Favorite Educational DVDs for Lower Elementary

[Einen]

I'd like to look into some new educational dvds for my dc. I am interested in titles from any subject. Here's a couple of our current favorites...

Mathtacular (https://www.sonlight.com/RM32.html)
Lyric Language French (http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-9781591253075-0)

:bigear::)

[Einen]

forgot to subscribe :tongue_smilie:

[Macrina]

Usually any of the IMAX movies are good and they often cover history and science. My kids love them, even my 4yo and they are all on Netflix.

[JudoMom]

Letter Factory (and the sequels)
Liberty's Kids

[JeanM]

My kids loved the Magic Schoolbus and the National Geographic's "Really Wild Animals" DVDs. My older ds would watch almost any nature DVD as long as it wasn't too violent. Oh and they also liked the "Popular Mechanics for Kids" DVDs.

Hope this helps,
Jean

[Alessandra]

Well, Magic Schoolbus is a pretty obvious choice. Charlie Brown's America, despite being cartoony, is a solid series. I noticed (I think I am remembering correctly) that the Pilgrims/Thanksgiving one was doe with input from Plimouth Plantation -- the video did mention that Pilgrims did not wear black clothes & shiny buckles, so I was happy.

I like the videos from Schlessinger Media -- they have a good website. Each video is about 20-25 min long and usually children are the main narrators. Libraries usually have some of these; Netflix doesn't. Also there is a series of history videos -- Animated Hero Classics -- that are appealing to young kids. I haven't seen Libert'y Kids, but it seems similar.

I am gradually acquiring David Attenborough's series. My dc age 8 love some of them, but are a little bored by others.

Jean
Thanks for the Popular Mechanics for Kids idea. I didn't know about these -- I just put some in my NF queue.

[King Alfred Academy]

The Magic School Bus videos are a hit here! So are the School House Rock ones.

[BramFam]

I will put in another vote for Magic School Bus.

My kids also really like Bill Nye the Science Guy ... Not sure why, as I am positive that most of what he talks about is WAY above their heads, but he is funny. :tongue_smilie:

Not sure if this is considered educational, but they also love Sid the Science Kid on PBS.

[dorothy]

On, Amazon I see that there is

Mathtacular
Mathtacular2
Mathtacular3

Are these by grade? What are the differences? There is a big price dfference.

Thanks.

[Einen]

The Mathtacular dvds are by grade. The first one is recommended for K-2. I'm not sure about the exact grade rec's for the next two.

My 5 and 3 year olds LOVE Mathtacular. I got it on this board used but if I had to buy it again, I would consider it worth full price.

[abbeyej]

Discover and Do science from Sonlight (especially great with the accompanying materials kits for recreating all of the experiments)

The Animated Shakespeare (12 plays using the original language but abridged to 30 minutes -- we usually watch these between reading a story version and seeing the full-length play)... Excellent actors doing the voices. The animation styles are each quite different, and some are obscure enough that my kids don't care for them much.

Jim Henson's The Storyteller and The Storyteller: Greek Myths (some of these -- both sets -- can be a little scary and dark)

I love, love, love Georgia Public Broadcasting's "Salsa" for beginning Spanish immersion for younger students (up through about 3rd grade), but the dvds are priced for schools, not individuals. People who can record from GA public television can gain access to them however...

HBO's "John Adams" last year was a huge hit with both of my kids. My husband found it a little slow, but the kids and I loved it. The dvd edition even includes a feature where you can have "pop-up" facts shown during viewing. Not a good way to watch the series the first time, but great for subsequent viewings. A few things to be aware of when watching with kids: a tarring and feathering (viewed from a distance, the victim is at one point naked and glimpsed so, the event is fairly brutal); small pox are rather gruesome (the most disturbing thing in the series to my dd); Ben Franklin makes some rather lewd remarks (went over my kids' heads); there's a rather lewd discussion at a court dinner in France (I ff'd for my kids -- Adams' discomfort is obvious, but I just didn't want to explain the entire discussion to young children); when J and A reunite after years apart, there's a scene where they, er, fall upon each other... It's fully clothed, but clear (at least to an adult) what's going on. Again, I fast-forwarded for the kids... I think that's everything I found objectionable to my kids. It's possible there's some language that might be offensive to some, though I don't remember anything that seemed out-of-character or out-of-time, so if there was something, it didn't register for me as offensive...

My kids enjoy Liberty's Kids as well...

[LisaTheresa]

SL's Discover and Do DVDs
Backyard Math with Zach (by BJP)
Bill Nye the Science Guy
Digging for the Truth

[Macrina]

SL's Discover and Do DVDs
Backyard Math with Zach (by BJP)
Bill Nye the Science Guy
Digging for the Truth

Where do you guys find your Bill Nye DVDs? Netflix doesn't have them :(

[Alessandra]

I almost forgot about Reading Rainbow -- my kids don't want to see these multiple times, so library is our source. Reading Rainbow has a website that I use as a source for book recommendations -- they often suggest non-fictions that go with the fictions.
http://pbskids.org/readingrainbow/books/index.html

[fivetails]

Where do you guys find your Bill Nye DVDs? Netflix doesn't have them :(

Check youtube - there's episodes on there! :)

[happyWImom]

We love Magic Schoolbus of course-and I put that down a lot as my "science" for the day, and we also just found some called "The Artist's Specials" that each feature a different famous artist in a story/movie type form. They really bring the artists to life.

[BramFam]

Where do you guys find your Bill Nye DVDs? Netflix doesn't have them :(


We check ours out from the local library. We have a very nice library system here. :D

[Macrina]

We check ours out from the local library. We have a very nice library system here. :D

what do you know- ours has them too....thanks!

[LisaTheresa]

Where do you guys find your Bill Nye DVDs? Netflix doesn't have them :(


Our library has them.

Lisa

[Mommy22alyns]

Magic SchoolBus, obviously
School House Rocks
The girls really have learned a lot from Sid the Science Kid
All of the LeapFrog DVDs

I got this DVD too, and even Becca loves it and was riveted - I'm not sure how much she retained, but she was interested by a MATH video!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Nmij%2BPvrL._SL500_AA240_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B001GILTLY/sr=8-1/qid=1232913012/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=130&s=dvd&qid=1232913012&sr=8-1)

[Pylegang]

My kids have enjoyed:

Magic School Bus
Story Keepers - a terrific Bible series by Zonderkidz
Eyewitness Science DVD's
Liberty Kids -
Friends and Heroes - Bible cartoon. I think TBN runs it. It is quite good.

[nestof3]

My boys watch these over and over again.

Liberty's Kids
http://www.libertyskids.com/

Questar's Getting Ahead Mathematics
http://questar1.com/shopexd.asp?id=838

Questar's Getting Ahead Science (particularly Life Science)
http://questar1.com/shopexd.asp?id=840

The Way Things Work DVD Series
http://www.libraryvideo.com/sm/twtwdvd.asp

Scrambled States of America
http://www.amazon.com/Scrambled-America-Celebrate-Scholastic-Collection/dp/B00019G4QY

Animated Hero Classics Series
http://www.nestfamily.com/38-Animated-Hero-Classics-Biography-DVDs-Plus-Devine-P131387.aspx

Explore the Wildlife Kingdom Series
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_d_0_13?url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=explore+the+wildlife+kingdom&sprefix=explore+the+w

Planet Earth and Blue Planet
http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Earth-Blue-Special-Collectors/dp/B000TEUSQ8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1232943580&sr=1-4

Animal Life for Children series
http://www.libraryvideo.com/ssl/animallife_fcdvd.asp?mscssid=MNWBTRJER9E98MTPAF7EQ GG9Q3A030Q5

Magic School Bus
(We have all of the DVDs they made, and my boys watch the others on United Streaming)

Greek Mythology for Students series
http://www.libraryvideo.com/product.asp?mod=Search&i_ACTIVE_ITM=1&i_FROM_GRADE=1&i_TO_GRADE=20&qs=greek&key=LVC&Exact=N&Words=A&mscssid=MNWBTRJER9E98MTPAF7EQGG9Q3A030Q5&sku=V6202&wherefrom=search

Bill Nye the Science Guy
http://www.billnye.com/

Scholastic and Weston Woods stories on DVD
These are essentially a book told with audio and video.

Beatrix Potter videos

How to Draw Spirit (from Spirit DVD)

How to Draw lessons on Veggie Tales movies

Art Guy DVD
http://rainbowresource.com/product/Basics+DVD/030983/

Dream, Plan, Build
Model railroading videos.

Department 56
They also love watching the design of these layouts.

Reading Rainbow
They like the math, science and history ones. We avoid the newer ones because they don't stick to educational subjects.

Dangerous Journey
http://www.answersingenesis.org/kids/videos
Retelling of Pilgrim's Progress for children.

The Story Keepers
http://www.storykeepers.com/

Leap Frog Learning DVDs
http://www.amazon.com/Leapfrog-Learning-Talking-Factory-Storybook/dp/B000EHQU1W/ref=pd_cp_d_1?pf_rd_p=413864101&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0000INU6S&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0KEFEZYWAECZ03GGF852

March of the Penguins
http://wip.warnerbros.com/marchofthepenguins/

Nathan also watches a lot of History Channel documentaries.

[NayfiesMama]

My children have loved School House Rock videos/dvds etc... My five year old has a ton of info memorized including the Preamble...
:-)

[Einen]

Thanks everyone. I'm getting some great resources!