About.com Rating

Bottom line: An adorable animated show for preschoolers, Team Umizoomi incorporates math-based concepts such as patterns, shapes, counting, and more in a problem-solving story that is both educational and entertaining for boys and girls ages 2-5.
TV Rating: TV-Y
Genre: Children's educational
Target age group: Preschoolers
Network: Nick Jr.

Team Umizoomi - Overview

A 2D and 3D animated show from Nick Jr., Team Umizoomi educates and entertains kids as mini characters Milli, Geo, and their pal Bot use their mighty math powers to help children solve problems.

In each episode, a real life child calls Team Umizoomi through Bot's belly TV for help with a problem or situation. Team Umizoomi gets right to work, using their mad mathematical skills to help them along the way.

Milli has a dress that can match any pattern, and her pig tails can turn into measuring tapes and other helpful items when needed. Geo can build anything with his shapes. Together, they use their unique skills and other mathematical problem solving to get the job done. The show features fun songs, catchphrases and colorful settings that delight preschoolers and support the cute characters and the mathematical curriculum.

Team Umizoomi - Guide

Team Umizoomi impresses tiny audiences with tons of color and texture, adorable characters, and catchy music and singsongy catch phrases. The show is geared equally well toward boys and girls, and both the entertaining and educational elements work for preschoolers on many different levels.

Young preschoolers will love all of the color and large scale graphics, and they will learn about early math concepts like colors and shapes.

Older preschoolers, on the other hand, will be entertained by Milli's fashionable and useful outfits as well as Geo's awesome building skills. Older preschoolers will be challenged by more advanced shapes, counting the shapes' sides to determine what kind of shape it is, counting and adding, measuring, and more.

Last, but definitely not least, we have to talk about Bot. Remember Joe from Blue's Clues? Well, the guy who plays Joe, Donovan Patton, is also the familiar and perfectly energetic voice of Bot. Donovan Patton is one of the most fabulous children's entertainers on TV, and his talent with kids comes through in his voice acting as well. Bot is the glue that holds the show together. He provides the intelligence and insight needed to accomplish the task in each episode. Between Bot, Milli, Geo and all of the other fantastic elements of the show, Team Umizoomi pops, and your little ones are likely to love it.

Team Umizoomi - More Educational Fun!

• Find fun activities and games on the Nick Jr. Team Umizoomi website that feature our Umizoomi friends and extend the learning online.
• With a little practice, teaching kids math throughout the day can become second nature. Whenever you are doing regular household tasks like measuring ingredients, counting out lunch money, or doling out snacks, try to involve your kids in the tasks. If you have babies or young preschoolers around, get in the habit of pointing out the color and shape of different objects as you use them throughout the day.
• Food and learning go really well together when kids are involved (and adults for that matter). Have a shape-focused snack time and give kids crackers of all different shapes. Help kids sort the crackers by shape, count how many of each shape they have, and count the number of sides on the shapes that have them.
• Easily work fun math concepts into art time as well. Teach symmetry by folding a paper in half and painting one wing of a butterfly, then fold the paper and press the painted side against the unpainted in order to create a perfectly symmetrical work of art. Or, fold a paper and cut out hearts, stars and other objects along the fold. Unfold the cutouts, and point out that each half is exactly the same. Also, make a patterned border around artwork, cut out shapes and create patterns, or use cut-out shapes to make pictures. These are just a few ideas, but the possibilities are endless. The key is getting into the habit of pointing out the math in every day life.