Our National UMIGO Day Checklist

Uuuuuuu-Meeeee-Goooooo! is what we can’t stop cheering this week. Why? Because, Saturday, Sept. 27, is National UMIGO (You Make It Go) Day, and we are stoked, but are we ready?

National UMIGO Day Checklist

1) Visit the UMIGO.com to learn about all things UMIGO

UMIGO.com is the place kids can learn, explore, play, and discover the fundamentals of math right alongside Bit, Dizzy, and Bean, the UMIGO crew. The FableVision-developed site showcases different appisodes that include math games, music videos, and animation. For the grownups, we’ve developed a portal that explains the pedagogy of UMIGO and offers more math resources.

2) Catch up on the UMIGO episoides on batteryPOP.com

UMIGO is now streaming on batteryPOP.com, a new online and mobile network for kids, featuring cartoons, comedy, music and more. Founded by veterans of Nickelodeon and Saban Brands, batteryPOP is a safe, engaging alternative to YouTube and lets kids discover premium short form content from a wide variety of creators.

3) Find a National UMIGO Day celebration

From Baltimore to New Orleans to San Jose, National UMIGO Day is celebrated in cities and towns across the country. During these celebrations, kids will be able to experience UMIGO’s interactive touch screen kiosks that will be stationed at many of the local venues. In addition to the online educational media, local venues will host a variety of off-screen activities, which could include:

• The Umiball Tournament, in which visitors play the same games they play on UMIGO.com at home. But now they play against one another, with the winning team moving on to play the next group. 
• UMIGO-inspired art projects, where kids can create and bring home their own artwork. 
• Wingspan, a communal art project in which children and adults mark their height and wingspan in a wall using colorful markers or colored pencils.

Find your local event by checking out UMIGO.com’s Community Partners Map and List of Community Partners. 

4) Dress like a UMI

We will leave that one to your imagination! Go on, have fun with it.

Celebrating in your city? Join the conversation on Twitter! Use the hashtags #NationalYouMakeItGoDay, #UMItower, #learning, #funandgames, #familyfun, and #math!

Hey hey hey: We love UMIGO!

Ninety eight percent of the world’s population has been or is currently afflicted by earworm. Don’t worry, it’s not as weird and scary as it sounds! Earworm also goes by the name of musical imagery repetition, stuck song syndrome, and involuntary musical imagery. Have you ever had a song stuck in your head for days on end, driving yourself (and whomever is around you) crazy with constant and repetitive singing of that one part of the chorus you remember? That’s earworm. Now imagine if it wasn’t some pop tune currently topping the iTunes charts, but was instead a song that taught you the difference between height and length or what numbers add up to 10. That has been my life with UMIGO, because I’ve got earworm and I’ve got it bad.

An educational program that features a wacky cast of characters and insanely catchy music videos, UMIGO partnered with FableVision to revamp their website. With content created exclusively for UMIGO.com, this DHX Media-based website is a place for kids to learn, explore, and play. Told in a series of narrative-driven “appisodes,” early elementary-school-aged students interact with the UMIGO crew -- Bit, Dizzy, and Bean -- through math games, music videos, and of course, animation.

In one appisode entitled “Nobody Rides the Soakster,” the user meets the characters in a quick intro animation and “ride the soakster” to the next adventure.

When the ride stops, kids can click on icons to replay the story, jump into the game, watch the music video, or move to the next appisode. Aligned to Common Core State Standards, the UMIGO site is filled with games and interactive content to encourage children to get excited about areas such as addition and measurements. FableVision also created a section of the website dedicated specifically to grown ups. This area allows parents and educators to learn more about the site, the company, and the pedagogy, and encourage both online and off-line iterations of the content.

Featuring beautifully rendered animations and UMIGO’s trademark humor, FableVision has created a website that lives and breathes edutainment. From their interactive games to their wacky music videos, FableVision and DHX Media have collaborated to make a truly fun and engaging experience. That is, as long as you don’t mind earworm.