Richard Scarry's Best Learning Songs Video Ever!
Educational DVD of Teaching Songs about Preschool Skills
May 9, 2009
The teaching songs on the educational DVD Richard Scarry's Best Learning Songs Video Ever! prepare young toddlers for preschool by introducing them to basic skills such as shapes, letters, opposites, counting, directional prepositions, emotions, body parts, logic, and good manners. Preschool knowledge becomes fun and entertaining to learn when presented as educational songs in a backyard variety show put on by Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, and their Busytown school friends.
Richard Scarry's Best Learning Songs Video Ever! Plot
As in other educational DVDs in the Random House series of Richard Scarry videos, this show opens with the narrator welcoming the viewer to Busytown. Today all the citizens are gathering in the Cat family's backyard for a show in which Huckle Cat and his friends will sing teaching songs about, "things we know how to do."
Each educational song teaches a different preschool skill. Viewers are invited to supply answers to keep children engaged and focused on learning. A running gag about Bananas Gorilla interrupting the end of songs to take and eat bananas comes to a satisfying conclusion with a final song in which the children sing to teach Bananas Gorilla good manners.
Richard Scarry Video Teaching Songs
Each teaching song in this educational preschool video uses different strategies to introduce basic preschool skills:
- Ole Owl's shapes song teaches squares, circles, and triangles, introducing young children to the idea that shapes can be found all around. Viewers must identify three examples of each shape in scenes of different places in Busytown.
- Alphabet songs teach letters. Hilda Hippo sings the traditional Alphabet Song and then young viewers are treated to a new alphabet song where each letter stands for a fun object like an apple or a bed.
- An antonym song teaches the concept of opposites. Twins Alex and Anne sing about how they like opposite things, introducing descriptive antonym pairs like messy/neat, sour/sweet, hot summer/cold winter, new/old, morning/night, dark/light, country/town, and right-side up/upside-down.
- In a counting song, Freddie Fox demonstrates how to count forward from 1 to 10 and backward from 10 to 1.
- A song by Lily Rabbit about "the places we go" teaches directional prepositions. While Lily sings about kids going over, under, up, down, in and out, and round and round, Busytown characters are shown performing each action, giving viewers concrete examples of where places such as in between are.
- The classic song "If You're Happy and You Know It" is sung by Huckle Cat to teach preschoolers how to identify and name feelings and emotions.
- The classic song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" is sung by Ursula Pig as part of a game to teach body parts.
- A song by Rhonda Raccoon requires children to use their logic skills to identify which one of four objects shown does not belong.
- The final learning song teaches Bananas Gorilla how to have good manners by saying please and thank you and sharing.
Each educational song is soft, gentle, and catchy. Parents will undoubtedly find themselves humming these learning songs long after this educational video has been put away. This makes them great tools for teaching these preschool skills, for children will find themselves singing about shapes, opposites, numbers, and so on as well.
Richard Scarry DVD Teaches Life Lessons
Along with content knowledge, this preschool video also teaches some nice life lessons. The Busytown parents in the audience reinforce the message that knowing things is good, fun, and something special to be celebrated by acting proud of their kids' achievements and knowledge. When some trademark Richard Scarry slapstick comedy ends with the curtain being ripped down, the characters model great perseverance and cooperation skills in working together to set everything back up. Overall, the idea that every day people learn something new is a great one to instill in small children so that they will greet each morning with curiosity and a thirst for new knowledge.
Richard Scarry Books
Although the plot of this charming educational DVD is not drawn specifically from any particular one of Richard Scarry's books, the information taught by it is presented in many forms in his classic works. Parents who wish to use Richard Scarry's books to teach the same content (shapes, opposites, numbers...) to preschoolers can use:
- Richard Scarry's Best First Book Ever! [Random House, 1979].
- Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever! [Golden Press, 1963].
- Richard Scarry's Great Big Schoolhouse [reprint edition Sterling, 2008].
Each of these large, vibrantly illustrated children's picture books contains sections in which classic Richard Scarry characters teach letters, numbers, shapes, emotions, and other preschool skills also taught by this educational video, as well as material not included in the video, like colors, action verbs, kinds of food, sizes, and months of the year.
Richard Scarry DVDs and Videos
This educational preschool video is adorable, but runs only approximately 30 minutes long. Some families may find this too short to justify the price of purchasing an out-of-print VHS or DVD copy. Parents seeking an alternative to modern, louder and flashier educational DVDs, however, will want at least to rent it or check out a copy from the library.
Preschoolers may also enjoy other Richard Scarry videos like Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever!, Richard Scarry's Best Counting Video Ever!, and Richard Scarry's Best Sing-Along Mother Goose Video Ever!
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