Sesame Street Season 55 Curriculum

Sesame Street Season 55 Curriculum

At the heart of Sesame Workshop, our mission is to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. Sesame Workshop’s Emotional Well-Being (EWB) initiative is in response to the growing mental health crisis affecting children globally. The initiative is comprised of four domains: Emotion Awareness, Social Connection, Mindy-Body Connection, and Compassionate Mindset. For Sesame Street’s Season 55, the curriculum focus will be on Emotional Well-Being, specifically focusing on Emotion Awareness and Social Connection skills. 

Children’s emotional and social learning and development are all integrated. The coordination of cognitive, emotional, and social skills is all drawn upon to support children’s abilities to understand and manage their own emotions and behaviors, as well as navigate the social scenarios of their worlds and learning environments, ultimately enabling children’s learning. 

Sesame Street is continually driven by a school readiness curriculum which is taught through a preschool friendly topic. The show will address the EWB educational goals and learning outcomes through real-world topics. The advantage of a topic approach is that we tell stories that are meaningful and relevant to young children. By keeping the topic consistent, it provides a wholistic approach to the half hour and reduces cognitive overload for the young viewers watching our formatted show that is not structured by a single narrative. This approach also gives language to these topics, which are children’s shared experiences. 

Read on for stories that delve into emotional well-being: 

Episode #5501 – Beachball Bop (January 16, 2025)  

Rosita and Elmo are playing Beachball Bop around Sesame Street – a game where they hit a ball into the air and don’t let it touch the ground. Elmo feels angry and yells at Rosita when he hits the ball and accidentally knocks over his block tower. Louie and a volcano friend teach Elmo how to do volcano breaths to help him feel better. Elmo apologizes to Louie and Rosita for how he acted, and Rosita and Elmo continue their game of Beachball Bop.  

Episode #5513 – Abby Taps Into Kindness (April 10, 2025)  

Abby sees Nina and Charlie tap dancing and decides she wants to learn too! She tries to keep up, but she doesn’t know how to do the moves and follow the rhythm. Abby feels frustrated that she’s not able to tap dance well right away. Nina and Charlie help her through her feelings by talking about what it means to be kind to yourself and doing self-hugs. Learning something new takes time and practice.  

Episode #5520 – Camp Sesame Street (May 29, 2025)  

Rudy feels disappointed when he doesn’t get to go to Fairy Day Camp with Abby. After Rudy wiggles it out and feels better, he decides to have his own day camp and invite his friends to play pretend, play games, and do arts and crafts.  

Episode #5528 – Happy Bert Day (July 24, 2025) 

Ernie is throwing Bert a party! He’s so excited to make it a fun day for Bert, but Bert is getting increasingly frustrated because he just wanted a quiet day. Alan and a lion friend guide them through lion breaths to help them feel better. By talking it through, Ernie realizes that Bert likes different things. He asks Bert what he’d like to do, and together they work on a quiet puzzle.  

Episode #5534 – New School Scaries (September 4, 2025) 

Cookie Monster feels nervous about going to cooking school for the first time. Rosita shows him how to do a heart breath to help him feel better, but he’s still not ready yet. Gonger, Elmo, Rosita, and Alan help Cookie Monster create a pretend school bus and cooking school to help Cookie Monster prepare for his first day of school.