Discover movies worth showing in your classroom, with practical insights on the themes, learning opportunities, and educational value of each one.
Wonder follows Auggie Pullman, a boy with a facial difference who enters a mainstream school for the first time in fifth grade. It is a story told from multiple perspectives, which means students do not just follow Auggie through the year but also see how the people around him experience it. Few movies ask students to step into someone else's shoes quite as deliberately as this one.
Ratatouille follows Remy, a rat with an extraordinary sense of taste and smell, as he pursues his dream of becoming a chef in one of Paris's most celebrated restaurants. It is a movie about ambition, identity, and what happens when someone refuses to accept the limits others place on them. Students who think they have nothing to say about food, creativity, or following a dream tend to find out otherwise.
A warm and adventurous Disney musical about a Polynesian chief's daughter who sets sail across the ocean to save her people, guided by the demigod Maui. Culturally rich, beautifully animated, and full of material that works across multiple year groups.
A brilliantly inventive Pixar movie that takes students inside the mind of an 11-year-old navigating a major life change, with her five emotions, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, as the main characters. Funny, moving, and genuinely useful for any classroom conversation about feelings.
A richly animated Pixar adventure about a boy who crosses into the Land of the Dead in search of his musical dream, and discovers the truth about his family along the way. Students come away with genuine curiosity about Mexican culture and traditions that most of them have never encountered before.
Pixar's most science-rich movie in years follows a young animal lover who hops her consciousness into a robotic beaver to save a woodland habitat from destruction. Funny, fast-moving, and packed with real educational value for science and environmental classrooms.
