We had the absolute pleasure to interview the gorgeous Abby Cadabby last week. If you are not familiar with Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, her character was introduced in 2007. Abby was the first new female Muppet to join the program in over 13 years. She is a pink “fairy-in-training” who uses rhyme and magic to express herself and whose catchphrase is “that’s so magic”.
Sesame Street show always have some great messages for kids in them, but this year they have added something new into the mix. While maintaining an emphasis on the importance of literacy and numeracy, the new season includes “My World is Green & Growing”. This is a two-year science initiative designed to increase positive attitudes towards nature, deepen children’s knowledge about the natural world and encourage behavior that shows respect and care for the environment.
The questions we asked Abby where a combination of questions about the new emphasis on the show and questions that the children thought of either by themselves or further down with a little prompting from me!
From the kids – 4 year old
How old are you? I’m 3!
Do you like dogs? My 4 year old is obsessed by dogs, so was very happy to hear that Abby Cadabby also loves dogs. When at home she loves to go to a dog park and watch the dogs having fun. Her favourite dog is a Siberian Husky.
Can you do some magic tricks please? Lots of giggling, I don’t have my wand with me!
From the kids – 6 year old
Why do you turn things into pumpkin? Lots of giggling again! I don’t mean to turn things into pumpkins, but as I am still training to be a fairy I sometimes makes mistakes. A bit like making a cake and if you put one wrong ingredient in, if I put fish into cupcakes, they wouldn’t turn out quite right, so if I make a mistake with the spell it turns things into pumpkins – and that is okay because they are safe.
I often learn a lot from my mistakes and I have to solve how to turn things back to the right shape again. I have to think up solutions and keep trying until I get it right.
What do you like to play? I like to play a game where you draw pictures on the sidewalk like maybe a castle, an island, a city building and then you magic yourself from on place to another. We helped Abby find a name from this game, we called it Place to Place. When it is not raining outside we are going to try and play this game ourselves!
How many friends do you have? Since coming to Sesame Street I have made many friends – fairy tale friends like Baby Bear,Jack and Jill, Peter Piper, Hansel and Gretl. Friends like Elmo and other fairies in training and big friends like Gordon and Lisa.
Life On Sesame Street
It has been a very exciting time on Sesame Street recently. How did you enjoy the 40th celebrations?
We had such a big party. Everybody came and we had a huge cake. But it didn’t have 40 candles on it, just a number 4 and a number 0.
What is your favourite thing about living on Sesame Street?
Discovering new things, all the lovely people and being able to practice by fairy magic!
(If you are reading this in email form, you will need to click through to see the videos.) What are you favourite foods to eat that are growing at Sesame Street? Do you have a favourite sometimes food? You have been visiting different habitats to help animals fine their homes. What are some of your favourite habitats that you have visited? What have you noticed about the Australian habitat? There is so much to learn as a fairy in training, what have you been learning recently? Sometimes learning can be a bit difficult with new challenges like when you learned to ride a tricycle. How did you manage to do learn to that in the end? Where you nervous when you first started school? You say lots of rhymes to make your magic. Do you make the magic rhymes yourself? My six year old said thing: It is easy to rhyme once you get started! Do you have a favourite magic rhyme at the moment? This is a fun song all about rhyming words, you can sing along with me if you like! We had such a lovely time with Abby Cadabby. She was so happy and friendly. Sesame Street can be seen on Australian television 8.30am week days on ABC. My kids also enjoyed playing Abby Cadabby games online like these ones: Who is your favourite character from Sesame Street?
What was it like to have the First Lady Michelle Obama on Sesame Street?
It was very exciting and she helped us plant our own vegetable garden! The First Lady taught us all about eating healthy food and how good food can taste when it comes straight from the gardens. Food comes from seeds did you know??
We have just picked cucumbers from our garden, but my favourite food from the garden are carrots.
I love popcorn. I love it because it is so poppy!Environment
We loved the song Earth Rocks. Do you have any tips for small children on how they can help look after their environment?
On Sesame Street we try to recycle as much as we can. Do you know you can make things out of recycling? If you get a bottle and then get some tissue paper, tear it into pieces and glue it on to the bottle you can make a vase to put flowers in!
I have been to the beach, to the mountains and the city, but I haven’t been to a rain forest yet. You have lots of rain forests here in Australia. They have lots of beautiful birds in them.
I love the animals. They are different from back home. Your possums look different to our possums. Our possums go on the ground, but your possums go in the trees. When I go to Sea World next I am hoping to see a playtypus. It is like a beaver crossed with a duck (lots of giggling!) Also we have parakeets and you call them budgies. I like that word, I am going to call them budgies from now on.Learning
I have learned lots of new words since being in Australia. Like whingeing, when Elmo woke up from his sleep the other day he was whingeing.
It was hard to do at the start, so I had Gordon help me and I kept on trying! You have to work hard sometimes to learn new things.
I was nervous that I wouldn’t haven’t any friends, but everyone was so welcoming and helpful, that I wasn’t nervous for very long.
I love rhymes, give me a word. So my four year old said dog and then quick as flash, Abby was rhyming:
Abby Cadabby Games and On TV