videos

“Where’s Mrs. Foley?” Adventure Videos

/ Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

When the Covid pandemic began in mid-March, I felt lost. Other than providing a packet of independent work per district directive, I didn’t know what else to do. I really wanted to support my third graders during this uncertain time. So I got the idea of creating a stick-puppet show that delivered encouraging words and challenges. “Where in the World is Mrs. Foley?” was my adventure series and daily 2-4 minute videos were posted every school day — all 40 of them! Each time my character visited a new place around the world (and beyond). I share some facts about the location before the main lesson and challenge. While this project began as a service for my students, I felt it helped me stay productive. The element of creativity was a therapy I really needed. Check out my YouTube playlist of adventures.

BrainPOP

/ Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

BrainPOP

Let Tim and Moby escort you and your students on a topical adventure! Use these approximately two- to five-minute animated videos at BrainPOP to enhance your reading, writing, English, math, science, social studies, art, music, technology, etc. lessons. The best feature is the ten-question multiple-choice quiz that follows each video. Get all of your students involved in responding to these comprehension checks! Activity ideas and worksheets accompany each topic as well. This is one of my favorite sites to support the skills and topics of study I teach. While you’ll need to purchase a subscriptions to fully take advantage of this site (and its partner sites BrainPOP, Jr. and BrainPOP, Espanol), there are several free videos. Click on “Free Stuff” to see it all. BrainPOP, Jr. is intended for K-3 grades and BP is geared toward 3-12 grades. Preview the video you think you’d like to show before airing it. Sometimes the vocabulary and content is too challenging for my third graders, so not all videos are appropriate to show.  You’ll also want to register for the free “BrainPOP Educators.”  Gain access to all of the activity pages, various graphic organizers, ideas for using BrainPOP in your classroom, and a lot more!