Watch and Play: Grover's Play

In the Sesame Street episode, Grover’s Play, (available now on Netflix and PBSKIDS), Elmo and his friends are putting on a play with Director Grover on Sesame Street.

As director, Grover made the perfect plan for the perfect play, Grover’s Fairytale! His friends suggest changes to their roles, but Grover tells them there can’t be any changes. They must follow his perfect plan if they want to be in his perfect play. But his friends don’t want to do things only Grover’s way. Grover apologizes and says he should have listened to their ideas. His friends accept his apology and, together, they make a new plan and put on their perfect play.

Preschoolers may find it difficult to adapt their wants, especially when it involves considering perspectives beyond their own. Developing the ability to identify what others might be feeling and think about how to include others’ wants and needs takes time and practice.

As caregivers, we can encourage children to work together by supporting skills like listening, perspective-taking, and compromising. Working together like Grover did with his friends might involve taking a little bit of everyone’s ideas. It can help to point out to preschoolers that sometimes even better ideas come from working together rather than working on our own. Below are additional resources: