Ideas to introduce BrainPOP into your lessons
There are many ways to use BrainPOP resources at home or at school. We've collected some below. Be sure to share your own ideas with us too!
ENERGISE YOUR LESSON - BrainPOP is a great way to introduce a new topic or concept. Use the movies to engage your students with active viewing! Pause when a new vocabulary word pops up, or have students paraphrase what happened, make a prediction or connect what they just saw to their own experience.
USE BRAINPOP TO CHALLENGE - Start with a movie covering a topic where you struggle to engage pupils or find it tricky to get the concept across in a simple way. Play it to your class and invite feedback. Use the pause button regularly to stop and provoke discussion or invite questions. Do Tim and Moby act well as middle men between the concept and your pupils?
PAUSE FOR THOUGHT - Stop the movie after the letter is read by Tim and have students share what they already know about the topic.
ASSESS WITH FINESSE - Why not give a quiz before watching the movie to gauge students’ familiarity with a topic? Or, take the quiz with the whole class afterward to verify what everyone learned? You could do this as a whole class activity at a whiteboard or have pupils work individually.
SWITCH IT UP - Allow the students to take the quiz before watching the movie. This will train the students to listen to content for the answers.
“I’M DONE!” - Create a “Favorites” list or “Bookmark” links of BrainPOP movies for students to watch and explore independently when they finish their class work.
GOT A MINUTE? - In addition to integrating BrainPOP into lesson plans, remember that it only takes a few minutes to show a movie and take advantage of those in-between – unplanned – times by transforming them into teaching moments. Our class discussion page provides helpful tips on how to easily fit a lesson based on a news event into the curriculum you follow.
 
DAILY FEATURED MOVIE - The free BrainPOP UK Featured Movie is your go-to resource for timely and contextual digital content. Different movies each day cover a range of relevant topics including current events, historical figures and milestones, and much more. Make it part of your day in the classroom, at home, or on the go.
In addition, BrainPOP subscribers can now access all movies and quizzes using our full access Featured Movie app for iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch or Android smartphones and tablets.
CHECK, ONE, TWO - Practice public speaking skills by inviting students to introduce a movie to the rest of the class. Let them navigate and choose when to pause the movie for discussion or questions. Your students will love running the show!
TAKE NOTE OF THIS - BrainPOP movies are just the right length to use for improving note-taking skills. Encourage students to put the movie’s main concepts into their own words or summarize the main ideas. Use subtitles to support struggling readers and writers. Pause often and give them plenty of time to write.
SIGN YOUR ANSWER - Teach your students the letters for A, B, C and D in Sign Language and have them raise their hands with the sign for the answer they choose during the quizzes. One student can easily tally votes to identify the most popular answer.
ROTATION STATION - Got a one computer classroom? Make BrainPOP work for all of your students! Introduce a topic each Monday and bookmark it on the browser’s Toolbar. Set up a rotation schedule so that each student has a chance throughout the week to complete the movie and related quiz – have them work individually or in pairs. Use a whiteboard or create an answer sheet for students to complete and hand in.
SCHOOL TOOL - Need to research a topic? Whether you’re looking for a starting point or a more in-depth investigation, your students can use BrainPOP to search for safe and reliable information.
POP PARTNERS - Library and IT staff, as well as other specialists, can easily collaborate with classroom teachers to make learning more interdisciplinary by using BrainPOP’s related movie suggestions.
FYI - HOMEWORK EXTRAS - FYIs not only encourage curiosity in the world around us but encourage further research and investigation. After introducing a topic for the first time with a short movie and quiz, introduce the FYI to fuel that initial interest and desire to learn more. If you’re doing a class project in a certain subject area, the FYIs can provide additional breadth – including a broad range of cross-curricular info.
DESTRESS TEST PREP - Many teachers use BrainPOP to review and reinforce concepts, especially before an exam. Because movies and quizzes are mapped to the curriculum, they can be a fun way to take the stress out of test preparation. Spice up your exam preparation by incorporating BrainPOP into your lessons!
DEEP BEEP - Take advantage of our curriculum matching tool. Use Deep Beep to drill down via the curriculum you follow to the objective you want to cover. We’re mapped against English and Scottish curricular standards so there should be a movie there waiting to be used to complement that objective.
SUBTITLES - Use subtitles to encourage reading. Key vocabulary is highlighted in the movie directly but using subtitles means that all vocabulary will be picked up and displayed. Subtitles mean the sound can remain off so they’re ideal for use in ICT suites without individual headsets. Or, if your kids have trouble hearing the movie at the back of the class, subtitles are an ideal way for them to follow the action. See also: 7 Terrific Subtitle Tips.
CURRENT EVENTS - BrainPOP can help address the questions kids ask about what they see, hear and read about in the news. It’s a great way to encourage children to not only investigate an issue themselves but to form their own opinion about it and confidently discuss it in class. See our class discussion page.
SHARE THE LOVE - ‘Tis better to give than receive. Help your department or budget holder see what BrainPOP can do by giving your login to a colleague. Seriously. Give it to all your colleagues that you think might be interested, in all departments. BrainPOP UK is a cross curricular resource that is often used at all ages – it can be surprisingly handy with 5 year olds as with 18 year olds!
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