Since the 1980s Sesame Workshop has been working to provide children ways to not just watch but genuinely interact with our educational content. Over the years VHS and CD-ROM games offered limited interactivity, but nothing approaches what the Workshop and Microsoft have partnered to create.
Starting today “Kinect Sesame Street TV,” a groundbreaking 2-way television, Xbox-based experience that has plenty of educational potential, is now available for purchase. Read More
When Jerry Nelson passed away on Thursday, August 23, everyone at Sesame Workshop — especially those who had worked with Jerry for not just years but decades — was deeply saddened. However, the outpouring of emotion regarding Jerry’s loss spread far beyond the walls of the Workshop. Across the country his fans began penning moving tributes to the artistry and care with which he portrayed iconic Sesame Street characters such as Count Von Count, Herry Monster and Sherlock Hemlock. There were many lovely pieces written about Jerry, too many to read them all. But we wanted to introduce you to a few that the Sesame Workshop family found especially touching.
On Tuesday, August 14, Sesame Street released “Elmo’s Alphabet Challenge,” our latest home video. In it, Elmo, Abby and Telly get sucked into an animated video game world and have to defeat A.B.C.-more at a number of alphabet-based challenges in order to escape.
The challenges are all spoofs of iconic video games: Pac-man, Guitar Hero and Super Mario Brothers, among others, inspired the levels Elmo and his friends must traverse. The animation was created by Magnetic Dreams, an animation company Sesame Street has been working with for almost a decade. Read More
Elmo, Abby and Grover with U.S. Olympian Reid Priddy and his family.
Playing is far more than fun and games: It helps children develop emotionally, socially and physically. That’s why Elmo, Grover and Abby Cadabby headed to London last week to hang out with U.S. Olympians like Allison Schmitt, Reid Priddy and Dawn Harper. Check out their photos from London! From the look of it, everyone had a great time. Read More
Sesame Street performer Eric Jacobson and his good pal Super Grover 2.0 stopped by this year’s Comic Con to bring smiles to the faces of the conventions youngest attendees. From the look of it everyone had a lot of fun!
There’s no greater reward for the work we do here at Sesame Workshop than seeing children smile and develop a genuine love of learning. However, we’re appreciative when other organizations recognize how hard individuals here at the Workshop work to help better the lives of children both here and abroad. That’s why we wanted to congratulate all the people who work on both Sesame Street and The Electric Company who were awarded Emmys at Sunday’s 39th Annual Daytime Entertainment Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Here at Sesame Street we do everything we can to make sure our men and women in uniform know we support them. That’s why we’re excited to wish the United States Army, which was founded on June 14, 1775, Happy Birthday! We’re so excited that we asked Rosita, Sgt. Major Raymond Chandler and his wife Jeanne to record a special birthday message for our service men and women, their spouses and children.
Last night Sesame Workshop held its 10th annual benefit gala. At the gala, which was hosted by Elmo and The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart, President Bill Clinton and UnitedHealthcare were honored for the work they do on behalf of children’s health and education across the globe. The above video, an extended look at the history and global mission of Sesame Workshop, was featured, as were performances by the Sesame Street Muppets™ of ”We Are the World” and the Sesame Street classic “sing.”
To learn more about the global mission of Sesame Workshop, click here.
Over 40 years after she co-founded Sesame Street, Joan Ganz Cooney remains as dedicated to educating children in underserved communities as ever. That’s why Girls Prep Bronx Elementary School, which names each class after a successful woman its students should emulate, named its kindergarten class after Mrs. Cooney.
The students are so appreciative of Mrs. Cooney’s support that they asked Elmo to stop by the school, located in the South Bronx, so they could record a special message thanking her.
Joan Ganz Cooney became the kindergarten class’ “namesake” in 2009. Many of the students at Girls Prep come from poor backgrounds. 100 percent of the students are African-American, Latina or of multi-racial decent. Children in communities like the South Bronx are the kind of students Mrs. Cooney was hoping to reach when Sesame Street first aired in 1969. And although they move onto the class of a different inspiring woman after they graduate kindergarten, the foundations for a lifetime of education are established while the girls are in the “JGC” class, as it is known. Every girl in the JGC class has signed the Commitment to College Completion and has a college savings account established by the school.
Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization behind Sesame Street, is committed to the future of children’s educational media in China. That’s why last week we launched the Sesame StreetChina website, a new online resource with activities and videos for children and tips for Chinese parents.
The site is made up of three sections, titled “The Show,” “Grown-ups,” and “Meet Sesame Street.” The first includes segments from Sesame Street’s Big Bird Looks at the World, the Chinese version of Sesame Street, created in partnership with Shanghai Media Group’s Toonmax. “Grown-ups” has professional parenting tips to help Chinese families with their children’s mental, physical and emotional development. And “Meet Sesame Street” has information about Sesame Workshop’s research model, our historical international educational efforts both inside and outside China and the Workshops’ key partners. The website is also highly interconnected with Weibo and Kaixin, two extremely popular Chinese social media networks.
Sesame Workshop first began helping Chinese children fulfill their full potential in 1983 when we collaborated with CCTV to create Big Bird in China. With the launch of the Sesame Street China website, we’re proud to continue that tradition.
Learn more about our international co-productions, outreach initiatives, technological innovation and research methods by signing up for our weekly newsletter.
Since the 1980s Sesame Workshop has been working to provide children ways to not just watch but genuinely interact with our educational content. Over the years VHS and CD-ROM games offered limited interactivity, but nothing approaches what the Workshop and Microsoft have partnered to create.
Sesame Street performer Eric Jacobson and his good pal Super Grover 2.0 stopped by this year’s Comic Con to bring smiles to the faces of the conventions youngest attendees. From the look of it everyone had a lot of fun!
