WHYY & Sesame Street teach children about healthy habits!
By Dora Lubin, Children's Service Intern
For 36 years, Sesame Street has sought to meet the critical needs of children while preparing them for school and for life. This season premieres April 4 on WHYY TV-12. In addition to literacy, numeracy and science, Sesame Street, the world's largest informal educator of children, will tackle an issue facing many families today: children's health. The new season features a new curriculum designed to address the importance of establishing an early foundation of healthy habits.
Sesame Street's newest curriculum is part of a larger Sesame Workshop company-wide initiative, "Healthy Habits for Life," created in response to the growing crisis of childhood obesity among children. The preschool years are a crucial time in children's lives to foster healthy habits. Tackling the critical issues of health and well being, Sesame Workshop continues to set the benchmark in educational television with Sesame Street storylines that guide preschoolers and their caregivers through lessons related to healthy eating, the importance of active play and other key activities such as hygiene and rest.
At the top of each episode, well-known figures in entertainment, sports, music and science including Alicia Keys, Joe Torre, Alison Krauss, Buzz Aldrin, Shirley Jones, Richard Kind and Dominique Dawes share a "Healthy Moment." For example:
- Alicia Keys teaches Elmo the benefits of moving your body fast or slow
- Yankee's Joe Torre informs Elmo and Rosita that playing sports is a fun way to stay healthy
- Buzz Aldrin shares the importance of food for energy to Telly
Along with the "Healthy Moments," the new season will feature all-new Muppet "street" scenes, new animations and original live-action films that all hype activities and behaviors that are good for you.
VIEW
Learn helpful and healthful tips from Sesame Street every weekday at 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. AND every Saturday at 7 a.m. on WHYY TV-12. The new Sesame Street episodes on Healthy Habits will be aired on Mondays, starting on June 20th.
DO
Kids rely on their parents, caregivers and schools they attend to provide them with healthy meals and snacks. A good activity to help children learn and become familiar with healthy foods is learning what they are.
Items Needed
- Healthy food selections (fruits, water, orange juice, milk, raisins, graham crackers, wheat bread, yogurt, vegetables)
- Junk food selections (chips, cookies, soda, white bread, candy)
Take the above items and mix them up on a table. Have children separate the foods into a healthy food section and a not as healthy food section. Discuss with them why the foods are healthy, their effects on teeth and overall health.
GROW (book descriptions from amazon.com)
The Berenstain Bears Too Much Junk Food by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Mama Bear starts a campaign to convince her family that they are eating too much junk food.
Bearobics by Vic Parker
In this funny counting book, a shaggy bear turns on his boom box, and all the animals begin to boogie, bop, jump, jive, shake, and slide.
Gregory the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat
A very picky eater, Gregory the goat refuses the usual goat diet staples of shoes and tin cans in favor of fruits, vegetables, eggs, and orange juice.
PNC Grow Up Great is a proud local sponsor of WHYY's PBS Kids Ready To Learn service funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
|
