- [Narrator] Ready to learn?

- Hi!

- [Narrator] It's time to share a story, - Shh!

- [Narrator] Read and write, - Let's read it back.

- [Narrator] Discover science, sing, - ♪ Somewhere ♪ - [Narrator] Play, and so much more.

- Cupcake!

- Very good.

- [Narrator] Stay tuned for lessons and activities.

- We're going to start making some words.

Isn't that fun?

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

[upbeat music] - Hi, everyone.

Welcome back.

My name is Ms. Davis.

It's so good to see you all again.

How have you been?

That's great.

Well, today I have a book that I would like to share with you.

Here it is!

The book is titled, "Skip through the Seasons" and the author that wrote this book is Stella Blackstone and the illustrator who drew the beautiful pictures, Maria Carluccio.

Now, before we start reading this book, I would like to focus on a word in the title.

Let's look really closely.

Seasons.

This is the word I would like to focus on.

Can you read it with me?

Seasons.

One more time, good job.

Eyes on the S. Seasons.

Yeah, so what are seasons?

Do you know what they are?

No?

That's okay.

That's why we're going to focus on that word first.

So let me help you out.

Where we live, we experience four seasons.

You may have heard of them before: autumn, winter, summer, spring.

Those are the four seasons we experience where we live.

Well, what are seasons?

Well, the way we get seasons is from two things.

What's this?

Earth!

Good job.

Or you could say "planet Earth," because Earth is a planet.

So here we have Earth.

Now, remember I said two things are involved.

Yes, one is planet Earth.

Hmm, what's the second thing?

[gasps] The sun.

The sun is a star.

So planet, planet Earth, stars, the biggest star, the sun, work together to create our four, four seasons.

This is how it works.

You have the sun.

Well, planet Earth is traveling around the sun.

Okay?

It takes one complete year, one whole year for the sun, for the Earth to go all the way around the sun.

So it takes a lot of time for it to do that.

One complete travel around the sun, orbiting.

Now, when the earth is traveling, it's also doing something, it's called rotating.

So it's rotating as it's orbiting around the sun.

Now planet Earth is also tilted.

So it's not straight, it's tilted as it's spinning, okay?

And it's tilted on what's called an axis.

So as it's rotating on its tilted axis, half of the year it's facing the North Pole.

The other half of the year, as it's rotating in its orbit around the sun, it's tilted towards the South Pole.

And depending on its tilt and position in orbit around the sun, that's what creates our seasons.

So now we can get ready to read.

"Skip through the Seasons.

Jump into January, come along with me!

The local pond is glazed with ice.

What can you see?"

I see earmuffs, pine trees, skis, hockey stick.

What do you see?

"Fly into February, come along with me!

The hillside glistens, white with snow.

What can you see?"

Notice on this page here, everything changes.

No more snow, no more snow boots.

"Whirl into March, come along with me!

The wind is whistling down the street.

What can you see?"

What do you see here?

I see kites, I see Frisbees.

"Splash into April, come along with me!

The first spring rains are sweet and warm.

What can you see?"

Mm, I see daffodils, I see rain hats.

What do you see?

"Move into May, come along with me!

It's time to make our gardens grow.

What can you see?

Race into June, come along with me!

It's so much fun to eat outdoors.

What can you see?

Jive into July, come along with me!

The fair is full of games and rides.

What can you see?

Sail into August, come along with me!

The sand is soft, the sea is warm.

What can you see?

Slide into September, come along with me!

It's time to go to school again.

What can you see?

Twirl into October, come along with me!

The orchard trees are full of fruit.

What can you see?

Sweep into November, come along with me!

The leaves are dancing as they fall.

What can you see?

Dance into December, come along with me!

Let's celebrate the turning year and everything we see."

And so that's the end of the book.

And December is also the end of the year.

Remember when I said Earth rotates on an axis as it orbits around the sun to give us our seasons?

It takes one whole year to do that.

And so it's December.

That year?

It's made a full circle.

That year's over.

The year is complete.

And what we use to help keep track of the year is called a calendar.

The calendar we use is called a Gregorian calendar.

A Gregorian calendar always starts with January because January is the beginning of a year.

As we continue, we go through days, then weeks, and all of that adds up to be the month.

In the month of January, we have 31 days.

After 31 days, we have a new month, February.

As days go by, weeks start to go by, and it all adds up to 28 days for the month of February.

Remember, it takes one year for the earth to travel all around the sun.

So the months that make up that one year, there's 12 of them.

These are our 12 months.

So now I'd like for you to help me match the months to the season.

So we know December is the end of the year and January was the beginning of the year.

And when we look back in our story in January, it's really, really, really cold.

Lots of snow, you have to wear earmuffs, you have to wear coats, there's even ice.

Hmm, what's a cold season?

Winter.

So I'm going to match January with the season winter.

So January is a winter month.

When we look back in our story, what's February?

Does it look like January?

Yes, that's also a winter month.

Now it's starting to change, just like we saw in the illustrations.

So after winter, if we follow the arrow, do do do, here comes spring.

So this is what spring looks like.

What's the month?

March.

March.

So I'm gonna take March and match it with spring because March is a spring month.

Let's look back in our book.

April, we know for sure is a spring month, 'cause it says it right here in the text: "The first spring rains," and it comes in the month of April.

April, A, [gasps] April.

Here we go.

Let's add it to spring.

Now in spring, when it rains, guess what grows?

Flowers and more things from nature.

So May is part of spring.

May, let's find May.

Yep, matches spring.

Good, let's keep going.

We have summer and autumn as two more seasons to match our months to.

As we saw in our book, in June, you can be outdoors a lot more.

You can have picnics, it's a lot warmer because everyone's wearing t-shirts and skirts or shorts.

They don't really need a jacket like before.

We're now in summer, that's why, so we can add June.

Okay.

Do you think this looks like summer?

Can you go to a carnival in the summer and eat ice cream in the summer and go to ice cream stands?

Yeah, so July is also part of the season of summer.

Let's take July and let's add it over here.

We have one more month of summer.

What is it?

August, good job.

So August is very nice and sunny.

You can totally go to the beach.

Might be your favorite place, just like me.

So now it's changed.

Even the way we dress changes.

Long sleeves, long pants.

And it's no more the summer because now we're getting ready to go to school.

So we're in the month of September.

That season is autumn.

September is part of the season autumn.

September, here it is, so we're gonna match it to autumn.

After September, like we learned in our book comes October, and you may have done some of these things with your teacher or your family, like apple picking, pumpkin picking.

Yeah, those are things you can do in autumn.

So we know October is in autumn.

Ah-ah-ah-October, here it is.

So let's take our month, October, and let's match it to the season, autumn.

Now we have two more months left, November and December.

Well November, what do you think?

Does November look like a winter month or a autumn month?

I don't see snow.

I don't see ice.

I don't see earmuffs, and I don't see hats that are on everyone, only on him.

So it's not that cold, so I'm going to say autumn, and if you were thinking that, you're correct.

November is an autumn month.

So our last month is December and December is yes, a winter month.

So there you have it.

These are all of our four seasons as Earth orbits around the sun.

And these are all of the months that match the seasons.

And now remember, just like we saw in our book, December is the last of the year.

So January 1st will mark the new year.

The planet Earth is going to orbit all the way around the sun to complete that year.

So thank you for joining me today.

I hope you liked the book, "Skip through the Seasons" and I encourage you to think about the seasons and what season are we in now?

Hmm, do you know?

All right.

Tell me next time.

Bye.

- Hi movers and shakers.

This is Violet, and I'm gonna sing one of my favorite songs, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."

And my friend Nico is going to join us and sing some in Spanish as well.

You can sing in whatever language you want.

Can you stand up straight or sit up straight and get ready to dance and move with me?

All right.

♪ Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes ♪ ♪ Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes ♪ ♪ Eyes and ears and mouth and nose ♪ ♪ Head, shoulders, knees and toes knees and toes.

♪ - ♪ [sings in Spanish] ♪ ♪ Eyes and ears and mouth and nose ♪ ♪ Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes ♪ Thanks, everyone!

[upbeat music] - Hello, friends, I'm Dr. Rivers.

It's time to do some work with phonemic awareness and phonics.

Today, we're going to segment, delete, and blend and read sounds in words.

You're going to need your eyes to watch, your ears to listen carefully, your mouth to say and repeat, and your hands to do some of the work.

Let's begin with segmenting.

I'm going to say a word.

You're going to repeat the word.

Then you're going to say all of the sounds that you hear in the word.

We're going to move our hands with each sound that we say.

Watch me do the first word.

The word is "tea," as in, "I like to drink tea with breakfast."

Tea.

T-E are the sounds that I hear in tea.

It's your turn to try.

Say "tree."

Now say the sounds that you hear in "tree."

If you said tuh er ee, you're absolutely correct.

Let's try some more.

Say "sad."

Segment the sounds in "sad."

Let's do it together.

Ss aa duh.

Very good.

Say the word "then."

Segment the word "then."

If you said "th eh n," you're absolutely correct.

Say "these."

Segment "these."

Let's do it together.

Th ee zuh.

The next word is "tip."

A tip can be money that you leave for someone that provides a service or it can be advice for a friend.

Say "tip."

Segment "tip."

If you said "tuh ih puh," it's absolutely correct.

The next word is "type."

Say the word "type."

Segment the word "type."

Let's do it together.

Tuh eye puh.

Now say the word "race."

As in "I'll race you to the park."

Segment the word "race."

If you said "er ay ss," you're correct.

Now try "trace."

To trace something is to write on top of something that's already written.

It could be with your finger or a pen or a pencil.

Say the word "trace."

Segment the word "trace."

Remember you have to say every sound that you hear.

Let's do that one again together.

Tuh er ay ss.

Good job.

The word is "row."

Say "row."

Now, segment the sounds in "row."

Let's do it together.

Er oh.

Good job.

And the last word is "rot."

Say the word "rot."

Now segment the word "rot."

Let's do it again together.

Er ah tuh.

Great job segmenting the sound in words.

Now let's practice deleting sounds from words.

I will say a word, then take away a sound and make a new word.

Listen as I do the first one.

The word is "slime."

Slime without ss is lime.

Now you try.

Say "blink."

Now say "blink" without "buh."

Link.

Say "steak."

Now say "steak" without "ss."

Take.

Say "plop."

Now say "plop" without "uhl."

Pop.

Say "steam."

Now say "steam" without "ss."

Team.

Say "spot."

Now say "spot" without "ss."

Pot.

Say "clump."

Now say "clump" without "kuh."

Lump.

Say "blast."

Now say "blast" without "buh."

Last.

Say "slow."

Now say "slow" without "ss."

Low.

Say "flame."

Now say flame without "uhl."

Fame.

Say "great" Now say "great" without "er."

Gate.

Say "trip."

Now say "trip" without "er".

Tip.

Great work deleting sounds and making new words.

Now let's practice blending and reading words with the long I and the long O vowel sounds.

But first, let's review.

We learned that there are spelling patterns that help the vowels say their names.

We learned a vowel-consonant-E.

In a vowel-consonant-E words, the E is silent and the vowel is long.

We also learned that when words begin with K N, the K is silent.

It's pronounced n, as in "knife."

Kn i fe.

Vowel-consonant-silent E. Knife.

Knife, knife.

We also learned that when W R is at the beginning of the word, it's pronounced "er."

The w is silent as in "er oh tuh."

Vowel-consonant-E, long O sound.

Wrote, wrote, wrote.

Now it's your turn to practice some words with me.

Let's read the first row.

Silent K, nn ah tuh.

Knot, like a knot in your shoelace or tying a knot in a rope.

Ready?

Nn oh z.

Nose.

Vowel, consonant, silent E. Silent K. Nn oh.

Now this is not "now."

In this word, the O W says, "oh."

Know.

let's try the next row.

Guh uhl eye duh.

Glide.

Vowel-consonant-E, long I sound.

Er eye duh, ride.

Vowel, consonant, silent E. Er oh uhl, role.

Vowel-consonant-silent E. Er oh zuh.

Rose, vowel-consonant-silent E. W R pattern.

Wrist.

The W is silent.

Er ih ss tuh.

Wrist as in, "I have a bracelet on my wrist."

W R pattern, silent W. Er eye tuh.

Write as in, "Write your name on the paper."

Great.

Now let's read the sentence.

Phil goes to homes on his block.

Let's read it fluently.

Phil goes to homes on his block.

Great work today segmenting the sounds in words, deleting sounds to make new words and blending and reading words with the long I and the long O sounds.

Go ahead and kiss your brain.

Share what you learned today with someone that you love and come again.

There's so much more to learn.

See you soon.

- Singing with my kid is more than just fun.

Wanna know why?

- [Narrator] Reading to your kids is an important part of increasing their literacy skills, but it's not the only thing you can do to get them ready for school.

- Once upon a time... - [Narrator] Tell stories and talk to your little ones.

This will help them learn new words.

- And you know what happened?

- Yeah.

- ♪ Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ - Sing songs with your kids.

Singing will help them strengthen their memory and listening skills.

[singing in foreign language] - I do not like them here or there.

I do not like them anywhere.

- [Narrator] Read rhymes and play rhyming games with your children.

Rhyming will help them learn the sounds of different words.

When you're around town, point things out and say what they are out loud.

- What does the red hand mean?

- Stop?

- What did we do yesterday?

- [Narrator] Weave language into your day any way you can.

♪ All through the town ♪ [upbeat music] - Hi, friends.

How are you today?

I'm Miss Lauren and today in math, we are going to be comparing objects using the terms "more," "less," and "same."

All right?

We're gonna start by building some towers together, using "more" and "less," we will be looking at a bunch of pictures of objects of different shapes, and we'll be answering some questions about them, and then we're going to draw some pictures together, okay?

So if you can get yourself either paper, pencil or a whiteboard and a marker, that would be great 'cause then you can participate and join along with me.

And if you should have snap cubes at home, I'm not sure if you do or anything that you can maybe even lay out on the floor in front of you: pasta, Cheerios, something like that, okay?

And we will need maybe just about 10, all right?

So if you can go grab those materials, I'll give you a few seconds.

I'm going to play some music, and when the music stops, I'll begin.

Okay, friend, go ahead.

[upbeat music] - Okay, let's begin.

Let's try our names, all right?

We'll make some name trains.

And you could do this on your floor going from side to side, all right?

On your board, go ahead and write your first name, okay?

Everyone's name is different, so this will not be the same for everyone.

I'll write my first name, "Lauren."

Are you ready?

You write your name and I'll write mine, okay?

All right.

Here we go.

So this is my name, L-A-U-R-E-N. That's how I spell my name, okay?

So let me count how many letters that is.

Let's see, you ready?

One, two, three, four, five, six.

So I have six letters in my name.

You count the letters in your name.

Good job.

I'm gonna build a name train.

I need six cubes, six pieces for my train and that's gonna represent my name.

So I have one, two, three, I'm building mine, you could build yours, four, five, six.

So this is my name train, all right?

Here it is, here's my name train.

Now I'm gonna use my friend's name.

Let me use my friend's name.

Are you ready?

My friend's name is Kate, so I'm gonna write "Kate" on the board.

You can use your sister's name.

You can even write the word, "mom."

This is how I write Kate.

K-A-T-E So there are one, two, three, four, there are four letters, so I'm gonna make her name train out of four cubes.

Are you ready?

One, two, three, oops, and four.

Okay, so here is four.

Whose name has more letters?

Yeah, mine.

I have more letters in my name.

My name train is longer.

Do you see that?

And who has less?

Yeah, Kate.

Kate doesn't have as many.

Do you see?

Yeah, Kate has less than mine.

Nice job, all right.

So we did that so we can practice "more" and "less," okay?

So now what we're going to do is we're gonna take a look at a picture of some shapes, okay?

Okay, here they are.

A lot, right.

Do you see how many?

Yeah.

What do you notice?

What shapes do you see?

There are circles.

Here are some circles, triangles in red, we have some squares in green.

And then we have this shape here.

Do you know what that's called?

It has six sides.

Yeah, it's called a hexagon.

Good job.

All right.

So I have questions about this piece of paper and about all of these shapes.

Are you ready?

Are there more squares or triangles?

Well, if I needed to answer that, it's gonna be very hard, isn't it?

How am I gonna be able to really keep track of all of that?

These shapes are a mess.

They're all over the place.

[gasps] I know.

What if we had them all organized?

How much neater is that, right?

Can we now answer questions about these shapes much more easily?

Absolutely, so let's go ahead and put this up on our board so we can answer questions about these shapes.

Okay?

Now we can, all right, let's see.

Okay, now, are there more squares or triangles?

Mm, well, I see squares down here in green and I see triangles on top, right?

And I'm noticing that if I could put them one on top of another, they're perfectly on top of one another.

So that's good.

Let's see.

Well, by looking now I can tell there are more triangles than squares.

Do you agree?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's count: one, two, three, four, five.

There are five triangles and one, two, three, four, there are four squares.

So yeah, there are more triangles than squares.

Good.

Okay.

Are there fewer circles or hexagons?

Hmm, fewer.

Hmm, where have I heard that?

Oh yeah, fewer means less, right?

Do you remember that?

Yeah, we learned that fewer means less.

So are there fewer circles or hexagons?

Which one has less?

Well, circles are on top and hexagons are on the bottom.

Do you see that?

So, [gasps] well, I would say circles, definitely.

Do you agree?

Yeah, so there are one, two, three, four circles.

One, two, three, four, five, six, [gasps] there are six hexagons.

So there are fewer circles than hexagons, right?

Less, there are less, there is a less amount of circles than there are hexagons.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

Okay.

And which two groups have the same?

Well, [gasps] I think I know.

Do you think you know?

All right.

I think it could be the circles and the squares, right?

Because if you see, notice they both end at the same spot, don't they?

Yeah, when they're nice and organized like this, it's really so much easier to figure this out.

So I see one, two, three, four circles and one, two, three, four squares.

They have the same.

Nice job, friends.

Okay, all right, my friends, now we're going to draw.

Are you ready to do some drawing?

Do some art with me?

All right.

So get your paper and pencil ready, or your board, all right, and we're gonna do this together.

So the first thing I need to do is erase my name and my friend Kate's name, and we are going to draw a basic simple picture together using shapes.

Are you ready?

We're gonna start by drawing a square.

Just a basic square on the bottom here.

Right?

Doesn't have to be perfect.

Let's go ahead and put a triangle on top.

All right, triangle on top.

Let's do some rectangles for the door and the windows, right, door and windows.

Go ahead and make those, right.

And we're gonna use some circles with a doorknob and for a nice window, right in the middle of the house, okay?

And we're actually gonna use another square for a nice little attic window at the top.

How's that?

All right.

Now let's go ahead and make some trees.

So for the trees we're gonna do a rectangle bottom and a triangle top.

All right, now we're gonna do one more over here.

Actually, my trees are a little far apart.

I have to put them a little closer to my board, to my house.

Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and make my triangle there.

My, another tree here, a rectangle, just like that.

All right.

How'd you do?

Good?

Okay.

So now we're going to make a key, right?

That's why I needed some room.

So if you can move them over, like me, go ahead and do that.

So we're gonna start with our rectangles on the top, right?

Rectangles on top.

And our triangles are gonna be next.

We're gonna have a square and we're gonna have a circle, and we're gonna count them to see how many of each shape we have.

So rectangles.

Well, let's take a look.

We have one, two, three, four, five.

Do you agree?

Yeah, so there are five rectangles.

How many triangles?

Let's count: one, two, three.

That's three.

So we're gonna do three triangles.

Squares, hm.

Ah, there's a square here.

And the house itself was a square, remember that?

So there are two squares and circles, well, we have one, two, so we have two circles as well.

Okay, let's answer some questions.

Are there more rectangles or squares?

Hmm, well, if I take a look at the numbers that I have here, rectangles are five and squares are two, so there are more rectangles.

Good.

Let's see.

Are there fewer circles or triangles?

Fewer, fewer, that means less, right?

Yeah, that means less.

So which one has less, circles or triangles?

Well, circles have two and triangles have three.

So two, two is less than three.

Good job.

And which two have the same?

Which two have the same amount?

There we go!

Two, right?

'Cause it's the same number, huh?

Good job, friends.

All right, so you know what?

This is something you could do all on your own.

You can be so creative.

You could use any shape you want.

You could draw a shape picture, right?

A picture made out of all different shapes.

You can create a key just like we did today.

And you can ask questions all about it, all right?

See if you could get a partner to help you out.

I hope you enjoyed yourself.

I hope you learned something today.

And I would love for you to come back next time so you can keep growing those math muscles in your brain.

I hope to see you soon.

Bye, friends.

- [speaks in Spanish] [voiceover in Spanish] ♪ Copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ - [Narrator] [speaking in Spanish] - I do not like them here or there.

I do not like them anywhere.

- [Narrator] [speaking in Spanish] - What does the red hand mean?

- Stop?

- [Narrator] [speaking in Spanish] ♪ All through the town ♪ [upbeat music] - Hey there, friends!

Welcome to the Memphis Zoo here in Memphis, Tennessee.

My name is Bella and I'm an animal interreter here at the zoo.

As an animal interpreter, part of my job is to share the stories of the animals I work with with you.

Now you might know that animals and humans alike have the same basic needs, and these basic needs are things that we need to survive.

They include food, water, and shelter.

Secondary needs aren't things that we necessarily need to survive, but they're things that also can keep us happy and healthy.

In fact, there's a lot that goes into keeping us healthy and the same goes for other animals.

If you don't mind, I'd really like to share with you the story of how we keep our animals healthy all year long.

Have you ever thought about all the things it takes to keep you healthy?

Most of us visit our doctor at least once a year to make sure we are in tip-top shape.

We also make choices about what we eat, be it junk food or salad.

Exercise also keeps us healthy.

Do you have PE or maybe gym class?

That's one way to get exercise.

All the things we do every day and throughout the year help us stay healthy, and our animals at the zoo do the same.

They eat healthy, exercise, and they even have their own doctor to visit.

Why don't we sneak a peek into what it's like for our animals to get their annual checkups?

All of our animals here at the Memphis Zoo get looked over and examined every year by animal doctors, called veterinarians or vets, and these visits allow us to make sure our animals are healthy year round.

They allow us to maybe give them vaccines and also to look at problems that might turn into bigger issues later, like maybe a sore tooth.

Now our vets have to make sure that our animals look well, feel well, and live well.

So let's go check in with one right now.

Hi, Dr. Kayla.

Thanks so much for meeting with me and my friends today.

Would you mind introducing yourself and telling us a little about what you do here?

- Absolutely, my name is Kayla and I'm one of the veterinarians at the Memphis Zoo.

My job entails kind of monitoring and making sure that all of our animals stay healthy.

- Awesome.

What makes you different as an animal doctor from a human doctor?

- So a veterinarian or an animal doctor is very different than a human doctor in that I have to know the medicine and behavior of a variety of species.

In addition, my patients can not talk to me and tell me what's going on, so I have to figure it out on my own.

- Awesome.

So what happens during a vet checkup and why are they important?

- Vet checkups are very important for our animals here, just as they are for, you know, you at home.

It's important for us to continuously monitor our animals and make sure that they do stay healthy, especially as they get older.

Our checkups typically involve either holding the animal or administering sedation so that we can safely restrain them.

You know, we do a full checkup, look at their eyes, ears, teeth, listen to their heart and lungs and usually take blood samples and x-rays.

- That's awesome.

What's your favorite part about being a vet here at the Memphis Zoo?

- My favorite part is definitely working with such a wide variety of species here.

I think it's a lot of fun also being able to work so closely with the animals' keepers and helping train behaviors for these animals so that we can ideally integrate medical behaviors into these animals' daily routine.

- Well, thank you so much for your time today, Dr. Kayla.

We had an awesome time speaking with you.

- No problem.

Thank you.

- Even with all of the hard work from our vets, sometimes our animals can still get sick or injured, just like you might catch a cold or break a bone.

So that's where us zookeepers come in.

We spend a lot of time with our animals to make sure we know what is and isn't normal for them.

Sometimes animals hide when they're feeling sick or when they're injured, because in the wild, it would make them look weak.

As zookeepers, we make sure to look not just at our animals, but at everything around them.

Have you ever felt nauseous, like maybe you were going to throw up?

Sometimes animals feel like that, too, and they decide they don't want to eat.

Since animals can't tell us this, we make sure they are eating the same amount of food by weighing it and checking for leftovers throughout the day.

Just to make sure that we don't miss anything, we look not only at what goes into the animal but also what comes out the other side.

Everybody poops, including our animals at the zoo.

You might think it's a little yucky, but we look at it every day to make sure it looks healthy and normal.

Stinky or not, it's a big part of keeping our animals healthy.

What's your favorite food?

Is it a vegetable or something sweeter?

Do you finish your meal or do you go straight for dessert?

I love a good cookie every now and then, but I also understand the importance of choosing the healthier option.

Just like you and me, animals have favorite foods, and while they often enjoy their sweet treats, us zookeepers have to make sure that they eat things that will keep them healthy Toboca here loves to eat bugs and he would eat them all day if he could, but bugs don't have all the good vitamins and minerals he needs to stay healthy.

So we also make sure that he gets plenty of veggies and fruit as well as a special kibble to make it up.

Because he loves bugs so much, we can also use them to train him.

When we train animals, we give them choice and control.

This means that we ask them to do something and if they do it, they get something they like.

If they don't want to do it though, nothing happens.

By giving animals things they like, they are more likely to do what we ask.

That way, they get what they want and so do we.

Besides getting the right kinds of foods, we also make sure our animals don't eat too much or too little.

If an animal isn't eating enough, they can't grow bigger or keep their body in a healthy condition.

At the zoo, we do everything we can to encourage our pickier eaters to eat enough to stay healthy.

Some animals though, have the opposite problem and want to eat too much food.

Have you ever had too much food before and gotten a stomachache?

This happens to animals, too, and when they do it every day, it can cause them to be sick later in life, too.

That's why at the Memphis Zoo, we have to make sure to give our animals just enough food that they are no longer hungry, but also not making themselves sick.

Do you like to play outside?

Are you involved in a sport?

Do you ever just run around to get out some extra energy?

All of these are forms of exercise.

Exercising our bodies keeps our hearts and brains healthy but what about animals?

Have you ever seen a cat in a gym?

Probably not, but that's because animals exercise in ways we might not think about.

Some animals spend a lot of time moving from one place to another.

Bears, caribou, and lots of other animals have to travel on the ground from place to place in search of food.

Birds, on the other hand, spend a lot of time flying in the sky to find a warm place to sleep or a tasty snack.

Flight takes a lot of energy and is one way animals exercise that we don't.

Another animal you might not think about that exercises is a snake.

Snakes can't lift weights at the gym, mostly because they don't have arms, so they use their whole bodies to move around and climb.

Snakes have around 15,000 muscles in their body, while humans only have about half that many.

So they have to make sure they use all of them every day to stay fit.

Snakes aren't the only animals that climb, though.

Sloths, monkeys and even prehensile-tailed porcupines spend almost their whole lives up in the trees.

Have you ever swung around on monkey bars or climbed in a tree?

It takes a lot of energy.

So animals that stay up in trees have to stay in shape to survive.

Can you think of any other ways animals might exercise?

Are those ways different or similar to us?

Here at the zoo, we sometimes have to help our animals get the exercise that they need.

This might mean giving them a fun toy to play with or putting their food in a special puzzle so they have to use the muscles they would be using in the wild.

Another way to help animals get their exercise is to take them out on a walk.

Frankie, the African Crested Porcupine here loves to get some exercise.

In the wild, out on the savannah, he would be awake at night, running around from place to place trying to find some food.

So here at the zoo, we try to give him the exact same opportunity by running around with him in his enclosure or taking him out on a walk around the zoo.

It's a workout for him, and it's also a workout for us.

[sighs] I am so glad to be sitting down again.

Since we're here, let's talk about what we learned.

We discovered how animals at the Memphis Zoo stay healthy all year round.

Can you think of some of those ways?

First, we make sure that our animals get regular checkups with their animal doctor or veterinarian.

We even got to meet one here at the zoo.

What was your favorite part about talking with them?

We also talked about what we do when an animal gets sick or hurt and remember, everybody poops.

And what goes in is just as important as what comes out, so we also talked about animal diets.

Can you remember Toboca the tenrec's favorite food?

He loves bugs, but in order to stay healthy, we also have to make sure he eats other things and eats just the right amount of all his food.

Besides food, exercise is also of the utmost importance for animal health.

What ways do animals exercise that might be different from us?

They can fly, swim, climb, and slither.

And Frankie showed us that at the Memphis Zoo, we get creative with the ways we help our animals keep in shape.

Animals are a lot like us in the ways that they need to stay healthy and we can actually learn a lot from them and how they stay healthy to keep healthy ourselves.

What choices are you gonna make today?

Are you gonna choose to eat something healthy?

Are you gonna get active?

I know that I personally need to eat some more veggies so I'm gonna head out and go grab a snack, but thank you guys so, so much for joining us here today at the Memphis Zoo.

We hope to see you again soon.

Bye, friends!

- [Narrator] Funding for this program was provided by the JPB Foundation.

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