The Pobble blog

Every day, you’ll find an interesting picture, writing prompts and questions to spark a lesson. Present on your smartboard screen, create a link to share or print them out!

Fellow teachers tell us that Pobble 365 is a powerful teaching resource for many reasons. Its popularity in schools around the globe makes us very proud. Here are some of the brilliantly creative ways it is used:

1. Morning writing warm-ups - Each Pobble 365 activity has different writing challenges to choose from: ideal for a quick ten-minute warm-up.

2. Class debates -  The philosophical questions that accompany each Pobble 365 image make great discussion points for your class: ideal for speaking and listening activities and developing inference skills. As an extension, try getting children to come up with their own questions about the picture.

3. Guided reading carousel - Use one of the activities as part of your guided reading carousel.

4. Pobble 365 flashcards - Printing the images out on flashcards and giving them out to the pupils is a super quick oral starter task. What can they say about the pictures? What can they see? We have seen many teachers using the images to generate vocabulary.

5. Combining pictures - Use a sequence of Pobble 365 pictures to write a story. This will really get the creative juices flowing. You could choose different images for characters, settings, openers and endings. Can your class combine them to create their own story?

6. Drama sessions - A drama session not only gets your class up and moving, but is also a great way of practising speaking and performing. Can your class pretend to be the characters in the image? Maybe they could be a new character entering one of the settings?

7. Senses into super sentences - With your Pobble 365 image on the board, set up five stations around the room, one for each of the senses. Ask your class in small groups to spend one minute at each station and write down what they think they would hear, smell, taste, touch or see if transported into the image. Bring all the ideas to the middle. Use the ideas to create an awesome sentence. As an extension, give them success criteria — e.g. “must include a subordinating conjunction”, or “must contain a simile.”

8. A ready-made lesson - Pobble 365 is a brilliant option for something that’s high quality when someone has to step in unexpectedly (supply cover, support staff). It’s all ready and prepared for them so there’s no panic and last-minute planning!

9. A whole week’s worth — Many teachers use one picture for the whole week. Try sending home the chosen picture and questions on a Friday. Discuss the answers early the following week. You can also complete the sentence challenge, do the sick sentence activities and use the photo to generate vocabulary. At the end of the week, use the story starter for a bigger piece of writing. Don’t forget to throw in a writing example from Pobble.

Don't forget, on Pobble, you can easily search Pobble activities, save them to use later, share them and present them in class or print! Even better, you can edit Pobble presentations too!