Your path to what matters most in early learning
FLOWER is one of our Power Words – words that have special meaning to children. In every case, the Power Word is presented in a humorous animated story that kids love. Here an adorable swarm of very happy bees led by an energetic leader bee indulge in a nectar feast as only a happy bee on a flower can indulge. The video brings the word to life in a totally joyous way.
FAMILY is one of our Power Words – words that have special meaning for children which makes them words children are motivated to learn. Our Power Words are presented with short animated videos that are as lively as they are humorous. Here we get treated to a photo album depicting all kids of families from penguins, to birds, to elephants, to our own Nip and Nap to Red Riding Hood and her family and a recurring and ever-growing family of rabbits. At the end, children are encouraged to shout our “FAMILY” as the word makes its final showing.
DAD is one of our Power Words: words that resonant with children because they have an emotional impact. Each Power Word has a unique animated story where only one word is spoken, the Power Word, and the word is constantly displayed. This time the word is DAD. In the story, a baby lion wakes his sleeping DAD for a bit of play, but after a romp DAD and cub fall back to sleep together. This sweet, funny, lively short story reinforces the word DAD for beginning readers.
CAKE is one of our Power Words! Children are often excited to read words that have emotional meaning, so we’ve selected a handful of such words and then coupled them with humorous animated stories that reinforce the link between written words and spoken words. CAKE stars a waiter who is all-too-eager to please a customer by delivering slice after slice after hilarious slice of CAKE.
In this guess-along story, there is a wild animal hiding on each page. See if you can guess the animal with clues about where it lives, what it eats, and what it looks like. Then, pretend along with each animal and make the same sounds it makes. So, who is black and white and lives in a forest? Listen and read along to find out.
Writing the lowercase W turns out to be pretty easy if you know how to make uppercase W, because it's the same, only smaller, as our child narrator points out. Making the letter W, though, is merely a prelude to the letter story to come. The tale begins woefully as Winifred Whale hears William Walrus weeping. What’s wrong? William desperately wants to see what’s on the other side of a big wall, but he is afraid to climb over. Now he has Winifred curious also. Could there be waffles with whipped cream, wiggly worms or a weird wizard on the other side? They have to find out! Winifred has an idea—they should build a window. The two friends work hard, and soon they can look through their window and see what's on the other side of the wall. What do they see? A wonderfully wacky watermelon! Curiosity satisfied, William and Winifred wave goodbye to the wacky watermelon and wander off to play in the waves.
Meet the Letter T begins with a description of how to make an uppercase and lowercase T. Then we hear three words that will be in the story: turtle, turkey and tennis racket. How will they go together? Well, it seems that Trevor the turtle was playing tennis when a tennis ball broke through his tennis racket. How can he fix it? Tacos don’t work! Tulips don’t work! Tar only makes the tennis racket sticky! Theresa, the turkey, saves the day by showing up with a brand-new tennis racket just for Trevor. This improbable but totally amusing story give children many opportunities to hear words that begin with the letter T, which is precisely the point.
The letter S makes a sensational showing in our Meet the Letter S fully animated video. Our child narrator first describes how to form both uppercase and lowercase S, and then it's time for the story! Best friends, Sally the snake and Steven the seal, decide to build a spaceship so that they can visit a distant star. They gather supplies to construct a sparkly silver ship. Everything is super until the seats start slipping. Sam the sloth sssssssslooooowwwllly comes to assist, but before he arrives, Sally solves the problem, and off Sally and Steven blast, past the sun, and all the way to a spectacular star where they happily eat sandwiches. This story is a perfect showcase for the stellar, stupendous letter S.
The letter R comes roaring to life in our Meet the Letter R story. The tale stars Rosie who works at the robot factory. Her job is to put red robots together, but when a racecar rams into her box of red robot legs, Rosie has a real problem. Without red robot legs, how can she do her job? Rosie comes up with a brilliant solution. She makes a multicolored RAINBOW robot and names him Robert. Right away, Rosie realizes that Robert is a very special robot, and children are sure to agree. This celebration of the letter R is a great way to help any child connect to the 18th letter of the alphabet.
After seeing how to make both the uppercase and lowercase Q, we jump into a story about a queen, a quill and a quilt. How can those words ever fit together? Well, if you have a queen named Quincy who loves quilts, it turns out to be easy. Queen Quincy wants to make her own quilt. What does she need to make it? A quill! She goes on a quest to find her friend Quinton, the porcupine. When she finally finds him, she gives him a quarter for one of his quills. Now she can make a quilt for herself AND one for Quintin. There are Q-words galore in this short story, enough to help children build a link between this letter and its very special, but sometimes hard to remember, sound.
Peter, pirate, parrot, Peggy, Penelope, princess, penguin -- these are just a few of the words in this story that start with the letter P. It all begins when Peter the pirate and his parrot, Peggy visit Princess Penelope in her pink and purple palace. The P words don't stop there! Penelope is so enamored of Peggy that Peter comes up with a plan to get his friend a perfect pet. What pet does he find? A penguin! Pleased Penelope gives Peter and Peggy presents, and they all have a party. The story is positively joyous -- a treat for children -- and adults.
Here’s a story about the letter O! Oliver Ostrich and Oscar Owl decide to run an opposites obstacle course with Ozzie Octopus as the observer. This story highlights the letter O, but it is also a terrific way to help children learn about opposites since the opposites obstacle course has Oscar going up and Oliver going down, then Oscar goes over, and Oliver goes under, and finally, Oscar goes sssslllllooooowwww, and Oliver goes … you guessed it….fast! Great happiness for all when the course is done. At the very end, we get one more opposite pair: night and day. Night is coming and time for Oliver to sleep but not Oscar. He sleeps during the DAY!