brilliantly-engineered ships, and an unusual respect for women’s rights.

And did you know Vikings arrived in North America more than 500 years before Columbus? Pretty cool!

British Empire

British Empire - Why do more than 1 billion people around the world speak English, drive on the left side of the road, and understand the rules of cricket? Tim and Moby answer that question as they embark on a 400-year adventure through the history of the British Empire.

Now, grab a cup of tea, stiffen that upper lip, sit back and enjoy! Rule Britannia!

Keep an eye on our New Movies page to find out the latest additions to the site.

Back to Ancient Civilisations…

It simply does one thing very well: it shows you the latest movies to the site. But we think it can do a little more so we’re having a look at how it can be improved (suggestions below please if you have them!).

In the meantime, you may not have noticed but we upload at least two fresh topics every Monday (we call it “New Movie Monday”. Yes, we know that’s not exactly the height of originality but at least you know what you’re getting). If you’re so inclined follow @brainpop_uk on Twitter as we often tweet when the new movies are live.

These are movies brand new to BrainPOP UK and come from all the areas of the curriculum. They are each fully fledged topics and come with the wonderful POPquizzes and FYIs you know and love.

So banish those Monday blues and check in with the new movies page. You never know what awesome stuff you can learn to kick start the week.

More tea, your Majesty?

In our latest UK specific movie, Tim and Moby describe the many intricacies of being The Queen.

You’ll discover what it means to be Head of State; the difference between queen and government; how many countries are in the Commonwealth; and the conflicting views of the Republicans versus the Monarchists. You’ll also learn why the Queen visits all those overseas countries; why she frequently hosts garden parties; and how she honours those who have been of service to the country. And, just how long has she been in the job?

We’ve made it our featured movie this week, so grab yourself a cuppa and sit down for an audience with The Queen.

We’re extremely proud to announce these movies (and their accompanying quizzes, don’t forget) will be added to BrainPOP UK for all free trials and subscribers.

No extra cost. No hidden charges. No funny business.

They span all the subjects in BrainPOP UK, both Primary and Secondary, and will automatically appear over the next 8 weeks, in batches, with new Maths and English movies already up. The list below is simply alphabetical, but in BrainPOP UK they will be categorised and tagged to curricula.

Example of some of our new English movies

If you dearly need one of these movies for a lesson and you can’t find it in BrainPOP UK (yet) then contact us and we’ll see if we can expedite it specially.

• Active Transport
• Adding and Subtracting Integers Advanced
• Adding and Subtracting Fractions Advanced
• Agatha Christie
• Aids
• Algae
• Allergies
• Anthrax
• Antonyms, Synonyms, and Homonyms
• Ants
• Appendix
• Arachnids
• Asexual Reproduction
• Associative Property (Order of Calculations)
• Asthma
• Atmosphere
• Autism
• Autumn Leaves
• Aztec Civilisation
• Balance
• Blood Pressure
• Body Chemistry
• Bonfire Night
• Bogies
• Braces
• Brain
• Brass Instruments
• Calculus
• Capitalization
• Carbon Cycle
• Carnivorous Plants
• Cats
• Cells
• Cellular respiration
• Choosing US presidential candidates
• Classification
• Clauses
• Cnidarians
• Cold War
• Compounds and Mixtures
• Computer Mouse
• Conditioning
• Conjunctions
• Conquistadors
• Decimals
• Diagramming Sentences
• Dictionary And Thesaurus
• Diffusion
• Distance, Speed, and Time
• Distributive Property
• Division
• Ecosystems
• Electric Circuits
• Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Emergency 999
• Equations with Variables
• Etymology
• Exoplanets
• Factoring
• Fall of the Roman Empire
• Fax Machine
• Foetal development
• Food Safety
• Fossils
• Frankenstein
• Frida Kahlo
• Galaxies
• Geologic Time
• Geometry
• Gills
• Graphs
• Ground Water
• Growth
• Homer
• Hormones
• Humans and The Environment
• Idioms and Cliches
• Imagination
• Immune System
• Improving Sentences
• Inca Civilisation
• Isotopes
• Joints
• Latitude and Longitude
• leap Year
• Lord of the Flies
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Maths Problems
• Maya Civilisation
• Measuring matter
• Metals
• Metamorphosis
• Migration
• Mineral Identification
• Monotremes
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Multiplication
• Multiplying and Dividing Fractions
• Nanotechnology
• Natural Disasters
• Nervous System
• Nutrition
• Organic Food
• Outer Solar System
• Passive Transport
• Petrol and oil
• Pirates
• Poetry
• Polyhedrons
• Power
• Prime Numbers
• Printers
• Property Changes
• Protists
• Protozoa
• Punctuation
• Queen Elizabeth 1
• Radioactivity
• Reading Skills
• Referencing Sources
• Respiratory System
• Rise of the Roman Empire
• Roald Dahl
• Roman Numerals
• Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes
• Rounding
• Scientific Method
• Seeding Plants
• Sentence Fragments
• September 11th
• Seven Wonders
• Six Kingdoms
• Skeleton
• Slope and Intercept
• Soil
• Solar Energy
• Stock and Shares
• Sumerians
• Sun Protection
• Symbiosis
• Terrorism
• The Order of Calculations
• The Troubles
• The Writing Process
• They’re, Their and There
• Time Zones
• Transformation
• Tsunami
• Types of Triangles
• Urinary System
• Using Proportions
• Volume of Cylinders
• Volume of Prisms
• Waste Management
• World War I
• World War II
• World War II Causes
• Writing In Sequence

PS: You can find a huge comprehensive list of all our movies that are live on our site on our “Movies list” page.

Welcome back to school, all our fellow BrainPOPpers and POPettes, old and new.

We hope your summer break was a proper break. We know the sun only made a few appearances but when it did we hope you got out there and enjoyed it.

You might have read about some of the stuff that’s coming up from BrainPOP UK this Autumn term? Well, it’s time to draw back the curtains and announce some of them in more detail.

1. Our new Curriculum browse tool. We’re going back to the drawing board with this one. It will allow all our users to quickly and efficiently find and view a BrainPOP UK movie by a number of different curricula. And it will even be exportable as a Flash widget to plug into a webpage.
2. POPboxes – we’re very excited about these. Soon you will be able to pick a favourite BrainPOP UK movie and embed it into your very own VLEs and Blog pages. There will be different flavours available depending on whether you have subscribed to BrainPOP UK or not. The official announcement on how to get one is coming soon.
3. POP Press! - Our new termly email newsletter  – keep up to date with all things BrainPOP UK as the year progresses.
4. Complete tagging for the new Curriulum for Excellence for Scotland - every single one of our movies, old and new, will very soon be browsable by this curriculum AND the old 5-14 curriculum. We’ll be at the Scottish Learning Festival and the Teachmeet if anyone wants to chat about it.
5. We love BrainPOP UK…stuff. BrainPOP UK Tshirts, Moby and Tim cut out masks, Moby badges, BrainPOP UK posters, stickers…there’s going to be lots of fun resources to use as creatively as you like in your class or win in competitions. All we’re interested in is hearing about how you used them.
6. New and exclusive UK only movies on UK specific subjects - we’re keeping these hush-hush for now but we will be announcing them when we’re ready.
7. We’ll be on the look out for BrainPOP UK schools to do case studies, provide testimonials, write blog posts and help us test new technology in the classroom. If this is something you want to do you know how to contact us.
8. More fun on our Facebook group, our Twitter feed, our Youtube channel.
9. 160+ new movies are coming! Quick! Get your lesson plans ready, ladies and gentlemen, because you are soon going to be treated to movies such as:

• Rise of the Roman Empire
• Isotopes
• Galaxies
• Ants
• Graphs
• Adding and subtracting integers
• The computer mouse
• The Cold War
• Punctuation
• Sun protection
• Roald Dahl
• The Lord of the Flies
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Did I say there’s going to be a movie on Bogies? I didn’t? Well, there is.
• And Pirates! Garr!

We’ll be blogging the full list at a later date so keep an eye out.

So there’s lots of BrainPOPpy awesomeness coming your way. We are bursting with ideas on how to help you use technology to engage your students.

Work with us to make the ideas go from theory to classroom practice. And have enormous fun along the way.

They all star in movies coming soon to BrainPOP UK this year.

BrainPOP UK currently has 100′s of Tim and Moby movies spanning the curriculum for Key stages 2 and 3. In fact, you can see the whole list here.

There are 100′s more on their way (the most recent were Extinction and Fish – you will need to subscribe or take out a free trial to see them). Soon enough we will be delivering extension and supporting material to complement the movies. We are also able to react quickly to world events such as the recent Swine Flu outbreak.

Any website worth its salt has to remain vital. By definition we cannot solve every classroom resource need (and we don’t want to, that would be a Sisyphean ordeal). On the other hand, we do aim to make BrainPOP UK as close to an “everyday application” as possible for educators.

An everyday app is something that, well, you turn to (nearly) everyday. Facebook is a perfect example of an everyday app. Or Twitter. Or any service that, almost unconsciously, you find yourself auto loading when you fire up your browser. Websites you simply have to know what’s happening with as much as possible.

The inimitable Josh Porter, who inspired this post, says:

“An everyday app is one that is used every day (or most days) by its users. This means that each and every day they do something with the app. Maybe they’re communicating with coworkers, or creating wireframes, or sharing what they ate for breakfast. Everyday apps in theory are as plentiful as bees in a blossoming apple tree. In practice, however, everyday apps are exceedingly rare.”

http://bokardo.com/archives/everyday-app/

He quotes a study that suggests the number of “everyday apps” used by UK teens is 9. It’s likely less for the average adult. And maybe even less for the average classroom?

If you subscribe (or even if you don’t) to BrainPOP UK we want to make it so useful, so interesting, so engaging that you bring Tim and Moby into your teaching whenever you can, no matter how small or large and for whatever reason.

I’ll extrapolate on Josh’s theory even further by saying that defining what makes an everyday app might lie in how you form “connections” to it too. It might not be just through the website. BrainPOP UK could become “everyday” for you in a number of ways:

• Special offers, competitions or breaking news via our BrainPOP UK  Twitter feed.
• Free movies you can embed or comment on from our Youtube channel.
• Making a classroom display out of the Tim and Moby images on our Flickr page.
• Spark ideas for lessons from our new movies section that’s updated every Thursday.
• Check out what links we’re saving in Delicious.
• Sending us your BrainPOP UK classroom photos, videos and stories that we can then upload for others to see.
• And, of course, reading this blog (hello!) or subscribing to the RSS feed.

For a classroom resource to become truly useful, in the sense of “daily use”, it could, and should, be useful from many different angles and places. Our movies are a big part of that but we hope we can help you in lots of other ways too – the above are just the start…