Brainpop Jr. lists itself as online animated educational movies for grades K-3, but really is a lot more. Falling into six categories (science, social studies, writing, math, health and reading) each lesson has one or more videos, games, a comic strip called "belly up", an interactive word wall, two level of quizzes and talk, write, draw and read about it sections for extension activities. All of this in addition to teacher guides and ideas for classroom activities. The videos are even close captioned if you chose. The site is touch screen accessible to a degree (excluding the write about it section unless you use your own onscreen keyboard), but is not switch accessible. The content is relatively age appropriate even for older developmentally delayed students - there are no cutesy elements or babyish images. Brainpop Jr. is constantly adding new content, so sign up for the e-mails that tell you what has been added.There is, of course, a Brainpop Sr., but it is $175 for a single teacher for a school year (as opposed to Jr. being free - at least for now).
BrainPOP Jr. is not free. We payed close to $100 for a subscription earlier this year and are actually disappointed. There are so many better "free" sites and programs out there. One of our new favorites being ZacBrowser which combines the best of most free educational and fun learning websites (including starfall, pbs, nick, foriegn language learning, music, games, etc.) for kids and gives the added security of blocking outside websites and access to your sensitive files by curious eyes.
ReplyDeleteBrain Pop Jr was free when I posted this. They became a subscription site some time later, which was disappointing. However, combined with Brain Pop it is still good in many SPED class rooms.
ReplyDeleteI posted about Zac Browser a few months ago. It is a great free service for many learners.