{"id":180,"date":"2010-09-07T12:45:06","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T19:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/2010\/09\/07\/familiar-wit-and-whimsy-in-pbs-kids%e2%80%99-science-show-%e2%80%98the-cat-in-the-hat-knows-a-lot-about-that%e2%80%99\/"},"modified":"2010-09-07T12:45:06","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T19:45:06","slug":"familiar-wit-and-whimsy-in-pbs-kids%e2%80%99-science-show-%e2%80%98the-cat-in-the-hat-knows-a-lot-about-that%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/2010\/familiar-wit-and-whimsy-in-pbs-kids%e2%80%99-science-show-%e2%80%98the-cat-in-the-hat-knows-a-lot-about-that%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Familiar Wit and Whimsy in PBS Kids\u2019 Science Show \u2018The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"catinthehatknowsalotaboutthat_300x289.jpg\"<\/a>With the familiar whimsy that Dr. Seuss\u2019 \u201cThe Cat in the Hat\u201d employed to instill in children a love of reading, PBS Kids\u2019 \u201cThe Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That\u201d is poised to inspire the innate scientist in them.<\/p>\n

In the original \u201cThe Cat in the Hat\u201d book, the Cat offered Sally and Nick a diversion from a dreary rainy day. In the TV show, he offers them adventures to learn why, for instance, Nick can\u2019t make honey for his ice cream by glopping an assortment of syrups on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cShow Me the Honey\u201d was one of the episodes in the debut show Sept. 6. Characters and the environment they inhabit are rendered in the distinctive Dr. Seuss style, and the Cat even talks (taking on the voice, now, of award-winning actor Martin Short) in the same wise and silly manner as he tells Nick and Sally \u2014 what else? \u2014 \u201cYour mother will not mind at all if you do.\u201d (But they do always check with her before hopping in the thinga-ma-jigger to seek out the answer to their latest \u201cWhy?\u201d)<\/p>\n

In \u201cShow Me the Honey,\u201d the starting point is one that children (and, let\u2019s be honest, adults, too) can readily identify with: Nick\u2019s rational child-logic of \u201cIf bees can do it, so can I; I just need to find the secret ingredient.\u201d When the Cat takes him and Sally to a beehive, they learn not only how it\u2019s really done (science) but that bees are the only ones that can make it (nature). These aren\u2019t one-track-mind kids, though; there\u2019s plenty of play, too, such as when they follow the bees to flowers and bounce around on the petals.<\/p>\n

Shorter sketches break up the longer ones, with quizzes such as \u201cWhat makes it a bird?\u201d Pointing out that whales sing, too, and that not all birds fly, our hero sums up the solution in a Dr. Seuss-style chant: \u201cThe mystery\u2019s solved by The Cat in the Hat. All birds have feathers, and that\u2019s simply that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents, you\u2019re missing out if you don\u2019t watch this show with your kids. Besides enjoying an entertaining review of scientific facts and relationships you might have forgotten about, you can catch a few sly ones that seemingly are written to go a little higher than three to four feet: the \u201cShow Me the Honey\u201d title, for one, and this response from one of a flock identified as Canadian gees \u2014 \u201cHow should I know? I\u2019m a goose, eh?\u201d<\/p>\n

Produced by Portfolio Entertainment Inc. and Collingwood O\u2019Hare Productions in association with Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Random House Children\u2019s Entertainment, Treehouse and PBS Kids, \u201cThe Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That\u201d was created in response to recent findings that children graduating from kindergarten are less prepared to learn about science than about other subjects. The series supports young children\u2019s science learning by introducing scientific inquiry skills, teaching core science concepts and vocabulary, and preparing preschoolers for kindergarten and first-grade science curriculum \u2014 all in whimsical style. \u201cDr. Seuss was so passionate about science, nature and the survival of the planet, he surely would have loved that the science-based book series he conceived is being brought to television in such a grand fashion,\u201d says Kate Klimo, Dr. Seuss\u2019 Random House publisher and executive director of development for Random House Children\u2019s Entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the familiar whimsy that Dr. Seuss\u2019 \u201cThe Cat in the Hat\u201d employed to instill in children a love of reading, PBS Kids\u2019 \u201cThe Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That\u201d is poised to inspire the innate scientist in them. In the original \u201cThe Cat in the Hat\u201d book, the Cat offered Sally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tv","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS5I2-2U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}