- [Narrator] Ready to learn?

- Hi.

- Hi.

- [Narrator] It's time to share a story, read and write.

- Lets read it back.

- [Narrator] Discover science, sing.

♪ Some play - [Narrator] Play, and so much more.

- Cupcake.

- Very good.

- [Narrator] Stay tuned for lessons and activities.

- We're gonna start making some words, isn't that fun?

- Mmh-mmh.

[upbeat music] - [Narrator] Funding for this program was provided by the JPB foundation.

[upbeat music] - Hi friends, my name is Pam Fong and I'm the author and illustrator of "Rue And The Great Race."

And I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you today.

This is a story that happens in the future when flowers, trees, and almost all of nature has disappeared to make room for growing cities.

At the heart of our story is Rue, her robot, and her grandma.

Of all the things that grandma misses the most from her early days before the cities took over, is just the simple flower.

She misses their sweet smell.

Because Rue loves her grandma so much, she tries her hardest to give grandma the one thing she wishes for.

I wrote this book because like Rue's grandmother, my own mother loves flowers.

Everywhere we go together, she's always on the lookout for flowers.

Nothing makes her happier.

So I wrote this to thank her for also teaching me how to love and cherish nature as well.

As we go through the story, you will see a world that looks very different from the one you live in.

I did this through the details and the colors I chose.

I used browns and blacks to create a world that's dusty and dry.

This is how I imagine a world without nature would look like, dusty and dry.

Are you ready to enter this different world and hear the story about "Rue And The Great Race?"

There came a time when flowers could no longer be found.

Welcome to this very different world in the future where robots run around and help people and put up signs including ones that say that there are more cities coming, and where there's not even a spot of nature.

Not even the trees are real.

When the city started to grow, the power people collected all the remaining flowers and kept them for themselves.

Who are these power people?

They're the people in charge who are making all the decisions and letting the cities grow and grow.

Even if that means pushing out all the flowers because they want to keep them for themselves.

Rue's grandmother remembered the days when it was different.

This is grandma's store.

She sells memories from days past.

We see pictures of trees and flowers.

Every night, Grandma talked about flowers.

Her voice changed whenever she recalled their sweet smell.

Because grandma loves flowers so much, she talked about them all the time.

But of course she was only talking about her memories.

And sometimes that made her sad, knowing that she would not be able to hold or smell a real flower again.

But wait, there's still one chance.

Each year, the power people shared a single plant with the whole city and everyone waited for it to bloom.

And when it did, they announced the date of the great race.

All the children were invited to run, but only the fastest to reach the flower would get to keep it.

So here it was Rue's big chance but she would have to compete against everyone else who also wanted to win the flower, and there would only be one winner.

Here again, we see how the power people were showing how selfish they were.

They could have shared more than one flower but they didn't.

Instead, they made all the children race against one another for just a single prize.

"This year, I will enter the race," thought Rue, "and I know I can win."

So here's Rue working really really hard to be the best she can for the race.

Rue thought of nothing else, day and night but winning the race and the look on grandma's face when she surprised her with the flower.

Unlike the power people who thought only of themselves, Rue thinks of her grandma and she's working hard and staying focused to make sure that she wins the race so that she can give grandma the prize.

She knows grandma is going to be really really excited.

At last it was the big day.

Rue looks pretty focused on winning but so do the other kids.

And they look a little bigger than Rue.

Ready, set, go!

Rue did not even come close to winning.

The other kids got to the flower first and in their excitement to all pick it and claim it for themselves, they end up tearing the flower into little bits.

"I didn't even get to see the flower," thought Rue.

But what's this?

What did Rue notice?

And why is there a hole in the ground now?

The next year, Rue decided not to run in the great race.

Instead, she stayed home to help grandma with her new garden.

So what happened here, friends?

Rue was smart enough to know that the plant with its roots was just as valuable as the flower.

While everyone else was after the flower, she knew that by taking care of the plant, it would grow to give her even more blooms.

And look at the surprise on grandma's face when Rue presented her with the plant.

And on this final page, we see what Rue and grandma decided to do with their new collection of flowers.

They decided to share it with the entire city, starting a new tradition every year, The Annual Great Share So that everyone who wanted a flower could have a flower.

Here's a quick little project so that you can share flowers with friends as well.

I have some beautiful Violas here.

And this plant you can see has lots of little stems where flowers are coming out of.

Flowers like this they grow out and they grow more flowers each time.

So you can take a flower like this, gently out of its pot, and look at all those roots that are underneath.

This flower is ready to be shared.

And if you just break it apart gently, gently, gently, gently making sure to save the roots, like that, then you can put this guy in a little pot of dirt as long as you're careful not to damage the roots.

Making sure the roots are covered.

Now, instead of just one flower, you'll have more flowers to share.

I hope you enjoyed today's reading of "Rue And The Great Race" and that you'll remember to love and cherish nature.

Thanks everyone.

Hi, my name is Margaret.

And I wanna talk to you about feelings.

We all have feelings, and they come in different sizes, just like our clothes and our shoes do.

Let me tell you what I mean.

We can be a little bit sad, when we can't wear our favorite shirt.

We can be a little bit sadder when we can't play with our favorite toy because it's broken.

And the biggest and saddest feeling can be, when we miss someone that we love, and that's okay, we all have these big feelings, these big, sad feelings, you do, and me too.

When I feel sad, a big sad, I'm not happy, I'm not smiling and I'm crying.

But what makes me feel better, is taking my favorite teddy bear, just like this one, and I give him a big squeeze, just like this, I hug him tight.

That feels really good, I feel happy now.

How do you feel?

I hope this helps.

[upbeat music] - Hi scholars, welcome to a wonderful day of learning.

My name is Anna Scretching Cole, and I'm going to work with you today on a very cool letter sound.

So, our letter of the day is, the letter A.

And the sound we're focusing on is the short sound.

So A says a like, apple.

Can you repeat that sound with me?

Say A, a, awesome.

So, we're gonna review something that I know most of you are pretty familiar with, a word family.

Let's see how many of you remember, this word family.

Oh, I already hear you yelling, yes.

This is the at word family, everyone say at, awesome.

So we're gonna be making some words with this at family.

So here's the first word I'm gonna make for you, let's see if you can read it with me.

Let's blend the sound, hat, hat, awesome.

How about this word?

Oh, good job, it is at, cat.

How about this word?

Rat, I can definitely tell this is review for some of you.

How about this word?

Sat, Sat.

Okay, we're gonna do one more word to this list.

How about...

Correct, this is bat.

Now bat has two different meanings.

It can mean like a baseball bat, like, home run, or it could mean like the animal bat.

So now what we're gonna do, is we're gonna read through all of these words together, okay, do you think you guys can help me do that?

Great, read along with me the first time, and then I'm gonna have you do it by yourself.

Let's go, hat, cat, rat, sat, bat.

Good job, now this time, I'm not gonna read with you, I want you to read through them on your own.

Let's see if you can do it.

Nice job, do you think you could do it even faster this time?

So the first time I'll read through it with you quickly, and then the second time you'll do it, ready?

Let's do it.

Hat, cat, rat, sat, bat.

Awesome, this time, your turn, ready, set, go.

I knew you could do it, great job.

So a lot of times when you guys are working with your word families, you'll notice, that last letter, stays the same.

Well, today we're gonna be working on blending words, where not only does that first letter change, but so does the last letter, I know mind blown.

Now, we're still gonna be focusing though on our sound of the day, which is that short A sound.

Remember, a apple, a, okay?

But instead this time let's change it to, lets get rid of all of these words.

Let's see if you can blend this new sound with our a. Hmm, let's see, I see the letter D, I had to think, what sound does the letter D make?

D says, oh yeah, thanks, yeah.

D says d, like dog, okay?

So now I'm gonna blend these two together.

I know A says, what our magical sound of the day, That's right, a, let's blend it together.

Ad, great, ad, okay?

Let's see if we can make a couple of words with this new ending.

So what would that word be?

Oh yeah, mad.

So now this time, I'm gonna change, not the first one, but I'm gonna change that last sound.

Are you ready for this?

Are you sure?

Let's see.

Let's blend, so let's start in that first sound.

What do we see?

M, M says, mmm, okay?

Mmm, our magical sound for the day, aa, and then that ending sound, well, what did that just sound?

But it's not that anymore, hmm.

N says, nn, so man, man, oh man, awesome.

Now I'm not gonna tell you which sound I'm changing, all we know is that that a, is gonna stay the same.

So let's see, let me see if I can trick you.

Yeah, mat, okay, I'm gonna change something else again.

There was no fooling you, I kept that T at the end, but now it's, that F sound so fat, awesome job.

Do you think we can now read through these four words the same way we read through all of our at family words?

I'll read it with you the first time, and then you're gonna do it on your own, you ready?

Let's do it.

Mad, man, mat, fat, okay?

I want you to try it now.

Great job.

So now let's try it out.

Take a look at some of these pictures and let's see if you can figure out if these pictures have the short, A sound.

Remember, the short A sound is a.

Correct, this one does.

This can either be a hat or a cap, either way, it has the short a sound.

Take a look at the next picture.

No, dog does not have the short a sound, keep going.

That's right, apple has our short a sound.

Check out the next picture.

That's right, cat says a, as the short a sound.

Nope, definitely not in fish.

Check out the next picture.

That's right, that's a picture of someone who's sad, and sad has the short a sound.

Oh, this was a tough one, but no gift does not have the short a sound.

Take a look at this last picture.

That's right, bat does have the short a sound.

I am going to write a sentence.

When I write this sentence, I'm gonna circle some words that I want you to be responsible for blending and reading on your own.

The other words I'll help you with, okay?

Let's try this first sentence.

Okay, so the word I'm circling in green, that means it's a go for you.

That means you're gonna use your blending, to get figure out those words.

I know he knows the other words though.

So, let's see this sentence says, the okay, let's blend those sounds together, lad, lad, oh lad, what's lad?

A lad is another name for a boy, okay?

So let's start from the beginning of the sentence again.

The lad, oh you're on again, let's blend those sounds.

Yeah, ad, had, excellent job, let's go back.

The lad had, a, last word, all you guys.

Yeah, cap, do you know what a cap is?

A cap is another word for, well, hat.

So let's read our whole sentence now.

The lad had a cap, you guys did such a great job.

Now let's see how you guys deal with it in so other sentences.

Okay, scholars, let's try it out.

Blend and read the following sentences.

Excellent job, the sentence says, the cat had on a cap, remember a cap is another word for a hat.

Try out this next sentence.

Great job, even though there was a tricky word in there, I know you guys did an awesome job.

This sentence says, the lad took a nap on the mat, great job.

Alright, scholars, let's try writing a sentence.

Repeat this sentence after me.

The dad sat on a mat.

Great, how many words do we hear in that sentence?

Well, a strategy I like to use, is to draw a line to represent each word.

So let's do that.

The dad sat on a mat.

So let's see one, two, three, four, five, I see six words in this sentence.

So let's start, our first word is the.

That's one of our high frequency words.

We spell the, T-H-E. Make sure you're holding your pencils properly, I should see lots of pinchy grips.

Okay, our next word, dad.

Dad has one of our, special sounds for today, which is that a sound.

So how do we spell dad?

D, d hmm, I hear that D in the beginning, D sound yeah.

Aa, oh we know what makes that a sound, that's right, the letter A, and then D, great.

Okay, the dad sat.

That word also has our special sound for today.

Let's write the word sat, sat.

What letters do we hear in sat?

Great, I hear ss, so the letter S, I hear our magical sound a, with the letter A, and then t, is made by the letter T. Our next word is on, O-N. Our next word is a, and then what was the last word in our sentence?

That's right, it was the word mat, and I already hear you saying that mat also had our special sound in it, so let's see if we can figure out how to spell the word mat.

Mat, that's right mat.

And don't forget to always end your sentence with proper punctuation.

Let's read our sentence one more time.

The dad sat on a mat, great jobs scholars.

Okay, now it's your turn, let's see if you can write the following sentence.

I had a bad cat, repeat the sentence after me.

I had a bad cat.

Use whatever strategy you would normally use to figure out how many words are in the sentence, and use your blending strategies to figure out how are you going to write those words?

[upbeat music] So let's see how you did.

The sentence was, I had a bad cat.

So here go my lines, I had a bad cat.

Let's see if your sentence looks like mine.

I had a bad cat.

Were you able to get all of your short A words?

I knew you could do it.

Scholars you did such an awesome job working on this short A today.

So, just a quick little review, let's remember, a short A is like apple, a.

Everyone say a, awesome.

So I'm gonna challenge you today, while you're doing your reading, see if you can find some words with short A sound in your books, and ask a trusted adult if maybe you can go on a short A hunt.

See if you can find things around the house, or looking through a magazine, and see if you could buy things like a cat, a mat, a lad, even an apple or a picture of an alligator, have fun with it and have a great, great day of learning.

[upbeat music] - Hey everyone, It's Laura from Bedtime Math.

And today, we're going to make a four-pointed origami star.

If you like to throw paper airplanes, you're gonna love these, 'cause they fly faster and further.

We have a couple of friends with us, to show us how to make them, and how to make them fly.

So here we have Leo, hi Leo.

- Hi.

- And we have Megan too, hi Megan.

She has her piece of paper, and so does Leo.

Can you hold up your piece of paper and tell us what shape it is?

- Square.

- Yes, it's a square, that's our starting shape.

So to make our origami stars, all we need are two square pieces of paper, they can be any color, you can decorate them, they just have to be the same size, 'cause you're gonna make two of the same shape and put them together.

And then you need scotch tape to attach them.

So let's get started.

So first you're gonna fold the bottom edge up to the top edge, and make a crease.

Megan, when you did that, what shape did you get?

- I got a rectangle.

- You did, excellent.

Then you're gonna take that bottom edge and fold it up.

And you're going to get a long, skinny rectangle, it still has four sides.

Now, you're gonna fold one end towards the other to make a crease down the middle, and open it up again, now, you fold each end to that middle line, here's Leo folding his, and Megan showing what it looks like, then you fold in the other edge so both sides are the same.

Leo what shapes did you get after those two folds?

- There's two squares on a small rectangle.

- That's right, now you're gonna take the bottom left corner of the rectangle, and fold it up.

Megan, can you tell me what new shape that made when you did that?

- It made a hat of a house.

[laughing] - It does look like half a house.

And what's the new little shape you folded?

- A triangle.

- It is a triangle.

Now take the top right corner and fold it down to make another triangle.

Here's Megan making hers.

So what do you call that four-sided shape?

- Parallelogram.

- It is, it's a parallelogram, that's great.

Then you're gonna take a new square of paper and make a whole second shape just like the first.

You then put one shape on top of the other to make an X with all the triangles facing up.

Then, you put a long piece of tape to hold them together, then flip it and tape the other side too.

And when you're done, you have an origami star.

Leo, how many points does the star have?

- Four.

- Yes, and now we're gonna see them fly.

Megan is all set to throw her origami star, let's see it fly.

Wow, that was a great throw, look how far it went.

I think that's better than a paper airplane.

And Leo is aiming right at us, wow, watch out.

So that was great, just using some shapes, we were able to make a toy that you get to play with over and over again.

And then you can go out and see how far they could throw 'em.

[upbeat music] - Hello, today I'd like to show you how to make recycle paper.

Everyday, I get lots of mail that I'm never going to use, I get envelopes, I have old magazines and guides, I have shopping receipts, I have my shopping lists.

Old notes that I'm not using anymore.

Envelopes, post-it notes, even clipped up bags from the stores.

First thing I need to do, is to whip all of these papers into very, very small pieces.

And I'm going to put them in this bin.

Now some of my things, I have one through a shredder, I have a machine that rips up paper and, so I start out with shreds of paper like this, but even this is too long, I need to whip these even smaller, so I just tear them and I want them very tiny, you can see how tiny they are.

And that's what we're going to do with all of these papers, and you can do that too.

Rip them, the smaller they are, the better.

So if we can get tiny, tiny pieces like that, even smaller, that's wonderful, tiny pieces like that.

This is also if you happen to be practicing cutting, which is a great thing to practice, you can use your scissors and you can cut your papers into tiny, tiny pieces.

The smaller the pieces, the better it is.

So that's the first thing I need to do, I need to take all these papers and tear them into tiny, tiny pieces and put them in this bin.

Okay, so I've taken all those papers and then I have ripped them up into these tiny little pieces that you see here, but they are still dry.

So now we have to add water into this container, and we'll let the papers soak in the water, and after a while, when it gets really soft, we will use our hands to really match the paper up a little bit more, so that all of this becomes a pulp.

So let's get started with that.

Okay, so here's the water.

[water pouring] And that's not really enough, so I'm going to add more, [water pouring] Oops spilled it out.

I think that might be enough.

I've put some of the paper that I had in the big tub in the water in a small container so you can see it better.

You can see that we still see all these little pieces of paper, but I want them to all mix together so what we need to do now, is while it's softer, we're going to whip it up even more.

I'm going to sort of crush it together, wishing it together, so you have to still work that paper, look how easily it's all tearing apart.

We doing that and we're mixing them together as we're doing it.

So we need to do that with all of this paper that I have here, and all of this.

For this next part, we're going to need a screen.

That's something we would put into the water to lift up the paper, but let the water run through.

I don't have a screen except the screens that are on my windows, so I looked around and I realized I do have some things that I can use, I have a bag of potatoes, that I bought that are in this mesh, so I'm going to cut that mesh bag open and use that and we'll see what happens.

Okay, so now I have my pulp ready to make my new paper, and I wanna show you a few of the other materials we're going to need.

We need a newspaper if you have, I'm going to use some circulars that I get, that I would just be thrown into recycling anyway, so I'm going to put those on my table, I will also need wax paper, think you can get this.

This will help keep the paper from sticking to this paper that we're using.

So your new paper won't get stuck to it.

Alright, we're also going to use, this is a mesh square, this is plastic, has little holes in it so the water will come through and the paper stay on top, we also have a mesh bags.

I want to show you what this mesh looks like closeups so you can really see what's happening.

You see, there are the red lines, these are plastic, strips of plastic going across, and there are clear pieces of plastic running behind it, here, you can see them.

So it makes lots of little boxes.

And that's what will let the water go through while it keeps the paper on top.

This is another one we'll be using, this is a plastic mesh, might use this for different crafts with different projects.

Okay, so here are my circulars, my new paper.

I'm putting my wet paper on top of it.

And now I'm taking the first one that I'm going to use is the hard plastic mesh.

I'm going to push it down underneath the water and the pulp, and then I'm going to bring it up.

So I'm sort of scooping, I'll bring it up, and the paper will be on top and the water should drip down.

So let's see how I can do this.

Put it in, shaking it a little bit, I'm doing it carefully, bringing it up, you see?

Now, I can because this mesh is small, I can actually put my hand under it and I can press down a little bit, to press some of the water out, but you do not have to do that, you can just scoop down and pick it up, and put it on your wax paper.

So I'm gonna show you again, I'm just gonna scoop and take it and put it on the wax paper, without pressing it.

And there we go, the paper's on top, and all of this press the water comes down.

Now I'm going to take it, and I'm going to flip it over on to my wax paper, I'm going to carefully lift up my mesh, and that will be my new paper.

It's very small because it's a small piece of mesh, but that will be my new paper.

I'm going to put more of these circulars on top and I'm going to press, because what's going to happen, and I'll show you, the water is coming out of my paper and it will soak into this paper, and that's what we want, okay.

One down, okay, now I'm going to try again, using this mesh that I had, going to hold the size here, and let's see what happens, maybe it'll work, maybe it won't.

Okay, I can't scoop, so I'm going to have to press it down, and I'm going to help some of this paper pulp come on top of it.

Okay, let me see if I can get it out.

Oops, and tight, okay, we have some on there, the water is dripping out, like it's supposed to, and then the paper pulp is staying on the top like it's supposed to.

Now, I realized I might have a problem putting it on my wet paper.

So, I'm gonna try something a little different this time.

Going to put this directly on my paper like this, if you can see, and I'm going to put the wax paper on top of it, and then I'm going to flip this whole thing over, okay, you might see some water spills out from the paper that's okay, then I'm going to lift this up, and carefully pull the mesh up, ah, okay.

So now my paper, my new paper, my recycled paper, oops, is on my wax paper, and we'll leave that to dry.

Think I'll probably turn, okay that works.

So now that we know how to use the old paper to make a pulp in order to make new recycled paper, I want to show you some things we can do that can make that new paper, a little prettier.

We can use food, coloring.

A couple of drops or mixing the colors to make different colored paper.

We can also use flowers, I have some fresh flowers and some dried flowers that we can use, to just make the paper a little prettier.

I'll show you how to do that now.

Okay, so I have decided I want to add some red food coloring to my water, and I'm going to stir it up, let's see what this looks like.

I think I might add a little bit more, and then I need to let it sit for a little bit, so that the paper can absorb the color.

See, and I can use flowers too.

So I have these little flowers, these are fresh flowers, I'm taking the flowers apart and just putting in the separate petals, but you can put the whole flowers in there too, you can put in some of the leaves as well.

I can also take some dried flowers, this is a dry flower, and I can crumble to little pieces, and put that in too, like that.

And that might look pretty on my paper as well.

So let's see how they came out.

This is the first one, this is the second, the one we made using the mesh bag from the potatoes.

This the one with food coloring and flowers.

Now we leave them to dry.

Now that they're dry, we carefully appeal the recycle paper off.

This is the one with the flowers, this is the one we made with the mesh from the potato bag, and is our first one, it's bumpy on one side, smooth on the other.

You can see it here too, and the edges are a little ragged.

You can always cut the paper into different shapes, or you can just trim the edges to make it neater.

You can even write a note.

- Hi, from the Memphis Zoo.

My name is Liz, and I'm joined by my favorite animal, you can see him right here, his name is Frankie.

Now Frankie is a three-year-old African crested porcupine.

Now by his name, you may have guessed, he is from Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, to be exact.

Now Frankie actually turned three years old this month, so happy birthday Frankie.

Now, a lot of people don't know this, but he is actually a rodent, just like rats and mice.

Now he has those big front teeth he's using to eat his favorite treat, which is corn on the cob, and they're big incisors and they're gonna grow his entire life.

So he has to constantly chew on things to keep them nice and filed down.

Now he does have a really powerful bite because his incisors are anchored in the very back of his mouth.

Now, one of my favorite things about porcupines, are that they have unique family group.

So usually they'll live with their mom dad and a couple babies, and a group of porcupines is actually called a prickle, it's pretty cute.

Now, Frankie came to us when he was just a little porky pet, that's a baby porcupine, and he was about the size of a football, and I've been working with him for about two years, and he is so smart, he knows all kinds of behaviors, now we work on behaviors with them, so we can ship them from one area to another for cleaning purposes like husbandry, also it helps with medical things, and we us some cool behaviors for shows as well.

Now people ask us all the time if porcupines can shoot their quills.

now they can't shoot their quills, it's a big old myth, but instead, their quills are actually modified hairs, just like you and I have on our heads.

So sometimes we brush your hair out, we shake our hair and they fall out, his quills do the same exact thing, and they will grow back pretty quickly, and it doesn't hurt him at all.

You guys may not know this, but porcupine actually means quill pig.

Now they probably say quill pig because he is really good at smelling.

Since he is nocturnal he doesn't have great eyesight, but he will snip around on the ground looking for his favorite treats, which are tubers and roots and things like that, so he has to have a really powerful nose.

Now, his teeth also helped for him digging and he has really powerful front claws.

Now I said, these guys are nocturnal, and when they come out of their dens or their burrows at nighttime to hunt, these guys have to watch out because in Africa they have some pretty dangerous predators, like lions.

Now, lions actually don't even wanna mess with these guys, because they are covered in quills.

Now they get the name Crested porcupine, because when they feel threatened, what they're gonna do is raise their quills up, kind of like a peacock would raise its feathers, but they're really sharp quills.

And they will run at you pokey and fast, Now he has quills at the end near his tail, and those are hollow, and he can actually rattle those just like a rattlesnake.

And he can also stomp his feet and kind of make snarling growling hissing sounds too.

And if lions aren't intimidated enough by that, then he will run at them pokey and fast.

So he has a lot of great defenses, now what we think the black and white coloring is, is at nighttime, it's really hard to tell the difference between two very similar colors, but you can tell the difference in black and white, are really two different colors.

So that's part of his warning coloration.

Here are some common questions we get when we're out with Frankie the porcupine.

Do porcupines bite?

Now, anything with a mouth can bite, and it would hurt a lot to get bit by a porcupine because of their big front teeth, but Frankie is so used to working with us, since especially since I've been working with him for two years, but he doesn't feel the need to bite, and he feels pretty comfortable around me.

Do boy and girl porcupines look different from each other?

They don't, they look pretty similar and it's really hard to tell the difference between the two.

Females actually may be slightly bigger than the males.

How long do African Crested porcupines live?

They live on an average of 20 years, so since Frankie's only three, he has a lot of life left in him.

Can I have a porcupine as a pet?

Now, as cute as Frankie is, porcupines do not make good pets.

In fact, you have to have a special permit, to even have one of these in your rehab place or zoo.

And they need very particular things like a special diet and lots of room to run.

Frankie loves running around his exhibit.

Some things you can do at home to help all animal species is reducing and reuse.

So instead of using shopping bags that the store provides, maybe buy a bunch with your favorite animal on them, and take them to the store with you.

You can also reuse water bottles, and most places have somewhere for you to fill them up.

All the plastic that we use, even though we'd love for it to always end up in recycling, doesn't always happen.

So as long as you can take those extra steps, helping out all animals is pretty easy.

Another thing that you can do, is just tell your friends about porcupines.

I know my friends are probably tired of hearing about porcupines, but they're so cool.

So spreading awareness is one of the best thing you can do.

Thank you so much for joining us here at the Memphis Zoo, and I'll see you next time.

[upbeat music] [ethereal music] - Hi movers and shakers, this is Violet, and it's time to do a little singing and moving.

I really like this song cause it's about ants, which are bugs that sometimes crawl into your apartment.

For this song, we're going to march.

So you can March in your seat like this, you can stand up and march, or you can keep the time on your lap.

♪ The ants go marching one by one, hurray, hurray ♪ ♪ The ants go marching one by one hurray, hurray ♪ ♪ The ants go marching one by one ♪ ♪ The littlest one stop to suck his sup ♪ ♪ And they all go marching down ♪ ♪ To the ground, to get out, of the rain ♪ ♪ The ants go marching two by two hurray, hurray ♪ ♪ The ants go marching two by two hurray, hurray ♪ ♪ The ants go marching two by two ♪ ♪ The little ones stop tie his shoe ♪ ♪ And they all go marching down ♪ ♪ To the ground, to get out, of the rain ♪ Thanks for singing with me.

[upbeat] - Slow beating up the tomtoms.

The slow beating of the tomtoms.

Low, slow, slow, low, stares your blood dance.

A night filled girl, will softly, slowly like a wisp of smoke around the fire, and the tomtoms beat and the tomtoms beat.

[drumming] and the low beating of the tomtoms stirs your blood.

[drumming] [audience applauding] [audience cheering] [audience applauding] [drumming] [audience cheering] [drumming] [audience applauding] [audience applauding] [drumming] [audience applauding] [audience applauding] [drumming] [audience applauding] [upbeat music] - [Narrator] Funding for this program was provided by the JPB foundation.

[upbeat music]