Cbeebies - RolyMo

The characters love stories and in Fimbles Roly Mo, the warm hearted mole, with the soft lilting voice of experience, is always ready with a book from his underground library.

In creating the new series it seemed natural to build on this popular story telling element and create a series of programmes that could be highly entertaining and yet have a clear educational focus for pre-school children.

The Roly Mo Show has been carefully crafted to ensure the early years curriculum underpins each programme, both subtly and overtly, in ways which are relevant to a young child's experiences.

Each programme has a theme that is developed by the characters through the drama of the action and through the use of story telling. The series is set in Roly’s underground home and involves his many rooms – kitchen, living room, bathroom, bedroom and of course his library. Roly’s home is reached via an exciting helter skelter.

At the beginning of each programme Roly Mo (familiar to Fimbles viewers with his purple and green stripes and his long mole-like snout) is joined by his niece, a brand new character called Little Bo. Little Bo is pink and purple striped. She visits Roly every day on her way home from school. She is always interested in everything and can read and help answer some of the questions asked by the other two new characters, a boisterous pair of snoots called Yugo and Migo (pronounced Yougo and Meego).

Rockit, the much loved tree frog from Fimbles, also visits them occasionally, joining in with songs, other antics and stories of course!

Educational elements

It is a well-known fact that children learn and develop skills through hands on doing and playing. In The Roly Mo Show viewing television is not seen as an end in itself but as a catalyst to enquiry. It is the start of a discovery process that will continue long after the programme has finished.

Social Development. The Roly Mo Show offers many aspects of understanding that are relevant to the young child's experiences and are rooted in children's play. Social development is a key area at this stage in a child's life. Making friends, playing together, being sad, hurt or happy are all skills and emotions that young children begin to experience. This series introduces them in a fun way, through storytelling and character interaction.

Language Development.

Learning to listen attentively is an aspect of language development that is seen as a priority, for without the ability to hear and differentiate sounds a child will find phonics and spelling more difficult. In every episode the characters stop and listen to a two minute animated story read by Roly Mo. Sometimes, as a special treat, there is more than one story in a show. The series aims to foster a love of books, demonstrating that they can also be shared with others.

The stories are all carefully linked to the action in the main body of the show, providing clues where appropriate or exploring related themes and issues. As well as giving young children an opportunity to learn to listen, each story also allows them to make connections and to apply learning. This creates an understanding that books can hold the answers to many varied questions.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World.

Other ways of approaching problem solving include team work and working co-operatively, and in the show a strong emphasis is placed on these aspects too, as each of the characters uses their particular skills to contribute to finding a solution.

Introducing new and different words are an important consideration when creating age appropriate scripts for a new series like this, and the programmes have great fun playing with words. The characters Yugo and Migo are always exploring new words and sounds- not always accurately- but in a way that is typical of a young child’s own exploration. In The Roly Mo Show the characters have fun exploring words that will enrich a child's vocabulary. This, together with the use of song and rhyme (both familiar and new) gives the young viewer the opportunity for repetition and learning.

Busy Book.

Other important aspects of the curriculum are introduced via an innovative new interactive element which is called the Busy Book. Some children may well be familiar with this term as it is sometimes used in early learning establishments.

Little Bo always has her Busy Book with her and it is often used to illustrate or solve a problem. It resembles a page in a workbook, that a child may do at home or at a learning centre. Then they can make choices and colour in the exercise afterwards.

Our Busy Book takes the form of an animation introduced by one of the Fimbles. The tasks are carefully scripted with simple explanations and skillfully timed to give the child time to think and offer suggestions for the answers. The right answers are always given

Each Busy Book task has an educational aim and most areas of the curriculum will be covered.

Activities all included within the Busy Book pages may include:

Looking for objects that have the same properties
Finding an odd one out and sorting and matching a variety of objects and sounds
Identifying, matching and completing patterns
Identifying comparatives of size
Height and speed
Exploring and making connections between whole objects and sections.
These animated interactive activities are a fun part of each programme which the young audience will enjoy.

Viewing and Using The Roly Mo Show

Watching an entertaining and educational programme like The Roly Mo Show can be a shared experience between parent or carer and child, much like reading a book together.

Viewing need not be a silent activity and in fact much can be gained when you talk to your child about what you are both seeing. Encourage their comments and predictions and especially their participation with the Busy Book activities and celebrate their successes.

Wherever possible make connections between the programmes and your child's own experiences, during the time you’re watching and at other times during the day. Perhaps your child will become aware of stripes, having seen Fimbles and The Roly Mo Show. This may well provide the opportunity for observation games when shopping! Preparations for mealtimes (which feature heavily in the show!) role playing and various kinds of treasure hunts are also fun to share.

But most of all do enjoy the shared time together and the programmes of course!