Teachers often tell parents to practice what is being learned in school at home. Providing multiple opportunities to practice new learning helps children grasp key concepts more quickly. For example, a child reads a book that contains rhyming words using the –at pattern during their in class reading group and then goes to another part of the classroom to manipulate letter tiles to spell words ending with the –at chunk. Then the child takes home words such as cat, hat, sat, mat, flat, and splat to study for spelling. Such activities are examples of activities that target a specific skill but are presented in different ways to help reinforce the concept.
One of the reasons why SuperWhy has been proven to aid children in their acquisition of early literacy skills is because the show presents multiple experiences with storytelling and language in each episode. While one recent study demonstrated the television series’ ability to increase preschoolers’ early literacy skills, the other proved that a hands-on approach in applying lessons from the Super Readers into daily lives was also effective in teaching kids how to read.
Earlier this week I gushed about our love for the SuperWhy show but Little Miss Techie is a huge fan of the content on PBSKIDS.org’s SuperWhy website for kids. The well designed website is easy to navigate and allows her to have hands-on practice with the concepts she is exposed to through the show. She is able to manipulate the content so it is engaging and fun. Also, there are tons of new downloadable printable activities on the site that are perfect for continuing the reading adventure throughout the summer months.
If the shows and the SuperWhy website isn’t enough for you and you want to take your child’s learning to the next level and do more, there are activities and lesson plans on the Parents and Teachers site. Perhaps you are a teacher and want to focus on a specific reading skill with your class or as a parent, your child is hooked on a specific episode. Tap into that interest by checking out the activities that correlate to the different episodes.
I know you are thinking, “Activities for each day?!? Who has time for that when I already struggle to clean the house, fold the laundry, get meals on the table, etc?”
The reality is that the materials are designed to reinforce what your child has already been exposed to by watching the show and/or playing on the website. They don’t take a long time to complete but if your child is a SuperWhy fan, they will be motivated to transform into their favorite characters from the show and use their super powers for the good of reading.
After last week’s visit to PBS, I received the materials that just became available on the site that use The Three Little Pigs episode as the basis of a week’s worth of literacy activities designed for the preschool set. The week’s activities are laid out in a logical order and begin with children watching The Three Little Pigs episode and paying attention specific attention to one of the characters on each day. Each day the children transform into a character from the show, assuming their super powers.
For example, the first day’s activities require kids to transform into Alpha Pig by coloring and wearing a mask of the super hero pig whose powers center around the alphabet. The day’s work involves identifying letters found hiding around a Story Book Village worksheet and locating all the letters in the child’s name. Then next day children get to transform into Wonder Red and possess the power of words that are used to practice rhyming skills. Subsequent days enable children to transform into Princess Presto (spelling power!) and Super Why who has the power to read. Pre and post assessments are built in to determine any progress made after watching the episode and engaging in the activities. There are also extension activities for each day’s activities.
The Learning with SuperWhy site enables you to watch The Three Little Pigs on iTunes or QuickTime and download the instructions and worksheets for each of the 5 days of activities. Extension activities like Letter Identification Bingo and character masks are also available here.
I love that the all of the new learning experiences in this series are designed to build on literacy concepts presented in The Three Little Pigs Episode. By focusing on a single character each day, children get to practice what they learned the day before while learning new skills. The constant ability to practice is what enables kids to hone their skills.
If you are curious about the new literacy activities that PBS has created to accompany the Three Little Pigs episode as part of Learning with SuperWhy, visit Amy over at TeachMama. Amy is a teacher- reading specialist – mom – blogger who has three children of her own (ages 5, 3 1/2, and 2) and has been trying the new lessons with her own children throughout the week. On her TeachMama site you can find a run down of activities for Days 1 and 2 (with the other days to come!) along with the instructional methods used with her children, an account of how she’s modified the activities, and a very honest account of how she perceives the activities as a mom and teacher. Amy’s PBS Love posts are awesome resources but so is the rest of her site! If you have young learners in your house and are looking for ways to incorporate a fun and easy little lesson into each day, check out all of Amy’s great ideas. I’m constantly amazed at what she’s doing at home with her three children!
And if you are true SuperWhy Super Fans, you won’t want to miss the Hurray for Heroes, a special 2 hour SuperWhy marathon on Memorial Day. On May 25 celebrate heroes with SuperWhy and see 2 new episodes along with 2 favorites! Watch the Super Readers tackle problems using the plots from new episodes of George and the Dragon and The Swiss Family Robinson. For more information and a summary of the episodes, click here.Thanks for reading Tech Savvy Mama through your feed!
Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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Thanks for the great post! I came across your blog while researching a PBSkids entry to my blog (www.kiddesktop.com/blog). My kids are 4.5 and 6.5, and they love PBSkids.org, too!