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SUPER WHY takes an innovative approach to learning by promoting reading as a powerful, meaningful experience for children aged 3 to 6 years old. We created the original show based on our expert knowledge of preschoolers' level of development, the entertaining features of television and the importance of a strong literacy curriculum. The interactive format encourages kids to actively participate in each episode. As they watch SUPER WHY they are completely absorbed in the adventure of the story while engaging in challenging games and activities. This format enables children to practice the critical skills that they need to learn to read. The unique balance between using interactivity to practice key literacy skills and telling engaging stories that make literacy relevant to children's own lives is a powerful new way to teach reading. SUPER WHY's educational goals meet high standards. SUPER WHY can be viewed and enjoyed on several levels. It's an entertaining series for preschoolers; it's an engaging conversation starter for parents, caretakers, teachers, and children as they watch together; and it's an important educational tool. The agenda of SUPER WHY promotes the key skills recommended by the National Reading . The literacy skills and interactive games are backed by scientific research and testing by a of experts. The educational goals of the show are:
Our goal is to give every child watching SUPER WHY the tools and the desire to read. By using relatable characters, familiar stories, interactive games, humor, and a sense of adventure in each story, we encourage kids to approach our literacy curriculum in an engaging way. Each episode of SUPER WHY exposes viewers to the elements of literacy that prominent reading researchers have deemed important to teach for this age: stories, characters, language development, vocabulary, letter identification, letter sounds, rhyming, word families, comprehension, and text. The foundation of the curriculum is that through interactivity and practice, preschoolers will learn to read and love to read. Because repetition helps kids master skills, simple concepts and strategies are repeated, both within each story and with multiple viewings of the same episode. This repetition gives kids a sense of empowerment as they watch and read. Interactivity = practice. Practice = learning. Interactivity is the key component we use to help kids gain literacy skills. In SUPER WHY, kids are both the audience and an integral part of the show. The literacy concepts are presented as games, interwoven into the stories. As kids watch and play, they practice key skills. The super hero characters also encourage interactivity. They look at, talk to, and directly engage viewers by repeating phrases or asking for input such as "When we have a question we look, (audience responds) in a book" or give "a big thumbs-up" for a job well done. Voicing their opinions makes kids feel smart and powerful, especially when they see how they impact the outcome of each story. We carefully pace interactivity throughout each episode so that the questions the viewers are asked and the games that are played require reasoning, basic reading practice, and ultimately, learning. Reading is power! SUPER WHY entertains children with engaging characters and situations while encouraging them to actively participate in each episode. We know that the entertainment aspect of television will initially draw kids to watch the show. But multiple testing of each episode and our well-researched curriculum has shown us that kids love to play the games. The games we developed for SUPER WHY underscore critical reading skills. Each game is hosted by a superhero character who makes the power of reading come alive: Alpha Pig.with Alphabet power! Letter Identification Alpha Pig uses his amazing Alphabet Tools to solve any problem. Beginning with singing a modern take on the familiar ABC song, viewers progress to identifying specific letters to overcome an obstacle. For example, the kids will be asked to find the letters in the word "wolf." Other games include finding the first letter of a word, matching letters, following a letter path and finding the next letter in a sequence of letters. Whether he uses his lucky letter lasso, mega magnifying glass or alphabet ladder, Alpha Pig's signature games encourage kids to master their alphabet skills. Wonder Red...with Word Power! Word Decoding; Word Families; Rhyming Using her "Wonder Words Basket," Wonder Red overcomes obstacles by rhyming and changing the words in simple word families, such as wall, ball, tall. Through these games, kids are taught a strategy for decoding words by sounding them out and noticing the same word endings. Wonder Red's catchy rhyming song also helps kids learn how to decode. Princess Presto...with Spelling Power! Encoding; Spelling; Beginning Handwriting Skills Princess Presto uses her Magic Spelling Wand to write words that then make something happen. For example, we spell "open" to open the drawbridge to the Giant's castle. Princess asks kids at home to identify the sounds of the letters and air write each letter with her. "Wands up! Spell with me!" is Princess' signature line that helps get kids spelling. Super Why...with the Power to Read! Reading, Reading Comprehension, and Vocabulary Super Why has the power to change each story and save the day! Using his "Why Writer," he writes word choices and then asks kids questions to find the word that they will zap into the sentence to fix it. For example, in the Humpty Dumpty story, Humpty is afraid to come down from the wall because of what it says in the classic tale: "Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." Super Why comes to the rescue by changing the sentence to get Humpty down from the wall safely. After reading the sentence, he asks kids to take out their "Why Writers" and zap new words in. In this instance, Super Why and the viewers ultimately choose the word "slide" to replace "fall." Super Why zaps "slide" into the sentence and Humpty Dumpty is safe! Because the "zapped" answers are also visual, kids immediately see the power that reading has. Super Why's games teach literacy concepts, vocabulary, sentence structure, fluency, and word identification. Super You...with the Power to Help! Concepts of Print; Theme Comprehension Super You, the home viewer, is the fifth-and most important-Super Reader. As an interactive show, Super Why and the Super Readers always need the help of kids at home to overcome the obstacles. This empowers kids because they are an integral part of the series. As preschoolers are learning to read, they realize that print has meaning; there is a difference between single letters and whole words; words are made up of letters and are separated by spaces; text is read left to right, top to bottom. As they engage in the activities in each episode, they see how these concepts work. Home viewers also help find Super Letters during the course of each story, which Super Why collects in his Super Duper Computer. The Super Letters form the Super Story Answer (in hangman style). This is the key to helping the Super Readers deal with the problem they had in Storybrook Village (and the underlying theme of the episode). Each episode of SUPER WHY is carefully constructed to build the curriculum from easiest to hardest skill. For instance, finding each Super Letter is a skill that even the youngest viewers can do. Identifying the Super Letters is a little bit more challenging. In that vein, figuring out and reading the Super Story Answer and applying it to the problem of the day is a theme comprehension exercise geared to challenge the oldest of our 3- to 6-year-old audience. SUPER WHY stories show that books are a resource for everyday learning. The narrative stories of SUPER WHY are based on classic fairy tales - with a SUPER WHY twist! By making the story content contemporary, age appropriate, and interactive, kids - and parents - can experience the stories in a new way. In each episode, the characters "fly into" a familiar tale to learn how to solve their problem. In every story viewers are encouraged to change a classic ending to remedy the problem. The power that this gives preschool viewers is an important learning tool. The seamless integration of the stories and the literacy content encourages preschoolers to learn beyond the words, focusing on relatable problems that are found in favorite books. Comprehension, abstract thinking, and inferences all come into play. Using a known story as a jumping off point for resolving a conflict also highlights the idea that books are a resource for everyday life situations. Hip Hip Hurray, the Super Readers save the day! Our extensive research, testing, and own experiences have shown us that when kids play, they learn. SUPER WHY makes learning fun. By teaching kids basic literacy skills using television, familiar fairy tales and interactive games, preschoolers are empowered with new tools to practice age-appropriate skills. With your encouragement, lots of practice and a little patience, you can help your child become life-long Super Readers. Super Readers.to the Rescue! |
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