Sesame Street is one of those classics from your own childhood that is still just as popular today. If your child loves Sesame Street, and Elmo in particular, this video will bring a smile to their face every time. The primary motif throughout the video is 'imagination'. Elmo shows his friends colored pictures and explains how he used his imagination to draw them, and how imagination can bring them to life. Each picture inspires a song and dance, which vary from tap dancing to rapping. The subjects of the songs include numbers, body parts, sounds in nature, the different between heavy and light, and the fun of imagination - of course! Elmo also interacts with guests like Julie Roberts, Whoopie Goldberg, and Sesame Street stars like Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleufagus.
Your child will love to clap, dance, and sing along. Ernie teaches Elmo the name of all the parts on his face, which your little one can point to along with Ernie; mouth, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, cheek and chin, "each in its place, and they're all part of one fine face." There are lots of lessons for your child in this video. For example, Elmo shares with each of his friends by letting them keep their favorite picture of the ones Elmo drew - even his last picture. Elmo also shares his song with Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleufagus. Elmo even touches on a more serious topic with guest Whoopie Goldburg, by complementing her on how her skin color and hair are very different from his own, but also very beautiful. Whoopie and Elmo agree that they like their differences and wouldn't want to trade even if they could because they are happy with the way they look. This is a great lesson of loving one's self and accepting others.
My three year-old friend, Sam's favorite song on this DVD was the difference between heavy and light. He thought it was funny when the character got stuck holding the pile of bricks and couldn't lift them, while Elmo stood aside holding a feather. Sam and I played a 'what's heavier' game later than afternoon to reinforce the concept. Sometimes he would guess a word to see if something was heavier, but other times he would pick up a few toys until he felt he'd found one heavier than whatever I had in my hand (usually pretty light in order to help him a bit). It was very neat to see Sam thinking about his toys and contemplating the concept of heavy versus light.
--Audra