Tot TV Watch

Welcome to this week’s edition of Beyond Watching the Show, where I give some ideas of activities for kids that enjoy a particular show that go beyond just watching the show. If you have more ideas of activities for this show please comment and share your ideas. Also, please comment here if you have a request of a show to feature in an upcoming edition of Beyond Watching the Show.

Horseland Coloring Pages: The Kewlopolis site for the show has two coloring pages. One is of Chloe Chili and the other is of Sara Scarlett.

Horseland.com: This is a virtual pet site devoted just to horses. The show is loosely based on the site and in return part of the site is based on the show. On the site you can raise a horse and compete with it. You can have a free account, but there is also premium accounts for $29.90 a year, which allow you do take advantage of all the sites features. A premium account certainly is not necessary to enjoy the site and definitely do not purchase it until you know your kids enjoy the site and it something they are likely to still play on during their allowed Internet time. I personally have not played on the site, so not too sure if it is worth paying to play on. I tried to register for the site (free account, of course, as you cannot even pay until opening a free account first), but the page kept timing out. This unresponsiveness/slowness of the site just in registering does not give me the best impression of the site, but perhaps it runs fine once you have an account.

Care Bears: Grizzle-Ly Adventures is the most recent Care Bears movie release. This DVD has two new episodes of the new Care Bears TV Show that airs on CBS on Saturday mornings. The DVD may not have any special features, but it does have good original episodes that have not been shown on television yet.

Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot is the improved animated come back of the Care Bears. This DVD can be enjoyed by both the new generation of Care Bear fans and old fans of the Original Care Bears, however some old time Care Bear fans that have not been following the new series on television do appear to be confused about Oopsy Bear. For those who are confused about Oopsy Bear, then you really should first check out the Oopsy Does It Care Bears Movie, which I believe was the first movie done with the Care Bears animation look, i.e. CGI.

The two episodes on this DVD are Emma’s Dilemma and Broken. In Emma’s Dilemma a human character is brought into the show and the Care Bears befriend her as she helps the Care Bears find their lost items that Grizzle had stolen. The style of this episode with a human girl in some ways connects to how the old Care Bears series used to help animated kids learn to care in the plots. In Broken the robot, Wingnut, is broken and Share ends up causing trouble for the Care Bears by enlisting Grizzle to fix the robot instead of her sharing part of her necklace for Grumpy to fix him.

Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot is the updated graphics version of the 1980s Care Bears. It brings back many of the same characters from the original Care Bears in much improved animation for a new generation of kids to enjoy. It airs on many CBS stations as part of their Saturday morning cartoons. This Saturday, February 23, the episode is new. The name of the two mini episodes are “Two of a Kind” and “Stand Up and Cheer.” Check your local TV Guide listings here to find if and when it airs on your local CBS Station (for most stations it airs at 7am or 10am).

Care Bears continues to be an educational show that kids can love, especially girls. The show teaches about a specific emotional or social concept in every episode, such as sharing. The new Care Bears’ show website for parents even has some Teaching Moment guides for past episodes. These guides have a video clip of the episode and a PDF guide with an episode summary, learning objectives for the episode, an activity or craft, and discussion questions. The Teaching Moments video clips and links to download the teaching guides can be found here. These are especially helpful when the Saturday episode is a repeat because you can plan ahead to watch the whole episode (much better than only basing the teaching moment on a video clip) and then do the activity. You can see what episode is airing by checking TV Guide listings for the show here. For example, March 1st the episode is a repeat of Ice Creamed and Heat Wave. There is a Teaching Moments guide for the Heatwave part of the episode that involves coloring a whale and learning about fears and overcoming them.

American Greetings Properties and DIC Entertainment have teamed up to launch a new Saturday morning programming block on CBS.  The block will feature new updated versions of Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake, as well a brand new series called Sushi Pack.

Viewers can expect to see 52 new 11-minute episodes of Care Bears.  All of your favorite characters from Care-A-Lot will be there with an updated contemporary look.

Strawberry Shortcake will delight little girls everywhere with her sense of adventure and joy.  There will be 26 22-minute episodes in the Saturday morning series.

Sushi Pack, the new animated series for kids ages 6-11, features five crime-fighting pieces of sushi.  The members of the Sushi Pack aim to protect Wharf City from villains in 52 action-packed 11-minute episodes.

Jeffrey Conrad, Senior Vice President, Creative for American Greetings Properties states, “We are excited about bringing the new look of Care Bears to another generation of kids, as well as introducing the brand new Sushi Pack and showcasing our timeless Strawberry Shortcake through this new programming.”

The three new series will compliment CBS’s existing programming beginning in September 2007.

American Greetings Properties, DIC Entertainment, CBS, Saturday morning, Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Sushi Pack, Jeffrey Conrad