Friday, July 3, 2015

Google Maps Code The Road Tour: Celebrating 10 Years & Exploring the Community with Sesame Street

Sesame Street Workshop

If you grew up on or raised a child to watch Sesame street, the infamous, catchy sing-song question "Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?" is oh so familiar. As educational programming that teaches children everything from the alphabet and number recognition to who the people are in your neighborhood, a collaboration between Sesame Street and Google Maps is the perfect way to teach today's children map skills and geographic literacy. With lil' monsters having access to technology and kid-friendly apps at early ages, incorporating essential & engaging skills and tools to help them navigate the real world and everyday experiences is key!


Sesame Street Workshop

To celebrate 10 years of Google Maps API, the 14 stop Code the Road Tour invited media and their kiddies out for an afternoon of fun at Sesame Workshop earlier this month. I took my preschool lil' monster along to cover for my blogger babe Nancy Horn of TheMamaMaven.com & met up with my vlogger babe Betsy of ThatsBetsyV.com and her adorable daughter Z. On the subway ride there I'm not sure who was more excited to visit Sesame Workshop, but I for one was beyond giddy to meet Elmo, Abby Cadabby & Alan.


Sesame Street Workshop

We were greeted by our two favorite monsters, Elmo & Cookie Monster after posing in the trash can beside Oscar the grouch. Because Elmo and I share a birthday [February 3rd] I insisted we take a selfie. Clearly I need to remember to look into the camera, and step up my selfie game like my furry friend.


Sesame Street Workshop 

Sesame Street Workshop

We don't travel out of state often but the boys have a fascination with and collect maps from local NYC sites like Coney Island, The Bronx Zoo, Lincoln Center and the Subway system as they try to figure out how far away different locations are like the monkey house from the bug carousel or guests that visited the workshop were able to test their map skills by using sticker locators to place where family, friends or they themselves lived and put together a large, colorful floor puzzle of the 50 states. 


Sesame Street Workshop

Sesame Street Workshop

Sesame Street Workshop

    
As a stay at home Mama to Tristan the first 2 years of his little life and a preschool teacher I would always plan out themed lessons like ones on colors, the alphabet and transportation. So imagine how cool it was to hear Abby, Elmo and Alan sing our fave Sesame Street songs like " Going for a Ride", "Are we There Yet" and "Let's Go Driving" while incorporating essential map skills like counting our steps to measure distance.


Sesame Street Workshop

Sesame Street Workshop

Sesame Street Workshop


Sesame Street Workshop

Sesame Street Workshop

As they made their way from state to state, highlights of the Code the Road Tour were visitors testing out android navigation systems, and demonstrations of interactive technlogies from Walt Disney World, iFit, The Weather Channel and more! Check out the video below on how the tour kicked off in San Francisco and make sure to pop by the site for other video on how Google Maps celebrated 10 years. 

                

Disclosure: Opinions expressed are 100% my own and as guests we received a gift bag no other compensation was received. 

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