• Martha Speaks Reading Buddies Program
• The Electric Company
• SUPER WHY! Reading Camps
• PBS Kids Library Corner
• Martha Speaks Read Aloud Book Club
• Clifford the Big Red Dog

The goal of Reading Buddies Program is to increase each student’s vocabulary, share literacy skills and abilities and develop confidence, community spirit and friendship. WNED partnered with two schools in our Literacy Zone 14215. The program outreach began in March 2009 and will be completed June, 2011.
Through the support our annual Kids Fest event, we were able to kick started in February at each school with a special character visit by Martha herself and a reading of the first book Martha Speaks!

WNED/ThinkBright and Well Partners:

Westminster Community Charter School, Buffalo, NY
Early Childhood Center School #82, Buffalo, NY
Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior Multicultural Institute #39, Buffalo, NY

The goal of the educational outreach under Electric Company is to encourage use of the specialty prepared video segments with a series of 16 literacy skill building activities over the course of 8 weeks with 3-5 community partners.
To date WNED’s Outreach with The New Electric Company has reached over 900 students between the Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo and School #39 in grades 2-4 and ages 6-10.

WNED/ThinkBright and Well Partners:

Boys and Girls Club of Buffalo (16 Sites throughout the City)
Martin Luther King Cultural Institute School - School # 39 (Grades 2, 3, & 4) Buffalo, NY
Sesame Workshop came to Buffalo in June 2010 and did a research study on family involvement and perceptions based on The New Electric Company. Over 30 families from the Boys and Girls Club participated.

The Super WHY Summer Camp Program is to provide fun, creative learning activities that focus on readiness skills children need to learn to read using the materials developed from the show. In the summer of 2010 WNED hosted another series of Super WHY Reading Camps in Buffalo. The last day of each camp ended with a visit from a Super WHY costume character and review of the literacy skills children have been taught. Parents were invited to a Super Reader celebration to observe their child participating in class activities and learn how they can reinforce the same reading skills at home.
WNED looks forward to working with our partners each year, allowing us to bring Super WHY to school. WNED provided outreach to over 80-100 preschool children each year in July 2008 - 2010.

WNED/ThinkBright and Well Partners:

Westminster Community Charter School, Buffalo, NY
Kidde Corner Child Care, Orchard Park, NY
Bethel Head Start, (2) 1424 Jefferson Avenue, Buffalo, NY

"This was a great book club for younger groups that really engaged the children to read different types of books... The kids love Martha! (And) we got nothing but positive feedback from parents."
—Kristen Todd-Wurm, Children's Librarian, NY

Buffalo brings the excitement of MARTHA SPEAKS to our libraries! The MARTHA SPEAKS Read-Aloud Book Club created a fun environment for young kids to read and talk about books, and to learn about the many positive roles dogs play in our lives.

The ten read-aloud sessions are similar in format to a library story hour. During each one-hour session, children watch a Martha Speaks episode, listen to a book read aloud, engage in conversation, and participate in a creative activity. Then children are encouraged to take library books home to continue reading and learning about dogs.

Martha will be at the following locations

Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Branches & My Precious Angels Daycare Grand Opening

Airs on WNED TV weekdays 12:00 pm

Designed for children ages 3-7, the animated television series is based on the books of the same name and uses classic storytelling to present universal social, emotional, and moral messages to young children. These fun-filled episodes follow Clifford and his pals (both canine and human) as they play, discover and interact with each other and the inhabitants of Birdwell Island, learning that good friends are what life is all about. The stories are fun, gentle and kid-relatable — they deal with issues that kids are experiencing: whether it's bragging, not wanting to share or learning that telling the truth is the best policy. More importantly, though, they learn that the world is out there to be discovered with gusto.

The series' educational messages, Clifford's Big Ideas, focus on simple, tangible life lessons that are designed to help young children navigate their world as they become part of an ever-expanding community.

WNED/ThinkBright and Well Partners:

True Bethel Baptist Church, Project Care, CAO Headstart, Holy Cross Headstart
Buffalo and Erie County Library Branches (E. Delavan Library, Central Library, Niagara Porter Library, Merriweather Library, and Lackawanna Library)

Airs on ThinkBright and Well weekdays at 4 pm

WNED is one of over 30 PBS stations across the country bringing the PBS KIDS Raising Readers’ Library Corners to libraries. The program gives children ages 2 to 8 opportunities to strengthen their literacy skills through free, fun activities.

To reach 10,000 children throughout Western New York, WNED is partnering with 19 libraries:

Central (Children’s Room), East Clinton, East Delavan, Merriweather, Niagara, North Park, Dudley, Alden, Angola, Collins, Concord, North Collins, Newstead (Akron), City of Tonawanda, Reinstein, Cheektowaga, Dunkirk Central Schools, NIOGA (serving Niagara, Orleans and Genesee Counties), and Lockport.