[upbeat music] - [Narrator] Ready to learn?

- Hi.

- Hi.

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

- Let's read it back.

- [Narrator] Discover science, sing.

♪ Somewhere ♪ - [Narrator] Play and so much more.

- Cupcake.

- Very good.

Stay tuned for lessons and activities.

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

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

- Hi, my name is Luz Maria Mack, and I'll be reading, [Luz speaking in Spanish] "Little Maria Discovers Her Dance."

[Luz speaking in Spanish] Classes begin.

Maria can hardly wait to see her friends again.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] The new teacher is loving and creative.

She announces the project with great enthusiasm.

The world of dance.

Maria loves to dance.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] The teacher encourages them to study some styles of dances.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] You could present your dance as a pair with someone from the class, also with a family member.

What is learned as a family is never forgotten.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] I will give more points to those who use their instruments to compliment their chosen dance.

Also, we will dedicate a class to dance and to play the instruments.

What a fun project!

[Luz speaking in Spanish] The next day, Maria comes to class, excited to plan the project with her friends.

When she enters, everyone is working on the project.

Curious, she walks up to them.

You see Maria?

She's right there.

She's trying to see what everyone's doing.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] She asked, "Where is Esteban, Daniel, Lucas, Paula and Julia?

And what dance are they rehearsing?"

Paula says, "Let's dance Bomba."

[Luz speaking in Spanish] Because of Paula's excitement, it sounds fun to Maria, but she says she doesn't know how to dance it.

"We're gonna teach you," the children say, "All you have to do is move your feet and hips to the beat of the drums, and as you do, you shout, Bomba!"

[Luz speaking in Spanish] Maria loves this type of music, but is not sure if this is the one she wants to dance.

Hmm!

What dance does she want to dance?

Let's see.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] Maria walks up to Miguel and Anna, who are practicing with another group.

While they dance, Maria tries to imitate them, but stumbles and falls.

"We will teach you how to dance the Ch-cha-cha."

Miguel and Anna dance and Maria claps happily.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] Maria finds the Cha-cha-cha very confusing, and this is definitely not the dance she wants to dance.

Oh no!

You see, she fell.

And she felt like this wasn't the dance for her.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] While Maria thinks, she sees Mateo's group dancing in a circle.

The girls wear very wide skirts and the boys, a suit and a large hat.

She likes the outfit and the colors.

They invite her to participate.

Jamito explains, "This dance is called El Jarabe Tapatio, and also commonly known as the Jalisco dance.

It is very popular and we like it a lot."

Look at these beautiful colors.

Beautiful.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] The girls approach her and insist, "Come dance Joropo with us."

"No," says Maria, but she stares at their turns and stomping as the children dance around them.

Maria is still not sure if this is the dance she wants.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] Maria realizes that she has learned a lot, but thinks she needs the help of her family to decide.

Alas, what dance is she going to choose?

[Luz speaking in Spanish] Upon arriving home, worried, Maria talks to her mother.

Mom listens very attentively while she explains each of the dance styles she has learned.

She realizes that there still one dance missing.

The Merengue.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] As soon as she pronounces the word Merengue, a party starts in-home.

Maria's siblings bring the radio and listen to a well-known station.

Everyone begins to sing and dance on the porch.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] Maria's father plays the tambora, the younger brother, the guira, and she is motivated to play the maracas.

Maria discovers her dance.

Look at this.

Isn't this fun?

[Luz speaking in Spanish] The mother shows her dress with the colors of her flag.

Red, blue, and white.

While she shows her, she moves her body.

"It's the same dress that I wore as a child.

It is your size."

Maria says thanks to her family, she has found the dance, the dress, and the instruments for her project.

Maria invites them to the dance project at school.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] The day is finally here.

The kids smile happily and form into groups.

The teacher announces the start of the activity.

Maria and her family form a group.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] The teacher asks everyone to say the name of their dance aloud.

She points to each group and hears, "Bomba," "Cha-cha-cha," "El Jarabe Tapatio," "Joropo," "Merengue."

"Perfect.

You chose different styles of dances.

Let's see the instruments that accompany the music of each dance."

[Luz speaking in Spanish] The teacher plays a note with each instrument.

The groups look at each other to see if they share the conga, maracas, clava, and drums with each other.

"Very good.

We almost always use the same instruments for different kinds of music.

When we dance, we listen to the tones and the melodies that these produce.

The most beautiful thing is to share music with others."

[Luz speaking in Spanish] And so the presentation begins in class with great enthusiasm.

Maria's happy to see that all of her friends have prepared so well for the dance performance.

Everyone did an excellent job, and Maria enjoys each of the dances.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] When it's Maria's turn, she listens to the first notes of the merengue, touches her skirt, and goes out to dance very excited.

Her siblings follow and celebrate.

[Luz speaking in Spanish] At the end of the presentation, the groups gather in the center of the room.

They hug, laugh, and clap.

Does teacher congratulate them on a job well done and says, "Let's all dance.

Let's do a dance fusion.

It will be very fun."

[Luz speaking in Spanish] And everyone enjoyed an unforgettable day.

Thank you so much.

- My name's Mylo Freeman, and I'm the author and illustrator of the "Zaza" series.

And today I'm going to read to you, "Sweet Dreams, Zaza."

It is bedtime.

Zaza is almost ready to go to sleep.

But first, she wants to wish all her animal friends good night.

Zaza puts George Giraffe to bed.

George is so tall, he needs two beds.

Zaza pets him on the head.

"Good night, George."

And how Bobby is next.

Zaza gives her a little tickle on the tummy.

"Sleep well, Bobby."

Zaza holds Mo and sings a lullaby for him.

♪ Rock-a-bye Mo-ey in the treetop ♪ Oh, Mo begins to fall asleep.

Pinky gets a very soft cuddle from Zaza.

"Sweet dreams," Zaza whispers.

Now only Rosie is still awake.

Zaza loves all of her animal friends, but Rosie is her favorite.

Zaza gives Rosie the sweetest kiss of all.

And then it's time for Zaza to sleep too.

Just like that.

No, first mommy pats Zaza on the head, and then she gives her a little tickle on the tummy, and then sings a lullaby.

Then Zaza gets a very soft cuddle and this sweetest kiss of all.

Now Zaza can go to sleep.

Sweet dreams, Zaza.

- Hi, movers and shakers.

This is Violet, and this is my sister, Ivy.

- Hi!

Today, we're going to sing a song with you called "My Aunt Came Back."

It has a pattern in it, and I wonder if you can hear it by the end.

So this is a call and response song.

That means I'm going to sing the words and you're going to repeat after me and Ivy is going to sing that part with you.

But there are also movements that go with each verse.

So look at us and you can do the movements along with us.

And you can do that sitting up, standing up, sitting on the floor, however you want to.

All right, so we're going to sing the song.

Are you ready?

- Mm hmm.

- Okay.

♪ My aunt came back ♪ ♪ My aunt came back ♪ ♪ From Kalamazoo ♪ ♪ From Kalamazoo ♪ ♪ And she brought with her ♪ ♪ And she brought with her ♪ ♪ A wooden shoe ♪ ♪ A wooden shoe ♪ [feet stomping] ♪ My aunt came back ♪ ♪ My aunt came back ♪ ♪ From the New York fair ♪ ♪ From the New York fair ♪ ♪ And she brought with her ♪ ♪ And she brought with her ♪ ♪ A rocking chair ♪ ♪ A rocking chair ♪ ♪ My aunt came back ♪ ♪ My aunt came back ♪ ♪ From the Jersey Shore ♪ ♪ From the Jersey Shore ♪ ♪ And she brought with her ♪ ♪ And she brought with her ♪ ♪ An apple core ♪ ♪ An apple core ♪ ♪ My aunt came back ♪ ♪ My aunt came back ♪ ♪ From Timbuktu ♪ ♪ From Timbuktu ♪ ♪ And she brought with her ♪ ♪ And she brought with her ♪ ♪ Some friends like you!

♪ ♪ Some friends like you!

♪ - Thanks everyone!

- Thank you!

- Hello scholars!

Welcome to a wonderful day of learning!

My name is Anna, and I am thrilled to be working with you today.

We are going to blend words and read words all with the specific focus on the long I sound.

And the long I sound is I.

Doesn't it sound interesting?

All right, let's get started.

First thing I want to do is get our ears and mouths right.

Let's do a nice little blending routine.

I'm going to say some sounds, and then you were going to blend them all together for me.

Let me do the first one for you.

So if I said these sounds, s-l-ai-d. Well, if I blend those sounds together, s-l-ai-d. Slide.

Ah!

I would say the word slide.

All right.

Do you want to try?

Of course you do.

Okay, listen to the sounds and see if you can blend them together to tell me the word.

S-w-ih-tch.

What's the word?

That's right, when you blend the sounds, s-w-ih-tch, you get the word switch.

Switch.

Okay.

How about this one?

S-w-ih-ng.

Nice job!

Yeah.

You would get swing.

Swing.

Hmm, did you notice how the beginning of those words, both switch and swing started with that s-w-ih sound?

But what was different?

That's right.

Those ending sounds were different.

Swing ended in that -ing sound, whereas switch ended in that -tch sound.

Huh!

All right.

Let's keep practicing.

This time though, when I say some of these words, I want you to pay close attention to the vowel sound that you hear.

All right.

Let's blend this first.

H-ai-v. What's the word?

That's right.

H-ai-v. Hive.

All right, what about this word?

H-ih-t. That was too easy for you.

That's right, the word is hit.

Now, when you heard the word hive and hit, what did you notice about those vowel sounds?

Well, if you said in hive, you hear the "ai" sound and in hit, you heard the "ih" sound, you're absolutely correct.

Give that brain of yours a kiss!

All right, let's do a couple more words.

What is this word?

L-ah-k.

Okay, so this word blends to be lock.

All right, what about this word?

L-oh-n. That's right, loan.

Loan.

All right, once again, what did you notice about the vowel sounds in lock and loan?

Yes!

In lock, we hear the "ah" sound, whereas in the word loan we hear "oh."

Hmm.

All right, let's do another one.

Blend these sounds.

N-ee-t. N-ee-t. Neat.

Great, all right.

How about these sounds?

N-eh-s-t. N-eh-s-t. Nest.

All right, you what I'm going to ask you.

What did you notice about the vowel sound you hear in neat versus nest?

That's right.

In neat we hear, say the sound again.

Right, "ee."

And then what's the sound we hear in nest?

"Eh."

Awesome.

All right, let's just blend a couple more just to practice our blending skills.

Ready?

Blend these sounds for me.

D-eh-s-k. That's right, desk.

You're getting super quick with this blending.

Two more.

- B-ah-g.

Awesome, bag.

All right, last one.

F-l-ah-g. Give yourselves a big old hug!

Flag.

Wonderful.

Okay, let's step up this routine a little bit.

What I'm going to do now is I'm going to say a word and I want you to figure out if the vowel sound in the word is the long sound or the short sound.

Well, since we're focusing on long I today, let's keep our sound to the sound that I makes.

So let's review that first.

The short sound of I is "ih".

Can you repeat that?

The short sound of I is "ih."

Excellent.

"Ih" as in igloo.

"Ih," "ih" igloo!

Perfect.

Now for that long I sound.

The long sound of I is "ai" Echo that after me.

The long sound of I is "ai."

"Ai" as in ice cream!

"ai," "ai," ice cream!

Perfect!

So I'm going to say a word.

If you hear the "ih" sound, you're going to say "ih" and then short I.

If you hear "ai" in the word, you're going to say "ai" and then long I.

Let me do one for you.

So for example, if I said the word fright.

Fr-ai-t, okay.

Fright, I hear the "ai" sound.

Well "ai" is long I!

So I would say fright, "ai," long I.

You think you can do this?

I know you can.

All right, let's do this.

Here is the first word.

The word is pry.

That's right.

Pry, "ai," long I!

All right, how about this word?

Trick.

Trick, "ih," short I.

All right, how about this word?

Tight.

Tight, "ai," long I.

All right, how about this word?

Kit.

Ooh, kit, "ih," short I.

All right, let's do two more.

Okay.

The first one.

Hint.

Good, hint, "ih," short I.

All right, last one.

You ready?

Pink.

You are awesome!

Pink, "ih," short I.

Let's do some more work with that long I sound.

Now remember, remind me please, what is the long sound of I again?

That's right, the long sound of I is "ai."

Well, there are many ways that you can represent that long I sound when you're reading and writing.

Today, we're going to focus on two specific spellings for that long I sound.

We're going to work on I-G-H "ai," and Y "ai."

Now with I-G-H, you'll see it either in the middle or at the end of a word.

With the Y, you will only see that "ai" sound at the end.

Okay?

So I-G-H, "ai," Y, "ai."

Okay.

Let's do a sound by sound blending, and I'm going to start with our I-G-H spelling.

And let's see if we can figure out what this word is.

So here is the word that we're trying to read together.

Let me split up my sounds.

Get them a little closer, and then I'll put them back together.

And now we are ready to read.

Are you ready to help me?

Okay.

Let's go through this.

Nnn, remember I-G-H says, "ai," "t" nai-t. Night!

The word is night!

All right, let's try this with our Y as in "ai" sound.

So take a look at this word.

And I love how some of you are already starting to blend it together to read the word.

Excellent!

Such superstars.

All right, here we go.

T-r-, and remembering the y is going to say "ai" here.

Great.

T-r-ai.

And the word is try!

Like, you always try your best with me, and I love that!

Okay, let's try some more sound by sound blending.

Let's blend and read the following words.

L-ai-t. Lai-t Light!

S-ai.

Sigh!

Notice how the I-G-H is both in the middle and the end of a word.

Let's keep going.

Now let's focus on where Y represents the "ai" sound.

M-ai, my.

Keep going.

Let's mix it up now!

You're ready for a sentence now.

If you said the plane will fly high in the sky, give that brain of yours a kiss!

Wonderful job!

Scholars, you did an incredible job today!

You were able to blend and read words all with a specific focus on that long I sound.

Now remember, long I can be spelled or represented by the letters I-G-H "ai" or Y "ai."

Keep practicing blending and reading words with a trusted adult.

And remember when you see these letter combos, it's going to represent that "ai" sound.

Well until next time scholars, be safe, keep learning, and have fun!

Bye!

[upbeat acoustic guitar music] - Hi everyone.

My name is Nora, and I'm going to show you how I like to be a scientist at home and how you can be one too.

But today, I am feeling a little frustrated.

You see, I decided that today I was going to make a painting.

I was going to use my artistic skills and I was going to make a painting, but I didn't have any paint.

So I was wondering what my painting might look like if I painted with water instead of with paint.

So I got my paper, and I got my easel, and I got a brush, and I got some water, and I made my painting, and it looked great, and then I went away and had lunch, but when I came back, my painting had disappeared.

The paper was still here and the easel was still here, but the painting that I did on the paper was completely gone.

I don't know what happened.

Let me show you what I did.

So I took my brush in my water just like this and then I made my painting and I made a big painting, and here I'm making heart on my paper.

[Nora hums] Okay, so I made my painting.

Now I feel a little bit better, because I can see my painting, right.

So, so it's okay.

This reminds me of all the other places that I see water.

Let's see how many I can name.

Well, I drink a lot of water.

So that's one place.

I also see water in my bathroom when I'm washing my hands.

I use water when I brush my teeth, and when I take a shower, I use water.

Hmm.

I also see water outside.

Sometimes I go to the ocean, and I see it at the beach, or I see it in a river or a pond or a lake.

Sometimes I even see water just right on my street.

When it rains, that's water in the sky coming down.

And I also see water that makes puddles after it rains in the street.

And, oh, I know.

I see lots of water when it's snowy in the winter time.

Did you know that snow is just really cold water?

Wow.

That makes me think, you know, all those puddles after it rains and all those big piles of snow after a snow storm, they don't stay there forever.

You know, they're there for a while after it rains or snows, but then after a while you don't see them anymore.

What do you think happened to them?

They disappeared too.

Just like my, hey, wait a second!

Do you see this?

My painting!

It's disappearing again.

Oh no!

I think we need to do some experiments to see where my I painting went.

Can you help me figure it out?

Okay.

For my first experiment, I need some water, a clear cup, I'm using an empty yogurt cup, but you can use any kind of clear cup that you have, some tape, and a marker.

So first, I'm going to pour some water into my cup so that it's about half full or so, as you can see, and then I'm going to use a piece of tape to mark where the water is.

So I'm going to take a piece of tape off my role here, and I'm going to tape it right here on the side of my cup.

And I'm going to draw a line right where the water is, comes up to in my cup.

Right there.

So you can see that I made a mark to show how full my cup is.

Okay, now I'm going to take my cup and leave it in a really sunny place for a while, maybe a couple of hours or so.

Then we'll come back.

Okay, So I've come back to my cup after leaving it in the sun for an hour.

And one thing I noticed is that the cup feels nice and warm from the sun.

Hmm.

Now let's look closely and see what we notice while we're looking closely too.

I notice that the level of my water has changed.

Earlier, it was up here.

Let's draw a line that shows where the water comes up to in my cup now.

I'm going to take my marker, and just like I did before, I'm going to draw my line right where the water comes up to in my cup on that tape, and let's compare two lines.

I noticed that before, the water was up here, and now the water's down here.

That means that some of the water has disappeared!

Just like the puddles outside and my painting from earlier.

There's a special word that scientists use to describe when water seems to disappear like this.

They call it evaporation, but I still don't know where the water went.

I just know that it happened when I put my cup in the sun.

Let's try another experiment.

For this experiment, I need two clear plastic cups.

Again, I'm using my empty yogurt cups, some hot water, make sure you get a grownup to help you with the hot water so that you're safe, and an ice cube.

I got one in this bowl right here.

And maybe a few pieces of tape.

So the first thing I'm going to do is carefully pour some of my hot water into one of my empty cups.

Remember, get a grownup to help you pour the hot water.

So pour the hot water in there.

And then I'm gonna flip the second cup over on top of my first cup.

And I'm going to use a couple pieces of tape just to make sure that it stays on there.

So it's nice and snug in place.

Finally, my last step is to take my ice cube and I got one and put it right on top.

Now I just need to wait just a little bit longer and see what happens.

Let's look closely and see what we notice is going on.

One thing I notice is that my bottom cup feels very warm.

The hot water inside is making it really warm.

The other thing I notice is that I feel up here at the top, it doesn't feel nearly as warm because it's got my ice cube on top.

That's making the top of the cup cold.

Hmm.

What else do we notice?

Let's see, I'm going to move it a little closer so we can look.

One other thing I notice is that it's getting kind of cloudy inside my top cup.

Hmm.

I wonder what's happening inside my cup.

Let's give it a minute and then see what happens.

So I waited a couple minutes, and I added even more ice to my top cup, and I noticed something.

If I look very closely right under my ice, in the very top of my top cup, I see, ooh, there's some water on top.

I see little tiny drops of water on the inside of my cup.

Hmm.

I notice those little drops of water came right out of the air.

First, it looked like clouds, and now there's water like rain.

Scientists call this condensation.

So the water from the puddles and the cups and the paintings and everything, when I leave it out in the air and the sunshine, and it starts to get warmer and warmer, it becomes water vapor in the air.

It goes up into the air and it becomes water vapor.

It's kind of like when water gets colder and turns into ice and snow, except this time the water's getting warmer, and it turns into water vapor, but water vapor is so teeny tiny that I can't see it.

So it looks like it disappeared.

But then when the water vapor in the air starts to get colder, it turns into water again.

It makes clouds and rain, and then the rain comes down, and it makes puddles on the ground, and then when the puddles get warmer, they turned back into water vapor.

And then when the water vapor gets colder, it turns back into clouds and rain, which makes puddles on the ground, which get warmer and turn into water, and wait a second!

This is repeating over and over and over again.

It's a pattern.

A pattern is something that repeats the same things in the same order, over and over and over again.

And scientists have a really special word for a pattern like this that goes in a circle.

It's called a cycle.

This is the water cycle.

Let's draw a picture of the water cycle, so we can remember all the different parts.

So let's start by drawing some water in a puddle.

Here's my water.

Or some water in a cup.

And here's my water.

Okay, and then we learned that as the water gets warmer, the water goes up into the air in really tiny water vapors.

So I'm gonna put some really tiny little dots to remind me of my water vapor.

I'm going to label it water vapor.

And do you remember what it's called when our water's getting warmer and it's disappearing into the air?

Yeah, that was called evaporation.

So I want to label this evaporation.

Oops.

Okay, and then what happens?

What happens as my water gets cooler?

As it gets cooler, what happens?

It becomes clouds, I can draw some clouds up in the sky, just like my cups got kind of cloudy.

And then it turns back into water.

It rains down, rains down, and turns back into water!

Do you remember the science word for what happens when that water vapor gets colder and turns back into water?

We call that condensation.

Condensation.

And that's our whole water cycle.

It just keeps going around in a circle, repeating again and again.

Wow!

We learned a lot today about the water cycle.

We learned how water evaporates when it gets warmer, and turns into a water vapor in the air.

And we learned how water vapor in the air condenses when it gets colder and turns back into water!

Good job being a scientist with me today!

Remember that you can be a scientist at home every day if you stopped to notice and wonder about the world around you.

I think I'm going to finish my water painting now.

I really like it.

It kind of feels like a secret message.

You can do some water painting at home too.

All you need is a piece of paper, some water, and a brush!

Try it out for yourself!

See you next time.

Bye!

[paper crinkles] - Hi!

I'm Barry, from the Dance Education laboratory of the 92nd street Y, and we're going to dance together today.

Now I've got a friend I want to introduce you to.

She's from a place that's far away from the United States.

I wonder if you can guess where she's from.

Well, no worries about that.

We'll meet her soon enough.

Why don't we get warmed up first before we start dancing?

let's just start with a walk just to see what kind of space we have that's safe to move in.

That's good.

Okay.

Maybe walking backwards too.

Look behind you so you don't bump.

Whoa, whoa.

Nice.

I can walk sideways, mm, forwards, and backwards.

Can you walk and turn?

Not so much so we get dizzy though, right?

One, two, I'm just gonna take a few steps on one turn, then I'll do another one this way.

Not too much.

All right, let's go for a jump.

Can you jump?

Boing, boing, boing.

Keep you jump side to side?

Mm.

Nice.

Can you jump and turn?

Can you jump forwards?

And backwards?

And sideways?

And the other way?

Great!

Let's gallop.

Oh boy.

I love galloping.

I can really cover a lot of ground.

Now, can you gallop backwards?

Oh boy.

That is tricky.

Okay.

One leg is in front, but it's all backwards.

Let's gallop sideways.

Some people would call that a side shuffle or even chasse is a dance where we sometimes use this kind of motion.

Yeah?

Can you gallop and turn?

Let me get some space so I'm ready.

It's kind of tricky.

Whoa!

Whoa!

Galloping and turning and go the other way!

Nice!

And hop on one leg.

You can keep your arms out if you need to balance.

Make sure you don't bump anything.

Ooh, I'm going to hop sideways, hop sideways the other way, backwards and forwards.

You can switch legs if you're tired, and hop and turn.

Not too much, because we don't want to get too dizzy and fall.

Not too much.

Just one turn.

Boom.

Great.

Let's skip.

Skipping is so much fun.

Yeah.

Skip around.

Skip backwards.

Okay, gotta step and hop.

Step and hop.

Always look behind you when you go backwards, so you don't bump.

Nice.

Ooh, skipping and turning.

That is so much fun, but only a few turns, and then I stop.

And then I go the other way, so I don't get too dizzy, and I stop.

And I skipped forwards, and backwards, ooh, and sideways.

I kind of like do a crossover when I goes sideways.

Maybe you can do it without crossing over.

So nice!

Wow, that was a great job!

You move forward to backwards and sideways and turning.

Well now I'd like to introduce you to Baigali, my friend from Inner Mongolia!

She's going to teach us a dance now!

- Hello friends.

My name is Baigali.

Baigali.

It means nature in Mongolian.

I'm from Inner Mongolia in China.

Do you know where is Mongolia?

Where it's Inner Mongolia?

In Mongolia, we have over 20 different tribes.

I am a Urad Mongolia.

Urad Mongolian.

We're living in grassland with different kind of animals, such as reindeer, horses, sheep, and the camel.

My memory of my childhood always has a huge blue sky, cotton candy like, wide glass, and endless green land.

We have a very special holiday called Nadam.

Nadam.

On that day, we are dressing very traditional clothes.

We're dancing, singing, wrestling, horse racing, camel riding, and reindeer riding.

We always wear our traditional clothes.

It's just the like this one, because they can resist wind and the cold.

We have a very special instrument called Morin Khuur.

This is morin khuur.

Morin khuur, it means horse instrument.

We use our left hand to hold on the instrument, then we use another hand to play it.

Just like this.

Yeah.

Do you know why we call this instrument morin khuur?

Because you can see the top of the morin khuur has that horse shape.

So that's why we call this instrument morin khuur.

We're going to learn Mongolian reindeer dance.

We're living with reindeer.

They're our best friends.

Do you have a best friend?

Do you have some animal best friends?

Dogs?

Cats?

Rabbits?

Yes, I have my best friend, it's reindeer.

Can you imagine how reindeer dances?

What kind of movement could they do?

Today, I will teach you how to do this movement.

First what you are going to learn, the basic hand gestures of reindeer dance.

We press the three and hold fingers with thumbs, just like this.

It's so cute, yeah?

Then we put our hands on top of our head.

So this gesture is reindeer's horn.

Wow!

So beautiful, yeah?

Then we'll press our wrist in and out, in and out, In and out, I will count.

One and two and three and four five, six, seven, eight.

And next we press our wrist side to side.

One and two, three, four five, six, seven, eight.

Can we combine two different movements?

Okay.

Five, six, seven, eight.

One and two and three and four five, six, seven, eight.

One and two and three and four, five, six, seven, eight.

Beautiful!

Next up, we're going to learn the basic steps of reindeer dance.

Parallel the feet and the knees, then we jumped to side to side.

One and two, three and four, five, six, seven, eight.

Now we use our right leg, go right direction, and our left to touch the right leg.

Yeah, then go another side.

Jump, jump, jump, jump.

I will count eight beats.

Five, six, seven, eight.

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

Perfect!

Can we combine the two different steps?

Five, six, seven, eight.

One and two, three and four, five, six seven, eight.

One and two, three and four, five, six, seven, eight!

Perfect!

Okay, so next, we will combine the hand gestures with steps!

Go!

Five, six, seven, eight.

One and two, three and four, five, six, seven, eight.

One and two, three and four, five, six, seven, eight.

Wow!

Perfect.

So can we combine our dance with music?

[festive traditional Mongolian music] Fantastic!

Okay, I wanted to ask you one more question!

Anyone of you can come up with your own ideas.

How reindeer dances.

You can use your own ways to create your own dance.

Just imagine you are a reindeer!

You can change directions, you can change space levels, like you can forward, backward, side to side.

You can [indistinct] You can spin.

Just make your own reindeer dance!

I believe you can do it!

- Wow, Baigali had a lot of ideas of how to make it your own.

Should we try that a second?

What if we did forwards and backwards, she talked about going forwards, backwards.

You can put your reindeer hand shapes up, right, and do it?

Yeah.

Or sideways.

Or turning.

Nice!

And what about this step?

Remember this step?

What if we went forward and backwards or turning?

Oh yeah like a reindeer turning around.

You could put those together your way, as long as we just keep our eight counts with Baigali, I think it'll be great.

Are you ready to make it your own?

Okay.

You got it?

We're going to do it again with Baigali and the music.

But now, you can make your reindeer dance your own, by putting some forwards and backwards and sideways and turning.

Okay, let's do it.

[festive traditional Mongolian music] Wow, that was great!

You made own Mongolian reindeer dance, you went forwards and backwards and sideways and turning.

Well, I hope you had fun learning the reindeer dance with Baigali!

Well, people in Inner Mongolia seem to make dances about things that are in their lives.

You can make a dance about anything in your life.

So take a look around, see what inspires you.

All right, thanks for dancing with us!

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

[orchestral music]