Do You Know a Monster Named Blaine?
From The Electric Company (1971) · 1971
Summary
Can you help the lion figure out what he’s the king of, and help the Mad Scientist bring his monster to life? Featuring the letter "K" and "of", and sketches including the Giggles Goggle Girls and Mad Scientist. A sketch-comedy literacy lesson from the original 1971 Electric Company, focused on the letter K and the sight word 'of'.
Viewer safety
Vintage 1971-77 sketch comedy — content is squeaky clean, but Amazon lists a photosensitivity advisory (brief flashing/strobing in some segments), so preview if you have a sensitive student. Paid source: about $2 an episode or $22 a volume.
Our rating is a quick teacher-to-teacher guide — preview before showing.
Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
The original Electric Company drills one or two word patterns per episode through fast sketch comedy — the joke lands and the phonics sticks. Watch for the pattern the sketches keep circling back to.
- Which letter sounds or word parts did the sketches keep coming back to?
- What new words can you build with that word part?
- How did the actors stretch or repeat sounds to help you hear them?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: sound it out, word family, blend, pattern.
Try it: Start a class word hunt for the letter K and the sight word 'of' — collect every word the episode shows, then add three of your own to the list.