With a ten-year-old daughter and two sons, ages eight and three, there aren’t a whole lot of television shows that appeal to all of my kids. Thankfully Wild Kratts is the exception to that rule. It is quite possibly the only show that each of my kids love. And I love that it’s both entertaining and educational. My kids are always telling me interesting animal facts that they’ve learned from the Kratt Brothers.
For those of you not familiar with Wild Kratts, here is a great description of the show by PBS: WILD KRATTS transforms the Kratt Brothers, creators of the award-winning “Kratts’ Creatures” and Emmy-winning “Zoboomafoo,” into animated versions of themselves, allowing the real-life zoologists to visit wild animals in their little-seen habitats and showcase key science concepts along the way. From elephants using physics to suck gallons of water with their trunks to a fleet of peregrine falcons that harness the force of gravity to speed through the air, each episode of WILD KRATTS presents age-appropriate science inspired by the natural abilities of the animals that the Kratt Brothers – and young viewers – meet. WILD KRATTS airs daily on PBS KIDS (check local listings–our local channel runs it while I’m cooking dinner which is perfect timing for sure).
Now for the DVD. In the newest Wild Kratts DVD, “Wild Animal Babies”, the Kratt brothers introduce us to some adorable animal babies in 4 Wild Kratts episodes. With a run time of 120 minutes, here are the episodes you’ll enjoy:
“Elephant in the Room”
The brothers come across a lone baby elephant and bring him back to the Tortuga HQ for safety until they can find his mom. They quickly learn how mischievous baby elephants can be and get more than they bargained for when it almost destroys the Tortuga!
“Bad Hair Day”
Chris and Martin try to help a lion named “He Who Breathes Fire” get past obstacles and back to his pride, which is under siege from two intruder lions.
“Zig-Zagged”
Chris and Martin get caught in the middle of a zebra stampede, and when the dust clears, a lone baby zebra is left behind. The Wild Kratts must find the young zebra’s herd and return him to his mom.
“Let the Rhinos Roll!”
The Wild Kratts team is on an important mission to unearth why rhinos are mysteriously disappearing from the African savanna. They soon discover that Zach Varmitech has been kidnapping them to create new super Rhino Dozers so the creature adventurers devise a plan to rescue them – and it just might work!
In addition to the DVD, there is a companion book available that is also filled with adorable animal babies. The animal babies in the book are different from the ones in the DVD–giant pandas, zebras and sea otters are a few of them. The back of the book is fun fact cards that you can punch out and use with younger children to help identify animals or use with older children to see what fun facts they remember from the book. Since the book is a Level 2 reader, I would say it is appropriate for younger readers, though my older kids still found it entertaining and can read it aloud to my preschooler which is a huge bonus.
Have any of you discovered Wild Kratts for your kids? What do you love most about this show?
Huge fan of The Wild Kratts. Such a great show and now great leveled reader books. Thank you for the feature.
We just love them at our house!