PBS KIDS Celebrates Earth Month with All-New Episodes, Games and Activities, Inspiring Families and Educators to Explore the Outdoors

Special crossover episode of NATURE CAT and WILD KRATTS and new episodes of READY JET GO! premiere the week of April 15

Arlington, VA, April 2, 2019 - In celebration of Earth Month, PBS KIDS has announced a slate of all-new episodes, games and activities to encourage kids and families to get outside and enjoy nature. Beginning April 15, viewers will be able to enjoy a special week of adventures from WILD KRATTS, NATURE CAT and READY JET GO! The new episodes will debut nationwide on PBS stations, the PBS KIDS 24/7 channel and PBS KIDS digital platforms.

New PBS KIDS programming will also include a first-ever crossover episode of NATURE CAT that includes a guest appearance from Chris and Martin Kratt of WILD KRATTS. In the NATURE CAT crossover episode, Chris and Martin Kratt show up as Chris and Martin Batt - two wild bat brothers - who have their home destroyed and are forced to find a new shelter. Nature Cat and his pals come to the rescue, and build Chris and Martin a brand new home.

Across the country, local PBS member stations will host Earth Month-related events to connect children to the environment through hands-on learning activities. Families will also have the opportunity to dive into nature themes and environmental concepts with PBS KIDS Explore the Outdoors activities and materials.

Research shows that being outside helps kids improve their critical thinking skills, boosts their attention spans, enhances empathy and lowers stress, said Lesli Rotenberg, Chief Programming Executive & General Manager, Children's Media & Education, PBS. With new episodes from WILD KRATTS, NATURE CAT, and READY JET GO!, and resources for the whole family, our aim is to use media to inspire real-world exploration - for kids to take that learning outside and explore in their own communities.

New games from NATURE CAT and READY JET GO! will be available later this month. In NATURE CAT's Nature Road Trip, kids can join the gang on a nature road trip visiting national parks and natural wonders around the U.S. This multi-player digital board game will be available on pbskids.org. In READY JET GO!'s Jet's Bot Builder, the new cross-platform, adaptive STEM game will engage kids in the engineering design process, and tailor it to each child's individual learning progress. Jet's Bot Builder will be available on pbskids.org and available on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon.

Clips and full episodes will stream across PBS KIDS' video platforms, including the free PBS KIDS Video App. In addition to the new episodes, families will have access to hands-on activities, printables and crafts for parents and caregivers on pbskidsforparents.org. For teachers, PBS LearningMedia will offer READY JET GO!, NATURE CAT and WILD KRATTS Collections, with resources to support conversations planet Earth, animals and more in the classroom.

More information on PBS KIDS' Earth Month programming, including when to watch, is included below:

New Episodes

READY JET GO!

Who Messed Up the Treehouse?/Fact or Fiction?

Premieres and streams April 15

Who Messed Up the Treehouse? - Each kid brings their personal project up to the tree house, and each contributes to a huge mess. Now they can't do anything in the tree house because it's too messy, but none of them want to clean up the other's mess. They have to learn to share the responsibility and clean it together.

Fact or Fiction? - When Mindy tells Jet that clouds are made of cotton candy, and defends this idea because she heard a friend say so, Sean and Sydney set out to show her how to separate fact from fiction through research! Celery takes them up into the clouds to see for themselves.

Moon Circus/Every Day Is Earth Day

Premieres and streams April 16

Moon Circus - Carrot is about to turn 250 Bortronian years old, and the kids have set up a backyard circus to help him celebrate. They all notice that Earth's gravity makes it hard to perform their circus stunts, so they take the whole circus to the Moon, where its 1/6th gravity makes all their stunts much easier!

Every Day Is Earth Day - It's Earth Day, and the kids are preparing posters for the big community celebration at the DSA. They decide to research their posters by traveling all around the Earth in Jet's family saucer and observing all the things that make Earth so special.

My Three Suns/Magnet P.I.

Premieres and streams April 17

My Three Suns - The kids can't play shadow tag because the Sun keeps going behind clouds. Mindy wants the sun to be out all the time! Face 9000 tells them about a system with not one, but three suns! That sounds like a place where there would be shadows all the time. Celery takes them to visit in the family saucer.

Magnet P.I. - Sean becomes an amateur magician called the Great Seanzo, dazzling the other kids with magnet tricks. Jet becomes fascinated by magnets, and they all explore the various things magnets can do, culminating in a magic magnet show for Carrot.

Sunspot's Sunspot/Our Sun Is a Star!

Premieres and streams April 18

Sunspot's Sunspot - Sunspot begins acting strangely, and Jet fears that he is sick. Carrot and Celery examine him, and decide that he's acting strange because of a large sunspot on the Sun. The only way to cure him is to bring him to the Sun, and get him close to the huge sunspot.

Our Sun Is a Star! - Mindy wants to have a sleepover outside with her friend Lillian, but it's winter and too cold to sleep outside under the stars. Sean points out that they are under the light of a star all the time - our Sun! Mindy learns that our Sun is a star, just like the tiny ones we see at night.

NATURE CAT

Wild Batts/No Bird Left Behind

Premieres and streams April 15

Wild Batts - In this fun PBS crossover episode Chris and Martin Kratt show up on N

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