Have your students signed up for individual accounts? If you have a school-wide subscription to BrainPOP, students will be able to use our SnapThought ® tool to play Mine Cart Mash!

The SnapThought tool allows students to capture meaningful moments in their game play with opportunities for brief written reflection. Once students are logged in, the SnapThought tool will appear below any games that offer this capability.

During game play, students can click the SnapThought tool up to five times per game. A thumbnail, or “snapshot” is generated and stored on the bottom left of the screen.  At any point in the game, students can click their snapshot(s), type a brief reflection, which may be a response to an open-ended prompt, and save or submit to the teacher’s account for you to review and respond to.

You can use the SnapThought tool to facilitate discussion around game play and strategies, or have students submit their snapshots to you for assessment or accountability. Here are a few ideas and prompts for using the SnapThought tool in Mine Cart Mash.

  • Take a snapshot before you shoot at a word. Predict what the new word will be. Write in your SnapThought. Confirm or revise your SnapThought after you shoot the word.
  • Take a snapshot of a word you are not going to shoot at. Write why you didn’t shoot the word.
  • What strategy did you use to shoot words?