Sesame Street Activity of the Week: The Stoplight Game

By Rosemarie Truglio, PhD. Senior Vice President, Curriculum & Content, Sesame Workshop

Skills Focus: Managing Emotions

The Stoplight Game is a useful strategy for when your child gets frustrated facing obstacles or failure — and a great way to instill the “power of yet.” Make red, yellow, and green “lights” with construction paper, or have your child color in circles on white paper. Talk about what each color signifies, then use your homemade lights to signal what to do in different situations.

• Red light: Stop and encourage your child to belly-breathe in order to calm down a “big feeling”
• Yellow Light: Pause and make a plan. Once calm, help your child understand what the problem is and think about other ways it can be solved
• Green light: Go ahead and give it a try. If it doesn’t work, go back to Yellow and figure out what else might work

These are stressful days for families everywhere, and Sesame Workshop is here to help. With 50 years’ experience in early childhood education and in helping children and their caregivers face challenging times, we’ve created an online hub of resources that parents can use at home to spark playful learning, offer children comfort, and focus a bit on self-care, too. Each week, as we roll out new content, a Sesame Workshop early childhood development expert will contribute a column here with strategies to help families find ways to breathe, laugh, and play together.