By Guest Blogger Danielle Wilson of Dellah’s Jubilation
In this day and age of technology where children as young as two know how to navigate through all the the latest applications, as they get older you have to wonder how easily can they navigate through the real world, right there in their own community. Earlier this month Google Maps celebrated it’s 10th birthday by teaming up with Sesame Street during it’s NYC stop to get children excited about exploring their neighborhoods, state, and the world while on the Code The Road tour through geo-literacy.
While we waited in the lobby you could feel the excitement from all the kiddies and parents who anticipated a fun morning hanging out at Sesame Workshop.
When we entered we were greeted by, larger than life chalk drawings & super-friendly Elmo and Cookie Monster who gave the best hugs.
What Sesame Street fan wouldn’t love meeting Alan and the REAL Elmo and Abby Cadabby? The three Sesame Street stars kept the littles engaged with silly songs about traveling, like “Going for a Ride” , “Let’s go Driving” and “Are We There Yet” which had tiny feet and hands tapping and clapping.
Map skills are essential to early learning and it was great to see the kids had fun while trying to locate where their homes were and those of family and friends by placing locator stickers on a map, and used teamwork to put together a huge, colorful floor puzzle of the United States. You could see how interested the children were in learning distance as they counted how many steps it took to move across the map from state to state.
During the 14 stops across the country, the Code the Road tour highlights what developers made possible with Google Maps API while meeting with bikers, athletes, developers and furry red monsters. Visitors were able to test out the android navigation system & wearable android technology, demo interactive technologies from Walt Disney World, iFit, The Weather Channel and more. Guests could use a trekker backpack with Street View camera for views of hiker trails and outside of the bus with a Proform bike and treadmill they could do a virtual run through towns and trails. Here’s a peek at the Code the Road highlights during the first stop in San Francisco, and make sure to stop by the site for footage of their entire journey.
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