Here are descriptions and educational objectives for every CURIOUS GEORGE animated adventure and live-action segment. To find out when CURIOUS GEORGE is on in your area, check the TV Schedule.
After a big rain, George is ecstatic to discover ducks swimming in a big puddle next to the country house. But the puddle starts to shrink, and the ducks begin to fly away. How can George keep that puddle from evaporating so he and Jumpy can continue to play peek-a-boo with that cute baby duck?
Educational Objective (Science): To demonstrate the water cycle.
Live Action Segment (Goose Watching)
With the guidance of a naturalist, kids visit a river to observe geese and become animal behavior scientists.
On a mission to find magnets to hang his newest masterpiece on the refrigerator, George learns a lot about magnets. His new knowledge comes in handy when he has to save his precious artwork from a giant magnetic crane at the junkyard.
Educational Objective (Science): To illustrate several characteristics of magnets: they attract and repel each other; they attract certain kinds of other metals; objects made of certain metals can be magnetized.
Live Action Segment (Magnets)
Kids play with and enjoy the things that magnets can do. They discover that there are magnets working at home, too, like the one keeping the refrigerator door closed.
Related Activity: Bubble Stuff
When George accompanies The Man with the Yellow Hat to Dr. Baker's office for his annual check-up, he discovers that a stethoscope is a pretty handy thing to have around when you're trying to solve a puzzle involving a mysterious sound.
Educational Objective (Science & Engineering): To demonstrate how sounds can provide clues about what's happening inside a body; to illustrate how instruments can extend the senses (as a stethoscope extends the power of hearing).
Live Action Segment (At the Vet)
A visit to the veterinarian gives kids a chance to listen to the heartbeats of a range of animals and observe differences.
Mr. Glass is building a new skyscraper in the neighborhood, and George and Gnocchi think that his construction site is more fun than a playground. George learns how bulldozers, cement mixers, and jackhammers work, and why it's not a good idea to let a monkey operate them.
Educational Objective (Engineering): To demonstrate that tools help to get things done; to illustrate the fact that tools and machines can be helpful or harmful.
Live Action Segment (Construction Site)
Kids visit a construction site to observe safe building techniques and safe use of tools.
Related Activity: Wheel Discoveries
George is so entranced by the new, adorable baby panda at the zoo that he stays through closing time and is accidentally locked inside. While trying to find the way out, he mistakenly opens a few wrong doors and finds himself surrounded by gorillas, giraffes, meerkats, and penguins! Now George has to use his map of the zoo to put all the animals back in the correct habitats before they wake up the baby panda!
Educational Objective (Math): To demonstrate how maps can be used to locate objects.
Live Action Segment (Follow the Map)
Kids have to make maps with clues and landmarks to show each other how to find special objects in a museum's collection.
Dog sitting Charkie is always a challenge, but it's especially difficult today when George really wants to practice his soccer kicks. Every time George comes up with a way of keeping Charkie tied up, Charkie comes up with a way of slipping out of her leash. It takes all of George's problem-solving skills to find a way to keep Charkie from running away...until George discovers that she likes playing soccer, too.
Educational Objective (Engineering): To demonstrate deduction and creative problem solving in using available materials to tackle a problem.
Live Action Segment (Guinea Pig Homes)
Kids use a variety of materials to construct habitats for a pair of guinea pigs. The final design, which needs to be changed a few times along the way, features connecting tunnels and doorways between spaces.
Related Activity: Pattern Play
The International Space Station's food supply has run out, and George is the only one who has the unique skills needed to fly the rocket and deliver the supplies. But George can't help being curious about what's in those interesting-looking containers. Before you know it, George has quite a mess to clean up before the supplies can be launched. Luckily, George's experience with cleaning his room and his knowledge of how shapes fit together helps him put it away in time to get the astronauts their supplies.
Educational Objective (Science): To introduce the idea that there are objects that orbit the earth: natural objects (the moon) and human-made objects (satellites).
Live Action Segment (In Orbit)
A visit to a planetarium gives kids a chance to learn about orbits and orbiting bodies.
George and The Man with the Yellow Hat offer to pick up Bill when his train comes in, and when he gets there, Flint Quint, the station master, shows George how he keeps the trains running smoothly and arriving on time. While Flint is eating lunch, George decides he wants to try his hand at being station master, and while everything starts off smoothly, pretty soon trains are off schedule, out of order, and very confused. Mr. Quint comes to the rescue, and they put the trains back in the correct number order before they reach the station.
Educational Objective (Math): To help develop an understanding of the relative position and sequence of whole numbers.
Live Action Segment (Our Schedule)
It's Mix Up Day, and the kids are making up their own schedule. They encounter a few problems to solve along the way.
Related Activity: Curious Pancakes
George gets acquainted with a family of beavers when he notices the impact their dam has on his favorite pond. Building a dam looks like so much fun that George decides to build his own. But when a sudden downpour sweeps both dams away, George and the beavers have to figure out how to repair the damage together or their beloved pond won't be a good place for beavers or monkeys!
Educational Objective (Science & Engineering): To model the idea that an organism's behavioral patterns are related to the nature of the organism's physical environment, heredity, and experience; to demonstrate that an important part of engineering is to brainstorm solutions and test the ones that seem most promising.
Live Action Segment (Building a Dam)
Kids make a stream down an incline using a hose and then do some dam building. They experiment with different materials and try to stop the path of the flowing water.
George can't understand why his high score of 257 isn't a winner when he plays his first game of mini-golf with Steve and Betsy. How can a small number be worth more than a big number? After getting the lowdown on the principles of mini-golf, George is determined to get a low score next time, and so he builds his own mini-golf course for practice.
Educational Objective (Math): To help develop an understanding that sometimes a high number isn't always the best or most desirable.
Live Action Segment (Setting Up Shop)
Kids create their own store where they sell items to each other at different prices. Two teams of kids are given just 5 dollars and they decide what food to buy.
Related Activity: Invent!
George is determined to count all the stars in the sky, but he just can't stay awake long enough to finish. And when he goes back to the city it's even more difficult — the stars have disappeared! Will George be able to come up with a system to keep track of his count? And exactly where do all the stars go when George goes to the city?
Educational Objective (Math): To aid in counting with understanding and recognizing "how many" in sets of objects.
Live Action Segment (Counting Kids)
Kids play some counting games! How many kids have left the morning circle to hide? How many chairs are in the room? How many blocks are in the jar? Only counting can give the answer.
As a reward for helping him wash dishes at the restaurant, Chef Pisghetti gives George an ice cream sculpture in the shape of Gnocchi the cat. George really wants to show The Man with the Yellow Hat his new trophy, but the ice cream keeps melting! After a few melted dishes, George learns a whole lot about what happens to ice cream outside of the freezer.
Educational Objective (Science): To illustrate that solids can be changed to liquids by adding heat (melting) and liquids can be changed to solids by taking heat away (freezing).
Live Action Segment (Making Ice Cream)
Using a hand-cranked ice cream maker, ice, rock salt, sugar, and cream, kids make ice cream. They witness the gradual melting of the ice and freezing of the ice cream.
Related Activity: Curious Pancakes
To earn money for a new soccer ball, George decides to set up his own lemonade stand. With help from Betsy, the stand is such a success that there are too many customers and not enough lemonade. In the nick of time, George remembers a trick that the Doorman showed him — make two glasses out of one by dividing. All the customers are satisfied, and now all George has to figure out is how to explain to The Man with the Yellow Hat what happened to all his lemonade.
Educational Objective (Math): To help develop an understanding of commonly used fractions; to help develop an understanding of situations that entail division (such as sharing equally).
Live Action Segment (Dividing Juice)
After some athletic play, four kids are tired and THIRSTY. They open the fridge to find only THREE bottles of juice, so the kids have to figure out a way to share.
A new traffic light is installed on the country road, and George decides that it would really work a lot better with a few adjustments. But George's fixes don't have the desired effect — traffic gets backed up, and even Jumpy can't get across the street to find his nuts! George has to work with Officer Quint to fix the light and get a better understanding of just what those red, yellow, and green lights mean.
Educational Objective (Science): To demonstrate that there can be more than one reasonable explanation for the same set of data.
Live Action Segment (Smart Signs)
Kids make some signs that use just pictures, no words. They post their signs and watch to see if they work.
Related Activity: Bubble Stuff
Eating candy is easy, but counting and sorting it is much more difficult! George quickly learns this when he agrees to watch Cayley's candy counter for an afternoon. While trying to stack the chocolates into different shapes, they all fall over, and George can't remember which candy is what! With help from a few customers, and a little sampling, George discovers how to sort the candies by color and shape.
Educational Objective (Math): To demonstrate sorting and classifying sets of objects (or animals) by size, number, and other characteristics (properties); to model building, sorting, and the comparing of two- and three-dimensional shapes.
Live Action Segment (Sorting Stuff)
Kids visit a children's museum where they have been "hired" for the day to help organize and stock the shop that sells recycled materials. They have to sort barrels of industrial widgets and craft materials by size and price.
George is inspired to become a volunteer with the fire department when they help him get his foot unstuck from a chair. He spends the day with Andie, Stig, and Stew of Rescue Squad 86 and has fun trying out all the special firefighting tools. But when Compass gets trapped at the museum, a little monkey ends up being the best tool for the job.
Educational Objective (Engineering): To illustrate the importance of using the right tool for the task.
Live Action Segment (Cool Tools)
Kids help put together a broken table. They get a chance to use some simple, safe tools like glue, sandpaper, a screwdriver, and a mallet.
Related Activity: Sort It Out
George accidentally loses a batch of Chef Pisghetti's newest creation: Giardino Burgers. And they need to be delivered to the Fireman's Picnic right away. Can George save the day by re-creating the Chef's recipe?
Educational Objective (Engineering): To demonstrate the importance of planning and following directions in order to get things done.
Live Action Segment (Paper Maché)
Kids are making a recipe for papier maché. How much water? How much paste? Different amounts produce different results.
Most of the time, George isn't afraid of the dark, but when he explores a mysterious cave, he decides that sometimes the dark can be a little scary. It doesn't get any better when a thunderstorm knocks the power out, and the country house is in the dark. But with the help of his trusty flashlight, George conquers his fears and even shows Jumpy how to have some fun with shadows.
Educational Objective (Science): To explore how the size and shape of an object's shadow changes depending on the relationship between the location of the object and the location of the light source.
Live Action Segment (Scary Shadows)
Kids make a playhouse by draping sheets over a big dining table. Inside, they experiment with flashlights to make shadows (particularly SCARY shadows!).
Related Activity: Marvelous Meringues
The yellow hat comes back from the dry cleaners so beautiful and clean that George can't help wanting to show it off to Compass the pigeon. But a little wind and an errant branch create a hole that needs to be fixed before The Man with the Yellow Hat comes home and finds it.
Educational Objective (Engineering): To model the idea of exploring various materials and their characteristics (properties) when looking to repair or create an object.
Live Action Segment (Many Hats)
Kids use all kinds of materials to make and decorate hats. They talk about the different materials and what they can achieve with them, and then they have a hat fashion show.
While exploring the country, George meets up with a baby bear and a stinging bee. No one believes that George has seen a bear, but they do try to help George learn more about bees. It takes a helping hand from the baby bear to save the bunnies from the bees and to prove to everyone that George knows a bear when he sees one.
Educational Objective (Science): To demonstrate that an organism's behavioral patterns are related to several things: the nature of the organism's environment, other organisms present, and the availability of food and resources.
Live Action Segment (Animal Homes)
Kids visit a wildlife sanctuary where they are on a quest to see animal homes. With the guidance of a naturalist, they see insect and animal homes on the ground and in trees.
Related Activity: Invent!
