Dear Parents,

 

What if YOU had the power to decide which children’s shows get made?

 

Now you get the chance.

 

As someone who creates educational shows for a living, I always want to hear from our audience as to what they are looking for in a show.

Parents told us they want a show that would educate their kids while making them laugh.

Preschool teachers wanted a show to have elements of the best curriculum you would find in a classroom.

Kids, themselves, told us they want to be part of the story.

 

And we listened.

 

Listening to our audience is a huge part of our secret sauce. It enables us to shape our vision and create shows that have a strong mission: To challenge, empower, and build the self-esteem of preschoolers, all while making them laugh.

Amazon Studios is listening,too!

They are giving parents & kids the opportunity to view 6 children’s pilots.  The shows that the audience wants will be green lit for production series!

Here’s what I love about this process. I love that, as creators, Amazon believes in our vision with regard to what a “show on creativity” would look like and encourages us to push the limits on what this would look like or how much parents would want and appreciate a math show with a strong GIRL lead character!

And now YOU can tell us what you think.

Two of our shows, Creative Galaxy & Sara Solves It, are in this batch for you to view. Here’s a little bit about each:

 

Creative Galaxy

We had the vision and desire to showcase creative thinking and the arts in a program for preschoolers. We know that kids today need to expand their thinking to push their creativity and embrace new ways to learn. What better of a way to explore a child’s creative mind than to have them jump in and soar through a Creative Galaxy? As an interactive series, the kids at home are part of the show.

 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Arty, a creative preschool alien, lives in the Creative Galaxy (a galaxy made up of different art inspired planets) with his mom, dad, baby sister, and his shape shifting side kick, Epiphany. Arty explores the Creative Galaxy, soaring to the Museum Planet and the Painting Planet (and many more arts based planets in future episodes) to “fix situations with art!”.

In this pilot episode, Arty’s mom, an architect, built a library but no one will stay and read. Why? The library is..well..blah. Arty has an idea that will save the day! He will fix the library with art!

Will he do it?

Will the local aliens stay to read?

You will have to watch to find out!

Oh, and wait until you hear the theme song – – don’t say I didn’t warn you when it gets stuck in your head!

NOTE: Creative Galaxy is a work in process – it is presently a colored story board of sketches that tells the story with voice overs, music and minimal art (And, yes, I know how funny that is, since this is an ART show!)

 

Sara Solves It

The vision for Sara Solves It is to create a strong female role model who uses math to solve mysteries. She does so with her little brother, Sam. Together, Sara and Sam explore their apartment building in NYC to be on the look out for mysteries.

 

We tested and re-tested this concept, working with our Out of the Blue research team and Dr. Herb Ginsburg, math specialist from Teachers College, Columbia University to ensure that kids are learning the math strategies that they can use for their own work. The math strategies are done to catchy music and visuals to help kids actively participate in the math to not only learn but MASTER the concepts! Hurray for math!  Hurray for girls and math!

 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

In this first episode, Sam’s beloved stuffed rabbit, Rocket, is missing.

Oh no!

Sara must solve the mystery.

And, did I tell you that the apartment building is run by math? Of course it is! The elevator, who is actually quite the character, gives equations to figure out where she is going next. And it’s up to Sara, Sam and the preschool kids at home to figure it out and SOLVE THE MYSTERY!

Through Sara’s Kindle, they go inside MATH WORLD and visually solve the math problem with music and figure out where to go next to solve the mystery and find Rocket.

Let’s face it, a lot of you sing my Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood songs. And I swear you’ll be singing these math songs, too!

 

Please check out Creative Galaxy & Sara Solves It at Amazon Studios and if you feel that your kids would benefit from either (or dare I say, both), please leave a comment on either one (or both)!

 

I would love to continue to make shows for your kids that educate, make them giggle and allow them to be a part of inspiring stories.

 

xo,

Angela

Angela is a regular contributor on Bonbon Break.

To get a taste of her work and to learn more about her, click here.