Community reviews for PBS Kids

This website is a great way to ensure your students are on something educational and appropriate. You do not have to worry about anything negative popping up. I also like that the games and activities are based on shows the students knows. This gets and keeps their attention.

This site is great for individual work. It may be too advanced for younger students (k-1st) especially if they are struggling readers. I really love that the site has an area for parents and teachers to education themselves as well. There are endless videos full of educationally appropriate information. It is an exciting website for students.

PBS Kids and PBS Kids Go! are sites that I would use to reinforce the various skills taught in the classroom. These sites can also good for implicit learning for those students who need to be challenged. There are a lot of activities and you can differentiate by finding different shows/games that target the same skill(s). I would not recommend it for direct instruction. Teachers should take their time and explore the various activities first, BEFORE introducing them in the classroom setting.

Student can have fun and learn basic computer skills.

There's a wealth of learning games here... and a dearth of distractions as well. I haven't had time to explore all the shows, but the ones I like and link to (see below) are WordGirl, Between the Lions, Word World, and Oh Noah! These shows have some great literacy games that my ESOL students love. I appreciate how Oh Noah! normalizes error in second language learning - that's one of the key attitudes I try to instill in my students, and it's great to see a first-rate show doing the same. And WordGirl is wonderful as a show aimed directly at enriching students' vocabulary. The biggest downside to this site, in my estimation, is that you can't track your students' activity. For a similar product by PBS that lets you do this, check out PBS Kids Island.

Students can easily access learning games that feature their favorite PBS characters in a variety of curricular areas. Very simple to use--but monitor if game play is your goal and not simply video viewing. Most games use the mouse or very few keyboard keys (arrows, space bar, etc.) to operate. All of the sections do require sound, so headphones may be necessary if you have multiple nearby stations or are using for centers. The loading time may also be a problem for slower machines. Students may also need help finding the games area for each show in the beginning as there are several sections to each one. Great for Pre-K and primary grade levels as skills review. All of the games relate to an academic or social skill--and are also good for teaching basic mouse and keyboard skills. Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood focuses on social skills. Super Why and Word Girl work on literacy skills. Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, and Cat in the Hat each deal with math and science concepts. Cat in the Hat and Wild Kratts are great for animal lovers. The Electric Company covers a wide variety of topics including literacy, math, and problem solving.

PBS Kids is a lot of fun and has a lot of activities that can teach or reinforce multiple concepts at a time. The games are a bit time-consuming, so they are not so great for in the classroom if you have a very tight schedule, unless you have a sub or some free time. The games are also good for learning at home. What's nice is that many of the activities are tied to academic standards so you know they are most likely learning. There is also a sister website - pbslearningmedia.org - that is a great resource for teachers.

PBS Kids Go is great if you tell your kids which "Shows" to play, and if you supervise them. But if you give them a choice of anything on PBS Kids, they will all gravitate to Wild Kratts where they kick-box with kangaroos. Really, within 5 minutes every kid in the room is playing on Wild Kratts, which involves nothing except hitting the space bar and arrow keys.