Move & Learn
Connect movement to other types of learning to help with a child's memory.
Mix up movement, math, and literacy skills with these healthy activities for kids.
Follow My Pattern
Take turns creating dances that repeat patterns—everyone else follows along! For younger children, keep the patterns simple (jump, wiggle, jump, wiggle). For older children, the pattern might be “jump, jump, wiggle, hop, jump, jump, wiggle, hop.”
ABC Stretch With Me
Draw a letter on paper, call out its name, and tell children to bend, stretch, and twist to form that letter the best they can. (Challenge older children to think of different words that begin with the letter while they move. Small groups may even spell out a short word, like “cat,” with their bodies.)
Move & Count
Invite children to move their bodies in a certain way, a specific number of times (“Hop 5 times…spin 3 times!”). With younger children, count out loud on your fingers as they follow your directions. With older children, you might use simple number sentences in your directions (“Hop 3 plus 2 times, how many hops in all? Spin 2 plus 1 times, how many spins in all?”).
Lessening Children’s Fear of Needles
Preparing, distracting, and comforting your child can go a long way in helping them get through these moments.
To Like or Not to Like
Like most children, Cookie Monster’s niece is a little… choosy. Check out his strategy for helping her try a new food!
Go To Sleep, Elmo!
Handling a middle-of-the-night monster moment.
Cookie Monster’s Beach Day
When children are in the hospital, their imagination can become a valuable tool in soothing themselves.
Listen, Feel, and See with Elmo
When children are in the hospital, this mindfulness game can help them soothe themselves.
Sleep Struggles... and Successes
Today, Tonight, and Tomorrow
It takes a special kind of patience to handle children’s middle-of-the-night wakeups! Read about how a Monster-Fairy family manages it.
