1) SuperSimpleSongs: Letter Magnets

With almost 30 million YouTube views in just over three years, I am definitely not alone in liking this one!  It’s simple and elegant.  I really like how they turn “now” into “know” at the end.

2) Sesame Street: James Earl Jones

There’s a back story here.   It’s going to be hard for an adult to get through it — it’s incredibly slow — but that’s part of the point.  Muppet Wiki sums it up:

The first time a child sees the performance, he responds to the invitation to say the alphabet along with the actor. Upon later viewings, the children would name the letter as soon as it appeared, but before it was named by Jones. Further repetition encouraged children to shout out the letter even before it appears. The “James Earl Jones effect” thus demonstrated to Sesame Street’s producers and curriculum advisors the value of both repetition and anticipation, and supplied proof that Sesame Street could promote interactive learning as opposed to merely passive viewing.

3) Captain Jean-Luc Picard… Really.

Sadly, he calls “Z” “zed”, which is something James Tiberius Kirk would never do.  Never.

4) Sesame Street, Tilly and the Wall

I admit that I had never heard of Tilly and the Wall before seeing this clip.  It’s fun, unique, and engaging — and the second of three Sesame videos.  (I’m biased, I know.)

5) Sesame Street: Hip Hop ABC

Show this to any pre-schooler and watch.  It’s addictive. But on a personal level, I really like this one because if you focus on the Sesame Street Muppets, you’ll see that their individual personalities can come out even when singing the same song. Especially Grover and Elmo.