December is the time for snow, family and, of course, the holidays and Shalom Sesame has everything you need!
For those sports buffs wondering what the NBA players have been up to during the lockout, be sure to catch New York Knicks Superstar Amar’e Stoudemire discovering more about Jewish culture when he stopped by Sesame Street to teach Shalom Sesame fans the Hebrew word “Tov”, which means “good.” Check out Amar’e on the newly launched and redesigned Shalom Sesame website and on Shalom Sesame’s YouTube channel.
Shalomsesame.org has a new look and feel, brand new videos, downloadable resources and a printables section for parents and kids to experience Jewish learning together.
But there’s more! Shalom Sesame’s 12-part DVD series, brought to you by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, and Israel’s Channel HOP!, is great for any occasion. Whether it be traveling to Israel, entering Hebrew school or celebrating the holidays, this series is a great way to learn about the diversity and vitality of Israeli life. Shalom Sesame DVD’s, including the full series gift box set, are available at sisu@sisuent.com
Be sure to check your local PBS listings for special broadcasts of Shalom Sesame’s “Chanukah: The Missing Menorah.” It’s time to celebrate Chanukah in Israel and Grover is bringing the latkes! All is well until Anneliese gets caught in a game of tag with a chicken and loses her special menorah …right before sunset! Can her friends find the missing menorah in time? Tune in to find out!
For young readers this holiday season, Elmo finds out what a dreidel is as he celebrates the first night of Chanukah with a friend’s family in the board book, Elmo’s Little Dreidel, published by Random House Children’s Books.
On November 5th, Sesame Workshop launched a new collection of resources for military families at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. Families who attended the celebration on Nov. 5 were greeted by Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Commander, Colonel Carl R. Coffman, Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Principal Director of Military Community and Family Policy, Charles Milam, Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Director, Navy Captain Paul S. Hammer, and Sesame Workshop president and CEO, H. Melvin Ming. Families experienced interactive performances by Sesame Street and Electric Company characters, explored the Military Families Near and Far website and the free Feel Electric! mobile app; as well as participated in other family fun activities. In addition, families saw the debut of the new “Let It Out” music video, which further supports self-expression and feelings vocabulary.
The new initiative was created in cooperation with the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. The goal of these resources are to extend the reach and effectiveness of the already existing program. This includes a bilingual website with information designed to connect families to one another and provide information to how to deal with the unique problems facing military families. In addition, Sesame Workshop is especially excited about FeelElectirc! a mobile app that encourages children to explore and express their emotions.
To date, Sesame Street’s military families initiative has provided significant resources for military families with preschool children experiencing the effects of deployments, when a parent returns home changed because of a combat-related injury and coping with the death of a loved one. With the help of The Electric Company, this new phase expands efforts to reach elementary school kids, 6 to 9 years old, find the right words to express their emotions as they experience difficult military transitions.
“Sesame Street and The Electric Company are thrilled to introduce Military Families Near and Far, which expands our Military Families Initiative to elementary school children and their parents,” said H. Melvin Ming, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop. “During this month of the military family, I can’t think of a better way to renew our commitment to military families and to let them know we care and are here to help.”
For more information, see the full press release here.
