Learn Vocabulary with WordGirl
WordGirl is one of several current PBS shows that have a main educational focus on language arts. The specific educational focus of WordGirl is vocabulary. While it is not exactly unique in its educational focus, the format of the show certainly makes it stand out as unique from the other vocabulary teaching shows, such as Martha Speaks.
The main character of the show is Becky, who is a fifth grader with a large vocabulary and has a secret life as the super hero named WordGirl. In the show she leads her life as a regular girl and also ends up fighting villians. Some episodes seem to have more WordGirl appearances while other episodes she ends up mostly being Becky. The action packed super hero parts thus really vary to lots of good vs. bad scenes to sometimes very little. Most of the battles end up involving word fights, i.e. there is not too much violence in this super hero show, which is a good thing since the target audience is early grade school kids. In the battles or other scenes at least two new key words end up being defined in an appropriate context, which really helps kids learn new words much better than a spelling/vocab book that most schools solely rely on.
Overall I think this is a good show for its target audience of kids ages 6 to 8, but personally I do not get the entertainment grab. However, I never have been much into superhero shows, so that is a personal bias. I do realize that many kids do like super hero stuff and thus I think this show does a good job of entertaining those types of kids and at the same time teach them some new words.
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
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November 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
[...] Elections coming up it is a very appropriate time for there to be an Election themed episode of WordGirl. I had the honor of previewing this episode and below is a brief recap of it. Overall I found it do [...]