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A grandfather nostalgically relates his boyhood memories of Christmas past to his grandson in this new adaptation of Dylan Thomas' classic story. Winner of the American Film and Video Festival 1988: Blue Ribbon, Literary Adaptations for Young Adults.
A second-grader's experiences during a day without numbers cause him to want to study arithmetic and to realize the value of numbers in his everyday living. All the class but Bob enjoy arithmetic. When a puppet with magic powers offers Bob a day without numbers, he gladly leaves the classroom with the puppet. A series of frustrating experiences caused by the magical disappearance of numbers, such as the disruption of an exciting baseball game, results in Bob's gladly returning to the classroom and the study of arithmetic.
Describes the ways in which a newspaper brings information and service to a community and traces a news story and advertisement from their beginnings to their publication in the paper. Follows the reporting of the arrival of a baby elephant for the city zoo and shows the step-by-step process including the writing, editing, typesetting, proofing, printing, and delivery of the paper in which the story appears. Shows the variety of news sources, special features, and services the newspaper must use each day. | Shows how the daily newspaper is published and explains the work of each department.
Rain does not always evaporate immediately after falling. Dora tells a story of some raindrops with the help of Mr. Robinson's illustrations of some raindrops who had a series of adventures on their way to a distant lake where they learned how to do the "dance of the happy spray."
Bash spends a day with the animals of the zoo, visiting some zoo favorites and learning about the men who work in the zoo. Songs include “Animal Fair,” “Goat and the Train” and “Fooba Wooba John.”
Audience learns how to make an ant puppet of varying size. In the Make Do Theatre play, the story of Archibald Ant is told. After playing baseball, he eats too much honey and his stomach gets really big. After it goes down in size, he vows to never tell anyone what happened.
Fignewton Frog (puppet) and Dora (person) conduct an art contest. Puppet children are shown working on their painting, sculpture and collage submissions. Viewers are encouraged to make art of their own. The episode concludes with selection of a contest winner.
Fignewton’s Newspaper is conducting an art contest, which in part consists of having the children guess the titles of well-known paintings and guess how other art objects are made.
Fignewton Frog (puppet) and Dora (person) tell the story of the Caddis Fly using a "Make - Do Theatre" style, which requires the storyteller to construct the puppets before telling the story. Features the following books: "Let's Read About Insects", "The Pond World: Adventures in Seeing", and "The Adventure Book of Insects".
Fignewton Frog (puppet) and Dora (person) tell a story about a bat named Beatrice who buys a beautiful necklace but gets sick due to trying to sleep right-side-up so as to keep the necklace on. Gives basic information about bats and enforces the idea that sleep is important.
There are different types of pollen. Bees gather pollen. Mr. Robinson provides sketches of Betsy, a honeybee, who gets hay fever from one kind of pollen. She gathers pollen from another source and becomes the best pollen gathering bee in a contest.
Shows many fish-eating birds and indicates how the characteristics of each, although different, enable them to catch and eat fish. Emphasizes such characteristics as the long neck, a strong bill, long legs, toes that are sometimes webbed, and the ability to swim and dive underwater.
Breezes can move boats across water, lift kits to the sky and dry clothes. Dora tells a story, illustrated by shadow puppets of a little breeze called Blower who didn't want to play with his bigger rough friends. Instead, he sets out to make friends of his own, by drying clothes, taking a boy's kite into the air and by sailing some boats across a pond.
Because he has been ill, Brushy can’t play outdoors. After his first disappointment, he and his mother decide that he can make a leaf collection which would allow him to join the “Collector’s Club.”
Fignewton Frog (puppet) and Dora (person) discuss the topic of the "Three Cs" -- courtesy, consideration, and cooperation. Features "Can You Tell" cartoons by Robbie.
Brushy learns to adapt to a changing environment when he finds out that he can help with his new baby brother. At first he sees the baby as no fun at all. But when mother asks him to help her fix the baby's carriage, he learns that he can be of help.
Bash describes the workings of a canal and shows how it is possible to make a ship “go upstairs” from one water level to another. The reasons for digging canals are discussed along with the importance of canals such as the Erie Canal and the Panama Canal. The influence of canals on the lives of people in this country is explained. Songs include “Erie Canal,” “Venezuela” and “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.”
Bash Kennett visits a mountain roundup and tells the story of cattle from the few which the early settlers had to the great herds which roamed the Great Plains. The importance of cattle in the history of our country is combined with a talk about problems of raising cattle. Songs include “Cowboy’s Lullaby” “Donney Gal” and “The Night Herding Song.”
Fignewton Frog (puppet) and Dora (person) tell a story about Cheerily Chirp the young cricket who wants to learn to play the violin instead of being restricted to traditional cricket music.
The tale of the foolish little chicken who is hit on the head by an acorn and thinks the world is falling in is told by Poindexter and his friends. How "Chicken Little" nearly starts a panic among the animals until a sensible friend stops them is the story for today.
The Friendly Giant reads the book, Chicken Little, Count-to-ten, by Margaret Friskey, illustrated by Katherine Evans, and published by the Children's Press. After the story, Rusty shows how chickens drink. (WHA-TV) Kinescope.
Ella's new stepmother discharges all the servants and forces Ella to wait on her and her two stepsisters and to sleep on the cinders. Ella's name is then changed to Cinder-Ella. When the Prince has a grand ball, Cinderella is not allowed to go. But her fairy godmother appears, giving her a beautiful coach, a beautiful new dress for the ball.
Illustrates the need of pets for adequate care, urges children to care for their city pets and shows by example how such care is administered. Portrays the kinds of pets that are conveniently kept in city apartments as Jimmy and his dog take a walk in the park and visit a pet shop. Encourages pupils to tell and write stories about the pets that are shown.
Brushy, Susie-Q and Linda leave so much litter when they play in the park that the clean-up man has to stay late to tidy up after them. When the children realize that they are keeping him from a party, they correct their mistake and help clean up.
Clever Elsie really isn't very clever at all. Marionettes tell the story of Clever Elsie who sweeps with the broom upside down to keep from wearing out the straw. One day, Clever Elsie goes to the cellar to get some cider and she notices a pick-ax stuck in a beam. She begins to think that if she should ever marry and have a child and send him to the cellar for cider, the pick-ax might fall on his head and kill him and Elsie begins to cry. Her parents come to the cellar with Hans, who is looking for a clever wife, and Elsie tells them her story. Soon everyone is crying and Hans decides to marry Elsie because she is so clever.
Dora shows the audience how to make a clam and a bird puppet. Dora and Fignewton put on a play about Clifford the Clam who gets a sore foot from jumping too high.
How the clothes of people living in this country have changed is shown by Bash, in pictures and in living pictorial groups. From the early Spanish peaked helmet and bloomers, through the Cavaliers, with their plumed hats and high leather-jack boots, Bash travels, saying why and how the changes occurred. The Puritan simple dress, the colonial costume, complete with high powdered wigs, the hoop skirts and the bustles all are part of the description. Children’s costumes of the time are shown by actual children, and the dances done by the children of certain periods are demonstrated by the Lillian Patterson dance group.
Bash starts at the earliest meetings of groups of people, the church festival, and traces the development of gatherings on through the country fairs. The camp meetings of the Methodists give rise to the well-known rollicking song, “Methodist Pie.” The custom of bringing goods that were grown on the individual farm, and taking the family to the fair, to see new things, to buy things, and to meet with friends develops in to the country fair, with its gay decorations, its amusements, and its fund of knowledge. Contests are described, such as the athletic events of running and jumping and shooting, which the young men practiced, and the Patterson dance group dances to the song, “Camptown Races,” as they show how the sulkies sped around the track behind the trotting horses.
A third-grade class decides who will be the week's host, shows one youngsters pretending she is a visitor while another acts out the part of the host. Pictures children making introductions, and using "magic-words" such as thank you, excuse me, and please.
Bash tells the romance crossing streams and takes a film trip to see some historic covered bridges which are still in use. Covered bridges had many unusual features including the special toll charge for shoveling snow into the inside for the sleighs to pass on in winter. Bash tells how, fitted together with wooden pins, often they floated downstream intact in floods. Songs include “London Bridge" and "Red River Valley".
Tells the story of an imaginary cross-country trip in a covered wagon. Explains the preparation for the trip. Describes the difficulties encountered on such a journey. (KQED) Kinescope.
Marionettes present the story of a man and wife who think their house is too small for visiting relatives. Promising to follow the advice of their wise friend, Mr. Wiseman, they bring a rooster, a lamb, a goat, and a cow into their home. After each animal is brought in, Mr. Wiseman asks his friends if their home seems larger, and each time they declare it seems smaller. When the cow is brought in with the other animals, Mr. Wiseman asks again if they don't think that their house seems bigger. The husband then realizes he should be glad his sister and 10 children aren't staying with them. The animals are taken out of the house and the couple realizes how large their home really is.
The Friendly Giant reads the book, Cowboy Small, by Lois Lenski, published by the Oxford University Press, to Jerome the giraffe. Then he tries to find a ten-gallon hat for Jerome. (WHA-TV) Kinescope.
This is the story of a vain woodpecker who wanted to wear shoes. Dora and Fignewton talk about what woodpeckers eat and their habits are illustrated with shadow puppets.
Uses experiments to explain the theory of density. Shows that some objects will float while other sink. Illustrates with objects made of cork, brick, wood, and steel. (WCET) Kinescope.
Coronet Instructional Films, Viola Theman, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Education, Northwestern University
Summary:
Three elementary pupils learn that everyone attaches personal meanings to words and that the wording of newspaper stories, conversations, advertisements, and politics, for example, needs careful analysis to prevent confusion.
In all societies, children have a need to play. The doll, made in the human image is a universal toy. The puppet, made in the human or animal form, is another means of diversion for children, as well as adults. In some non-technological societies, puppetry has been developed into a high art. Shari Lewis examines the variety of ways in which man, using materials at hand, has created replicas of himself for fun and amusement.
The program describes the kinds of housing the early settlers built, from the earliest lean-to type, hastily thrown together to protest the people as soon as they landed on these shores, on through the way they learned to make thatched roofs, then later cut logs for building. The use of handmade bricks, and the change of ways in making fireplaces from the original stick-covered-with-mud ones to brick ones follows in the story. The various ways of building sturdy walls by notching of logs in various patterns and cuts is shown. Songs include “The Tailor and the Mouse,” “Little Mohee,” and “Cockels and Mussels.”
The program begins with the days following the Civil War, when men first drove cattle westward to the range lands of the southwest, where only the buffalo had grazed before. The importance of meat to the country is shown, and the development of great herds, which roamed the open unfenced country until it was later settled and fenced. The life of the cowboy, the reason for his wearing his particular costume, chaps, kerchief, sombrero, is explained. Bash tells tales of the cowboy’s job herding, branding, and also driving the cattle on the long trek up the trails to market and shipping centers. Songs include “Cowboy’s Dreams,” “The Chisholm Trail,” and a lively dance is done to “Cindy” when the cowboys reach town.
Uses Demonstrations to explain echoes and how the ear functions. Tells how sound can bounce to produce an echo. Stresses ear care. Discusses how and why animals ears are shaped as they are. Shows how to make a harp out of rubber bands. (WCET) Kinescope.
Bash traces the development of drama and entertainment from the medieval days of acrobats at fairs, to the present. She demonstrates use of early puppets and marionettes, speaks of the troubadours and minstrels, and describes the pantomimes of the Harlequin and Columbines. The Lillian Patterson dancers assist in presenting the pictures through dance and acrobatics, and Bash ends the program by taking a very modern merry-go-round ride. Songs are “The Little Marionette” and “Jumping Jack.”
Tells the story of farm life in early America. Explains how the farmer once raised his own animals and used them for the many things he needed. Visits a farm to see farm animals. (KQED) Kinescope.
Fences tell a story about the way of life of the people who built them, the use to which the land was put and something of the personality of the builder. Bash Kennett tells of early fences and takes a tour through the countryside, showing how one can imagine the story of each farm or house from the fence which surrounds it. She tells the story of the early fence-viewer, whose chain measure was the basis of the measurement of today’s mile and city block. Songs include “The Bird Song” and “The Sow Who Got the Measles.”
Brushy writes a prize-winning poem for the school safety contests:
“It isn’t enough just to know every rule,
You should practice them all, for real safety at school.”
Sharing and taking turns with others can be the best way to play and Brushy and Susie-Q show us what happens when you don’t play this way. They never had any fun because they fought over things they wanted to play with. But, mother taught them by sharing they could each have more fun.
Bash Kennett tells about the art of craving the figureheads which graced the prow of sailing vessels in the past. She shows figureheads of all types and sings “Pretty Kitty” and “Wanderin.”
Fignewton Frog (puppet) and Dora (person) hold a contest where children (puppets) have to guess the parts actors (also puppets) are playing based on their costumes. The children also have to guess what type of theater is being referenced in a number of tableaux.
Bash tells of fishing in New England, where the fishermen fished close to the shore at first and then went all the way to the Grand Banks in their small craft. Examples of the ways in which various fish are caught includes the lobster trap, the use of lines or purse seine nets and the use of dredge nets. Songs include “Sarah,” “Hulla Baloo Belay” and “Crawdad.”
Defines movies as glorified shadow shows and traces the motion picture revolution from a simple shadow on a wall to modern movies. Presents a history of the development of the movie camera, film, and other photographic inventions. Includes Al Jolson, Lon Chaney, Laurel and Hardy, and sequences from The Great Train Robbery and a Conquest of Space.
The changes of season are described in terms of what the animals of the forest do during these times. Bash tells how each of the animals live during the four seasons. She sings “Saturday Night,” “Mr. Rabbit” and the “The Fox.”
Bash tells why more games are played in the United States than any other country in the world. She says this is because immigrants brought the games of their native lands with them when they migrated here. She shows how games make for friendship among children of different countries. Hopscotch, jacks, checkers and football are included and the fun of making up your own games or rhymes and songs for old games is brought out. The Lillian Patterson dance group dances to several games. Songs include “Round and Round the Mulberry Bush,” “The Riddle Song,” and “Bluebells.”
Bash describes the difference in the way people shopped in the early days, telling how traveling “Yankee Peddlers” brought things in their wagons from farm to farm, then how the old fashioned general store sprang up. Authentic objects from the past are displayed, form high button shoes, to early spectacles. All the flavor of the general store, with its cracker barrels, Franklin stove, and crowded counters comes alive on the set, and gives a picture of the life of the early communities. Songs include “Paper of Pins,” “The Keeper,” and “Jennie Jenkins.”
Pictures the globe as a model of the earth and points out the representative shape and color of land and water areas. Identifies the continents and compares their sizes and locations. Uses animation to show the character of the ocean floor. Explains the poles and scales of latitude and compares various types of globes.
Hand puppets tell the story of a colony of ants hard at work to store food for winter. Marry Ann Ant and Wilburforce are two young ants who hate to work and when the Grasshopper comes by with his funny musical instruments they want to stop and play. But the Queen Ant asks them to return to work and the Grasshopper goes off to play. Winter comes, and everyone is happy that they worked so hard to store food. The Ants find Mr. Grasshopper half-frozen in the snow and bring him in to get warm. The Queen orders him to work for his food by playing his musical instruments so that they can dance.
Hand puppets are used to tell the age-old story of the two children whose step mother takes them to the forest and leaves them. The trail they've left with bread crumbs, is eaten by the birds, so unable to find their way home, they say their prayers and go to sleep under a tree. They wake in the morning and discover a candy house.
Dora (host) tells a story about a hermit crab named Harry who is looking for a new house with his sea anemone friend. Despite looking at houses with modern amenities such as a washing machine and television, they settle for a large shell where they can continue their mutually beneficial relationship. Fignewton Frog (puppet) performs the story through shadow puppet. Episode also describes how to use the library to find out more information about ocean life.
Bash takes a film trip to a forest, in company with a forest ranger, who shows her how the Forest Service raises trees, even the biggest evergreens, as a crop. The methods of selecting them for harvest, and the wise use of our heritage of lumber is shown. The Ranger marks a tree for harvest, after pointing out various facts about a healthy tree, and we see the tree cut and taken to the logging mill. Songs include, “Saturday Night” and “Dublin City.”
Hailstones grown in concentric layers because they pass through the varying temperatures of different air levels. With the felt board, Dora and Fignewton tell the story of a hailstone who lost his temper while trying to get to earth.
Fignewton Frog (puppet) and Dora (person) tell a story about a reluctant root and the troubles that causes to its flower. Ends with a suggestion that children go to the library to learn more about gardening.
Some animals adopt protective coloration for winter. By means of the peep-show parade, Dora tells the story of an elderly rabbit in the impoverished nobility who forgot that nature would take care of her "wardrobe."
Queenie, a cat, tells the story of her life in Mary's house. Mary first finds Queenie and takes her home to meet her family and another cat, Tom. When she is one year old Queenie has four kittens which she raises for six weeks. Mary then takes them to new homes nearby, where Queenie can visit them regularly.
Uses experiments to explain capillary action in plants. Shows how water gets from the roots up to the leaves. Demonstrates capillary action with thistle tubes. (WCET) Kinescope.
Continues the explanations of capillary action and presents the results of experiments started in HOW PLANTS GROW: PART 1. Demonstrates again the capillary action in thistle tubes. Shows how the capillary action between water and blotter paper can raise heavy objects. (WCET) Kinescope.
Illustrates and explains the many different ways in which seeds are dispersed--by animals, by the wind, and by water. Points out that only a very few live to grow into plants.
Shows how to cut, paint and stamp potato dies in order to make potato prints for use in decorating various types of paper. Describes varieties of texture, form, and color. Discusses the selection and care of tools with regard for economy, utility, and safety.
Explains that a globe is the best model to represent the shape of the earth. Discusses the change in man's ideas about the shape of the earth from flat, to curved to round to flattened and bulging to pear shaped. Explains the value of rockets and satellites in helping us to learn more about the shape of the earth.
It's Christmas Eve and Santa hasn't come yet, so Buffalo Bob Smith, Howdy, and Clarabell The Clown (Bob Keeshan soon-to-be "Captain Kangaroo") decide to take the Rocket Doodle as transportation and head for the North Pole to see what's happened to Santa. When they get there they find out that "Ugly Sam" (Dayton Allen later of "The Steve Allen Show") thinks that Santa is the "Bearded Bandit" and has captured him. So, it's up to Howdy and the Crew to prove differently.
Visits Mesa Verde National Park in Southwestern Colorado. Discusses the work of archaeologists and how they uncover ancient Indian cities. Shows an Indian burial ground, homes of early cliff dwellers, and workers excavating, mapping, and recording their discoveries. Explains how their work provides knowledge of early Indians.
Tells how three boys write a report titled Doomsday 2000 after they lose their ballfield to an apartment project. Analyzes problems of air and water pollution, expanding population, and lack of recreational facilities. Shows the boys preparing a second report recounting how small plots of land are being used to make life more pleasant for children and adults.
This program deals with the inclined plane and Uncle Wonder uses this to get the plants from the greenhouse floor to the table top. Through art-work and demonstrations he discusses the principle that while the inclined plane makes us go farther, it makes our work much easier.
Tells of the importance of corn to the settlers. Explains how the Indians helped the settlers plant corn and their methods of cultivation. Shows the participation of Indian children in planting, grinding, and keeping birds away from the corn fields.
Bash shows how the boll weevil bores into the cotton plant and destroys it, and sings the folk song about the boll weevil. She describes the various activities of spiders, including spider ballooning, and goes into the nonsense song of “The Lade Who Swallowed the Spider.” A discussion of flies follows, and the Lillian Patterson dance children dance to “Shoo Fly.”
This is Tom Tichenor’s new version of Jack and the Beanstalk. Animal marionettes tell the story. Jack Rabbit sells his cow for magic beans. His mother throws them out the window and a giant beanstalk grows up overnight. Jack Rabbit climbs the stalk to the Giant's castle and finds the Sun Bonney Bird which belongs to Jack's family before the Giant stole it. With the help of the Bird, Jack takes the money that belongs to him and runs down the beanstalk with the Giant in pursuit. Jack's mother and grandmother help him chop down the stalk and the Giant is killed. Jack's cow is returned to him because she won't stand on her head for anyone but Jack.
Fignewton Frog (puppet) and Dora (person) tell a story about Jill the bee who worries about her busy work schedule. Broadly explains the variety of work bees perform including caring for larvae, guarding the hive, and gathering pollen.
If a worm loses part of its body in time that part will be replaced. Using make-do puppets, Dora tells the story of on worm's adventures. Viewers learn how to make a puppet worm from paper.
A frog's tongue is fastened to the front of his mouth. A frog can catch flies while jumping. Frogs eat flies. Dora and Fignewton use the felt-board technique to tell the story of Freddy Frog who found that he turned somersaults when he tried to jump for fliest. One day he entered a contest with another somersaulting frog and became so nervous he forgot how to turn somersaults. He did find that he could catch flies while he jumped, so he was happy anyways.
Uses experiments to explain the principle of kinetic energy. Shows how springs have stored energy that do work for us. Illustrates with a jack-in-the-box, bow and arrow, clocks, screen door, and window shade. (WCET) Kinescope.
Uses demonstrations to explain how levers work. Illustrates with a seesaw, hammer, and screw driver. Shows how levers make the lifting of heavy objects easier. (WCET) Kinescope.
Tells the story of sailing vessels and life aboard a clipper ship. Describes the various jobs performed by the sailors. Discusses the types of cargoes carried on trips to all parts of the world. (KQED) Kinescope.
Tells the story of the deserted city of Columbia, California, one of the key Gold Rush towns in the 1850's. Describes the life and profession of people who went there seeking gold. Shows the old buildings and objects the people used at that time.
Uses demonstrations to explain principles of light. Shows why there is daylight and darkness. Discusses speed and reflection of light. (WCET) Kinescope.
Explains lighting and its characteristics. Tells why lightning is first seen then followed by thunder. Demonstrates how lightning produces sound waves. (WCET) Kinescope.
Hand puppets make this a lively story for the children. Tom Tichenor has written a new version with the violence deleted. Little Red Riding Hood is a cute little bunny, and when she goes through the woods to her grandmother's house she meets the wolf. When he learns where Red Riding Hood is going he tells her a "short cut" and then runs ahead to the grandmother's house. There, he hides grandmother, dresses in her clothes and gets into bed to wait for Red Riding Hood. Red Riding Hood discovers the trick as grandmother frees herself and they kill the wolf and sit down to enjoy wolf stew.
Story of "Smokey," the bear cub found clinging to a charred tree after a forest fire in New Mexico and later taken to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Stresses the importance of forest prevention.
Tells the story of making objects from metal. Explains the importance of the craftsmen who shaped iron, tin, pewter, gold, and silver. Describes the work of famous metalworkers. Uses film to show a metal craftsman using techniques of the colonial worker. (KQED) Kinescope.
Bash tells the story of the Mighty Mississippi, in calm and in flood, in the early days of the flat boats, keelboats and barges on to the time of the riverboats with steam turning the giant paddle wheels. She tells of the people who live on its bank, of the excitement of the cotton loading and the showboats. Bash sings “The Keelboat Song,” “Nicodemus” and “Lazy River.”
Bash tells the story of Missouri, the settling of towns and the westward trails to Oregon and California via the Santa Fe Trail. She sings “Black-eyed Susie,” “Chisholm Trail,” “Shenandoah” and “Cockles and Mussels.”
Fignewton Frog (puppet) and Dora (person) tell a story about whales paying attention to the difference between whales with teeth and whales with baleen. The whales are portrayed with shadow puppets.
Some of the habits and oddities of owls are brought out in this story of Mrs. Screech Owl, who felt her sight was failing and therefore bought a pair of glasses. Dora and Fignewton Frog tell the story by means of the peep-show parade and animated figures on small stage sets.
Fignewton Frog and Dora tell a tale of Mrs. Spider, who helps a hummingbird get a bridal veil. Using the peep-show parade and a series of miniature sets with moving figures, they tell of some of the unusual features of spiders.