Nina goes Engineering

‘Nina and the Neurons’ is a CBeebies show that brings science to life for our young audience. In the new series, Nina and the Neurons are concentrating on engineering, and we caught up with Valerie, Assistant Producer on the show to find out more…

Can you tell us a bit about the new series?

This series is all about engineering - Nina and her five animated sense neurons show us how aeroplanes fly, how bridges stay up, and how robots work. Nina is joined by children from all over the UK to try out fun experiments in her workshop and visit some of the country's most impressive engineering achievements.

Why did you decide that Nina should Go Engineering? 

Nearly everything you can think of uses engineering in some way.  It’s all about solving problem and making things work better. Engineering can cover anything from computers to biscuits, so it’s not just about cogs and spanners, although they’re great too! There’s definitely something for everyone in this series. At the moment, there’s a real shortage of young people becoming engineers – it would be great if we could inspire some viewers to take up the challenge – they could be designing and building the technology of tomorrow. 

How did you approach making the concepts of engineering accessible for little ones? 

We try and simplify some really quite tricky science concepts into three key experiments. The children don’t just watch Nina demonstrate, they get hands-on experience and try things out for themselves. We use games and familiar objects to really bring concepts to life.  For example, we used a see-saw to show how cranes stay balanced, and giant knitting to explain ship building!

What kinds of locations did you visit during the filming? 

Nina and the children visit some incredible places to see engineering in action. The Thames Barrier is opened just for us to demonstrate hydraulics and we see how Cruachan Power Station makes electricity from water. We ride on a giant Hovercraft on the Isle of Wight, and meet some very clever football-playing robots in Edinburgh. Then there are the combine harvesters in Aberdeen, and testing out Europe’s highest glass floor in Portsmouth - to name just a few highlights!

What did you most enjoy about working on the production?

It’s really rewarding to see young people getting excited by the experiments we’ve designed, especially when they come away having learned something that they didn’t know before. All of the Nina team are really passionate about science and it’s great to share that with the children who come on the show and those who watch. It's always surprising to see what the children are impressed by - it can be the stuff that's really easy to set up, like getting the weighing scales to balance, or the stuff that we've had to really work at, like building our own canal lock. 

Were there any funny moments during filming?

We tend to use a cuddly toy puppet during our filming to help the children get used to the cameras. The puppet sits on top of the camera to encourage them to look into the lens. It became so popular that some of the children accidentally asked the puppet their questions rather than Nina! It’s always really funny when we’re filming Nina and the children dancing to the closing song. Literally everyone there has to join in: the film crew, the director, the production team and the children's mums and dads, so that no-one will be too self-conscious to dance. You can guess who the best dancers are! 

How have you translated the spirit of the show into online activities? 

‘Nina’s Engineering Playground’ is a selection of new mini-games that allow little ones to experiment and play with lots of engineering concepts, with the help of the Neurons , of course. They mean that everyone watching can now become one of Nina's 'Engineers' too. The games tie in closely with the episodes of the show, and players will experiment with conveyor belts, hot air balloons and building blocks to help the Neurons collect shiny stars. 

Visit the Nina and the Neurons webpage on CBeebies

Read more about the educational value of the Nina series and games on CBeebies Grown-ups  

CBeebies have got a very special new animation for this Christmas. 'The Cow That Almost Missed Christmas' is the Nativity story as told through the eyes of an adventurous young cow called Marjorie.    

Marjorie has heard that a new King is to be born in Bethlehem and there’ll be a celebration – probably a street party! – and she really wants to be part of it.   

We see very familiar scenes from the Nativity, but told from a slightly different perspective – that of the sheep (rather than the shepherds),  the stately camels (rather than their owners, the Wise Men) and the donkey that transported Mary to Bethlehem! 

Written by Andy Cutbill and designed by Russell Adjo, the programme is produced by Baby Cow and Komedia who have assembled a stellar comedy cast including Issie Sutie, Johnny Vegas, Miriam Margolyes and Simon Greenall.

'The Cow that Almost Missed Christmas' is a respectful, but very funny interpretation of the Nativity and a lovely celebratory viewing opportunity for all the family.

You can catch Marjorie and friends on CBeebies on Wednesday 19th December at 4.30pm, and again on 24th December at 3.30pm, and 25th December at 8.30am.

'The Cow That Almost Missed Christmas' will also be shown on BBC One on 21st December at 3.30pm, and on BBC Two on 25th December at 6.30am. 

CBeebies is thrilled to announce that Beatrix Potter's timeless character Peter Rabbit is bounding on to the screen this Christmas! Set in the Lake District, this exciting new series features brand new stories based on the classic Potter tales, and will launch with a Christmas special to whet your appetites before the main series launches in 2013. 

Mischievous, charming and brave, Peter is a hero who overcomes obstacles, outwits predators and avoids trouble as he embarks on a series of exciting adventures in his attempt to grow up to be just like his father. They are big paws to fill, but with his father's journal and the help of his best friends Benjamin Bunny and Lily Bobtail, Peter is ready for some fun and delightful new discoveries.

As readers of the original Beatrix Potter series will know, the books aren’t without peril and danger – remember that Peter’s father got put in a pie by Mr McGregor! The challenge with this adaptation was how to portray the predation element whilst still being suitable for a preschool audience. The brand-new series is an action-adventure show at its heart, with plenty of thrills and spills, but never shies away from the fact that “foxes chase rabbits – that’s just how the world works”. In keeping with the Potter books, Peter’s father is absent in the series but his death is never mentioned.

 

Peter Rabbit is full of rich animation, exciting storylies and beautiful characters, and we hope our audience loves it just as much as we do. Peter Rabbit’s Christmas Tale transmits on CBeebies on Thursday 20 December at 4.30pm, and Christmas Day on BBC 1 at 9.25am.

Go to the Peter Rabbit webpage

We just wanted to let you all know that from the start of next year your favourite CBeebies programmes will be available exclusively on the CBeebies channel.

From January 5th, children's programmes will no longer be broadcast daily on BBC One or Two but, don't worry, all your favourite shows will continue to be shown on the Cbeebies channel or on iplayer.

We're guessing that the CBeebies channel is probably already your first port of call to watch our programmes. Now that all children in the UK have access to digital TV it seems the right time to end the blocks of programmes on One and Two. 

We've already started to show the CBeebies Channel on BBC Two mornings to help prepare people for the changes and show viewers who aren’t aware of the channel what we have to offer. We also know some children use this time to watch alternative programmes to what’s on the CBeebies channel at that time so we're co-ordinating the schedules to ensure that kids are used to the new line-up before we make the change.

There are lots of exciting shows planned for the New Year on CBeebies including the enchanting new story-telling series Old Jack's Boat; new Nina & the Neurons (this time looking at engineering); and new Justin's House and Alphablocks. So there's lots to look forward to on the CBeebies channel next year! 

 You can find CBeebies on these channels

Freeview             71
Sky                       614
Freesat               601
Virgin                   702
BT Vision            71

And, of course on iPlayer.

We’re dusting off the tinsel in the CBeebies office! Christmas is fast approaching and the CBeebies House is a flurry of festive activity with everyone rushing around getting all the Christmas specials ready.

This year we have a bumper crop of brand new seasonal episodes, kicking off with ‘Show Me Show Me Winter Special’ and ‘Baby Jake Loves Christmas’ on 17th December, then ‘Mr Bloom's Nursery – Hoe Hoe Hoe’ on the 18th and ‘Mike the Knight and the Sneezing Reindeer’ and ’64 Zoo Lane – The Story of the Merry Jinglewhizz’ on 20th December.

We also have a couple of beautiful one-off Christmas animations; 'The Cow That Almost Missed Christmas', a unique re-telling of the nativity story through the eyes of a cow called Marjorie, who lives in a stable in Bethlehem (I think you can see where that's going…) and 'Peter Rabbit's Christmas Tale'. (This is actually a taste of things to come as we're very excited to be welcoming a full series of animated tales based on Beatrix Potter's classics to CBeebies in the new year!)

The highlight of the Christmas schedule for many of us, of course will be the CBeebies Pantomime. This year Sid is starring as Jack in a special CBeebies adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk which you can watch on December 21st (and then repeatedly on your HD recorder/iplayer another couple of hundred times if the kids have their way!)

This year the cast recorded the Panto songs with the BBC Philharmonic in advance so that little ones can learn them beforehand and have fun singing along when the Panto comes on TV. Andy and Mr Bloom will be introducing a new one every week on the CBeebies website.

Your little Christmas angels will also be able to make their very own shoebox theatre to recreate scenes from the pantomime (printouts and instructions will be downloadable from the website). We’ll also have some special Pantomime behind the scenes videos and extras just for you grown-ups so keep an eye on our Grownups pages and social media for those.

The CBeebies website will be building up the excitement to Christmas Day with another fantastic interactive Advent Calendar, little ones will be able to open a new window every day to reveal a unique Christmassy surprise from one of their favourite CBeebies characters or presenters. CBeebies online will also be crammed full of festive things to make and do including Christmas bunting, paper chains and for the first time, Christmas cards featuring favourite CBeebies shows and characters.

For those long car journeys during the holidays don’t forget all the lovely CBeebies Radio shows. As well all the great regular programmess like ‘Tree Fu Tom Spell School’ and ‘Nina Goes Inventing’, this Christmas, highlights include a Christmas Special presented by Chris from Show Me Show Me, a radio version of the Pantomime and a special episode of our new series about birds ‘Feathered Friends’.  There are also specials called 'The Ministry of Stories' featuring Radio 4 Woman’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray and 'Robin' a Christmas tale from the garden presented by Philippa Forrester. All of them can be listened to online or downloaded as podcasts to listen to whenever you like.

In the CBeebies House, the presenters will be getting festive showing little ones lots of fantastic things to make and do and will be bringing you a some early Christmas presents: new number raps from 10-15! You can catch all the number raps from 1-15 on the corresponding dates from 1st December.

To round up each day in true CBeebies style we’ll have an extra-special bedtime story. This December we’ve got a selection of magical wintry tales read by some fantastic new readers (including Simon Pegg, Floella Benjamin and Bernard Cribbins!) as well as old favourites like Simon Callow reading ‘The Night Before Christmas’ and Derek Jacobi reading ‘Stickman’.

Believe it or not this is only a small selection of the festive fun going on across CBeebies during December so don’t forget to keep an eye on CBeebies Facebook, Twitter and the Grown-ups pages for all the latest.

You play as Tom, on a journey across Treetopolis , avoiding the ‘slime-weeds’ and ‘grumbleberry bushes’ to help his friends collect Magic Sap and save the day! 

There are four areas of the magical world in which to play; the Caverns, the Pond, the Ranch and the Treetops. 

Many of us have happy memories of playing games like Donkey Kong and Sonic The Hedgehog as children and we wanted to recreate that excitement for our audience by making a platform game that can be enjoyed by even the littlest Tree Fu fan.

In Magic Dash, little ones must jump, move and create magic through movement and spells in each area to open up new opportunities and rewards.

The gameplay is designed for young children and those with SEN and is controlled with just one button (mouse, spacebar or switcher). 

Older Tree Fu fans can also take advantage of the extra bonus elements like the ‘Super Shield’ for protection against the weeds, and the Mega Magnetiser to attract more of the magic. 

The game can help children improve their processing ability by allowing them to practice visual tracking and perceptual awareness. 

The mouse and keyboard manipulation acquired by playing this game can help develop fine motor skills i.e. the ability to use fingers and thumbs in a precise and controlled manner. This is especially important for developing the skills needed to hold and manipulate objects such as pencils. 

Go to the Magic Dash game

 

 

We caught up with Adam Idelson, one of the Octonauts Producers, to hear all about what we should expect from series 2 and what it's like to work aboard the Octopod...

Hi Adam – what do you do on the Octonauts?

 
A: I'm the Supervising Producer, which means working directly with all the talented people who make Octonauts, from the artists who design the characters, to the writers and actors who make them speak, to the animators who put it all into motion.

How does it feel having watched the Octonauts come to life from the pages of a book, all the way through to a second series?

A: It’s been amazing! Executive Producer Kurt Mueller discovered the books by Meomi a while back and worked with our head writer, Stephanie Simpson, to adapt it to TV. And I was lucky enough to join the team shortly after that.

At first it seemed to go slowly, as if we had forever to decide little things like should Captain Barnacles have a belt? What colour should the Gup–D be? Then about 3 years ago, we officially began production on series 1, and it’s been like trying to catch a runaway train ever since!

What can we expect from series 2?

A: More of everything you like! Our mantra this season was to go BIG. So bigger with the action, creatures and comedy. And from what we've seen so far, we're delivering. I have to give a shout out to the sleepless souls at our animation studio, Brown Bag Films, who somehow manage to pack a feature film's worth of action-packed adventure into every 10 minute episode.

Any favourite episodes?

A: Well, that's a bit like choosing your favourite child! Speaking of which, there's a very funny episode coming up about a Jawfish father who carries his eggs around in his mouth and the Octonauts have to help him to keep track of them all. Being a dad, I can relate. But my favourite show so far this season is the premiere, where the Octopod tangles with a Colossal Squid!

What’s your favourite thing about working on the Octonauts?

 
A:  Honestly, it’s hard to pick one thing. Some days I'm looking at designs for an upcoming character or rough animation for a new episode, other days I'm brainstorming new ideas with our writing team, or recording voices, or doing it all at one time! It’s exhausting but exhilarating. I work with wonderful people and we all work 24/7 making a show we love.

What’s next for the Octonauts?

A: There's a fantastic double-length special coming up for Christmas that all of us involved in the show think will be the best thing we've ever done. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but let's just say Kwazii goes in search of an underwater city his long-lost grandfather, Calico Jack could never find, and gets more than he bargained for.

Go to Octonauts webpage

 Now Something Special fans can play on the Tumble Tapp with ‘Tumble Tapp Snap’ – available on the CBeebies website

Mr Tumble’s hi-tech gadget, The Tumble Tapp, was introduced to Something Special audiences last month – inspiring mixed reactions, ranging from “an ‘i-Tumble’?...really?!” to “about time! is there an app we can download?”

So this week, as we launch its companion mobile game Tumble Tapp Snap, we thought it’d be good to write a blog explaining some of the background behind it…

So the big question is, what does Mr Tumble need a tablet for?

Whereas most of us have succumbed to relying on our mobiles throughout or daily lives, from waking us up in the morning to urgently tweeting about this week’s Strictly costumes, it’s understandable that we might expect a bit more restraint from a CBeebies legend such as Mr Tumble. Up until now, he didn’t need hi-tech gadgets in his life, so what’s changed? The answer to this lies in his audience…

Something Special appeals to a wide CBeebies audience, but especially to children with special educational needs (SEN). This audience is at the core of the show, and making changes to their beloved programme has to be a well-considered decision. While the Tumble Tapp is a bright, fun and modern prop for each episode, Mr Tumble’s new gadget also parallels the increasing relevance of touch devices in children with SEN’s lives…

The value of touch devices for Special Needs Users

Sometimes getting children with SEN to want to play can be a challenge, and if anyone can do this, we think Mr Tumble can!

While bright, noisy computer programs can provide great stimulation for children with SEN, for some children a mouse may require too much motor skill, and switch devices may be too indirect. The introduction of touch monitors has helped enable more users with SEN to interact with technology, but until recently, these were not readily portable, available or affordable. The development of tablet devices has changed this, and they are becoming increasingly relevant to children with SEN’s day-to-day lives and classroom environments.

Now everyone can play on the Tumble Tapp…

Once Mr Tumble got his tablet, it seemed natural to make an online game that would allow children to play on their own Tumble Tapp – either on their desktop computer, or on a mobile device.

As an accompaniment to the brilliant, fully accessible Something Special: Out and About games, a Tumble Tapp game has a lot to live up to. (The development of Tumble Tapp Snap has involved lots of user testing with children with SEN, and consultation with special needs experts,) to produce an uncluttered, accessible matching game that can be tailored to suit the user…

Personalising the settings to suit your child…

So what about if one of the kids playing the game likes to match non-identical images, but another feels more comfortable matching identical images? Both of these are very important skills for building understanding and problem-solving but occur at different stages of cognitive development, so we’ve built a settings panel for adults, that lets them decide which type of matching game would best suit the child’s needs and abilities. A similar function was used in the Something Special: Out and About games as a great way of empowering all children to play the same game, in their own way.

For Tumble Tapp Snap, we’ve expanded this to enable adults to change the way touch devices such as mobiles and tablets are handled - for instance, if the child doesn’t possess the physical skills to swipe their hand across the tablet screen, they can switch to a version that only requires them to tap it.
For more information on the Settings panel, read all about it on our Grown-ups Tumble Tapp page, or check the game out for yourself on our mobile site.

A step in the right direction…

Our goal with this Tumble Tapp game has been to expand the ways in which all Something Special fans can engage with a much-loved character.  By choosing to build the game in the new coding language called HTML5, we’re able to make the game freely available on mobile devices via the CBeebies site, without players having to download or buy anything. This is no mean feat, and it’s a continuing challenge to make the game work for everybody’s mobile devices and fixing any little glitches – but  as technology develops we plan for our games to develop too - in the meantime we hope that Tumble Tapp Snap is a good step forward…

Let us know what you think…

Building mobile games in HTML5 can be a tricky business – there’s a lot of different handset types out there, all with different versions and operating systems. For this reason, when some people try this game for the first time they may encounter a few glitches. But fear not! We have some great HTML5 experts trying to do their best to fix any issues.

For this reason, we at CBeebies HQ are asking for anyone who experiences any problems to email us with the details so we can investigate.

Please include details on your handset, and any other information you might be able to provide such as screengrabs, and details of your operating system if you know it.

We’d be incredibly grateful for your feedback, as it will help us to build a great game that can be used by all!

Email us at cbeebies@bbc.co.uk, with the subject title: Tumble Tapp

Play Tumble Tapp Snap

I cannot believe that it is nearly 11 years ago since I first joined the good ship CBeebies and what a truly amazing journey it has been.

There have been so many highlights, far too many to mention, but the ones that are at the forefront of my mind are playing keepy uppy with the legend that is John Barnes for a CBeebies Christmas shoot; travelling to Kenya and filming in the Masai Mara for CBeebies Africa; and, more recently, meeting Her Majesty the Queen earlier this year and remembering to say “Ma’am” as in jam rather than “Ma’am” as in farm!

The last eleven years have given me the space to grow and develop as a performer and a presenter and I never dreamt I’d end up staying so long! But I feel that the time has now come to step outside the CBeebies house and explore new opportunities. 

So, from April next year, I will no longer be one of the regular presenters in the CBeebies house. This doesn’t mean that you won’t see me on the channel, far from it! I have a new series called “Let’s Play” starting on CBeebies next week which I am very excited about. “Let’s Play” is presented by myself and Rebecca Keatley and the show will inspire pre-schoolers to explore the magic of play through dressing up, role play and pretending to be…well just about anybody.

It was a fantastic opportunity to play around with outfits, make up, wigs and voices as we dressed up as different characters from cowboys to racing drivers! I hope you enjoy our adventures as much as we did.  Which was my favourite character?  I will let you decide - there are plenty to choose from!

And I can let you into a secret that I am about to star as Jack in this year’s CBeebies Pantomime “Jack and the Beanstalk”. The Panto features all your favourite CBeebies friends and was recorded in front of a live audience in Manchester.

The CBeebies Panto is always great fun as when all of us presenters get together, there’s lots of banter backstage! It will be like a dress rehearsal for me as I will also be appearing as Jack in a live theatre version of “Jack and the Beanstalk” later this year. 

Back on CBeebies, I have just recorded some new Number Raps for the channel with Andy, this time looking at the numbers 11-15.  You can catch these going out from Tuesday 11th December – an ideal date and perfect for the older CBeebies audience who can count beyond 10.

I am also thrilled to be embarking on a theatre tour with my own show which is something very different for me. And I have just recorded an episode of “Celebrity Mastermind” – wow, it was so nerve-racking sitting in that infamous black chair!  I can’t tell you how I did but be sure to tune in when it goes out on BBC One over Christmas.

So, it’s not really goodbye as I will still be popping up on CBeebies in your living rooms but I’ll also be enjoying the opportunity to pursue some new challenges. See you soon.

Check out the Let's Play page on the CBeebies Website for songs, clips and other activities.

The Autumn’s here, so it’s time kick off your welly boots and tune in for a very special episode of Mr Bloom’s Nursery. On 18th October we’ll be showing our Harvest episode where Mr Bloom and the Veggies travel to the village of Clapham in North Yorkshire for a good old Harvest Festival.

When thinking about making a one-off, special episode we are keen to try and find a special date or event on the gardener’s calendar. What better than the time of year when everything is gathered in and celebrated?

This presented a fantastic opportunity for us to look at the issue of how long it actually takes for vegetables to grow. It can be a tricky concept for some children to get their heads around – that when they plant a seed, they have to wait for it to grow and develop.

To this end we made two visits to Clapham this year. The first was in May, where Mr Bloom met up with a group of Tiddlers and set about planting a variety of seeds in their school garden. We then returned in September with the Veggies, to see how they’d got on growing. The results were top notch, with a certain set of aubergines that would have given Sebastian a run for his money! With it now being September it was time to gather in all the food and what better way to celebrate than with a good old traditional Harvest Festival – complete with delivering boxes of foody-goods around the village, a church service and an outdoor party that featured a brass band and a cake stall.

We hope you enjoy it! Happy Harvest!

A New Series of 64 Zoo Lane starts on 29th October

CBeebies is refreshing the Bedtime Hour for Winter to include even more of our best-loved shows to snuggle up with before bed. We understand how important the Bedtime Hour can be as part of many families’ routines, so we want to let you know what the changes are and when they’re happening.

From Sunday 28th October at 6pm, “The Adventures of Abney & Teal” will move into the Bedtime Hour for the first time, with brand new episodes airing Sunday to Thursday. There will be a chance to catch up with favourite episodes on Friday and Saturday too.

Also from Sundays to Thursdays we’re very excited to be able to bring you a new series of “Sixty Four Zoo Lane” at 6:10pm. We understand that Fridays and Saturdays can feel different as part of the weekend, so with this in mind we welcome back special treat-size “Waybuloo” to the Bedtime Hour on Friday and Saturday.

Familiar faces remain in Bedtime, with “In The Night Garden” and the “CBeebies Bedtime Story”, as always at the end of the day. We do hope your little ones will enjoy the new line-up and that this mix will offer something for both older and younger viewers. 

Press the Red Button to play the CBeebies Love to Learn Quiz where you can have fun with all the family learning about words and numbers with CBeebies presenters Alex and Cerrie.

The quiz features questions on a variety of CBeebies favourites including the Numberjacks, Abadas, Alphablocks, Numtums and The Lingo Show. Choc full of great clips, the quiz is just for fun but viewers can play again and again to improve their score.

The quiz will be split into two parts: Part 1 will be available from Saturday 6th October until Tuesday 9th October and Part 2 will be available from Wednesday 10th October until Friday 12th October.

For more information on all the CBeebies characters please visit: CBeebies

Available on Sky/Freeview

Sky:

Sat 6th October, 6:00am-6:00pm
Sun 7th - Fri 12th October, 6:00am-7:00pm (daily)

Freeview:

Sat 6th October, 6:00am-2:20pm
Sun 7th October, 12:10pm-1:50pm
Mon 8th October, 6:00am-4:50pm
Tue 9th October, 6:00am-7:00pm
Wed 10th October, 6:00am-2:50pm
Thu 11th October, 6:00am-7:00pm
Fri 12th October, 7:45am-12:00pm & 1:00pm-7:00pm

 

Hi Katy! What have you been up to over the summer?

Hello! I've been so busy this summer. I went on holiday to Norway which was great fun and I've been travelling all around the country with the live stage show of 'I Can Cook'. I've also been popping in and out of the CBeebies house to see my friends Sid, Cerrie, Alex and Andy to play some games and have a giggle.   But the big thing I've been doing this summer is filming the new series 'I Can Cook On The Go' and that's been really exciting, especially with all the new bits this series.

What can we expect from the new series? Are there any changes?

This series is all about healthy eating and using food as fuel for energy to go out and play and do fun activities. We've got some great recipes to share; they're all healthy and having eaten them all, I can say they are really tasty too! And as well as the food you'll see the children and I taking part in loads of fun activities that we hope will give families lots of ideas for things to do together.

There a few other changes too. We've got a revamped outdoor kitchen including a very special cookbook, and I've got a brand new look as well.  Also for this series, we have a special episode called 'I Can Cook On The Go - A Special Surprise'.  It features some amazing guests and I can't wait for everyone to see it.  But I won't say too much about it just now - it'd spoil the surprise!

 Wow, what kind of activities do the kids get up to?

 We get to do so many different and fun things. We went surfing, which was something I never thought I'd see myself do on I Can Cook! We also did a children's adventure course, pony trekking and rock pooling, rollerskating and hockey, streetdance and traditional playground games. We even met some birds of prey!

Are there any new characters?

There are indeed! We have three new characters. There's Horace, my van, who I travel round the country in (he has the longest eyelashes ever!).  Horace is also home to Mr Spoon who helps the children and I to identify the right size spoon to use when a specific size is needed for the recipe. There's also Pinchy Parrot who helps out when we need a small amount of an ingredient. She's especially helpful in making sure we don't make some of the recipes too spicy!

We have some new rhymes this series, and alongside favourites like the 'Washing Hands' and 'Tidy Up' songs, we've got an updated 'Travelling Song.'  I'm particularly excited about our brand new 'Energy' song, which is a celebration of eating healthily and having energy to play because of it.

I think the great thing about this series is that through the cooking and the activities, there's so much for children to do and it really is a celebration of 'I Can' for them. We have a lot of fun with the ingredients, looking at their colours, their smells, and their shapes which are great for encouraging children to use their imaginations. We also do counting of ingredients and learn about more and less through things such as the weighing game - we even make flour clouds! Oh! And I can't forget the banana dance, I won't tell you too much about it, but I guarantee everyone will be doing it by the end of the series.

Do you have any favourite recipes from the show? What can you recommend?

Another first for 'I Can Cook' is that in this series we also make drinks - a watermelon cooler and a cucumber and apple based one called 'Super Green Dream.' Both of those were really tasty and I did drink quite a lot of both of them! I also really enjoyed 'Katy's Amazing Carrot and Squash Cookies' and also the 'Summer Sundaes.' It's really hard to choose one favourite though as all the recipes are SO delicious.

Any funny moments during filming that you could share with us?

We had an amazing team making this series - we were constantly laughing in between filming which really helped when we were out in the cold and rain! They were always coming up with crazy things for me to do in the 'Energy' song - singing whilst standing on your head or whilst riding a horse is definitely a skill!  I also have to mention 'Fish Face' - it caused a lot of laughter on set.

What have you got planned now you’ve finished filming this series?

Well, if I get the time, I'd love to learn to skydive but with being so busy that might have to wait till next year.  For now, though, I'm going to have a few days rest and then it's back on the road with the 'I Can Cook' live shows!

Exciting times at CBeebies - on Monday 1st October at 4.00 we welcome a brand new show, Get Well Soon, onto our screens. Controller of CBeebies, Kay Benbow, dropped in to tell us all about it herself, then we managed to grab the star of the show, Dr Ranj (in between ward rounds!) and ask him a few questions. Here's Kay to tell you more:

One of the best things about being the Controller of CBeebies is when someone presents me with an idea and I think, ‘Yes!’ That is exactly what CBeebies needs. That’s how it was with Get Well Soon.
 
When Dr Ranj first came to talk about Get Well Soon he gave a great presentation - complete with puppet! I instantly felt he was someone who really understood how to put children and parents at ease when discussing challenging, embarrassing and sometimes scary issues.

Being a parent, the idea really struck a chord with me. I kept thinking if only I had had access to a programme like that when my two sons were little, it would have alleviated a lot of the worry and anxiety I faced as an inexperienced parent trying to explain things properly and without scaring them.
I really hope Get Well Soon will be the equivalent of a child health book on TV and online.
 
I’m really proud of the way we’ve managed to make Get Well Soon fun and engaging, and informative.

We’ve tackled some potentially tricky subjects but they’re all approached sensitively, with a good dose of humour and some great songs! I think a lot of that is down to Dr Ranj - together with Nurse Morag and her Healthy Helpers. Dr Ranj does a great job of explaining things honestly and with empathy, as well as singing and interacting with our youngest audience brilliantly.

So without further ado, I’d like to hand you over to CBeebies’ doctor in the house - Dr Ranj!

Hello Dr Ranj! Are you a real doctor?
 
Yes! Actually, a lot of people seem to be asking me that at the moment!
I've been a practising NHS doctor since 2003 - that's almost 10 years! I've worked
in a variety of different hospitals in lots of specialties. I look after everyone from
extremely premature babies to young adults with complex disabilities - it's busy but
I love every minute!
 
Tell us about Get Well Soon, what's it all about?
 
'Get Well Soon' is a unique pre-school show based on children's experiences of
going to the doctor. Its aim is to educate as well as entertain, and allow kids to
learn about their bodies in health and sickness. The show is based in a surgery
that is run by myself (Dr. Ranj) and Nurse Morag – my lovely and knowledgeable
counterpart.
Through the eyes of five loveable puppet characters (Deep, Kiwa, Riz, Jobi and
Petal) that come in to visit the doctor, we get a chance to see the medical world as a
safe and stimulating environment full of music, laughter and games.
 
What kind of conditions do you cover in the series?

The series explores a range of common childhood complaints which make it
relevant to lots of people. Everything from hiccups to hand, foot and mouth
disease, verrucas to vaccination, and constipation to conjunctivitis - it all gets the
'Get Well Soon' treatment! We even deal with conditions like asthma and diabetes
in a positive and empowering way - something that is pioneering in pre-school TV
and I am extremely proud of.
 
How did you manage to make being ill a fun subject?
 
It’s all about how you present the information – ‘illness’ doesn’t always have to be
awful and is something we all go through. Fortunately many childhood illnesses
are not serious, but they can still be frightening for children and their parents. Even
long term conditions can be made less scary by putting it all into the right
perspective.

How did being a TV doctor compare to being a real doctor?
 
It's a completely different world, but I'm glad I got to use my 'day job' to do
something really wacky and fun. In fact, I don't think I have ever had so much fun at
'work'!
Working in TV means I get to meet some really cool people who have done
amazing things. Working with the crew and puppets (and the immensely talented
puppeteers) on 'Get Well Soon' is something that I will always cherish.
 
Do you have a favourite episode? Any funny moments during filming?
 
Hmmm, now that's a tough question! I'm really pleased with the whole series but I am especially proud of the fact that
we have dealt with conditions like diabetes in such a positive way because the
reality of it can seem so different for someone who has it. No-one has had the guts
to do this with a pre-school audience before and I hope that someone out there will
find it useful in real life.
 
Making the show was a laugh-a-minute affair - my face literally hurt at the end of
every day! One of the funniest times was when all the puppets got together to film
the introductions and messages. I recommend you look out for those…
 
Can you put your real doctor's hat on again for a moment - what is the best advice
you could give parents to help their kids stay healthy?
 
The one thing that I would tell everyone is get your kids interested in learning about
their bodies from an early age. Use every tool to get them engaged and excited -
books, computers, activities and games. Only then will they really understand how
'being healthy' is relevant to them and it will make it fun rather than a chore.
And lead by example - your kids will follow what you do and do as you say, so make sure you're looking after yourself too!

Hayden finds out what it was like to be a miner in a pit in Wales, with his Grandpa, Bryn.

On Monday 24th September a very special new show is coming to CBeebies. 'My Story', made by our CBeebies team in Scotland, is very different from anything we've done before. 

 
We'd been thinking for a while about how we could do a show that brought history to life for the CBeebies audience - no easy feat when, as we discovered, most young children can't compute the idea of the world existing before they did!
 
In each episode, children uncover family stories with the help of an older relative or friend. Whether it’s discovering where Mummy grew up, or more about where Grandpa used to work, the children find out things they didn’t know about some of the people they know best, finding out about the past in a fun way that’s relevant to them.
 
For My Story online, we wanted to create a resource for families to be able to explore and tell their own story together. Before we did anything, we talked to lots of parents, carers and children from as many different types of family groups as possible to find out exactly what kids knew and felt about history.
 
One consistent theme with all the families was that the children loved looking through photos and talking about stories about their families.
 
We decided to take this as our starting point and began thinking about creating a special scrapbook that would be a home for the photos and stories that the children collected on their journey.
 
The families we spoke to really liked the idea of the scrapbook, some of them also said they'd attempted to use family tree type activity books with their children but had found that they didn't accommodate anything but a 2.4 children family model, never mind accommodating the unconventional ideas children had about who and what made up their families (things like pets, favourite toys and imaginary friends).

Parents also told us they wanted something that was flexible in terms of the time needed to complete the activities.

We realised that any scrapbook we gave people to make would need to be as flexible and open-ended as possible, and really allow families and children to put themselves into the story.  The My Story book has lots of pages for kids to draw themselves and their family, and has an option to upload photographs- something that all parents thought was a good idea, and that parents of SEN children said was essential.
 
Research also shows that using pictures and scrapbooks in this way can be a really useful way to help your children find out and express their feelings about everything from their first day at school to the loss of a loved one.
 
While our families felt there were resources around for the everyday issues like going to the dentist, there was a real lack when it came to the big stuff, like bereavement and family separation, so we wanted to accommodate that too. We'll be talking in more detail about using the book to help children talk about these kinds of issues on facebook, twitter and the CBeebies Grown-ups site in the coming weeks. 
 
There was one final request from the parents- have lots of print-outs so that children can make books away from the computer. 

My Story starts on 4.30 on Monday 24th September on CBeebies.

You and your child can make their own 'My Story Book' online here.

Or print it out and make one to keep from here.

We hope you and your child enjoy My Story, do get in touch and let us know what you think about it...