SUPER WHY!, the highly rated, award-winning PBS KIDS television program that has a positive impact on preschoolers by “redefining literacy in educational programming,” has a playdate with kids and parents nationwide, at Toys “R” Us stores on Saturday, June 13, 2009, 12 noon to 2 p.m.
The afternoon’s activities will be fun-packed with reading-focused games, such as SUPER WHY Bingo; coloring activities; story telling; and complimentary gifts, along with SUPER WHY premiums and coupons for adults, while supplies last.
The event coincides with the highly anticipated roll out of SUPER WHY learning tools and toys brought to the marketplace by Learning Curve Brands, Inc., a high quality toy manufacturer whose products are modestly priced at Toys “R” Us.
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Peter Henseler, President of Learning Curve said, “We have been receiving inquiries from parents for months wondering when they’ll be able to purchase SUPER WHY products for their children. We are pleased to now offer them a line of SUPER WHY toys that will not only be fun for kids, but will also help boost their reading abilities.”
The SUPER WHY literacy based curriculum covers letter Identification; word decoding; word families; rhyming encoding; spelling; beginning handwriting skills; reading; reading comprehension, and vocabulary, and is offered on local PBS television stations in an engaging fashion as games, interwoven into stories and presented by characters such as superhero “Alpha Pig,” the little pig that has alphabet power.
As part of the success of the program, children are encouraged to interact with the characters, and it is the interactivity that is the key component to children gaining literacy skills, as it is a combination of watch and play, while ultimately practicing and reinforcing the key skills that are presented.
Individual episodes of SUPER WHY are methodically constructed to build the curriculum from the easiest skills to the hardest that three to six-year-olds can comfortably grasp.
Samantha Freeman, President of Consumer Products for Out of the Blue Enterprises and Co-Creator and Executive Producer of SUPER WHY said, ”Learning Curve has created a terrific collection of toys that beautifully translates the power of reading that is presented in each episode of the SUPER WHY TV series, into an engaging and learning-filled play experience.”
Out of the Blue Co-Founder, Angela C. Santomero, M.A. developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Creator of SUPER WHY summed it up best when she said, “With SUPER WHY we want to give parents, caregivers and educators a reason to turn ON the television. The literacy-focused mission of the program is even more important today than ever and we are proud to know that SUPER WHY is doing its part to realize the crucial goal of ensuring that every child becomes a successful reader.”
Research studies, funded in part by a U.S. Department of Education’s Ready to Learn Grant shows a direct correlation between children’s viewing SUPER WHY and significant gains in early reading skills among preschoolers, with children from low income families benefiting most.
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