Sesame Beginnings facts for kids

Sesame Beginnings is a line of products and a video series, spun off the children's television series Sesame Street. The line is targeted towards infants and their parents, and products are designed to increase family interactivity.

Product line

The line was launched mid-2005 in Canada, with a line of products exclusive to a family of Canadian retailers that includes Loblaws, Fortinos, and Zehrs. The initial offering included apparel, health and body, home, and seasonal products.

Soon after, the line expanded to products, including Random House books, available in the United States. Target is the primary retailer for the items in the US. Other Sesame Beginnings licensors include Crown Crafts (bedding), Fisher-Price (infant toys), BBC (footwear), Children's Apparel Network (department and specialty store layette, newborn and infant apparel), Hamco, Blue Ridge, Baby Boom, and AD Sutton.

All products in the Sesame Beginnings line are ranked on a scale of 1 to 5. Products ranked Level 1 are for birth to 6 months, Level 2 are for 6 to 12 months, Level 3 for 12 to 18 months, Level 4 targets 18 to 24 months, and Level 5 aims for 24–36 months.

DVD series

The first Beginnings videos were in stores April 23, 2006.

Cast

• Kevin Clash as Baby Elmo
• Bill Barretta as Elmo's dad "Louie"
• Fran Brill as Baby Prairie Dawn
• Leslie Carrara-Rudolph as Prairie Dawn's mom
• Matt Vogel as Baby Big Bird
• Pam Arciero as Big Bird's aunt "Nani Bird"
• Tyler Bunch as Baby Cookie Monster
• Rickey Boyd as Cookie Monster's grandma

Crew

• Jocelyn Hassenfeld, producer
• Dionne Nosek, producer
• Kevin Clash, co-producer, director
• Christine Ferraro, writer
• Liz Nealon, Executive Vice President, Creative Director, Sesame Workshop
• Rosemarie T. Truglio, Vice President Education and Research, Sesame Workshop
• Anna E. Housley Juster, Director of Content, Sesame Workshop
• Sandblast Productions
• Handcranked Productions

Books

There were some Sesame Street book published before Beginnings, starring the characters as babies. These books included photography of puppet-like models created of the characters. In contrast, Beginnings books feature flat colour illustrations of the characters.

• Cookie Kisses (with Baby Cookie Monster, level 1)
• Sesame Beginnings to Go: At the Store (with Baby Grover, level 2)
• Sesame Beginnings to Go: Away We Go (with Baby Zoe, level 2)
• Sesame Beginnings to Go: In My Stroller (with Baby Elmo, level 1)
• Sesame Beginnings to Go: Time to Eat (with Baby Cookie Monster, level 1)
• Snap! Button! Zip! (with Baby Zoe, level 3)
• Cookie Rhyme, Cookie Time (with Baby Cookie Monster, level 4)
• Hello! Good-bye! (with Baby Ernie, level 3)
• Clang-Clang! Bang-Bang! (with Baby Grover, level 1)
• So Big! (with Baby Elmo, level 2)
• Baby Faces (with Baby Zoe, level 1)
• Cookie See! Cookie Do! (with Baby Cookie, level 3)
• Pat-A-Cake and Other First Baby Games (with Baby Elmo and Baby Zoe, level 4)
• Peekaboo! I See You! (with Baby Big Bird, level 2)
• Sing a Song of Sixpence (with Baby Zoe and Baby Ernie, level 5)
• It's Naptime, Little One (with baby Elmo, Prairie Dawn, Cookie Monster, Grover, Curly Bear, and Big Bird, level 3)

Advisory board

Beginnings, like all Sesame Workshop and Kids’ Guide to Life projects, included an advisory committee of "national child development and media experts"

• Daniel R. Anderson, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Rachel Barr, Ph.D., Georgetown University
• Lori A. Custodero, D.M.A., Teachers College, Columbia University
• Claire Lerner, L.C.S.W., ZERO TO THREE
• Kyle Pruett, M.D., Yale University School of Medicine
• Claudia A. Saad, M.A., CCC-SLP, American Speech–Language–Hearing Association

• Sesame Beginnings on Muppet Wiki, a Wikia wiki
• NPR Talk of the Nation: 'Sesame Beginnings' Targets Baby TV Viewers, 3 April 2006