Curriculum: K-3

Between the Lions examples:
Songs and poems help kids hear the sounds in words:

• Limericks spotlight simple rhyming words.
• Tongue twisters spotlight initial consonant sounds (alliteration).
• Other poems, songs, and wordplay draw attention to rhyming and other sound patterns (examples: "Quack, Quack!" poem, "What's Your Name" songs, Dixie Chimps songs, Arty Smartypants in Play with Words).

Between the Lions examples:
Arty Smartypants in Play with Words shows how a word changes when you take away the initial consonant or syllable.

Between the Lions examples:
The knights in Gawain's Word and the football players in Blending Bowl charge together, saying their separate sounds until they blend to make a word.

Between the Lions examples:
Fred Says segments and blends the sounds in words, stretching and bouncing them, to help viewers hear the sounds.

Fred sings "Get Your Mouth Moving" to inspire viewers to try similar wordplay.

Between the Lions examples:
The "At the Library" song showcases all the letters while singing about the treasures to be found at the library.

The song "Upper and Lower Case" shows the difference between capital and small letters.

Other segments present the names of letters and their sounds:

• Limericks
• Martha Reader and the Vowelles
• Vowel Boot Camp
• Words Beginning with...
• "What's Your Name" Songs

Between the Lions examples:
Word Morph animations show how adding, deleting, and substituting the letters in a word change its sounds.

Fred slowly says the sounds that go with letters/words that appear on screen.

The Vowelles reinforce short vowel sounds.

Songs spotlight the sounds of especially tricky letters:

• "The Two Sounds Made by C"
• "The Two Sounds Made by G"
• "Hung Up on H"
• "Q without U"
• "W Trouble"
• "Sometimes Y"
• "Troubled by Letter Y"

Between the Lions example:
A Key Word selected for each episode helps organize and focus instruction.

A series of related segments provides multiple examples of letter-sound correspondence.

Between the Lions examples:
Each short-vowel sound is featured in multiple episodes.

In most episodes, a specific Key Word such as "ram," "hen," "pig," "hop," or "cub" take center stage. Songs point out the spelling patterns and short vowel sounds in the Key Words, for example:

• "A Between Two Consonants" song
• "E Between Two Consonants" song
• "Sometimes Y" song
• "If You Can Read" songs
• "CV- Songs"

Between the Lions examples:
Songs, Gawain's Word, Blending Bowl, Fred Says, and many animated segments reinforce these skills:

• "Shush" song
• "We Choose to Cha Cha Cha" song
• Dixie Chimps song "Goodbye, Chick"
• Gawain's Word (eg., chase)
• Blending Bowl (eg., whirl)
• Fred (eg., chimp, whoosh, sticky, shake)
• Word Morphs
• Frog Blends (eg., cap vs. clap)
• Words Beginning with...(ch, sh, th)

Between the Lions examples:
"Silent e" animation, Vowel Boot Camp, and specific episodes have focused on CVCe words, long vowels (digraphs), and r-controlled vowels such as "ar," "er/ir," and "or."

Several songs have focused on these areas as well, such as:

• "Double o, oo" (as in "hoop")
• "Double e, ee"
• "When Two Vowels Go Walking"
• "A-R Song"
• Dixie Chimps: "Home Is Where Long o Is," and "Double o Heaven" (as in "cook")

Between the Lions examples:

• Arty Smartypants points out word patterns.
• Vowel Boot Camp introduces explicit phonics rules.
• Fred and Dr. Ruth show syllable segmentation and blending.

Between the Lions examples:
Segments reinforce common spelling patterns.

• Limericks and "If You Can Read" songs introduce word families.
• Dr. Nitwhite sorts out patterns and exceptions.

Between the Lions examples:
Segments use Key Words in simple text:

• Short Story Time with Arty Smartypants features beginning reader books.
• Cliff Hanger uses the featured sounds and words from an episode in a new context.
• Chicken Jane writes related words.

Between the Lions examples:
Dynamic highlighting of read-aloud text demonstrates fluent pacing and phrasing.

Repetition of predictable, rhythmic, and rhyming text inspires viewers to read along with stories and segments, and to sing along with songs.

Between the Lions examples:
Simple, predictable, repetitive text helps learners gain momentum:

• Chicken Jane's opening theme song encourages viewers to sing along.
• Cliff Hanger repeats opening and closing text, permitting viewers to read along fluently.
• Short Story Time with Arty Smartypants features simple storybooks with repeated and predictable text.

Between the Lions example:
The songs "Ten Small Words" and "Ten Little Words" spotlight the 20 most frequent words in English, and help viewers recognize these words quickly.

Between the Lions examples:
We list books related to specific episodes and to themes and skills covered in various episodes.

Our Web games encourage viewers to practice reading and perfect their decoding skills.

Between the Lions examples:
Targeted vocabulary words appear in every episode:

• Cleo, Theo, Click the Mouse, Synonym Sam, and other characters explain word meanings and give synonyms.
• Songs such as "The Many Meanings of Cool," "Homophones," "Humongous," and "Fabulous" illustrate specific word meanings.
• The Opposite Bunny illustrates the difference between antonyms like raw/cooked, asleep/awake, and loud/quiet.

Between the Lions examples:
Leona frequently asks the meanings of words she encounters in books and conversations.

Word parts (affixes) are featured in songs and skits:

• The un People and re People dramatize prefixes.
• The Trampolini Brothers highlight comparative and superlative endings.
• Arty Smartypants and Fred illustrate compound words.
• Songs such as "It's Over Now" (-ed ending) and "Without an S" showcase word endings.

Between the Lions example:
Featured vocabulary in an episode is used in multiple contexts, such as the read-aloud story, Word Morphs, Fred Says, Gawain's Word, Cliff Hanger, and songs.

Episodes and segments remain constant, and the videotape medium permits unlimited repetition.

Between the Lions examples:
A wide variety of contexts is presented in wholes (books/stories) and parts.

A segment called "If You Were..." provides nonfiction information about the featured subject, building additional context and exposing viewers to new vocabulary.

A segment featuring talk show host Joy Learno models ways of learning new content through conversation.

The Information Hen, in a segment called "All About Everything ... One Thing at a Time," responds to questions and introduces vocabulary on a wide range of topics linked to specific episodes, such as sleep, being scared, pets, snails, and being patient.

Sophisticated oral language is often explained.

Between the Lions examples:
The Lion family engages in purposeful, active reading, showing the many reasons to read and write:

• Some episodes focus on following written directions, writing notes, letters, and signs.
• Some segments demonstrate reading for different purposes: What's Cooking? (recipes), Cliff Hanger and The Lone Rearranger (instructions), Chicken Jane (warnings).

The lions enter books to question characters, and characters come out of books for discussion and development in the library:

• Cleo goes Between the Covers in "The Lion and the Mouse" and "Bear Snores On."
• Characters and objects come out of books and into the library in several episodes, such as "The Popcorn Popper," "The Lucky Duck, and "The Problem with Chickens."

A variety of text structures and genres is presented:

• Children's books
• Diaries
• Easy readers
• Fables and folktales
• Magazine and newspaper articles
• Mysteries
• Myths
• Nonfiction
• Poetry
• Recipes
• Serials

Between the Lions examples:
The lions (and other characters) demonstrate comprehension strategies of self-monitoring, predicting, summarizing, questioning, rereading, and connecting text to life experience:

• The cubs predict what a story might be about based on the title and the cover illustration.
• The lions often talk about what a story was about and review parts they didn't understand.
• Theo repeats the instructions in a video about how to bake bread to help him remember the recipe.
• Pigeons object to "The Fox and the Crow" and create a version of their own.
• The lions have conversations with characters from the books they read.
• The lions often re-enact parts of the story in the library, such as playing the instruments in "What Instrument Does Alvin Play?" or listening to an egg after reading "An Egg Is Quiet."

Between the Lions example:
Segments model self-monitoring for understanding and fix-up strategies:

• Sam Spud
• Lone Rearranger
• Punctuation