Best educational TV for KS1 children

This is fun with numbers, thanks to these animated superhero numbers who live in a sofa. Each episode features a number problem (usually caused by one of a team of baddies) which needs solving by the Numberjacks. There’s also a question for the children watching, designed to get them discovering shapes and numbers at home.

With help from her five animated senses, the Neurons, Nina the scientist finds answers to children’s questions. Experiments and demonstrations are used to explain such problems as, ‘Why do fizzy drinks make us burp?’ and ‘Why do we only see stars at night?’, encouraging children to learn basic scientific skills and discover more about the world. You’ll brush up your own knowledge, too! Each series has a focus on a different aspect of science (medicine / how the human body works or engineering / how buildings work, for example).

Environmentally-friendly viewing with balloon pilot Sky and her Green Balloon Club members. With special nature reports, ‘spotting challenges’ for viewers to find in their own area, and visits to Bill Oddie in his garden, children find out about the natural world, and ways they can help the environment.

Happy Tent Tales is a story-telling series featuring traditional tales from around the world that feature themes of kindness, friendship and courage, told to groups of children by presenter Karina O'Malley through narration, movement, music and rhyme. Well-known stories like Three Billy Goats Gruff are accompanied by The Jackal and the Drum, The Singing Mermaids and lots more.

He can be loud, frantic and messy, but it’s all in the name of art. And anything which encourages children’s creativity (even an ‘artistic’ mess on the kitchen table) has to be a good thing! With his ‘minute makes’, puzzles from his friends the Shapes, and a group of young studio artists, Mister Maker shows how you can create art from the simple things you have at home, though branded DVDs and craft materials are also available.

Join Katy and her helpers in the kitchen and learn simple recipes, basic kitchen skills and where ingredients come from with the BBC's I Can Cook. Children love cooking, and with a little help from a grown-up they can make food they actually want to eat. As an added bonus, they’re also using maths as they measure, weigh and bake.

A must for all animal-mad kids, Andy's Wild Adventures gives children a fascinating insight into natural history. Cbeebies favourite Andy Day is cast as a park keeper at Pickles Animal Park, who talks to the animals Dr Doolittle-style. The programme weaves in footage from the BBC's award-winning wildlife series, with young viewers imagining shrinking to the size of an ant or joining a family of baboons for dinner. 

We're huge fans of the Alphablocks, letter and digraph characters who support children's phonics learning with silly, fun escapes into the world of words. Alphablocks episodes are organised into five colour-coded stages, so children can watch the correct stage for their level of phonics knowledge, and help with sounding out words and blending sounds.

Browse our favourite learning shows for four and five year olds or our picks for KS2 children, too.