For many preschool children, learning about animals begins and ends with being able to name different animals by sight, and learning how to sing "Old MacDonald had a farm." These are certainly worthy pursuits. Children enjoy the feelings of mastery and confidence that come from knowing that the animal with white and black stripes is a zebra, and the one with a long neck is a giraffe. It's clear, however, that the animal world provides a richer ground for preschool learning. It's one that can be mined to enrich preschoolers' understanding of how animals behave and live and how they themselves behave and live. It can also provide motivating opportunities to enrich literacy skills as preschoolers learn new concepts and vocabulary. Viewed this way, 'learning about animals' has the potential to be a very rich interdisciplinary experience for young children.

Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies is designed to promote preschool children's appreciation and understanding of animal life and the ways in which animal and human experiences are similar and different.


The series has four goals:

1. To promote preschool children's understanding of animal customs and behaviors. This includes showcasing similarities and differences within the animal kingdom as well as those that highlight similarities and differences across human and animal life.

In each episode, children will be presented with a preschool relevant topic such as the role of shelter, family or gaining independence. This topic will be the basis of a compelling story with a problem and resolution. Children will leave the episode with a simple, clear understanding of how this topic can play out in the animal world. This is the educational cornerstone of the series.


2. To encourage preschool children to reflect on their own customs and practices and to consider how their lives and experiences are both similar to and different from those of animals.

In each episode, children will be introduced to a variety of situations/customs that will invite them to consider how this topic plays out in their own lives and what it means to them. For example: What does shelter mean to me? How do I deal with cold weather? How do I communicate?


3. To introduce preschool children to an array of different animals in the kingdom, and enrich their ability to describe and communicate about these animals.

Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies will support children's ability to:


    •  Recognize animals by sight
    •  Name them
    •  Recognize and imitate how they sound
    •  Recognize and imitate how they move
    •  Use specific language to describe them physically, involving:
         •  Color words e.g. brown, red
         •  Size words such as huge, tiny.
         •  Shape words such as round, flat
         •  Texture words such as rough, scaly
         •  Weight words such as heavy, light
         •  Comparative language such as as tall as…; as heavy as…
    •  Use concepts and vocabulary words that are unique to the animal world, including:
         •  For baby animals: cub, calf
         •  Groups of animals: herd, pride
         •  Self defense mechanisms: camouflage
         •  Physical features: trunk

In each episode, we will take the opportunity to underscore the wondrous and beautiful nature of animal life. Without 'stopping the action', we will give children the opportunity to pause, take a close look at something, and appreciate it.