PBS KIDS is committed to providing the highest quality programming and learning environment for children to stimulate their curiosity, encourage interaction and foster their imagination. PBS KIDS remains a leader in the industry enriching the lives of children across the country. Throughout their years of broadcasting, PBS KIDS has produced numerous "green" assets. Below are a few highlights.
Watch a series of eight short, funny videos to get thinking about the stuff you use and see every day and what it all can do to the environment. Learn how to reuse items like magazines and catalogs that are lying around your house, how to reduce the amount of garbage you produce a week by recycling and composting, just what happens to those juice boxes you have with lunch, and why you should not set any unwanted pets free in the wild. The videos also feature educational lessons, such as how Velcro came to be, and just where breakfast juice comes from. One video, "Happiness," even teaches kids about smart shopping. After learning about good "green" practices, see what ways you can come up with to help the environment!
On this interactive site about looking after the planet, kids can watch short cartoon adventures of this "green" family, and discover related eco-friendly games and news, read the blog, download iron-on green logos, and much more. Learn how and why to buy local, plant a fall garden, and conserve your resources. See just how green you are with the carbon footprint calculator. Play a memory game which gives you Outdoor Tips such as, "Follow a butterfly. See where it goes and what it does." Or download the "Light it Right" game on your iPhone to turn out lights in rooms that members of the family are not occupying.
The acclaimed kids' series website features two dozen green projects and activities submitted by kids from all over the U.S. Learn different ways to build a battery out of a lemon or water filters from household items. Make your own apple sauce, and mix your own ice cream from scratch. Recycle your old clothes into sweater mittens, and jean pocket bags. And take a poll of what you think it means to "be green."
Is it greener to recycle paper or reuse it? What's the greenest way to get to school? Find out in the Groovy Garden, an interactive game on the ARTHUR website, designed to get kids thinking about the environment and making environmentally friendly choices. The game is set in the Elwood City Community Garden and is hosted by Fritz, the community gardener (with appearances by Buster and Pal!) Test your green knowledge and win seeds to plant in the garden. With sun and water and some green answers, you can watch this groovy garden grow!
Everything Must Go!
Curious George and his Clean Machine could use some direction! In Everything Must Go!, kids can help George clean up his room while learning about potential reuses for things in their own homes. Is the laundry hamper, the toy basket or the book cart the correct place to recycle each toy, book or item of clothing offered up? Click on a spring to highlight a destination, or click on the destination itself to activate the Clean Machine, which then tosses the object into the chosen spot. Level two adds a recycling bin and level three, a compost bucket. In between rounds the kids learn where their sorted plastic bottles, egg shells, old boots and other objects end up: in a recycling truck, as fuel for the garden, at a homeless shelter, at the children's hospital or in the library.
Ruff Ruffman has a few games to help you better understand your environment. What does it mean to be green? These six "Go Green!" activities on the FETCH! website send kids on real world challenges to discover how much water, electricity, fuel, paper, bags, and trash they use. Kids collect data and report back to the site where, using a dynamic map, they can see who is using more or less by state and how they compare to the over-all average. Kids are encouraged to assume the role of scientist, using logical thought, memory and attention to detail, ultimately coming up with ways to reduce their own consumption.
On the creative side, Ruff has been exploring the imaginary Western reaches of Upper-Minutia, but he has disturbed the habitats of the animals there. He needs help figuring out who belongs where. In this Suess-meets-science feature, Ruff gives players a new challenge, each month, to Draw That Habitat for an imaginary animal, a white-bellied sneeloph, or the spotted venubix, for example. Use your imagination with a drawing tool, and create a habitat that provides food, water, shelter, and space for the animal that lives there. Submit your drawings to be posted on the FETCH website. The drawings are selected and then rated by online G-Team members, based on the inclusion in the drawing of the attributes of a habitat. There is a Gallery for visitors to check out and rate the drawings. Players can also print and save drawings to their desktops.
Design Squad Nation
This site is dedicated to getting kids excited about engineering, including how engineers work to help the environment. Watch kids solve "green" challenges in series episodes, like creating a pedal-powered mobile garden and recycling everyday materials into the next big invention. Meet inspiring "green" engineers like SeaWorld’s Jennifer Nakayama and package designer Jennifer Chua. Experience the connection between engineering and the environment hands-on by building eco-friendly projects like furniture made of paper and an animal-safe holder for soda cans. Kids can also share their own "green" invention ideas in the Projects section, a fully-moderated online community for young engineers.
My American Experience
We invite you to tell us your own stories - whether you lived through a tumultuous time period or learned about it from a relative, a book or a movie.