Educational Outreach Elements

To achieve Sesame Workshop's educational outreach goals, the outreach department provides turnkey videos, materials, toolkits, and training to amplify use, reach, and impact on an ongoing basis. Educational outreach projects are underwritten through corporate, philanthropic, and government sources and are distributed free of charge to targeted populations. Once a project is completed, materials continue to be available through our Educational Resources Catalog at www.sesameworkshop.org/educationalresources. Here are the outreach initiatives for Season 35:

The Sesame Street Beginnings: Talk, Read, Write! Program
The Sesame Street Beginnings: Talk, Read, Write! program is designed to help adults understand the goals and messages of the project and apply the project messages and strategies to their own situations. The goals of this program are as follows:

• To increase awareness and understanding among parents and caregivers about the importance of the early years in children's language and literacy development
• To help parents gain a better understanding of the critical role they play as their children's first and most important teachers and role models
• To provide parents and caregivers with practical strategies and materials to increase their children's literacy-readiness for entering school

The Talk, Read, Write! kit includes the following components:

• The Facilitator's Guide (Available in English and Spanish)
  Sesame Street Beginnings: Talk, Read, Write! has been reviewed and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The guide was developed to provide facilitators in workshops or child care settings with fun ways to support preschoolers' literacy development and to involve parents in the process. Seventy-five thousand guides were distributed free of charge as part of the Sesame Street Beginnings kit to child care programs, local resource and referral agencies, public broadcasting stations, libraries, PTAs, child-life specialists, family literacy programs, and a variety of local community-based organizations.
• Videocassette (Available in English and Spanish)
  Each kit includes a videocassette to use at parent workshops. The video promotes discussion on key literacy points and strategies, like listening and speaking, reading together, writing together, and learning at the library, and it helps participants share what has worked for them. To see clips from the video, visit www.sesameworkshop.org/talkreadwrite/trw_video_eng_01.php.
• Parent Pages (Available in English and Spanish)
  These pages can be copied and sent home to parents or handed out in meetings to encourage questions, sharing, and discussion. They include topics similar to the video, along with information about parents as a child's first teacher and song lyrics from the video. PDF versions are also available at www.sesameworkshop.org/talkreadwrite.
• Developmental Poster (Available in English and Spanish)
  This poster includes information and tips about literacy development for 3- to 4-year-olds and 4- to 5-year-olds. It was designed as a tool to guide discussions at parent workshops and to remind parents that each child develops in her own way and at her own pace.
• Children's Book (Available in English and Spanish)
  This Muppet story, Elmo Says Achoo!, includes tips for helping to develop children's literacy skills while having fun reading together.

• Online Resources (Available in English and Spanish)
  Full program materials are available at the Sesame Street Beginnings Online Resource Center at www.sesameworkshop.org/talkreadwrite. The materials include activities, information, and tips for making language and literacy development a fun part of everyday life for children.
  
  Sesame Beginnings videos may be purchased at www.sesameworkshop.org/EducationalResources.

Ongoing Educational Outreach Components for Season 35

• View and Do -- Available in English and Spanish, this monthly viewing guide extends the series' educational goals and provides parents with viewing tips, the number of the day, and the letter of the day. These are distributed to 154 PBS stations every month, which in turn distribute the guide to child care agencies, parents, and family child care providers by e-mail and the postal service. PDF versions are available at pbskids.org.
• Learn and Grow Guides -- This series of four 12-page booklets, available in English and Spanish, helps caregivers extend the educational messages of the series. These colorful and easy-to-use guides cover math and science, literacy, music and art, media literacy, and diversity.
• Sesame Street Music Works -- This bilingual (English and Spanish) public education campaign helps parents and caregivers introduce children to the benefits of listening to and making music.
• Literacy Posters -- Distributed to PBS stations, this English and Spanish Learn and Grow poster brochure helps children develop the literacy tools they need in fun and rewarding ways with their friends from Sesame Street.
• Sesame Street: A Is for Asthma -- Developed with the American Lung Association, this bilingual video, activity book, and asthma action-plan poster promotes public awareness of pediatric asthma and helps preschoolers understand and cope with the condition.
• Sesame Street: Lead Away! -- This lead poisoning-prevention project, consisting of a video and booklet, aims to reduce children's exposure to lead and the incidence of lead poisoning.
• Sesame Street Family Activity Book -- This fun and educational bilingual activity book covers many of the learning areas presented on Sesame Street.