Granny Ranny's Coming Attractions

With Halloween just behind us, people in the USA have started gearing up for its next food-centric holiday, Thanksgiving. PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! will offer a full plate of great kids’ content on November 22 and 23 with specials encouraging sharing, friendship and fun.

On Thursday, November 22, PBS KIDS GO! features a special holiday presentation of Arthur’s Missing Pal, Arthur’s first-ever CGI movie. On Friday, November 23, the PBS KIDS preschool destination celebrates “Friend Day” with friendship-themed episodes followed by a two-hour Wordgirl marathon on PBS KIDS GO!. At pbskids.org, kids can send ecards to friends in celebration of “Friend Day.”

Descriptions:

ARTHUR’S MISSING PAL, Thursday, November 22 on PBS KIDS GO!

Arthur, like you’ve never seen him before, stars in his FIRST-EVER CGI movie. When Arthur’s dog Pal disappears, Arthur must enlist the help of his friends to track him down. While Pal discovers his newfound freedom, Arthur discovers how much he misses his dog. Good thing Arthur has the gang to turn to — especially his best friend, Buster Baxter who dusts off his old detective gear to get on the case. This canine quest leads Arthur and Buster across Elwood city, deep into the bowels of an ice cream factory, past a giant cow on ice skates, and right up to the point where all hope seems lost. Could the solution to this caper, though, be right in front of Arthur’s eyes? And why has D.W. been acting so funny lately? One thing’s for certain, Arthur is determined to get to the bottom of this case. Follow Arthur, Buster and all their friends through the streets of Elwood City as they sniff out clues and chase after leads…and learn a valuable lesson about friendship, teamwork and responsibility.

PBS KIDS FRIEND DAY shows – Friday, November 23

CURIOUS GEORGE
Monkey Underground – When George stumbles across a gopher hole in the field near the country house, he suddenly finds himself inside a secret world of underground tunnels. Just below the mounds, Mama, Papa, and Junior Gopher have found a hiding place away from Mr. Gopher Getter – the man who plans to de-gopher the entire field. George warns his new pals about the looming trap. But only if George can dig super monkey-fast, and in the correct direction, will he be able to save his gopher friends from being removed from their home.

Cat Mother – Professor Wiseman entrusts George with Lucky, a tiny kitten too young to take care of herself. It’s love at first sight for Lucky when she meets her first dog – Hundley, the proud lobby dachshund. But it’s not such a fast friendship for Hundley, who sneezes when Lucky affectionately rubs against him. Hundley’s allergic to cats! Lucky is inconsolable, having to stay away from her new friend, so George decides to build a substitute dog for Lucky. Can George use his sharp investigation and engineering skills to create an exact Hundley replica?

CLIFFORD

Fan Mail – Emily Elizabeth writes a fan letter to her favorite pop star and discovers — with the help of Mr. Bleakman — that sometimes wishes do come true.

Hooray for Cleo – Cleo withholds information and makes everyone think she’s a beachball playing star.

SUPER WHY!

The Little Red Hen – “Not I!” “Not I!” “Not I!” is all Red’s friends say when she needs their help gathering apples! This is a super big problem. The Super Readers take off into the story of the Little Red Hen, whose friends won’t assist her either! The Super Readers are willing to lend a hand to The Little Red Hen, but will anyone help Red?

DRAGON TALES

Moving On – Cassie is devastated when her favorite big sister, Sophie, heads off to cooking school. Every spot in Dragon Land reminds Cassie of her sister and makes her sad all over again. Cassie ends up feeling better when she decides to teach her little sister how to cook Goo-Berry Pudding, just like Sophie taught her.

Head Over Heels – Quetzal asks the friends to take a bowl of gazpacho to his sick brother. Along the way, they have to pay a toll to Trumpy the tollbooth troll. Emmy doesn’t know how she will pay. The toll is one cartwheel, and she can’t do one. Her friends give her tips and Emmy keeps on trying, and finally gets good enough to pay the toll.

WORDGIRL Marathon – Friday, November 23 on PBS KIDS GO!

Tobey or Consequences – While Tobey has a babysitter, WordGirl and Tobey get into a battle of words on a real-live match of the game show “Crash or Pie.”

High-Fat Robbery – The Butcher is hosting free barbecues as diversions to help him carry out his crimes; WordGirl takes him down, after discovering his meaty powers are neutralized by tofu!

You Can’t Crush City Hall – Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy is threatening to smush City Hall with his giant sandwich press… unless WordGirl can guess his secret code-word in time!

Two Brain Highway – WordGirl must track down Dr. Two 2-Brains after he escapes from the Prison Warden’s life-size maze, the same week there just happens to be lots of rare cheese to steal from events around town.

Coupon Madness – Granny May goes on a crime spree by using her coupons printing-press to get things for free… WordGirl has to track her down and foil her plan.

When Life Gives You Potatoes… – Dr. Two-Brains has escaped from prison again! WordGirl must find him before he perfects his latest weapon… a ray that can turn gold into cheese. (Luckily, so far, he’s only succeeded in turning gold into potato salad.)

Mouse Army – Dr. Two-Brains has created an army of super-smart mice – but they’ve become too smart! WordGirl must step in and save the city before the mice take over.

Super-Grounded – Becky is grounded for not cleaning her room; when she sends Captain Huggy Face in WordGirl’s place to battle the Butcher, he feels like chopped liver.

Last week, I spoke with Rosemarie Truglio, VP of Research for Sesame Workshop. We spoke about their new literacy and language development focus.

Now, if you’re like me, you think of Sesame Street as the epitome of educational preschool programs. So, I asked Rosemarie, “How does this differ from past seasons on SS?” She explained, “Sesame Street is the only TV program that rethinks its curriculum focus on an annual basis. It is a whole child curriculum that reflects a preschool curricula.”

She went on to explain how they are constantly on the lookout to determine the critical needs of today’s children. Rosemarie, a 10 year Sesame Workshop veteran and mother of a 3 ½-year-old added, “Developing a rich vocabulary and a love of words at a young age helps children become better prepared for school and more successful readers.”

Literacy has never been the number 1 issue on Sesame Street. But it is this year. They looked around to see what are the new developments in terms of literacy and examined how they could implement them. The importance of VOCABULARY emerged as the big need. Vocabulary is not necessarily easy to teach. It requires repetition. Since repetition is inherent in Sesame Street, a natural extension to “the letter of the day” became the “word of the day.”

For this season, Sesame will focus on one word in each of its 26 shows. Season 38 will present viewers with words, words, and more words in order to build their vocabulary to describe their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and observations about the world. At the top of the show will be a new segment, a Muppet named Murray asks people: “What’s the Word on the Street?”

Interesting enough, an image representing the word and the sound of word will be shown. But, the word will not be printed on screen. I asked Rosemarie why not. Obviously, many programs for preschoolers do print the words on-screen; something I’ve always though peculiar since kids this age don’t read. “They’re not reading. They’re preschoolers. Their language is oral and they have an oral understanding of these words. It’s more important for the words to be part of their spoken vocabulary, ” she replied. Makes sense.

Carol-Lynn Parente, Executive Producer of Sesame Street adds, “We were particularly struck by the statistics illustrating a vast discrepancy in the size of a child’s vocabulary between middle and lower income families.” There is a vocabulary gap. That gap is primarily due to their exposure. Middle income children have exposure to not just reading a book, but having all kinds of other words thrown at them from their parents and other adults or older siblings. As a result, middle income children are exposed to rich language. On the other hand, low income children are not being exposed to those same conversations. That’s why the folks at Sesame Workshop decided to focus on vocabulary words.

I was interested in how they would determine whether or not the promise of increasing vocabulary was successful. So, I asked, “What does success look like here?” Trugilo responded, “Success comes in different forms. One is, our own formative evaluation, to inform us what’s working and what’s not working. Right now we are conducting a study in day care centers. We hope to see a significant increase in pre- and post- vocabulary. I guess we’ll hear the results from that later.

By now, my burning question was, what are the words? Rosemarie laughed. They’re not your usual, run-of-the-mill words but words that offer depth of understanding. For example, “tricycle” and “pumpernickel.” Notice that it’s not bike or bread. Tricycle is a bit more complex than a simple bike or bicycle. Same with pumpernickel. It’s not plain old white Wonderbread. Other words that you’ll be finding are family, angry, ballet, predicament, apology, pretend, newspaper, lazy and so on. I can’t give them all away but you get the drift. Frustrated, dog…

Tune in to Season 38 of Sesame Street and you’ll find a plethora of words to enjoy with your preschooler.

Meanwhile, as we all know, the real key is having parents and caregivers get involved in exposing their children to language and an expanded vocabulary. They need to have more conversations with their preschoolers. Introduce new words. Introduce new ideas. Talk with them. All of this takes time, that’s true. But, parents who take the time will have a child better prepared for school, for reading, and lifelong learning.

Here are some activities that the show has provided that you can enjoy with your child to help enhance his/her vocabulary:

1. Go Beyond the Alphabet Song

While many young children have a rote understanding of the alphabet by learning the ABC song, they often lack the ability to identify each letter and recognize letter sounds. Help your child develop a more meaningful and rich understanding of letters by emphasizing what each letter looks like, sounds like, and showing letters forming words.

Write out the alphabet on a large piece of paper. Then, have fun starting each day with a different “Letter of the Day!” Begin with the letter “A” by circling it, describing the way it looks, and repeating the letter sound. Go on a “Letter Hunt” throughout the day and search for things that begin with the “Letter of the Day.” For example, encourage your child to look for as many “B” foods as possible while you’re at the supermarket. Remember to emphasize the initial letter sound: “ B…B…Bananas! B…B…Beans! ” Your child can also look for the “Letter of the Day” in books, magazines, or different rooms of the house!

2. Explore Letters and Words Everywhere!

Letters and words are everywhere! Just be on the lookout throughout the day. On your walks to school or through the neighborhood, label and talk about any print that you notice on signs around your environment like “SCHOOL,” “SUBWAY,” or “RESTAURANT.” Point out and describe each letter and word you see.

Help your child develop language and a love for words by exposing her to a variety of print rich materials such as books, poems, nursery rhymes, labels, recipes, and childfriendly magazines.

Involve your child while making shopping lists, writing letters, or filling out birthday invitations. Talk out loud about the letters and words you write. Encourage her to help by drawing scribbles or pictures.

3. Use Words, Words, and More Words!

Developing a rich vocabulary at a young age helps children become more successful readers and learners. Expose children to new words, words, and more words every day! As you go about your daily routine, have fun conversations using lots of words to describe all the things you see and do together.

Have fun playing with words and language with your child! For example, play a rhyming game together by listing words that rhyme with “ball.” You can say, “ball, fall, wall, small… crayon!” Recognizing this silly mistake can be a very funny and exciting activity for your child. Allow them to correct you and then think of a word that does rhyme with ball!

Allow your child to hear you use words repeatedly in many meaningful ways. This can help him understand and remember new words and what they mean. For example, if you’re introducing the word “predicament,” they need to hear the word “predicament,” what it means, and the word used in various predicaments. If it’s raining outside and you don’t have an umbrella, you could say, “This is a real predicament!”

Learning new words is more effective when you build on words your child already knows. For example, after seeing the word “STORE” outside, talk about what a store is: “ It’s a place where you can go to buy something.” Then, with your child, explore other kinds of stores are in the neighborhood (e.g. hardware store, food store, shoe store, toy store, book store, etc).

There are so many wonderful words to learn and exploring words through categories makes it easy! Categories provide a way to link words together. For example, when investigating the word, transportation, you can explore all the exciting words in this category – cars, buses, planes, trains, trucks, bikes and boats! When you link words to categories your child will learn that all these things have something in common. They are all used to help people get from one place to another! Other child-friendly categories include jobs, animals, family, food, containers, and clothing.

4. Bring Books to Life!

Reading books together provides wonderful opportunities for your child to hear new words, learn about the world, and discover the power of language. Sharing books at an early age can also help your child build vocabulary as well as their love of reading!

Make story time a special part of your child’s daily routine. Introduce the book by talking about the book cover. Encourage your child to look at the picture and think of what the book will be about. Read the title then begin the book. Take your time so your child can get the most out of each page. As you read, point to the text from left to right. Pause to label and describe the pictures, letters, and words. Be expressive with your voice and actions. If a picture shows two frogs hopping through the woods, pretend that you are both frogs hopping and making “ribbit” sounds!

Ask who, what, when, where, why, and how questions as you read. For example, “Who is this?…What do you think will happen next?…Where are they?… Why does she look so happy? How did that make him feel?” When the story is over, continue the discussion by talking about the story: “ What was the story about? What was your favorite part of the story?”

Last weekend, I purchased a video game for my grandson at Best Buy. My experience in shopping there was less than pleasant, starting with difficulty in getting assistance, then buying a game that two days later I found out required hardware far exceeding my grandson’s computer, and ending with learning that Best Buy does not take returned games under any conditions.

Unfortunately, my grandson doesn’t have a very good grasp of what computer hardware specifications mean and I wasn’t attuned enough to check this out AND I was totally unaware of the fact that they had such a stringent no-returns policy.

Upon contacting the store to see if it was possible for them to make an exception, I was disappointed both with the store manager who was completely unsympathetic and with the corporate customer relations department who was slightly more so and tried to placate me by offering me a $25 gift certificate as a “way to meet you halfway.”

The reason why I’m writing about this in my blog is that I think this is something that you should be aware of as you are shopping this holiday season. Maybe I’m naive. We never have problems playing things on our office computers but I realize that kids often get the hand me downs and don’t have the capacity that up to date games do.

There – I’ve forewarned you. Pay attention Grandparents and Parents! Don’t buy a video game that requires a more powerful computer than what your kids or grandkids have!

Since this was written, I received a second response from customer service at Best Buy and an additional gift card, making our loss net zero. Even though we came out okay financially, this message is still relevant: be careful when selecting video games. 1) Don’t open the package before you re-read the system requirements and match them with your system, or your kids/grandkidss’ system. 2) Take your complaint, if you have one to the corporate office. Local managers have no control over corporate policies. If you ask them to deviate, they will not usually be able to do so.

Beware and happy holiday shopping.

Every year we honor the films that have been screened at our KIDS FIRST Film Festivals during the preceding 12 months at our annual KIDS FIRST Best Awards Celebration. Awards are given in 20+ categories plus five Best of the Fest Awards to the five top films overall. It’s not an easy task as every one of the 300+ films we screen throughout the year is excellent. We draw upon a jury of film programmers and film professionals who are engaged with us year round and whose expertise covers the category for which they jury. Our nominees will be announced the first week of September and the finalists will be announced October 7 at our Awards Ceremony at Calamigos Ranch, Malibu, CA. If you are a filmmaker interested in children’s films, or if you live in southern California, I highly encourage you to join us for this day of filmmaking and fun. Here’s the schedule.

Sunday, October 7th 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

• Workshops: Acquisitions for Independent Filmmakers. How to position and market your independent film.
• Film Festival Directors Round Table Discussion.
• 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. KIDS FIRST Awards Celebration. Mallory Lewis, the honored recipient of the 2007 KIDS FIRST Palmer-Vision Award will be among the featured hosts.
• 5:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Dinner and a movie. Delicious chuck wagon BBQ with ribs, chicken, & tasty vittles, soft drinks & make your own sundae bar, no-host bar.

  To purchase tickets, go to http://www.kidsfirst.org/filmfestival/KFBest2007.html.

  Hope to see you there.

I was reminded this morning, from an email sent by one of our Advisory Board members, about the small things that parents can do to address toy safety. With the recent toy recalls, these safety concerns have jumped to the forefront of our minds. Here is a dozen easy things that Dr. Toy recommends for toy safety:

1. Specifically for parents with children under the age of six: Observe what the child is currently playing with in the home. (Particularly if there is an older sibling in the home.) The younger child may want to try products that are not age appropriate or have small parts. The child may also want to play with other small objects and put them in the mouth.
2. Look through your current toys at home. Get rid of any broken, chipped, or discolored products. And if a child loves a product so much that it is over used and dangerously worn-down, consider replacing it. Make sure the toys are kept in good repair and are cleaned regularly.
3. There are thousands of wonderful, safe products on the market that are made in the USA, China and other countries. You need to be mindful of the parts and components that are in the products you are selecting.
4. Watch for clutter in your child’s play areas. Are there products that are not being played with right now? Think about taking some items away for a month or two and then bringing them back into circulation. We call it “recycling the toy box.” Children will feel like they have new toys. Current items get good use and other items return as new finds.
5. Know your toy stores. Most retailers are very well informed and can be your best advocate for appropriately aged products that would fit a description of your child’s interest.
6. Knowledge of your toy store also helps in cases like recalls because they can be your best information on exactly what product or products can have a problem. They can also assist in a return policy if necessary. Toy store owners have a vested interest in protecting children and keeping their customers happy. They will try to help the consumer.
7. Read the labels on the packages. If clear information is not there, you should be wary. The information should be upfront and clearly visible about the age group and any other issues that may limit the use of the product to different demographics.
8. You can teach your children to use their toys appropriately; not to break them, or misuse them. Toys are designed for reasonable use. Beyond that is when hazards can occur. Children also need to learn to put toys away carefully and to use them safely.
9. Look for products that are appropriate for your child. In addition to the age range, many parents buy products that are higher ages than their child because they want their child to be more advanced. This can be its own hazard in that a frustrated child can act out and not perform to proper age appropriate behaviors, not just age appropriate skills.
10. Research for guidance, such as this list, and other product recommendations from reliable sources. Look for protection seals, award testing, and reputable organization’s recommendations.
11. If you have any doubts, contact the Consumer Product Safety Commission http://www.cpsc.gov/
There are available to help. See http://www.drtoy.com/ for the CPSC site and other resources
12. Most importantly, if you have a child with a tendency to put things in the mouth, you must be extra, extra vigilant. Make sure toys with small or loose parts are either not used or carefully monitored. Also be sure that products are cleaned and disinfected, especially if your child attends childcare, babysitting, preschool or playgroup on a regular basis.

Thanks to Dr. Toy for these great suggestions. For more info, visit her website: http://www.drtoy.com/.