- [Announcer] Ready to learn.

- Hi.

- Hi - [Announcer] It's time to share a story, - Shh.

- [Announcer] Read and write.

- Let's read it back.

- [Announcer] Discover science, sing.

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

- Cupcakes.

- Very good.

- [Announcer] Stay tuned for lessons and activities.

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

- Mm-hmm.

[upbeat music] - [Announcer] Funding for this program was provided by The JPB Foundation.

[upbeat music] - Hi, my name is Kit and I'm a teaching artist with New York City Children's Theater and I'm here today to share with you this book, "Bag in the Wind" by Ted Kooser and illustrated by Barry Root.

This book is about a plastic bag that blows away from a landfill and the different people who find it, including this little girl, Margaret.

So let's read it and find out what happens.

"Bag in the Wind."

One cold windy morning in early spring, a bulldozer was pushing a big pile of garbage around a landfill when it uncovered an empty plastic bag.

The woman driving the bulldozer didn't notice the bag and drove on.

It was a bag for carrying groceries, just the color of the skin of a yellow onion and it had two holes for handles.

It was a perfectly good bag, but someone had thrown it away.

All through the day, the wind tugged at the bag and shifted it around and then there came a big gust and the bag filled with air and began to somersault across the landfill, leaping over empty cans and bottles and plastic drink cups and fast food hamburger boxes.

It rolled and flapped all the way to a chain link fence at one side of the landfill where it got pressed up against the wire with a lot of other trash, newspapers, candy wrappers and styrofoam cups.

There was a shack by the gate and in the morning a man in a cap with ear flaps came to sit in the window with a clipboard.

The garbage trucks came and went roaring and groaning under their loads.

When they arrived at the gate, the drivers pulled the trucks up over a big scale that had been set into the road.

When the man in the shack had written down the weight, he waved them on and they rolled ahead into the landfill.

After they had dumped their loads, they came back across the scale and were weighed again and the difference in the two weights with the number of pounds of garbage they had brought to the landfill.

The more pounds they brought, the more money the drivers had to pay the man in the window.

Soon it got dark and the stars came out and clouds like enormous black leaf bags raced across the moon.

A puff of cold wind got in under the grocery bag and lifted it high in the air and the bat got caught on a branch and hung there the rest of the night, flapping and slapping in the wind.

In the morning, it was a little warmer, but still very windy.

A red-winged blackbird perched a few feet away, bobbing in the top of a little Willow tree.

The bird got a hold of the bag with its beak and gave it a sharp tug and the bag pulled free and blew away.

What will happen next?

The bag rolled for a long way along the side of a country road and then got caught in a barbed wire fence at the edge of a muddy field.

After a while, a girl came walking along all bundled up against the cold.

Her coat pockets were full of crushed aluminum cans.

Do you recognize her?

That's Margaret.

"Good," she said, "There's a bag I can use for these cans."

She unhooked the bag from the fence and emptied her pockets into it.

Then she went on down the road, whistling a little too, carrying the bag full of cans and picking up more cans as she found them.

A couple of miles further down the road, there was a funny little gas station.

It had a flagpole with the American flag flapping in the wind.

There were two gas pumps in front and an old washing machine with a ringer for ringing out rags around the side.

A woman in a long coat and a headscarf came out the door.

"Got some cans to cash in I see," the woman said with a smile.

"Yes that's right," said the girl holding the bag.

The old woman took the bag from the girl and led her into the building where she set the bag on a scale.

"I can give you 18 cents a pound today, Margaret," she said.

"And you've got two pounds here, that makes 36 cents."

"Thank you," the girl said.

"What are you going to do with the money?"

Asked the old woman.

"I'm saving up for something special," said Margaret.

I wonder what it is.

"Well, you just keep picking up those cans," said the woman.

"The road sure looks a lot nicer all picked up like that."

I bet it does.

When the girl had gone, the old woman put the cans in a barrel, then she wedged the grocery bag under the door to stop some of the wind from getting in.

Then she sat down on a chair beside the window, so she could see if someone pulled off the road for gas.

After a while, a man and a pickup pulled in to fill up with gas.

The back of his truck was full of plastic bags, stuffed with leaves.

When the old woman went out the door to pump the gas, she didn't notice that the grocery bag came loose from under the door and blew a few feet along the front of the building.

"What are you gonna do with all those leaves?"

The old woman asked.

"I'm gonna dump them at the landfill," the man answered, getting out of the truck.

"You'll have to pay the man at the gate you know," the old woman said.

"He charges $5 for a pickup load.

"Why don't you just set the bags along the north side "of the station here, you'll see some other ones there.

"They keep the drafts out until spring "and then I use the leaves for mulch and compost for my garden."

"Why, sure, I'm glad to save the money," the man smiled and he began to carry the bags around the building.

I just love how that woman is reusing those leaves and those bags for another purpose, instead of throwing them away.

Just then, a gust of wind came down the road, carrying chewing gum wrappers and pieces of cornstalk and it snatched up the grocery bag and carried it away.

There was nothing to catch the bag this time and it blew and rolled and flapped along for several miles.

It was beginning to get dark again and the wind was sharp and cold.

A tall man with long hair and a beard came limping along the side of the road using a metal crutch.

The bag came rolling along the shoulder toward him and he caught it with the tip of his crutch.

He leaned down and picked it up and wadded it into his pocket with a lot of other things.

After a while, the man came to a stream that went through a big concrete culvert under the road."

The culvert is this, it's a pipe that water goes through, a big pipe.

And he got up and collected twigs and sticks and built a campfire.

The smoke from the fire made him cough and he pulled the grocery bag out of his coat pocket while he dug around for a cough drop.

He left the bag on the ground and slowly it came unwadded.

Inch-by-inch, the grocery bag rolled toward the ripping of water, flowing into the culvert and soon the water had carried it away.

There was just enough air in the bag to keep it floating and the bag rode along on the surface of the stream through the dark culvert and out into the night on the other side of the road.

Above it stars twinkled cold and distant.

The moon was rising, wind hurried the bag downstream on the shiny black water and soon the stream widened, fed by trickles from ditches and foamy water from big pipes that came out of the banks.

The bag blew across the surface of the river and up alongside a dock.

A woman was camped there and she was just rolling up her sleeping bag to put it away in her grocery cart.

She saw the bag at the edge of the water and picked it up and shook the water from it, then she stuffed it in the front of her outside coat.

The woman pushed the cart down the street, a few blocks to a corner where a woman was serving the people on the street donuts and coffee from the back of a station wagon.

"Good morning," the woman said.

"Would you like some donuts and coffee?"

The woman nodded and snatched a donut from a box and as she did, the grocery bag fell out of her coat.

She didn't notice it.

A man on a cowboy hat ran after it and caught it and stuffed it inside his leather jacket.

Let's see what he does with it.

The man had a three-wheel bicycle, with a big basket on the back piled high with plastic bags.

He put the grocery bag in with the others.

The man got on his bike and peddled a couple of blocks down the street to a secondhand store.

A thin woman in a cardigan sweater was sweeping the sidewalk in front of the store.

"I've got some bags for you," the man said.

"I can see that," she answered.

"Looks like quite a few," she leaned on her broom.

"More than I could ever count," the man said.

"Can you give me $2 for them?"

The woman squinched up her face.

"No, but maybe a dollar though.

"I just bought a big pile from you last week "and I still have some left."

The man took the dollar and the woman carried the bags into the store.

Just then, a girl walked in.

It was Margaret.

Let's see what she wants.

"Do you have any baseball gloves?"

She asked the woman.

"Right over there," the woman answered, pointing to a crate full of baseball gloves and catchers masks and balls and bats.

Margaret looked through the crate and found just exactly the glove she'd been saving her money to buy.

She tried it on it and it fit perfectly.

Margaret gave the woman the money and the woman rang up the sale.

Then she said, "Let's put them them in a bag for you."

It was the very same grocery bag that Margaret had used to collect cans in, but Margaret didn't recognize it because it looked just like every other grocery bag in the world.

The color of the skin of a yellow onion, with two holes for handles.

I love that this book talks about how bags and other things can be reused instead of being thrown away and now I have a song to share with you about bringing a reusable bag with you to a store.

I'm going to sing it once and then I'm going to ask you to help me out.

You ready?

Here we go.

[piano music] ♪ My bag is pretty awesome ♪ ♪ My bag is pretty great ♪ ♪ I don't intend to brag ♪ ♪ But when I go to the store and I buy a banana ♪ ♪ I put the banana in my bag ♪ Okay, now I need you to help me.

I want you to think about what somebody might buy at a store like a toy or a book, something you could put in the bag.

You got it?

Okay, great.

Now, I'm going to sing the song again, and when I go like this, I want you to fill in your word.

I'll be doing it twice during the song.

Here we go.

[piano music] ♪ My bag is pretty awesome ♪ ♪ My bag is pretty great ♪ ♪ I don't intend to brag ♪ ♪ But when I go to the store and I buy a ♪ ♪ I put the, in my bag ♪ ♪ A bag has many uses and reusing, it reduces ♪ ♪ It's impact on the Earth ♪ ♪ So think about when, you could use it again ♪ ♪ A single bag has a lot of worth ♪ [piano music] Thank you for reading and singing with me today.

Bye-bye.

- Hi friends, my name is Carlton and one thing I love, love, love to do is sing.

Are you ready to sing along with me today?

Today we'll be singing, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm."

Are you ready?

♪ Old MacDonald had a farm ♪ ♪ Ee I, ee I, o ♪ ♪ And on this farm he had a dog ♪ Ruff, Ruff.

♪ Ee I, ee I, o ♪ ♪ With a ruff ruff there and a ruff ruff here ♪ ♪ There ruff, here ruff, everywhere ruff, ruff ♪ ♪ Old MacDonald had a farm ♪ ♪ Ee I, ee I, o ♪ ♪ And on this farm he had a cow, ♪ Moo!

Moo!

♪ Ee I, ee I, o ♪ ♪ With a moo, moo here and a moo, moo there ♪ ♪ Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo, moo ♪ ♪ Old MacDonald had a farm ♪ ♪ Ee I, ee I, o ♪ ♪ And on this farm he had a pig ♪ Oink, oink, oink, oink!

♪ Ee I, ee I, o ♪ ♪ With an oink, oink there ♪ ♪ And an oink, oink here ♪ ♪ There a oink, here a oink ♪ ♪ Everywhere a oink, oink ♪ ♪ Old MacDonald had a farm ♪ ♪ Ee I, ee I, o ♪ Good job friends.

See you next time.

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

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

Today, we will blend words and read words, all with the specific focus on a new sound.

The 'O' sound.

Isn't this exciting?

I know, I can't wait.

Well, let's get started.

I wanna start off with a little sound drill first.

To warm up, let's practice substituting different vowels in words.

So, for example, I'll say a word, I'll identify that vowel and then I'll tell you what vowel to change it to.

Here, listen to me first.

So for example, if my word was the word nut, okay?

I wanna change the 'U' sound in nut to the 'O' sound.

So instead of N-U-T, I wanna hear N-O-T. Oh, not.

So the new word I made is not.

Do you hear now the 'O' sound in not?

Give me a thumbs up.

You do, awesome.

Do you hear how we change the 'U' in nut, to 'O' in not?

Let me see.

Some of you're saying yes.

Oh, I see some in the middle.

Okay, well, I promise by the end of this drill, you'll all understand how to change those vowel sounds.

All right, let's try another one.

I want you to change the 'O' in hope, so everyone say hope.

Good, I want you to change that 'O' sound to the 'A' sound.

What would your new word be?

So, 'H', 'O', 'PE' is changing to 'H', 'A', 'PE'.

Hape.

So hope became hape.

All right, pretty good.

How about this one?

Say the word sock.

Okay, now I want you to change the 'O' to 'U'.

What's the new word?

Good, you're getting it, 'S', 'U', 'CK'.

Suck, okay, how about this word?

Say the word clack.

Good, I want you to change the 'A' in cluck to 'O', what's your new word?

Good, the word is now clock.

Okay, let's do one more.

Say the word cat.

Okay, now change the 'A' in cat to 'O', what's your new word?

Good, the word is cot.

Awesome job.

Okay, so now let's do the same activity, but using our new focus sound for the day.

Okay, so remember our sound that we're going to be really focusing on today is the 'or' sound.

Everyone say 'or'.

Yeah, notice how your mouth feels when you say 'or', good.

All right, so now I'm gonna give you a word and we're gonna change out that vowel with the 'or' sound.

So listen to me first.

If I said the word sat.

Well, I'm gonna change the 'A' in sat to 'or', so 'S', 'A', 'T' is gonna become 'S', 'or', 'T', sort, do you hear that 'or' sound now?

You do?

Great, all right, let's try a couple of these.

Say the word tan.

Okay, I want you to change the 'A' in tan to 'or', what's the new word?

Okay, the word is torn.

Don't forget that ending 'N' sound, okay?

How about this word?

Say feet.

Now, I want you to change that 'E' to 'or'.

What's your new word?

Good, fort.

All right, how about this word, say the word she, okay?

Now change the 'E' and she to 'or', what's your new word?

Awesome sauce, the word is shore.

Yeah, like when you go to like the beach, like the shore, shh!

Okay, how about this one?

Say the word snow.

Okay, let's change the 'O' in snow to 'or', what's the new word?

Yep, the word is snore.

Oh, no time to sleep now, we have more work to do.

Okay, how about this one?

Say the word cot.

Now change the 'O' in cot to 'or', what's the word?

Good, the word is cort.

All right, let's do one more.

Say the word bone.

Okay, now change the 'O' in bone to 'or'.

Excellent job, you didn't get rid of that ending sound.

So bone becomes born.

Okay, let's get into our sound of the day.

So if you remember in the beginning of our lesson I said we're going to be focusing on the 'or' sound.

Everyone say 'or'.

Great, so the picture that we're going to use to represent that 'or' sound is an organ.

Everyone say organ.

Great and you can see an organ is kind of like a type of piano.

Okay, so say organ, 'or'.

Good job, all right, now in the 'or' sound, you see that there's an 'O'.

Well, that 'O' isn't representing it's long sound like 'O' and it's not representing its short sound like 'A'.

The 'R' is actually controlling the sound that the 'O' mix.

So in school you might hear your teacher say "It's an 'R' controlled vowel or they might use the term bossy 'R' because the 'R' is kind of controlling the sound here.

So when we see our 'O' and 'R' together, it's going to represent the 'or' sound.

Say again 'or'.

Okay, now you can hear this 'or' sound at the beginning and the middle and at the end of a word.

So, say organ with me again, organ.

Beautiful, where do you hear the 'or' sound in organ?

Do you hear it in the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the word?

Yeah, you hear it in the beginning of the word organ, okay.

I'm actually going to write a word here for you.

This is the word short, everyone say short.

Feel how your mouth forms all this sounds, short, okay.

Now, where do you hear the 'or' sound in short?

That's right.

You hear in the middle of the word, not the beginning and not the ending.

You hear right in the middle and here we can see that 'or' sound right in the middle of the word.

Okay, now, pay close attention to this word that I'm going to write.

Okay.

Now this word is the word more, say more.

Now where do you hear the 'or' sound in more?

In the beginning, the middle or the ending?

More... Yeah, you hear that or sound at the end of a word, but now notice in this case we have this 'E' that's here, right?

Now, this final 'E' is silent, okay?

So, but it is part of the spelling and needed for this 'or' sound at the end of the word, okay?

So 'or' can be represented by O-R or O-R-E.

I think you're ready to do some blending with me.

You ready?

Give me a thumbs up.

I knew you'd be ready.

All right, let me move this out of the way and let me start off by writing a word that we're going to blend together, okay?

Let's try this word.

Okay, so I'm gonna split that for you.

Remember, I'm gonna keep my O-R together because we're focusing on the 'or' sound.

All right, you ready to blend through it?

Let's do it.

'C', 'or', 'N'.

'Cor', 'N', corn.

Good job.

Let's do one more.

Now remember, I'm gonna put the blend together for now, but each letter is going to represent its own sound, okay?

So start practicing that sound now, while I write the rest of this.

Are you ready?

I see you're ready.

All right, let's do it, ready?

'SP', 'or', 'T'.

'Spor', 'T', sport.

That was awesome.

All right, I know I said this is the last one, but could we do one more together?

Is that all right?

Okay, let's do one more cause this is so much fun.

How about blending this word?

So I wanted to make sure we got O-R-E practice in there too and notice we had this beautiful diagraph here.

What does that diagraph, what do those two letters represent?

Think of the sound, think of the sound.

Okay, so what did this diagraph represent?

Do you remember?

That's right.

S-H, shh.

Okay, let's blend together, ready?

'Sh', 'ore', shore, like the seashore.

Awesome, all right.

Now I'm gonna leave you on your own to do some more sound by sound blending.

Blend and read the following line.

Remember O-R represent the 'or' sound.

Good job, try this line, once again remember O-R-E, represents the 'ore' sound.

All right, give me a thumbs up if you're ready for some sentences.

Let's do it.

Read this first sentence.

The sentence says, my chore is to pick the corn.

Did you notice the 'or' sounds in the sentence?

Great, let's try one more sentence.

This sentence says, there is a storm in the north part of the city.

Awesome job.

Scholars, you did an impressive job today.

You did not find our work together a chore.

Well, you were able to blend and read words focusing on that 'or' sound represented by the letters, O-R and O-R-E. Keep practicing blending and reading with a trusted adult.

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

Bye.

[upbeat music] - Good morning students, can you tell that I love my plants?

I love small plants and medium plants and big plants.

I love edible plants and I love flowers.

There're so many kinds of flowers.

From the teeniest sprout to the biggest tree in the world.

I wonder how do plants know how to grow and how big do they get?

Let's investigate.

[phone ringing] Oh.

- Attention.

- Hello sir.

- I heard you're interested in learning more about really big trees.

- Who are you?

- General Sequoyah, at your service?

I'm calling to tell you, that I am 275 feet tall and 36 feet wide at my base.

- Wow, 275 feet tall and 36 feet wide, what are you?

- A giant Sequoyah tree.

The biggest tree on Earth.

I have been growing on this spot for over 2,000 years.

- Wow and I thought I was getting old.

You must have seen a lot in your time, but a tree that big, whew!

I wonder you've got to be taller than the school building and wider than the street outside.

Could that be right?

I gotta figure this out.

I'll call you right back.

[upbeat music] Each floor of my school is 14 feet tall.

Let's count the floors.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

There are five floors.

So, how tall is the whole building?

Well, there're a few ways to do that, right?

We can add 14, plus 14, plus 14, plus 14, plus 14 or we can multiply 14 by five.

Let's start by adding the floors together.

14 plus 14, four plus four is eight and one plus one is two, 28.

That's two floors.

Let's add another 14, 28 plus 14, eight plus four is 12, carry the one, one plus two is three, plus one is four, 42.

That's three floors now.

Two more to go.

42, plus 14, two plus four is six and four plus one is five, 56.

One more floor now.

56 plus 14, six plus four is 10, carry the one, one plus five is six, plus one is seven, 70, that means the whole building is 70 feet tall.

Now, there's another way to do this right, multiplication.

We have five floors that are all 14 feet tall.

Five groups of 14, let's multiply.

14 times five.

14 is a big number, right?

To make it easier, let's break this down and make it into 10 times five and four times five and then add our answers together.

10 times five, count by tens five times.

10, 20, 30, 40, 50.

Now let's do four times five.

Let's count by fives, four times.

5, 10, 15, 20.

So we have 50 and 20.

What do we get when we add those numbers together?

50 plus 20 is 70, the same result, my school is 70 feet tall.

Now, how tall did General Sequoyah say he is.

General Sequoyah said he is 275 feet tall.

How many more schools do we need to get to 275?

One school, is 70 feet.

Two schools, 70 plus 70, is 140.

Three schools, 140 plus 70, is 210.

Four schools, 210 plus 70, is 280.

Wow, General Sequoyah is so tall, you would have to stack three more schools on top of mine to reach the same height.

O-M-G, this guy is huge.

Can you imagine a tree that big?

[dramatic music] Now that is a big tree.

Tall means how far up something goes, but what about wide?

How wide did General Sequoyah say he was?

[bell chimes] That's right, 36 feet wide.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, this street is 36 feet wide.

Wow, that's the same length as the general.

Hey, there General?

- Back straight, shoulders back there Private.

- General Sequoyah sir, I just went outside to measure how big this building is and to see how wide the road is.

If you're as big as you really say you're, I've definitely never seen anything as big as you.

I wonder, can all trees grow that tall?

- Definitely not.

There are trillions of trees on earth, but only Sequoyah's which live in California, grow this tall.

- Wow, I have so many more questions.

How do you get that big?

What are you made of?

Do your leaves drop in the fall?

Are there any animals that live in your branches?

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on there.

Mr. Ritz, why don't just come see for yourself.

- That's a great idea.

I'll see you soon general.

Would you like to come explore the forest with me?

Maybe we can learn a thing or two about the environment that helped General Sequoyah get so big.

I'll grab my other hat, let's go.

Whoa!

Where are we?

What was that?

Oh, I think my magic hat made us a bit smaller this time.

This is the forest floor.

Wow, I never knew the forest floor was so alive.

Look at these fallen leaves.

Deciduous trees drop their leaves during autumn when it gets cold.

Have you seen trees lose their leaves?

I wonder, what happens to all those leaves?

And what are those bugs doing?

Leaves fall to the ground and a community of insects and other arthropods, mushrooms and bacteria eat them and turn them into fresh nutritious soil that helps trees and plants grow.

Thanks guys.

That's an excellent recycling program.

What else do you see?

[birds chirping] I observed seeds on the forest floor.

Seeds grow into new plants.

Did you know that for every human on Earth, there are 422 trees?

[Ritz inhaling] [Ritz exhaling] All those trees produce a lot of oxygen.

My friend Leslie Ladybug taught us that plants make oxygen and all animals need oxygen to breathe.

So let's say thanks to the trees and give them all a big hug.

Wow, these trees do so much.

They produce leaves, seeds and oxygen.

Trees are excellent producers.

One of my favorite things about trees is that trees live in communities called forest.

Did you know that there're communities that live in trees?

What can you think of that lives in trees?

[birds chirping] Birds, squirrels, monkeys and even other plants.

Let's take a look, up, up, up in the tree.

Whoa, this is pretty high up, but I feel pretty safe up here.

This tree's quite strong, very sturdy.

[tree clunking] - Hello, who's there?

- Oh, Sam, the squirrel, hi there.

I didn't mean to disturb you.

- Are you after my acorns, Mr. Ritz?

- Oh, no, no, no, my friends and I were just exploring how strong trees are.

- Oh, okay.

Well, this one is really strong.

That's why I built my nest up here.

- I wonder how do trees get so strong?

What are they made of?

- Oh Mr. Ritz, Mr. Ritz, I know this one.

Wood, trees are made of wood.

- Well Sam, wood is made from trees, but trees are made from something else.

Trees absorb water through their roots in the ground and they can absorb carbon dioxide through their leaves.

Carbon dioxide is a type of gas in the air.

Trees take in water and carbon dioxide and put them together to create building blocks to grow bigger and they always have some leftover oxygen.

- That's incredible.

I didn't know trees are made from water and air.

- That's right, all plants are.

- Huh, you learn something new every day.

Hey, did you know that there are more than 200,000 species of edible plants on earth?

- 200,000?

Wow!

I've read that we only eat about 30 of them.

I would like to investigate that a little bit more.

Maybe we'll visit a farm sometime soon.

- Hey Mr. Ritz, I have a little present just for you.

- For me Sam?

Is this?

- Inside every seed is a baby plant and given all the right conditions can grow into a big healthy plant.

This seed can grow into a new giant Sequoyah tree.

- It's so small.

- Take it home and plant.

Give it water and light, before long, it won't be small anymore.

Nurture it and give it time.

Maybe it will grow as big as this tree.

- Thank you Sam.

I should get this back to my classroom.

- Thanks for coming Mr. Ritz.

- See you soon Sam.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

[dramatic music] Welcome back to class students.

I had so much fun exploring the forest with you today.

Let's draw our friend, the Sequoyah tree.

For this directed drawing, you will simply need a piece of paper and something to draw with.

A pencil crayon or marker.

You might like to use pencil so you can erase, but I'm going to use a marker so you can see it better.

The first thing we will do is draw the ground because trees come up out of the ground.

So we will make a simple line and that line is the ground.

The next thing we'll do, is we'll draw a line up, up, up and wow, there is the trunk of the big Sequoyah tree.

We'll put a few lines in for texture and now we'll start working at the top.

We'll work our way around and start right here and make some corns of leaves.

They're like little clouds.

We'll do one this way, then we'll do on this way, then we'll keep adding and making lots of leaves around the outside.

Look at the layers.

I'll make another layer here and then another layer here.

We'll add in some bushy leaves here.

We'll make a big set of leaves that go all around the top and wow, look at that, we have a big leafy tree.

Now, if you have some crayons, we can color in and make it brown through the trunk of the tree, but we also learned that Sequoyah's have some red in the wood.

So we could add in a little bit of a light brown or a red to add all kinds of... Color because we know that Sequoyah's are redwood trees.

Look at that.

Now, on top, we'll start making the bottom, a darker green, all the way around the bottom [upbeat music] And go around here around the edges.

Oh, look at that.

I mean, you can take your time and color it very carefully and then of course, we'll go up to the top and start feeling it all in.

It's really starting to take on a life of its own and then, we could put some light green in the middle because not all the leaves are the same color and look at that, we've got some light green, some dark green, a lot of light green where the sun is hitting the tree.

That is one big beautiful Sequoyah tree.

I'll let you finish at home, but you can see how easy it is and if you want to add in some extra leaves here and another section here and maybe one more there, your tree can just keep growing and growing and we'll just darken it where it needs to be darker, then adding all different kinds of color and look, we have a beautiful Sequoyah tree.

Oh my, we learned so much about trees today.

We met General Sequoyah and learned that there are more than 200,000 species of edible plants on Earth.

We learned that we only eat 30 types of plants.

We learned that trees produce leaves, seeds and oxygen and we learned that all plants are made of carbon dioxide and water.

We learned that it's important to protect forest.

We owe trees are big thanks, so get outside and give a tree a big hug.

I'll see you next time.

[upbeat music] [singing in foreign language] [drum booming] [singing in foreign language] - Hi, my name is Amos from Ghana, West Africa.

I teach music at Third Street Music School.

The song that I was just singing is a welcome song.

This song is a song sing by the Ghana people and ba means come.

Ba means come.

[speaks in foreign language] Means fun or party or jubilate.

So it's like, come, come and have fun or come and party.

Okay, so ba means come.

[speaks in foreign language] means party, party or fun... Fun and today I will be teaching you a song called.

[speaks in foreign language] I would love you to repeat after me, please say, [speaks in foreign language] Is a tribe in Northern part of Ghana and they perform this song that I'm about to teach you today.

We have a song that we will sing.

Then we have a call, then we have a break.

Then the basic rhythm.

Today, we will have fun.

So I would love to sing the song that we'll be singing, then after I will tell you the meaning then you sing with me.

I will teach you then you sing with me.

♪ Fire, fire, eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire eh ♪ ♪ Fire, fire, eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire eh ♪ ♪ Fire, fire eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire eh ♪ ♪ Fire, fire eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] [speaks in foreign language] What does oja means?

Oja means fire, but it's not a fire that you're thinking about.

No!

The energy, people believe that the energy that is inside us is fire, so it's like let's drum or let's dance with energy.

Let's go, let's fire.

That is what they mean, okay?

Those who compose the song.

So please repeat after me.

[speaks in foreign language] Mm hmm, you are doing good, one more time.

[speaks in foreign language] Please say fire.

Fire.

Again.

Fire.

One more time, fire.

Wow, so let's try this.

We are about to combine these two words together.

[speaks in foreign language] Fire, so please sing after me.

♪ Fire, fire, eh ♪ ♪ Fire, fire, eh ♪ Good, let's try the second part.

[singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire eh ♪ Now let's combined all together, so after counting of four, we all go, ♪ Fire, fire, eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire, eh ♪ One time, okay, lets try.

One, two, three, four.

♪ Fire, fire, eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire, eh ♪ Now let's repeat it two times after counting of three, we all go.

One, two, three, we sing.

♪ Fire, fire, eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] Again.

♪ Fire, fire eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire, eh ♪ If you're enjoying it, you can sing on your own after, okay?

Now, I'm about to teach you a call, a signal that we use to start this rhythm.

Please sing after me.

♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ ♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ Now repeat after me.

On your lap, on your table, on your drum.

After me.

♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ ♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ Again, after me.

♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ ♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ So that is the call.

Now we're about to learn the break and the break, the first beat will be two bass, second beat two bass, then the third bass will be four.

So this is the break.

One two, piripi.

One two, piripi.

One, two, three, four.

So I want you to sing after me.

♪ Boom, boom, piripi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, piripi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, piripi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, piripi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ Now, we're about to start with a call.

♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pitipi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pitipi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ Let's try together after counting of three.

One, two, three, we go.

♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pitipi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pitipi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ So this is call and break.

Now we are about to work on the basic rhythm and the basic rhythm is this.

Please repeat after me.

♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ Again.

♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ Good job.

Now, we're about to combine all together.

I know you can do it, right?

Yes, so after counting of four, we play the call.

♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ Then break.

♪ Boom, boom, pitipi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pitipi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ Then the basic rhythm.

♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ Then you keep going, okay?

You keep playing the basic rhythm.

So let's try after counting of three.

We all go.

One, two three, we call ♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa ♪ Break.

♪ Boom, boom, pitipi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pitipi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ Then the basic rhythm, let's go.

♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ After counting of four, you stop.

[drum booming] One, two, three, four, stop.

Good job.

This time you will be keeping the basic rhythm going and I will play different rhythm to support you, okay?

So after counting of four, I want you to stop playing the basic rhythm, then I will play different song to support you then along the loud give you counting of four, then we end with a break, so ready?

Let's go.

One, two, three, drum.

♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom ,pe pe pele ♪ Keep going, do not stop.

I'll play different beat to support you and I'll sing while you're playing.

♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ You're doing very good job, keep going.

[drum booming] ♪ Pe pe pele ♪ ♪ Boom, boom ♪ We're about to end with the break after counting of four.

One.

Two.

One, two, three, four, ♪ Boom, boom, piripi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, piripi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ Wow, wow!

Clap for yourself.

You did very, very, very, good job.

You did very good job.

Thank you.

Now let's try this.

Let's try this.

Let's try one more last time, okay?

One more last time and when you're playing I will sing and drum at the same time.

So after counting of four, keep the basic rhythm going.

♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ One and two.

One, two, three, drum.

♪ Boom, boom, pe pe pele ♪ Keep going, do not stop.

I will sing and drum.

[drum booming] ♪ Fire, fire, eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire eh ♪ ♪ Fire, fire eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire eh ♪ Now let's speed up a little bit.

♪ Fire, fire eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire eh ♪ ♪ Fire, fire eh ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ Fire eh ♪ We're about to play.

[drum booming] One.

Two.

One, two, three, break.

♪ Boom, boom, piripi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, piripi ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ Wow!

Very, very, very good job.

Well done, you did very good job.

So today we have learned a song from Ghana, West Africa.

We have learn how to sing the song and also a call, break and the basic rhythm.

Now we are about to wrap up and I'm about to sing a song where that song that we sing in Ghana and it's called Ayiko.

Ayiko means weather.

So join me, let's wrap up together.

[singing in foreign language] Everyone, let's go.

[singing in foreign language] [drum booming] Stop!

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for coming and for drumming with me.

Bye-bye.

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

[upbeat music] [dramatic music]