What to Watch: Fun Shows for the Kids

With this coronavirus pandemic causing people to be stuck at home, it is inevitable that people will be watching more television. While I have been sharing our fun picks for the grown ups, I also have some picks for the little darlings in your life. some shows are educational, some are fun, but there is something for everyone!

Check it out below!

CoComelon:

CoComelon features more than 500 videos and 150 original nursery rhyme-style songs incorporating extremely relatable, teachable moments for preschoolers and their families that can help make daily routines – such as naptime, bedtime, cleaning up, and taking a bath – go a little smoother. There’s even a catchy and very topical tune about the importance of washing your hands and being “in the clean hands club.” New CoComelon videos are rolling out all the time – with songs about a loose tooth, the alphabet and story-time soon to come – and parents are sure to find them useful, too!

The videos, which feature a super-cute character named JJ, an adorable family and a colorful cast of 20+ characters, bring topics to life in a fun and easily understandable way, which is why the channel is SO popular and has become a go-to resource for parents everywhere. In addition to helping preschoolers learn letters, numbers, animal sounds, colors, and more, the upbeat videos gently impart prosocial life lessons, providing parents with an opportunity to teach and play with their children as they watch together.

NATURE has made a wide range of documentaries available to stream for free on fascinating topics ranging from Yosemite to horses, volcanos to Arctic wolves. And there are free NATURE educational resources and lessons for parents and educators availablehere. New episodes of the award-winning series kicked off in April with the premiere ofCuba’s Wild Revolution!

Great Performances is lifting the curtain on some of its most popular Broadway productions for theater fans to stream, including Noël Coward’s Present Laughter, featuring a Tony-winning performance from Kevin Kline; Much Ado About Nothing starring Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman; the beloved classic, The Sound of Music; and Alfred Molina as artist Mark Rothko in Red. In addition, classical offerings such as Now Hear This: Vivaldi: Something Completely Different and The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood will be music to the ears of fans from coast to coast. And to help parents keep the learning going strong while their kids are at home, PBS LearningMedia features free educational resources for a number of Great Performancesshows, including Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar and The Hollow Crown

ALL ARTS features an incredible array of cultural offerings that are always free to stream on allarts.org and via the ALL ARTS app, including full live theatrical performances likeKing Lear (starring James Earl Jones and Raul Julia) and The Soap Myth (featuring Ed Asner and Tova Feldshuh); concerts like Sam Smith / Anderson East; numerous ballets that will delight dance aficionados such as Romeo and Juliet, Balanchine’s Jewels at the Mariinsky Theatre, Alexander Ekman’s “A Swan Lake” – and many more; documentaries on luminaries such as Toni Morrison, Dorothea Lange and Josef Albers; and fun series of digital shorts like Broadway Sandwich and Famous Cast Words

American Masters presents Unladylike2020, a brand-new multimedia series airing on theAmerican Masters YouTube channel. Narrated by Julianna Margulies and Lorraine Toussaint, the series of 26 short films spotlights unsung women who changed the course of history. They feature gorgeous animation – and are fun and informative as well! The first five films are streaming now with a new short rolling out every Wednesday through August. Streaming free for National Poetry Month, the award-winning arts and culture biography series has documentaries on Edgar Allan Poe, N. Scott Momaday and Carl Sandburg. For families and educators, PBS LearningMedia also has great resources forUnladylike2020.

Take on Fake, a new YouTube series that debunks claims seen or shared online to show people how to stay informed. Host Hari Sreenivasan (PBS NewsHour Weekend, Amanpour and Company) follows the Internet rabbit hole of COVID-19 misinformation, reading beyond a single headline to find credible sources to uncover the truth. Watch the first episode, “COVID-19 Fake Cures and False Diagnoses,” nowand subscribe for weekly episodes.

WNET At Home Learning resources for the New York metro area and state of New Jersey:

- NJTV, New Jersey’s public television network, in partnership with the NJEA and theNew Jersey Department of Education, launches a new series of on-air instruction called NJTV Learning Live, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. beginning today for grades 3-6, taught by NJ public school teachers.

- WLIW21 and WLIW WORLD have newly expanded K-12 At Home Learning resources with new weekday programming schedules to better serve students in the New York metro area who are homebound during the COVID-19 pandemic. These daily, free over-the-air broadcasts focus on all major school subjects. Visit wnet.org/education for schedulesand accompanying resources for educators and families..

- WNET Education has activities, tips on making TV time learning time, PBS LearningMedia resources, and games from Mission US, an interactive way to learn American history, to award-winning PBS KIDS series Cyberchase that covers STEM subjects, and more for families and educators.

- Live streaming: Watch programming live on THIRTEEN, WLIW21 and NJTVwebsites, anytime, anywhere you have an internet connection in the station viewing area for free.

April 2020 – Earth Day All Month Long on Kabillion and Kabillion Girls Rule!

Kabillion and Kabillion Girls Rule! are celebrating Earth Day all April long with special featured offerings including:

Kabillion

Sonic X: Trick Sand
The crew of the Blue Typhoon go emerald hunting on a deserted planet.

Sonic X: Underground
Sonic and the gang go exploring another earth-like planet.

Transformers: Nature Calls
Prowl, Bumblebee and Sari get more than they bargained for when they head out to the remote woods to investigate a mysterious energy signal.