As sunlight fills the days after 15 months of COVID-19, we’re looking forward to an engaging and exciting summer. To ensure that your children continue to learn while they’re on break, we created FableVision’s Summer Camp—a compilation of resources, including educational animated series, games, softwares, and videos.
Help your children have a fun summer by supporting their creativity, sparking their imagination, and encouraging their interest in new things. Whether they enjoy animals, engineering, or meteorology (just to name a few)—we’ve got you covered with a variety of free/low-cost activities that can be enjoyed by your family!
PBS KIDS Parent Activities Videos
Saturn’s rings, puzzle boxes, Yup’ik dance fans, and more—these live-action videos produced for PBS KIDS’ website for parents provide fun and educational crafts to create with your children using household materials and art supplies. In tandem with their favorite PBS KIDS shows, like Molly of Denali or Elinor Wonders Why, families can complete hands-on activities, while learning about central themes of the shows and discussing important questions. Grab your crayons, glue, and scissors and follow the easy steps in the videos—it’s time to make butterfly costumes and periscopes.
The instructional videos are available for free on PBS KIDS for Parents.
The Paper Girls Show
How about a summer trip to Confetti, a beautiful world built entirely out of paper? In the FableVision and Global Tinker animated series The Paper Girls Show, best friends Cailey and Reese travel to Confetti to visit their paper friends Kami and Dev. Together they creatively invent solutions applicable to the real world. Each episode features a new type of technology, such as 3D printers and robots, and the series infuses STEAM curricula that inspires young girls to explore arts, science, programming, and engineering.
Watch the series for free on YouTube.
UCAR Animated Atmosphere
As summer brings heat waves and hurricanes to New England, help your children understand the weather by watching Animated Atmosphere videos, created for University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). To describe extreme weather and how to stay safe, the animated videos feature a weatherman yeti showing cold weather conditions, a dog demonstrating how to take care of pets, and a palm tree illustrating the effects of tropical storms. Humor, cute visuals, and an approachable script allow children to understand weather phenomena and get introduced to discussions on climate change.
The videos are available on UCAR’s YouTube.
FableVision Games
FableVision Games, a research- and educational-game-based platform, engages students and improves their learning outcomes in STEM, social studies, literacy, and social-emotional skills. Math, history, puzzles, and more—FableVision Games has something for any child’s interest.
Cyberchase Fractions Quest: Deepen your understanding of fractions by embarking on an adventure to save Cyberspace from the villain Hacker. Created in collaboration with THIRTEEN/WNET New York Public Media and Educational Development Center’s Center for Children and Technology, the immersive math game uses a series of quest-like challenges to keep students engaged.
Zoombinis: Help small, blue creatures escape evil Bloats and return to Zoombiniville by playing Zoombinis. Created in partnership with TERC, a not-for-profit leader in K-12 math and science education, the math and logic game teaches computational thinking through a series of puzzles.
Civics! An American Musical: In preparation for the Fourth of July, brush up on U.S. history and create a Broadway musical from scratch in Civics! An American Musical. By teaming up with the Library of Congress, Maryland Public Television, Maryland Humanities, and Tufts’ Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), FableVision created a game where middle-school students have fun analyzing primary sources while learning how to become responsible citizens.
The games are available on the FableVision Games website—play for free through June.
Echo Explorers
Speaking of Cyberchase, Hacker is up to his usual tricks. He trapped some bats and the CyberSquad needs your help to free them. Created in partnership with THIRTEEN/WNET and Bridge Multimedia, Echo Explorers, a born-accessible game, follows guidelines from child disability, math, and environmental science content experts. It can be tailored to each child’s unique learning needs and sensitivities through settings in sound, captions, background visuals, difficulty, and control modes. Children of all abilities learn about echolocation and coordinate mapping with their favorite characters from the PBS KIDS show.
The game is available on PBS KIDS.
Go Wild! With Ranger Rick
Who can better excite children about wildlife than the beloved raccoon Ranger Rick? The FableVision-created mobile app for National Wildlife Federation (NWF)’s Ranger Rick teaches 4-8-year-olds about animals through three activities. In “That’s Wild!,” children engage through jokes and riddles about their favorite animals. In “Mystery Animal,” a set of clues helps children guess the unknown animal. Lastly, in “Rick’s Pix,” children create a scrapbook of animal photos decorated with stickers, frames, and nature backgrounds. The app excites children through fun activities, vibrant colors, and NWF’s extensive database of information. Next time you’re at the zoo, aquarium, or backyard, learn more about the animals you see through Go Wild! With Ranger Rick.
The app is free to download with a Ranger Rick subscription.
Reach Every Reader Apps
Help your young children begin their literacy journey! FableVision-created mobile apps, Photo Play and Animal Antics, for Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE)’s Reach Every Reader initiative, turn everyday routines into learning opportunities for 2-4-year-olds. In Photo Play, children decorate their own photos with stickers, emojis, and talk balloons, which helps them facilitate conversations with caregivers about the photo memories, locations, and details. In Animal Antics, children and caretakers use their imaginations to role-play as different animals. Reach Every Reader works to bridge the literacy gap by providing learning opportunities and word acquisition in low-income families.
The apps are available to download for free.
FabMaker Studio
Spark your child's interest in engineering through FabMaker Studio, an easy-to-use, web-based program that allows children to engage in STEM and STEAM learning. From idea to reality, children build paper prototypes and final designs with this researched-based application. FabMaker Studio is part of the national Make To Learn research initiative, a unique for-profit/non-profit collaborative founded by Glen Bull, Co-Director of the Center for Technology and Teacher Education at the University of Virginia and The Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning, and Creativity.
The online-tool provides a low-cost, accessible way to design and invent 2D and 3D projects. As children progress through the program, they transform their creativity into building their own working machines. FabMaker is perfect for creating at home, in the classroom, and summer programs.
If you click here for more information, you can also receive a free activity!
