Sesame Workshop Launches New Resources to Help Children and Families Prepare for School and Life with Support from PNC Foundation

New resources created to help parents, caregivers, and educators enhance learning opportunities for children by celebrating their uniqueness, exploring how we’re all connected, and building awareness of community.

(New York, NY, April 10, 2023) Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, today released new resources to help young children get ready for school with help from the grown-ups in their lives. Created with generous support from PNC Foundation’s ongoing early childhood education initiative, PNC Grow Up Great®, the resources help children ages 2-5 build self-awareness and a sense of belonging. These resources are aimed at helping children learn to celebrate themselves, their families, and others. 

The caring adults in children’s lives can help them thrive in school and life by inviting them to celebrate who they are, helping them get to know others who are both like and different from them, and building their sense of connection with others, including their classroom community. The collaboration between caregivers and providers in a child’s life during the most crucial years sets the stage for a successful transition to kindergarten.

These new bilingual videos, activity guide, and printable worksheets feature friends Elmo, Rosita, Julia, Wes, and their families as they celebrate themselves and each other:

• “Wonderful in You,” a new original song with Elmo and his dad Louie, Rosita and her mom Rosa, and Wes and his dad Elijah. This video focuses on adult-child bonds and celebrates the special pride parents and caregivers have for their children.
• In the “Remembering Our Time Together” video, Julia’s and Rosita’s families remember the good feelings that memories with family can bring.
• Documentary videos featuring two preschool teachers presenting insights and strategies for things such as a peaceful, collaborative, and cooperative classroom community. 
• A free professional development course, Building a Connected Community, offers family-friendly strategies providers can use to prepare children for school, life, and ways to engage with everyone in their neighborhood.
• Dream Big! — An activity book distributed for free through PNC Bank branches, volunteer, and community-based events, also available digitally at sesame.org/readyforschool, plus printable activity pages to help children celebrate themselves and prepare for life.

“Sesame Workshop has always been dedicated to helping children grow smarter, stronger, and kinder in all aspects of their lives, and we’re proud to have the support of our longtime partner PNC Grow Up Great® as we continue our efforts together,” said Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, Senior Vice President of U.S. Social Impact, Sesame Workshop. “These past few years, especially with the impact of the pandemic, have presented unprecedented challenges for children everywhere, and we are here to help increase their sense of belonging, create a rich and nurturing classroom community, and strengthen the home-school connection.” 

The new resources, which are free and available in English and Spanish, can be found at sesame.org/readyforschool. Additionally, they are being distributed through the Sesame Street in Communities program, an initiative for community providers who serve families and help children face challenges big and small. Teachers, healthcare professionals, social workers — any providers working with families and children — are invited to use and share Sesame Workshop’s large and growing library of bilingual resources and professional development tools, created to support them in their vital work.

“These resources build on a terrific 19 years of partnership between Sesame Workshop and PNC Foundation,” said Sally McCrady, president and chair of The PNC Foundation. “One of my favorite things about the resources we’ve created together is how they remind parents and caregivers of all the things we can do in our everyday moments. These new resources celebrate children, families, and the joy of simply talking and connecting with each other.”

About PNC Foundation
The PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group (www.pnc.com), actively supports organizations that provide services for the benefit of communities in which it has a significant presence. The foundation focuses its philanthropic mission on early childhood education and community and economic development, which includes the arts and culture. Through PNC Grow Up Great®, its signature cause that began in 2004, PNC has created a bilingual $500 million, multi-year initiative to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life. For more information, visit http://www.pncgrowupgreat.com.

About Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, the pioneering television show that has been reaching and teaching children since 1969. Today, Sesame Workshop is an innovative force for change, with a mission to help kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. We’re present in more than 150 countries, serving vulnerable children through a wide range of media, formal education, and philanthropically funded social impact programs, each grounded in rigorous research and tailored to the needs and cultures of the communities we serve. Learn more at www.sesameworkshop.org and follow Sesame Workshop on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok.