¡Hola Sproutitos!

Behind-the-scenes.

!Hola Sproutitos! was a Sprout On Demand series premiering on Time Warner Cable's service in 2009. The series was hosted by Nina of The Good Night Show fame, with accompaniment from Lucy and her "Sproutito" friends who taught English words and phrases to Spanish-speaking kids just learning the new language (ESL). Set in a park, the show utilized a format similar to Shining Time Station, with Nina talking about a different theme using both English and Spanish through a backpack, interrupted by various short segments from the show Sesame English, a co-production of Sesame Street.

Logline

"Welcome to Hola Sproutitos, a bright and engaging bilingual learning opportunity for Spanish-speaking children and their parents available from Sprout through Time Warner Cable’s On Demand platform. Hosted by Michele Lepe, the Emmy-award winning, bilingual and bicultural host of The Good Night Show on Sprout, Hola Sproutitos provides a unique approach for celebrating Hispanic culture and communicating the importance of maintaining Spanish language skills, while encouraging the acquisition of a second language: English. Hola Sproutitos seeks to help Spanish-speaking children and their parents realize the benefits of keeping their primary language while actively learning a second language. The Hola Sproutitos approach is relaxed, child-friendly and developmentally appropriate." (link)

Episode structure

Each episode begins with the theme song, mainly sung in Spanish words (such as "jump" and "dance") with a bit of English. In each episode, after hearing a Spanish guitar riff, Nina pulls out a clue to today's theme using a backpack (i.e. catcher's mitt, teddy bear). After the "Sproutitos" figure out the theme, Nina pulls out what our vocabulary words will be (i.e. cap, baseball, and bat, pillow, blanket, and pajamas). Afterwards, Lucy links into Sesame English. Back in the park, Nina and the Sproutitos talk about their vocabulary words using a motion or song (such as "Ready for Bed," sung in both English and Spanish). After more Sesame English segments, Nina plays Lucy Light the Way with Lucy, in which the firefly lights up something (i.e. pajamas, bat) and the viewers have to tell Nina what it is. Nina and the Sproutitos talk about what they did today in English, and the episode ends.

Episodes

• Baseball
• Bedtime