Toronto,
ON (August
22,
2005) --
As back-to-school season swings into full gear, even parents of Canada’s youngest scholars should be thinking of ways to prepare their children for a year of learning. According to recent trends, parents of toddlers today are turning to high-tech learning products to kick-start their children’s education.
Fisher-Price, the leading high-quality toy company for pre-schoolers, is leading the way in high-tech learning this Fall through an exciting new partnership with Scholastic Media, a division of Scholastic, the global children’s publishing and media company, for the launch of Read With Me DVD!, the first DVD-based learning product for pre-schoolers. The introduction of Read With Me DVD! takes learning toys to a new dimension with the focus on story comprehension and vocabulary taught through innovative and interactive high-tech learning products.
“This partnership has tremendous potential to fuel the toy business with educational and innovative products that are developmentally appropriate,” states Deborah Forte, president, Scholastic Media. "Scholastic has been a leader in developing and producing award-winning media that help children learn through play. Fisher-Price is the ideal partner as their commitment to quality and education is a perfect fit with Scholastic‘s mission to help all children learn to read and love to learn."
“Play can be the ultimate teaching tool,” according to Neil Friedman, Fisher-Price president. "Combining our expertise in developing unique platforms for learning with the leading publisher of quality children's books and media products, gives us access to an incredible library of content that we can now translate into exciting new innovative products."
Introducing Read With Me DVD!
The ground-breaking Read With Me DVD! learning system is designed to help children, ages 3 - 7, develop foundational reading skills - with an emphasis on story comprehension and vocabulary. Now children can enjoy reading the classics in a more engaging, multi-media way, developing a lifelong love of reading. Children simply insert the DVD book title into a standard stand-alone DVD player, and a classic story is brought to life on the TV screen.
In the primary play mode – Read & Play, words from these classic titles highlight on the screen and original illustrations animate as the story is read aloud to the child. At significant moments in the story, children are encouraged to stay and play on the page where they can learn the meaning of new words and respond to entertaining questions about the characters and key elements of the story. Each story also includes three additional play modes that allow kids to read the story themselves from the book pages represented on the TV screen, watch and listen to the story without questions, and play additional games based on the story’s content. In total, each DVD contains more than 100 interactive questions and activities.
The Read With Me DVD! learning system includes a wireless child-friendly remote control, an interactive DVD of Where the Wild Things Are, and a storage case for the DVD. Additional Read with Me DVD! titles that will be sold separately for use with the system include Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Corduroy, Curious George Goes to a Chocolate Factory, Giraffes Can’t Dance, Green Eggs & Ham, Miss Spider’s Tea Party, The Little Engine That Could, and more.
The Read With Me DVD! system is recommended for ages three to seven and will be available for a suggested retail price of $54.99 ($19.99 for additional DVD titles) at Canadian stores this September.
About Scholastic Media
Scholastic Media (SM) is the entertainment and media division of Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education, and media company. A proven leader in the children's entertainment landscape, SM ranks as one of the foremost producers of quality, family-oriented television programming, feature films, videos, and web sites, and an award-winning licensor and marketer of children's properties worldwide. SM's production credits include such popular television series as the top-rated Clifford The Big Red Dog®; the Emmy award-winning spin-off of this hit TV series, Clifford’s Puppy Days™ (PBS KIDS); Maya & Miguel™(debuted on PBS KIDS GO!) the Emmy award-winning series I SPY (HBO Family) and The Magic School Bus® (TLC); as well as Dear America®, The Royal Diaries™, Animorphs® and Goosebumps®. In the feature film arena, SM has produced the critically-acclaimed movies Clifford’s Really Big Movie, The Baby-sitters Club, The Indian in the Cupboard, Tuck Everlasting and The Mighty and is currently adapting the best-selling Philip Pullman trilogy, His Dark Materials, for the big screen with New Line Cinema.
About Scholastic
Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and a leader in educational technology. Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos and toys. The Company distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs, school-based book fairs, and school-based and direct-to-home continuity programs; retail stores, schools, libraries and television networks; and the Company's Internet site,
www.scholastic.com.