Sesame Workshop & LEGO Foundation Partner Up

BILLUND: Sesame Workshop and The LEGO Foundation are teaming up on two separate initiatives aimed at teaching adults how children’s play experiences can help them learn necessary life skills.

The partnership was unveiled at the 2016 LEGO Idea Conference. The first initiative will launch later this year in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, where Sesame’s social impact programs have been active for more than three years. The second initiative will focus on low-resource urban communities in India, Mexico and South Africa.

The first initiative will see caregivers in South Africa’s Eastern Cape trained in ways to promote learning through play. LEGO materials will be added to the Takalani Sesame outreach kits that are currently used in schools. The kits and teacher-training tools are intended to encourage play-based learning using LEGO DUPLO bricks to help kids develop skills related to counting, spatial relationships, working memory, color and shape recognition and more.

The second multi-country Play Every Day program is designed to shape parent and caregiver perceptions of the educational value of play in urban communities in India, Mexico and South Africa. It is meant to encourage play experiences that add to children’s early development and learning outcomes, and a key part of this initiative will be a series of community events teaching adults how to play with kids and help them learn.

“It is essential for all children to grow up in environments that nurture their natural curiosity to learn through engaging and meaningful interactions with caring adults,” said Mirjam Schöning, the VP of programs and partnerships at The LEGO Foundation. “Early experiences that are motivating, engaging and meaningful support the development of teamwork, creativity and other skills that are predictive of lifelong learning. We are excited to join forces with Sesame Workshop to provide early quality play experiences to children around the world.”

“We are thrilled to team up with The LEGO Foundation to share the message about the importance of joyful play,” said Sherrie Westin, Sesame Workshop’s executive VP of global impact and philanthropy. “Our mission is to help all children grow smarter, stronger and kinder, and we believe there is no better way to achieve this than by joining forces with The LEGO Foundation to provide more children around the globe with high-quality learning.”