Early Childhood News & Information

AAAEYC has new Web site
The Akron Area Association for the Education of Young Children (AAAEYC) has a new Web site! Visit www.aaaeyc.org to discover all of the great things that this organization does for our early childhood community. Be sure to check out the sections on conferences and programs!

FREE media literacy guides available
Visit the Arthur Web site at www.pbskids.org/arthur where you’ll find a collection of ten to 12 printable one-sheet guides are available to help educators launch discussions around the concepts of media literacy. Each guide is based on one Arthur episode, and the curriculum addresses issues of media literacy as well as related topics of purchasing power and peer pressure. Each guide also includes a set of lesson objectives, a quick-reference synopsis of the episode, a set of story-comprehension questions, suggestions for a guided discussion and an age-appropriate activity.

Look for PBS KIDS products in stores next fall; proceeds to benefit PBS KIDS programming
PBS KIDS will launch a cause-related license and marketing program extending PBS’s commitment to Ready To Learn and school-readiness. With the help of child development experts, the company will develop products and activities designed to stimulate a child’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive skills.

Proceeds from product sales will go to support PBS children’s programming. In addition, PBS is asking participating licensing and retailing partners to dedicate a portion of resulting proceeds to local PBS member stations.

These products extend PBS’s mission beyond the television screen and support skills necessary to build a solid foundation for learning. PBS research confirms that the PBS KIDS brand is one of the most trusted among parents, caregivers and teachers, and we are confident that the new product line will strengthen this trust by enhancing a child’s opportunity to learn, create and grow. Each product will be safe, creative and packaged with literature for parents and teachers about specific developmental skills.

The first products are scheduled to arrive in stores by September 2003. Categories under consideration include books, interactive products, toys, arts and crafts, science-based play sets, music, stationery, fashion accessories, apparel and infant stimulation products.

Look for new Cyberchase episodes this summer
Math rules in Cyberchase, a new animated adventure series. Cyberchase energizes kids (ages eight-eleven) with math power. Look for new episodes this summer on PBS 45 & 49.

Full of cyber-mysteries with eye-popping animation and a sly comic flair, the daily series features the voices of Christopher Lloyd and Gilbert Gottfried. Cyberchase sends the message that math is fun — math is about problem solving and, boy, does it come in handy. When the dastardly villain Hacker (Lloyd) launches a mad mission to conquer the virtual universe, Motherboard calls upon three Earth kids for help. They are Jackie, Matt and Inez — the culturally diverse heroes of Cyberchase — who, along with the wise-cracking cyber-bird Digit (Gottfried), travel from their real-world realm to the colorful virtual vistas of cyberspace, where they vanquish the bad guys in an all-out battle of wits. Each episode takes the kids on a thrilling adventure driven by a different math concept — from tackling time in ancient Egyptian tombs, to cracking codes in creepy caves, or making sense of numbers in a fractured fairy tale world.