There’s something heartwarming about watching a little neighbor light up as they take action to help better the world around them—it reminds us that their futures include sunny days ahead.

As a caring adult, every moment you spend fostering that love for community, wonder, and excitement is as rewarding as it is contagious. After all, children who find joy, pleasure, and meaning in the natural world often grow into adults who act to protect it.

That’s exactly how the Little Neighbors Club started out on Sesame Street—with a bit of hard work, a lot of curiosity and caring adults to spark excitement around contributing to their community. While the friends on Sesame Street are always finding new exciting ways to make the world brighter and kinder, here’s a few things they’ve done just recently.

1. Elmo and Abby Built a Bird House (With Wi-Fly!)

As Elmo and Abby show Alan their new bird house in this new video, a new neighbor takes no time moving in! And while they joke about their awesome included utility, “Wi-Fly” isn’t needed to make your own neighborly habitat.

Building a bird house is a great way to encourage learning while contributing to the community. Depending on your own skill and interest, there’s lot of ways you can take time with children to make some together.

Watch the video and then follow along for a nature-friendly arts and crafts activity with Elmo and Abby right here. No matter how you choose to help, working together with children on a project like a bird house, will encourage continued curiosity in community improvement.

2. Julia Helps Reuse Things At Home

In the video “Helping at Home, Helping the Neighborhood” Julia’s Mommy, Elena, helps Julia wash and put away containers that can be reused in their home.

They also talk about other simple improvements, like turning off lights in rooms they’re no longer using, or making sure water isn’t running once they’re done washing up—and how, most importantly, those small things can have big impacts, especially when we practice them together.

Acknowledging caring actions from your little ones when you notice them will go a long way to encourage more of them. In the video, when Elena highlights Julia’s act of kindness, Sam gets excited to contribute as well. As the family decides to collect donations together as a team, everyone feels involved and included, making them more likely to want to continue helping in the future too.

If you’ve been considering adding community-related activities to your family chore schedule, check out this idea to empower children to be helpers at home.

3. Cleaning Up The Community Garden Together

Considering Maggie, Abby’s Mommy, is a fairy and Abby is a fairy-in-training, of course they’re always finding ways to help their neighbors! In the video “Little Helpers, Big Helping” Maggie and Abby help a Twiddlebug family build a playground.

In “Garden of Support”, after a very windy night impacts the community garden, Maggie, Abby, and Abby’s brother, Rudy turn cleaning up the garden into a fun, family, outdoor activity and they’re soon joined by more helpers.

A caring adult is the key to upholding the belief that anyone, no matter how small, can help in big ways. As Maggie helps to clean the garden with Rudy and Abby, her presence helps her children feel like their important work matters, and they get to connect with each other while practicing teamwork within their community!

If you’re trying to find fun things to do outside that involve the whole family in a service project, consider that nature themed activities encourage more outside time for your family. Finding a community garden to participate in could hit all of the marks!

There are lots of activities to encourage little ones’ connection with nature. If you’re looking for a good place to start, try using this check list to set some goals together.

You can be the link that encourages your child to feel big, no matter their contribution. But it definitely helps to have some fairies, monsters and other friends from Sesame Street to lead the way.