Using tools

Donkey Hodie and Purple Panda set up a potato stand in the puppet world of Someplace Else to share Donkey's home-grown potatoes with the neighbours. They try a potato call, a song and a disco dance, but every neighbour already has potatoes and complains about the long job of washing, drying and sorting them. The friends change their plan and use Grampy's potato washer-dryer-sorter-dumper machine to do that chore for everyone instead. The neighbours are grateful, and Donkey ends the day feeling potato proud, just like Grampy.

Get Rolling with Otis

Tune-Up Trouble

On a sunny farm, a small blue truck named Otis spends tune-up day getting his tires filled and gears tightened along with his vehicle friends. His friend Kevin, a large truck, is too scared to take his first tune-up and keeps putting it off until his engine gives out. Otis stays with Kevin, helps load grain, winches him to the farmhouse when he breaks down, and offers to take his own turn first so Kevin can see what it is like. Kevin finally gets his tune-up from Farmer Naomi and rolls off proud of how he feels.

Get Rolling with Otis

Otis and the Kittens

Otis, a small red tractor, lives on a farm where he meets Mama Cat and her new kittens, including Frisky, who loves sleeping in a straw hat. When the barn catches fire, Otis and Franny the fire truck rescue the cats and put out the flames. The water leaves the barn too wet to live in, so Otis helps the family move to another barn. The episode ends with Otis giving Frisky his own hat as a cozy place to sleep.

S01 E01

Get Rolling with Otis

Jumping Daisy

On a dairy farm's hot competition day, a young calf named Daisy is determined to enter the high-jump contest. When the heat overwhelms her and then a stuck barn door traps her inside, her friend Otis the tractor fetches water and works through several tools to free her in time. Daisy reaches the ring and clears the high jump, becoming the first cow ever to win, cheered on by her mother and friends. The episode closes with the whole farm celebrating and the reminder that everyone there helps each other.

S01 E11

Barney's World

Save the Garden

In a sunny town park, Vivi and her friends discover that Nona's garden has become tired and overgrown and decide to bring it back to life. When the job feels too big, the purple dinosaur Barney leads them through an imaginative adventure as butterflies and ladybugs, where they learn to move acorns one at a time to guide some squirrels away. They carry that lesson back to the garden, getting others to help with small steps until the whole space is restored. Nona returns to find it transformed and gathers the children into a grateful hug.

S01 E12

Disney Junior Ariel

Family Picture Day

On Family Picture Day in the undersea kingdom, young mermaid Ayana wants a special 'fin hawk' hairstyle, but her sister Alana is stuck in sea traffic and cannot do it. Ariel steps in to try, and she and her friends work through one failed attempt after another with twisty tools, slippery jelly and even a magic spell, leaving Ayana's hair a mess. Ayana decides she should not be in the photo at all and swims off upset. Ariel and the others then style their own hair to look just as silly, and the whole family poses together for a happy picture.

See all Using tools shows for 2-year-olds

For 3-year-olds

Three-year-olds start connecting a tool to a purpose: this thing is for that job. They also want to do it themselves, often before their hands are ready. A good series at this age names the problem first and the tool second, so the choice makes sense rather than appearing by magic. Watch for characters who fumble a little and keep going, since seeing effort makes a child more willing to try instead of handing the task to a grown-up.

S07 E01

Pat & Mat

Glazed Frost

Two neighbor puppets wake up to a heavy overnight snowfall and decide together to clear it. They start with a quick snowball exchange, then improvise tennis-racket snowshoes, dig out a snowed-in door from both sides, build a small snow plough and sweep a path around the yard. After one neighbor is briefly buried in snow they shake him off and build a giant snowman together, before the sun melts everything by the end of the episode.

S01 E04

Phoebe & Jay

The Green Pepper

Grandma trusts Phoebe and Jay to look after the community garden's first bell pepper until it ripens from green to orange. Using a moisture meter, a watering can and plenty of patience, the children keep the soil just right through sun and rain while shooing a hungry squirrel named Harold. When they realize Harold only wants the pepper because his own food got soaked, they build him a dry home for his acorns. The pepper ripens, they pick it, and share a salad with a neighbor.

S02 E05

Curious George

Up a Tree

In this episode, George decides he wants his own home in a tree and sets out to build a treehouse near the country house. He sketches a plan, tests materials, and gathers wood and nails from neighbours, working through problems with the floor, walls and roof largely on his own. When the Man with the Yellow Hat and the neighbours realise George borrowed a wall and nails without asking, George has to take the house apart and give everything back. He then rebuilds it properly and finally gets to make his own house rules.

S01 E15

Alma's Way

Alma's Rescue Repair

Alma, a girl from the Bronx, watches her Papi head off to rescue a squirrel and decides to start her own service, 'Alma's Rescue Repair.' She fixes a friend's wind-blown music stand and a neighbour's tomato tower, but hauling her tools back and forth is tiring and they keep falling off her wagon. After seeing how Mr. Ramirez keeps all his tools in his shoe shop, Alma sets up her repair service at home so people come to her. The episode ends with her helping again from her organised home base.

Handy Manny

Stretch's Cookies

Manny and his team of talking tools drive through their town and stop to help Mrs. Portillo, whose new oven is too big to fit through her door. She needs it working to bake her ombligos cookies for the town baking contest. The group tries several approaches, the front door, a window, cutting the doorway, and the garage, learning from each failure before measuring the oven and removing a set of doors to wheel it into the kitchen. The episode ends with the oven installed and everyone sharing Mrs. Portillo's cookies.

Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show

Jack's Surprise for Mr. Prickles

In the town of Clover Grove, cheerful host Jack learns that his new neighbor Mr. Prickles is homesick and misses the garden at his old home. Jack teams up with his friend Bibi, Chef and a young helper named Hugo to secretly plant a new garden full of tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini, plus a painted rock gnome named Terry. Songs about kindness thread through the gardening, all set in a bright cafe and backyard. At the reveal Mr. Prickles is delighted and says his house finally feels like a home.

S01 E01

Do, Re & Mi

Curious Birdious

Do, an owl who cannot fly, is woken by a banging, popping beat coming from the top of his tree and decides he has to find out what is making it. He turns down offers from his friends Re and Mi to fly up and look, builds a catapult and then a rope lift in his workshop, and tests both. When the lift leaves him stuck on a branch, he asks his friends for help and they carry him the rest of the way. At the top he finds Conga and Bongo building a treetop roller coaster, and everyone joins in to finish it.

S01 E07

Izzy's Koala World

Leia's Ready for Release

In a sunny Australian koala sanctuary, a girl named Izzy and her mum, a vet, weigh their koalas to see how they are growing. The focus falls on Leia, a koala Izzy has raised for over a year, who has now reached the weight to be released. Izzy sets two tests, choosing the juiciest leaf and climbing ropes to prove her strength, and uses night trail cameras to confirm Leia can climb. Leia passes, and Izzy, though sad to say goodbye, decides her best friend is ready to go home.

S01 E20

Super Truck of Car City

The Magnetic Crane

A load of metal beams spills across the highway in Car City and traffic comes to a complete standstill. Ethan and the other trucks call in Carl the Super Truck, who returns to his base and is fitted with a magnetic crane arm. Back at the highway he sweeps the magnet over the road, accidentally lifting Deen along with the metal before switching it off and trying again more carefully. The collected metal goes into Ethan's dump bed and the cars start moving again.

Super Truck of Car City

The Garbage Truck (Part 1)

Ethan the dump truck is too ill to work, but the bridge in Car City has to be finished that evening. Carl the Transform Truck is fetched, reshaped into a dump truck by a workshop machine, and driven to the building site. There Charlie the crane loads stone blocks into his tipper, and Carl carries load after load to the drop point until the delivery is complete. He is thanked for his help and heads home.

See all Using tools shows for 3-year-olds

For 4-year-olds

By four, children can hold a small plan in mind: gather what you need, use it in order, check the result. This is the age where measuring, taping, mixing and fixing become genuinely interesting. Look for a series that lets a character think out loud about which tool fits, and shows what happens when the wrong one is picked. Steps that stay visible on screen help your child follow along and repeat the idea in their own play afterwards.

Llama Llama

Forgotten Fuzzy

Little Llama packs a big bag and goes for his longest sleepover yet at Grandma and Grandpa's house. After a day of picking vegetables, cooking, riding the tractor and stargazing, he realizes he left his stuffed Fuzzy Llama at home and cannot imagine sleeping without him. His grandparents comfort him, and Grandpa offers Little Linty Llama, the very toy he slept with as a boy. The next morning Little Llama reunites with Mama and Fuzzy, proud that he stayed the whole time and made a new friend.

S01 E17

Doc McStuffins

Rescue Ronda, Ready for Take-off

Doc's toys are playing basketball in the backyard when Chili the snowman gets stuck up in the hoop and the rescue helicopter Rhonda crashes trying to help. Doc examines Rhonda, and after seeing Luca's mother remove a splinter from his finger, she realizes a twig from the same bush is jamming Rhonda's propellers. Doc removes the twig and reassures the nervous helicopter, who then flies up and rescues Chili. The episode ends with the toys celebrating the successful rescue and the repaired helicopter.

Doc McStuffins

A Bad Case of the Pricklethorns

Doc McStuffins runs her pretend clinic in the backyard, where the boys' inflatable toy Boppy keeps springing leaks. After patching and pumping him up once, Doc retraces what happened, realises the rose bush thorns are to blame, and diagnoses a 'bad case of the prickle thorns.' She explains how the thorns cause the holes and advises everyone to keep away from sharp things. The episode ends with Will and Donnie happily playing with a repaired Boppy well away from the roses.

Simon

No More Stabilisers

Simon, a young rabbit, sees his friend Ferdinand riding a bike without training wheels and decides he wants the same. After Dad removes the stabilizers at home, Simon tries again and again, falling and crying but always getting back up while Dad steadies the bike and offers encouragement. That night Simon wakes Dad for one more try, hears the tip to look straight ahead instead of down, and finally rides on his own. The episode ends with Simon laughing about Ferdinand's earlier doubt.

S02 E02

Puffin Rock

The Fallen Rocks

On a calm Irish island, the young puffin Una and her baby brother Baba discover that fallen rocks have trapped their neighbour Bernie inside his grotto. Una gathers Mae the rabbit, Mossy the shrew and even the red crabs, and after a shaky start works out a plan so each animal moves rocks in the way they do best. Together they clear the pile and free Bernie, who happily heads straight back into his cave. A narrator guides the events and closes by praising the friends for their hard work.

S01 E06

Doc McStuffins

Blast Off!

Doc McStuffins fixes Star Blazer Zero, a toy alien astronaut who falls apart when his rocket crashes in the backyard. She reattaches his parts and gives him a checkup at her clinic, but he breaks again during a test flight. Remembering how the family wore seatbelts in the car, Doc builds Zero a seatbelt so he can fly safely. Zero blasts off without falling apart and returns to Carlos ready to fly home.

S01 E10

Doc McStuffins

One Note Wonder

Doc and her friends form a backyard band, but Alma's xylophone sounds wrong because a key is broken. Doc takes it to her clinic, where the toy version, Xyla, comes to life and is diagnosed with a loose key. When Stuffy accidentally knocks the key loose and it is lost, Doc comforts Xyla with the story of losing her own baby tooth, then finds a matching key and repairs her. The instrument is returned to Alma and the band happily plays 'Twinkle, Twinkle' again.

The Creature Cases

The Riddle of the Wrestling Lizards

Two animal detectives, Sam Snow and Kit Casey, are sent by their chief to a red-sand desert to find out why the local lizards seem to be wrestling. They question desert animals, gather clues with their gadgets and piece the puzzle together step by step. The answer turns out to be a natural lizard behavior rather than a real fight. The case closes with the mystery explained and the desert animals reassured.

S01 E18

Super Truck of Car City

The Bulldozer

At the site of Car City's new library, Carl finds Billy the bulldozer still working despite a cold. Carl sends him home to rest and calls in Super Truck, who drives to his cave and transforms into a bulldozer to take over the shift. Together with Edgar the excavator and Ethan the tipper truck, he pushes the scattered bricks into a pile, loads the mound of earth and spreads it across the front garden. The library is finished in time to open that evening, and the friends say goodbye until next time.

Pretzel and the Puppies

Hot Dogs

On the hottest day of the year, a family of dachshund puppies finds it is too hot to play their favorite game, Puck Duck. With help from their dad, the pups try one idea after another to cool down, from finding shade to playing with ice and water. When the ice melts and the water soaks away, they combine a hose and watering cans into a big sprinkler they call the Cool Down Play Zone. They invite every overheated dog in Montgomery to join, and the whole neighborhood cools off and plays together.

See all Using tools shows for 4-year-olds

For 5-year-olds

Five-year-olds want their tools to be real. They notice when something is pretend and prefer knowing how a thing actually works, from a garden trowel to a camera to a map. At this age a series can carry a longer problem across a whole episode, with a tool as one step rather than the answer. Look for stories where the child character gathers information, tests an idea and adjusts, because that patience is the skill worth practising now.

S04 E02

Molly of Denali

Steam Bath Ch'oondaii

Molly, an Alaska Native girl, wants to help her mother recover from a cold so she can pass the annual medical exam she needs to keep flying. With advice from Auntie Midge and her mom, Molly and her friend set out to build a traditional steam bath, first trying shop-style instructions, then realising those don't fit their village or their age and returning to Auntie Midge for the traditional willow-frame method. They gather volcanic rocks with Grandpa Nat's help, build the bath in clear steps, and the warm steam helps mom breathe and feel close to her own mother. The episode closes with a short 'Ask Molly' segment exploring real Alaska Native houses at a heritage center.

Stillwater

A Perfect Fit

Calming

In this Stillwater story, young Carl wants to help his older siblings Michael and Addy build a soapbox racer but feels useless when his offers to help keep getting turned down. Their panda neighbour Stillwater visits with lemonade and tells Carl a fable about Hannah and her cracked water pot, which secretly waters a path of flowers. Encouraged that everyone has a gift, Carl helps pick hard-to-reach lemons, names the racer, and discovers he is just the right size to drive it. The episode ends with Carl steering the finished racer down a hill while his siblings cheer.

S04 E07

Molly of Denali

Tusk, Tusk, and More Tusk

Molly and her friends Tooey and Trini discover a large tusk buried in the mud near the river in their Alaska village. Grandpa Nat and an archaeologist named Olin Benedict identify it as a woolly mammoth tusk and explain the Ice Age, permafrost, and how the warming climate erodes the riverbank. The children help free the tusk through trial and error, measure it, photograph it, and give it the Gwich'in name 'Trilzok', meaning gentle. The episode ends with a separate live-action segment where children visit a museum to learn whether dinosaurs once lived in Alaska.

Lyla in the Loop

Lyla's Snackateria

Lyla runs a pretend snack restaurant and invents a stacked cracker snack for her brother Luke, layering cheese, jelly, and strawberry. When a big order comes in, she teaches Luke and her companion Stu to make it step by step, and after the jelly runs out Luke swaps in honey barbecue sauce. Customers end up preferring Luke's version, which upsets Lyla until she tastes it herself. She apologizes and the two agree to become snack-invention partners.

S03 E06

Molly of Denali

The Qyah Ice Classic

In a small Alaskan village, Molly and her friends start their own Ice Classic, setting up a tripod on the frozen river and guessing when the spring ice will break and topple it. Each child uses a different method, looking up past dates, measuring the ice, watching for signs of spring, and building a model, while their friend Oscar helps everyone without entering himself. In the end Oscar wins by combining all the information his friends gathered, and they share the ice cream prize together. A closing live-action segment shows real children in Nenana explaining the real Ice Classic tradition.

Gigantosaurus

Saving Ayati

In a prehistoric jungle, a group of young dinosaur friends is playing games when their giant long-necked friend Ayati topples over and cannot get back up. Led by the inventive Mazu, they try one plan after another, tickling her, pulling with vines, and levering a boulder off a cliff, each of which fails. In the end they lure the enormous Gigantosaurus with a walnut, and he knocks the boulder loose in a way that finally lifts Ayati to her feet. The friends celebrate as Ayati heads home to the jungle before nightfall.

S01 E11

Handy Manny

Rusty's Little Light Lie

Handy Manny and his talking tools take on a job from Mayor Rosa: filling the new movie theater's marquee with light bulbs for its grand opening. One of the tools, Rusty, accidentally crushes the box of bulbs and then lies about it, saying he was careful. When the sign stays dark, Rusty confesses to Manny and the mayor, and the town pitches in by donating spare bulbs. The episode ends with Rusty switching on the finished, fully lit sign just in time for opening night.

Dr Panda TotoTime

Hoopa's Garage

Dr. Panda and Toto introduce an episode at Hoopa's garage, where the young mechanic Hoopa needs to build a new racing cart for his friend Bip in time for the Panda City Race. With prompts from the offscreen narrator and the viewer, Hoopa chooses a canoe for the body, finds four big tires, two small headlights, and one big steering wheel, pumps up the flat tires, and mixes paint colours to match Bip's drawing. Bip then races the finished cart against other animal friends and wins. The episode closes with a goodbye and an end-screen with subscribe and next-episode prompts.

S01 E22

Super Truck of Car City

The Renovation Truck

Penny the plane is flying a large sweet delivery over Car City when her bag tears open and the whole load pours down onto a building site, burying Billy the bulldozer. Penny fetches Carl, who picks a new configuration in his underground base and arrives with a wrecking ball and a shovel. He knocks down the wall blocking his reach, digs Billy out, and then discovers his bucket is too small to carry all the sweets away. Billy joins in with his blade, the three finish the delivery together, and Penny thanks everyone before flying off.

S01 E04

Super Truck of Car City

The Pickup Truck

Pikkel, a pink pickup truck, has had an accident on a city street and cannot get home. Tom the tow truck arrives and tries to pull her, but her heavy load makes it impossible, so he fetches Carl, who rebuilds himself into a large crane truck. Carl lifts Pikkel onto his flatbed and drives her across town, with careful lifting and lowering at both ends. Everyone thanks each other and Pikkel is set down safely outside her house.

See all Using tools shows for 5-year-olds

For 6-year-olds

At six, tools become part of a method. Your child can imagine an outcome, work out what is needed, and understand that a tool has limits as well as uses. Series at this age can go further into how something is built or measured, and into the care and safety that come with real equipment. Look for characters who plan, hit a snag and rework their approach, and for a story that treats the finished result as less interesting than how they got there.

Craig of the Creek

Monster in the Garden

Craig and his siblings spend a weekend at their grandparents' house, where granddad's vegetable garden is being mysteriously eaten. Craig teams up with granddad to build a fence and set traps, imagining the culprit is a shapeshifting monster. After each plan fails, he patiently watches the garden at night and discovers the real thief is a deer slipping through a hole in the fence. Grandma, a city councilwoman, calls to have the fence holes patched, and the mystery is solved.

S01 E04

Pinecone & Pony

This Calls for Courage

Pinecone, a young warrior, sets out on her first solo mission with her pony to gather wild vegetables, refusing the Help Me Horn her dad offers so she can prove her independence. After getting lost, the pair tumble into an underground burrow where a large troll named Lichen seems ready to eat them, but he turns out to be lonely and kind, hiding away out of shame for needing help himself. Pinecone realises she should have called for help sooner, and the troll's booming bellow finally summons her dad, mom, and Lichen's own friends. Everyone reunites safely and heads off to share a salad, with the troll rejoining his community.

Pinecone & Pony

Lance or Not

Pinecone accidentally breaks the lance she built with her mom, Queen Kimya, just before the craft fair. With her companion Pony, she sets off on a quest through the town, visiting a lance shop and a wizard to secretly replace it before her mother notices. Each attempt falls short, and the magical copy never quite matches the original. At the fair Pinecone tells the truth, and her mom responds with a hug and the promise that they can make new lances together.

S01 E08

Doug Unplugs

Bot at the Museum

Doug, a curious robot, wants to know why humans visit museums to learn, so his friend Emma and Uncle Forkrick take him to the Mega City Museum. They explore an early-machines room and try a pulley, walk through an immersive prehistoric jungle, and reach the dinosaur hall, where Uncle Forkrick worries the roaring T-Rex is dangerous. When it turns out to be a skeleton, everyone counts its 60 teeth, feels fossils and learns how dinosaurs looked and lived. Doug ends the trip understanding that museums let you touch, feel, see and hear things to learn about them.

S01 E12

Super Truck of Car City

The Steamroller

In Car City, Billy the bulldozer and Steve the steamroller are fixing a street full of potholes. Billy fills the holes with gravel, but Steve's roller breaks down and runs out of steam, so Tom the tow truck takes him to the garage. Carl the Super Truck is called in, transforms into a steamroller and flattens the rest of the road. Steve returns repaired, the finished street is admired, and the vehicles thank each other before parting.

S02 E03

Curious George

Monkey Underground

George, a curious monkey living in the country, discovers gophers tunneling near the Rankins' grape farm. When farmer Rankin hires Mr. Calhoun to catch and relocate the gophers, George sets out to save them by digging a tunnel to lead them to his own yard, learning to use a compass and borrowing a digging rabbit along the way. He races against Calhoun's heavy machinery, and Calhoun ends up scooping George up by mistake. Mrs. Rankin decides the gophers are less trouble than Calhoun and lets them stay, leaving George to clean up the churned-up yard.

Handy Manny

Pet Problem

Manny, a repairman with a set of talking tools, gets a call from Cassie that the rabbit cage at her pet shop is broken. On the way the tools daydream about getting their own pet, and once at the shop an accident sets all the rabbits loose. Manny keeps everyone calm and they lure the bunnies back with food before fitting a new latch and fixing the cage. By the end the tools decide their robot dog Fix-It is pet enough, since real pets are a lot of work.

Dino Ranch

Min's Quest

Min and her family of Dino Ranchers find a baby dinosaur whose mother is sick after eating the wrong plant. Min works out that the cure is moon lilies, and the children ride off to find them, facing a tar pit, a thieving compy, and nightfall along the way. After several failed tries, Min realises the flowers glow in moonlight and the kids gather enough to heal the mother dinosaur. Ma tells them she is proud that they never gave up.

S01 E12

Handy Manny

Squeeze in a Pinch

Manny, who runs a repair shop with a set of talking tools, is called to fix the broken school bleachers before a junior league baseball game. When the tool Squeeze accidentally pinches Manny's thumb, she is so upset she refuses to work, convinced she is dangerous. Manny and the other tools cheer her up by admitting their own mistakes, and Squeeze finds the courage to try again and free the stuck bolt. The bleachers are repaired in time, Manny's shop becomes the team's sponsor, and the game ends in a win.

Dora and Friends: Into the City!

Mystery of the Magic Horses