KIDS FIRST! News

A new neighborhood awaits preschoolers and fans of all ages at PBSKIDS.org/rogers with the redesigned “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” website, full of new activities, video clips and memorabilia. In addition, 26 favorite episodes will be part of the national PBS KIDS Saturday morning broadcast lineup beginning September 12 (check local listings) and will be available to stream online later this fall at PBSKIDS.org/rogers for fans to enjoy whenever they want. “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” also recently launched a new game on the PBS KIDS PLAY! subscription service (PBSKIDSPLAY.org) featuring Daniel Striped Tiger and will premiere a mobile application later this fall.

“Fred Rogers paved the way for children’s media more than 40 years ago, and we are proud to continue to work with Family Communications to ensure his legacy evolves alongside new developments in media and technology,” said Sara DeWitt, Senior Director, PBS KIDS Interactive. “PBSKIDS.org continues to increase in traffic, with an average of 9 million unique visitors a month. It’s clear that kids love our games, and that parents and educators view our content online as a trusted and fun learning experience.”

“At Family Communications, we continue to hear from adults about what “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” has meant in their lives,” said Kevin Morrison, Chief Operating Officer, Family Communications, Inc. “The core values of the series — kindness, civility, reassurance and inspiration — have helped many strive towards being the best they can be. We are excited to continue to infuse Fred Rogers’ values in new platforms with new generations of children.”

The new Web site features an expanded video inventory from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” including virtual field trips with Mister Rogers to visit a penguin exhibit, a dinosaur museum exhibit, an art museum, a pediatrician’s office and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, along with the ever-popular factory visits. The site also encourages parent-child interaction with Parent Tips on every screen to help adults understand what their children are working on through their Web experience.

In the all-new Neighborhood of Make-Believe area, children can explore two new environments — inside Lady Elaine’s Museum-Go-Round and Daniel Striped Tiger’s clock.
In the Museum-Go-Round – never depicted before on TV or the Web – children can create artwork of their own, make a kaleidoscope, or just delight in the simple joy of discovery as they make things spin and go up and down.
Inside Daniel’s clock, Daniel Tiger is getting ready for bed, offering an open-ended activity which gives children an opportunity to reflect on their own feelings about bedtime and separation from the ones they love.  As they turn out Daniel’s lights or get him his blankie or teddy bear, they can listen to a Mister Rogers bedtime song or hear Mister Rogers tell a bedtime story.
And for fans of all ages, the all-new “Neighbors of All Ages” section invites kids and adults to share their memories of growing up with the Neighborhood and provides tools through photo sharing site Flickr to post photos and letters.

Working in creative collaboration with PBS KIDS and Family Communications, Inc., the award-winning, Boston-based educational media developer FableVision produced the new site. FableVision President Gary Goldberger notes, “FableVision feels honored to extend Fred Rogers’ mission to a new generation of parents and children. This new media-rich site supports and guides children as they navigate their way through life.”

Parents and teachers can also continue to access content and resources that support essential childhood themes in “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” through PBS Parents and PBS Teachers.  PBS Parents offers articles, activities, tools, recipes and printables that parents and caregivers can use to extend the learning at home.  PBS Teachers provides classroom resources from the series that educators can download and use to support education in community engagement, the arts, mental and emotional health and many more topics.

In addition to the Web re-launch, PBS KIDS and Family Communications selected the top 26 favorite “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” episodes to air on PBS KIDS Saturday mornings this fall.  These episodes will also be featured on PBSKIDS.org in the coming months. The 26 iconic episodes feature classic moments including:

Appearances by Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Dance Theater of Harlem and performers of STOMP;

Visits with author-illustrator Eric Carle (best known for “The Hungry Caterpillar”) and beloved folksinger Ella Jenkins;
Favorite visits to factories showing how people make everyday things like crayons,  construction paper, erasers, flashlights, macaroni, and zippers;
Field trips to a recycling center and the zoo, as well as a ride on a school bus and a visit to the pediatrician’s office;
Two operas, “Windstorm in Bubbleland” and “Spoon Mountain”;
Songs, Make-Believe stories, and conversations about kindness, anger, frustration, making mistakes and even the most difficult feelings surrounding divorce.

“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” can also be experienced at PBS KIDS PLAY!, an award-winning subscription service that includes curriculum-based games featuring characters from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. A new Mister Rogers game, Daniel’s Musical Band, launched on PBS KIDS PLAY! in August. The first “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” mobile application, My Journal, will also debut this fall. The application will encourage children to identify and talk about their feelings about their every day experiences like school, playtime and friends. Both the new game and the application feature an animated version of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe character Daniel Striped Tiger.

Great news for game producers! KIDS FIRST! now accepts Nintendo Wii games for review. To celebrate this new venture, KIDS FIRST! is offering discounted submissions for any Wii titles submitted by between now and September 1, 2009. Anyone submitting Wii titles will receive a member’s rate even if they are a non-member.

Already this summer KIDS FIRST! jurors have been getting interactive with visual media as they review games for the Nintendo Wii. This move has been a great hit with both adult and child jurors. Each title provides many hours and days of entertainment as the kids and grownups grab their Wii remotes and get off the couch to learn how to become a band leader in “Major Minor’s Majestic March;” how to climb trees quickly in “Go Play Lumberjacks;” how to do tricks on the trampoline in “Go Play Circus Star;” and how to get their groove on in “Dance Dance Revolution Disney Grooves” and so much more.

The Wii craze is taking the nation. Sales last Christmas for this family gaming system sky-rocketed, despite the troubled economy. Schools have Wii gaming competitions for fundraisers and libraries gather groups for some relaxing play time. With the ever-growing popularity of the games, we at KIDS FIRST! feel it’s important to support the family-friendly media kids interact with. To see some of the KIDS FIRST! jurors in action, check out our “Dance Dance Revolution Disney Grooves” review.

To learn more about submitting a title for KIDS FIRST! review, check out our website at http://www.kidsfirst.org/submit-a-title/.

To learn more about becoming a KIDS FIRST! juror or to sign up for our online training classes go to our website http://www.kidsfirst.org/become-a-juror/

The “PAMOJA MTAANI” (“Together in the Hood”), Behavior Change Video Game, created by Warner Bros, won the Global Business Coalition’s Business Excellence Award.

As a key component of the Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation, this open world five player LAN-Based PC game educates youth in Kenya.

The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria honored Warner Bros. Entertainment with the Core Competence Business Excellence Award for the video game “Pamoja Mtaani” (“Together in the Hood”) at the GBC Business Excellence Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C on June 24, 2009. “Pamoja Mtaani”, Swahili for “Together in the Hood”, is an open world, five player LAN-based PC video game created by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in collaboration with technical experts within the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and noted serious games developer, Virtual Heroes, Inc.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, in partnership with PEPFAR, applied its core competence to develop an action-based videogame pilot that is delivering targeted HIV prevention messages to East African youths. The videogame combines traditional gameplay with messages aimed at changing behavior, focusing on key behaviors that can reduce HIV infections among youth. The game development is part of The Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation, a  public-private collaboration among PEPFAR and businesses with critical core competencies such as messaging, new technologies and market research.

The “Pamoja Mtaani” videogame can be played at select youth venues in Nairobi, which are an integral component of this new initiative to revolutionize HIV prevention. The game, intended to engage youth through fun interaction, is designed to help influence HIV risk perceptions, attitudes and behaviors among young people in Nairobi.

Mary Ann Hall’s Music for Children. Emily and her friends take you on a live action and animated adventure searching for the music in everything on Earth. Through rhythm and rhyme, imaginary play, reading music and dance, your children will learn without even knowing it!

Mary Ann Hall’s Music For Children has produced this, the first DVD in the Earth Boogie series. They took the music education and imaginary play from their classes and made a mystical, magical, musical adventure for children to learn from and enjoy at home. Music For Children has taught over 35,000 children and is considered one of the top early childhood music education programs out there. Combining the rich music plans from the classes with Emily’s Broadway performing experience, Mary Ann, Emily and Bill have created a show combining all their different talents. This show is one to watch over and over again!

To purchase the DVD/CD you can go to Orchestore.com or Amazon.com for “The Music of the Mountains.”

Find out more about Music for Children at http://www.musicforchildren.net

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The Signing Safari DVD program was developed by Sharon Said, a certified Child Sign Language Specialist, owner of Parenting Empowerment, and mother of three. Inspired by
the fact that learning sign language at an early age leads to improved family communication, Sharon researched and created a sign language program that is entertaining to learn, easy to implement, and will help reduce the numerous stresses of early childhood. Through her parent training workshops and interactive sign and play classes, Sharon teaches parents how to use American Sign Language to increase communication with their hearing babies, toddlers, and preschoolers lessening the typical stresses of early childhood.

Find more about Signing Safari at http://www.signingsafari.com

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Lightning Media is a leading distributor of commercially driven films and programs. They selectively target and acquire rights for theatrical distribution, DVD, television, cable, internet, VOD, PPV, electronic sell-thru and emerging digital platforms in the United States and other markets. Lightning Media is now engaged in multi-platform distributionpartnerships with Anchor Bay Entertainment and Lions Gate Entertainment.

Find more on Lightning Media at http://www.lightning-ent.com

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Master Communications, Inc.

WGBH Educational Foundation is a trusted source for educational media and kids-focused programming, providing millions of teachers and parents with resources, tools, and programs that augment classroom curricula; entertain and engage kids in the home; and inspire them to learn and explore the world around them.

Find more on Master Communications at http://www.master-comm.com

Brittany Curran stars in the KIDS FIRST! title, Legally Blondes, which airs on ABC Family on August 2nd, 8pm.

Check out her new web-site if you want to take a peek! http://www.brittanycurran.com/Brittany_Curran/Welcome.html