Podcasts with Learning Guides

These Podcasts have included Learning Guides for using our show in the classroom. Our Learn-Along Guides meet and cite US education standards.

 

Animals, Learning Guide, Podcast, STEM

Lemurs

This time on The Children's Hour we're leaping into learning about lemurs with Faye Goodwin, an educator at the Duke Lemur Center. Find out how humans are related to these adorable primates, and discover why they only live in the wild in one place in the world.

Culture & Music, Learning Guide, Podcast

Composers

In Composers, we explore how songs are created by people from long ago and today. We meet Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, and learn how their lives shaped their sounds. We also hear from Sesame Street, and legendary Broadway composer Bill Sherman about writing catchy tunes with meaning. Listeners discover that anyone can start with a small idea and build a powerful piece of music.

A girl with dark brown hair, a leopard print dress, and a big smile is holding a pumpkin with many pumpkins next to her.
Culture & Music, History, Learning Guide, Podcast, Seasonal

Pumpkin Spice

It’s Halloween time on The Children’s Hour! In this episode, we celebrate pumpkins, jack-o’-lanterns, costumes, and trick-or-treating. Our Kids Crew shares their own traditions, from trunk-or-treat clothing drives to festive parades in northern New Mexico. We’ll find out why some houses put teal pumpkins outside their doors, and learn how this helps kids with food allergies have a safe and fun holiday.

Animals, Culture & Music, Learning Guide, Podcast, STEM

Animals In The Backyard

The Kids Crew discover the animals living right outside our doors. From prairie dogs, coyotes, and roadrunners in New Mexico to monkeys in Thailand, stray dogs in India, koalas in Australia, and wildlife in Brazil, we learn how animals adapt to city life. With expert guest Cooper Freeman and research from junior producer Thaniel Lentz, we explore the challenges and joys of living alongside wild creatures everywhere.

Culture & Music, History, Learning Guide, Podcast, STEM

Balloons

This time on Children’s Hour get blown away with us as we learn all about balloons. We begin with the history of hot air balloons, and we end up in the air on a real balloon. Then we explore latex balloon art and clothing with the team at Airigami. Plus, find out what happens when helium balloons get released into nature. And, that mysterious object you might see floating around in the middle of the day in the skies above you? That might be a weather balloon! All of this is mixed with great music!

Solar panels with wind turbines behind them.
Learning Guide, Podcast, STEM

Renewable Energy

We explore renewable energy with experts in solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro power. The Kids Crew ask big questions about how renewable energy works, why it’s cleaner than fossil fuels, and what the future of energy could look like. With guests Rebecca “Puck” Stair, Jim DesJardins, and Dr. Sherri Kelly, we learn how kids can be part of building a cleaner, brighter tomorrow.

Five children in a refugee camp. One in back has bandaged eyes. Kids are smiling but it's clear life is difficult.
Civics, Culture & Music, Learning Guide, Podcast

Welcome Stranger

In this episode of The Children’s Hour, Grammy-winning oud player Rahim AlHaj shares his story of leaving Iraq as a refugee and finding a new home in New Mexico. Listeners will discover the oud, a 5,000-year-old string instrument, and learn about the challenges and strengths that refugees bring to their communities. The Kids Crew also talk about Malala Yousafzai and what it means to welcome strangers with kindness and compassion.

Culture & Music, History, Learning Guide, Podcast

Animation

On this episode of The Children’s Hour, junior producer and intern Thaniel Lentz takes us through the incredible history and science of animation. From early tools like the zoetrope and flipbooks to famous characters like Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, we learn how still pictures came to life.

Learning Guide, Podcast, STEM

Mars

On this episode of The Children’s Hour, we travel to Mars with planetary volcanologist Dr. Larry Crumpler. He shares the secrets of the Red Planet — from its rusty surface and giant volcanoes to its two tiny moons and ancient signs of water. We learn how rovers explore, search for life, and even make oxygen, plus what it might take to send humans there. This is a fascinating journey to a world both like and unlike our own.

Culture & Music, History, Learning Guide, Podcast

Petroglyphs

This time on The Children’s Hour, our Kids Crew explores the ancient rock carvings known as petroglyphs. We visit Mesa Prieta in northern New Mexico and talk with archaeologists and educators who help protect over 60,000 carvings. Then we meet a Pueblo preservation officer and a national park ranger who explain why these images are still so important today. This episode is a journey into the past that helps us better understand the present.

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