(cheery piano music begins)
♪ You are the best you the world will see ♪
♪ Come along now and share you with me ♪
♪ Let's learn something new and share feelings too ♪
♪ 'Cause these are the things to do to be the best you ♪
(cheerful piano music continues)
(magical chime)
- Hi Possum, and hello friends!
- Hi Auntie Lena, guess what?
- What, Possum?
- I made a new friend!
- Ooh, how exciting!
Are they a new student in your class?
- No, he goes to a different school.
His name is Mouse.
- Ah, how did you meet Mouse?
- Oh, we met at the library on Saturday.
Mouse was reading "A Squiggly Story," the same story
that we read with our friends,
and I went up to him and said,
"that's one of my favorite books!"
- And what did he say?
- Well, nothing at first.
I think I surprised him, but, well, then he laughed
when I told him my favorite part of the story.
- The part where the little boy
turns the letter V into a shark?
- Mmhmm! (laughs)
And Mouse said that was his favorite part, too.
Oh, and guess what else, Auntie Lena?
- Let's hear it, Possum!
- Mouse loves the color yellow,
and plays soccer just like me.
- You and Mouse have a lot in common.
- We do, but well, when I asked Mouse,
if he wanted to play soccer with me and Turtle,
he looked kind of nervous and said he wasn't sure yet.
- Hmm, well, did he tell you why?
- No, he, he said goodbye really fast, but, well,
his papa told Mama Possum that they'll be
at the library again next Saturday.
- Hmm, it sounds like Mouse is a little bit shy.
He reminds me of another boy from a story I read.
- Well, was he shy too?
- Yes, but eventually the boy learns
how to come out of his shell.
- Well, can we read it with our friends, Auntie Lena?
- Of course, Possum.
The story is called "Melo the Umang-Boy,"
by Alyssa Sarmiento-Co and Christina Newhard.
Let's go to Cherubs Nursery School in Seattle,
and listen.
(magical chime)
- [Together] Hi friends.
- Hi, my name is Ms. Marie from Cherubs Nursery School,
and today I'm with my friend...
- Danya.
- And we are at the Filipino Community Village.
And we're going to read you a special story.
It's called...
- [Danya] "Melo the Umang-Boy."
- [Ms. Marie] And umang means, hermit crab.
Is that cool?
- [Danya] Yeah.
- [Ms. Marie] Just like that little guy on the hat.
It's an Ivatan Tale story by,
Alyssa Sarmiento-Co and Christina Newhard,
illustrations by Jaypee Portez.
Are you ready?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Okay.
"'Come out, come out, Melo,'
sings Papu Lucia to the little boy,
wrapped in his blankets, like an umang, says,
'You are fishing with Maran Berto today.'
'Papu, will the other kids be there?'
he whispers, peeking out.
Melo is shy around other children.
'Yes, love,' she says,
but just help your Maran, and you'll forget to be shy.'
Papu Lucia touched his head.
'Remember, I'm here waiting for you.'
'Come Melo, let's catch dorado.'"
Dorado is a fish.
"Laughs Maran Berto,
'Papu is running outta ways to cook the wakay.'"
You think, what do you think wakay is?
- A fish?
- Oh, close.
This is kind of like, kind of like, a sweet potato.
Have you had sweet potatoes before?
- No.
- Sweet potato and fish.
Hmm, it could, it could be good, yeah.
"Melo hides a tiny smile.
The neighbor's boys help push the tataya into the sea."
This is the tataya, their little boat.
"Maran Berto wraps a flying fish with line.
'You need a small fish to catch a big one,' he winks.
'Try it, it's like flying a kite underwater.'
He gives Melo the line.
It tingles and pulls and pulls.
'Melo!' yells Maran Berto,
as Melo falls into the deep blue water."
What do you think happened?
Look, he's gonna fall into the water.
They're getting pulled.
"The flying fish, pulls them down, down, down.
Scared, Melo shuts his eyes.
When he opens them,
he sees a colorful city on the ocean floor."
Look at that.
"Through coral condos and seaweed forests,
thousands of creatures are rushing around.
There's an octopus talking on a mobile phone, cooking,
typing on a computer, and hammering.
Seasnakes zoom past.
An irasen hovers on the ocean bottom, glaring at everyone."
Look at that face.
(child laughs)
Does he look happy?
- No. - No.
He looks what?
Grumpy, he's grumpy.
"'Hello," he says to the octopus.
- 'Can't talk, too busy,' - Says the octopus.
'Hi,' he says to the seasnake.
- [Danya] 'We're late for work!'
- [Ms. Marie] They say.
Melo approached the irasen, 'Where are-'
- [Danya] 'No!'
- [Ms. Marie] Barked the grumpy irasen."
He didn't even let him finish what he's saying,
he just said no, oh.
"Melo climbs a rock to sit and think.
- [Danya] 'I wish they weren't so busy,'
- [Ms. Marie] He whispers.
- [Danya] 'Well, I'm not busy.'
- [Ms. Marie] Says the rock.
Melo turns and looks into the sleepy eyes of an irang."
Do you know what the irang could be?
Look at the picture.
- [Danya] A turtle?
- [Ms. Marie] A turtle, you're right.
Says, "'Hello, Kamnan Irang.'"
Kamnan means aunt or auntie.
Auntie Irang, says Melo.
"'How do I go home?'
The irang smiles.
'Ah, you're like the umang,' like the hermit crab.
'So shy, inside his house.
Stay and enjoy the city.
The sea creatures are funny when you get to know them.'
Before Melo can answer,
- [Danya] 'Boom!'
- [Ms. Marie] An explosion knocks off Kamnan Irang.
The water is cloudy.
He hears the creature panicking and-
- [Danya] 'Boom! Boom!' - [Ms. Marie] More explosions.
'Kamnan Irang! Kamnan Irang!' he coughs, 'are you hurt?'
He sees her shell under a pile of broken rocks and coral."
Uh-oh, look at that.
Yeah, I think they used the dynamite to go fishing.
But what happens is, look, everything got destroyed, aw.
"'She's dead!' yells the octopus,
'We're all gonna die!!' shout the seasnakes.
'Stop yelling!!!' yells the irasen.
Melo takes a deep breath."
Can you take a deep breath for me?
(both breathing)
Yeah, sometimes when things are so chaotic,
you just need to take a deep breath,
and then everything will calm down and you can think better.
Yeah, he's nervous, but wants to help Kamnan Irang
and the sea creatures.
"He speaks loudly,
- [Danya] 'Everyone, please calm down.
We'll fix this together.
First, let's help Kamnan Irang.'"
- [Ms. Marie] Yeah, they have to help her first,
because all the rubble is on top of her.
"Together they lift the rubble off of her.
She slowly extends her head and smiles,
'Little umang.
You are a good organizer.
What should we do next?'
Melo helps the creatures organize,
cleanup, and begin to rebuild.
The octopus is good at hammering,
and lifting and drawing,
and plumbing and wiring.
The seahorses are quick workers.
The irasen is still grumpy, but he knows about coral condos
and seaweed forests. Melo is having fun.
Kamnan Irang was right. And yet,
he thinks of Papu Lucia, waiting.
He wants to go home.
'Come little umang,' says Kamnan Irang,
'I know what you want.'
She swims up, up, up to the surface with Melo.
Melo curls up on her back. She sings him to sleep
with a beautiful laji.
Dreaming the song he wakes up in Papu Lucia's arms.
She's singing the same ancient poetry
to her little umang who has finally
left his shell for a day."
Kind of like a lullaby.
Isn't that beautiful? Look!
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Good thing he was just dreaming all along.
And he's back in grandma's arms.
Isn't that nice?
- Yeah.
- All right, well, thank you for reading with us today.
Want to say bye to our friends?
- Bye! - Bye.
- I'm glad that Melo helped
all the sea creatures fix their city.
- Me too.
He was very brave.
Not like an umang at all.
- Auntie Lena, what does umang mean, again?
- It means hermit crab.
Melo was called umang, because he was shy,
like a hermit crab that hides in their shell.
- Oh, but why was he shy?
It's so fun to make new friends.
- That's a great quality about you, Possum.
You like to talk and are confident around others,
but that could be very difficult and take a lot
of practice for some people like Melo and Mouse.
- Oh...
- You know, I used to be very shy when I was your age.
- What, really?
You're not shy, Auntie Lena.
- Well, not as much anymore, but it took a long time
to feel comfortable around new people.
And sometimes I still get a little nervous.
- How did you become less shy?
- Well, we've talked about some of the ways already,
for starters, wearing my sweater vest.
- Oh, because it makes you feel safe and true.
- Mm-hmm..
And do you remember what I do,
when I need a reminder to love myself?
- Oh, you give yourself a big hug and say,
"I love myself every day in every way."
- That's right.
Both of these things help me feel proud to be me,
and love all the different pieces of myself.
When I feel nervous or shy,
I remember that I'm like a beautiful mosaic.
- Oh, what's a mosaic?
- Oh, mosaics are a type of art.
They're an image or pattern made of many unique pieces.
Would you like to learn how to make one?
- Yes, I would!
- Then let's go back to Cherubs Nursery School,
and Ms. Erin can show us how.
(magical chime)
- Hi friends, my name is Ms. Erin,
and today I'm at Cherubs Nursery School in South Seattle,
which is also Coast Salish Land.
Today, our art project is gonna be a paper mosaic.
And what a paper mosaic is, is a piece that's made
up of lots of different pieces of paper.
So I have have a bunch of colored paper here,
in vibrant hues and more pastel hues.
And I have a glue stick.
I have a pair of scissors in case I wanna cut my shapes,
but I think that I'm just gonna tear them,
because I like for this kind of project,
to be a little more freeform and unique.
So I'm just gonna start tearing away and see what happens.
So once I have shapes that I like,
I'm gonna just go ahead
and get them down
on my canvas
or my plain piece of paper.
The thing I really like,
about tearing, is that it's not perfect.
Every piece is different.
Just like you and me.
So many different parts of our personalities come up,
so we can put them separate on the page,
or we can start doing a little bit of overlapping,
which is also something fun to do.
So sometimes when I do these mosaic pieces,
I tear a piece and then glue it.
Or sometimes I tear a whole bunch of pieces,
so, that I kind of have a collection in front of me,
and then I start, you know, working it out on the page.
So let's do that right now.
I've got a yellow circle here,
and then I'm just gonna do a whole bunch of
blue pieces.
Yeah, with a little angle.
All right, so now let's look at the pieces.
We have all these unglued pieces,
so then we can take a minute,
and kind of just move them around the page,
and see what we'd like.
So this is just kind of a fun way,
to play around with your design.
And then you don't have to, you know, glue it down,
until you're totally satisfied with it.
Now let's do a paper mosaic that is based more
on a certain idea or thing that I have in mind.
And let's see, I love plants,
so I'm gonna do some of my house plants,
And I'll pick a nice background color.
And let's see, I'm gonna, I'm still gonna tear.
I just love to tear.
I love these imperfect edges.
I'm gonna do a blue flower pot.
And orange flower pot,
and then I will start working on some
leaves.
These plants, of course, have lots of different shapes
so you don't have to stick to one.
I really love doing these paper mosaics,
because it's just a relaxing,
easy thing to do when I need a little quiet time.
I also love making things,
for different family members and friends.
It's a nice little gift.
Okay, so now I'm gonna show you my two finished pieces.
One is more freeform and the other one is more planned.
And during this project it just made me wonder,
how are people like mosaics?
How are people different?
Well, that's all there is for today.
Great to be with you, friends.
Bye.
(upbeat music)
- [Possum] It's time for Movement Minute!
(Possum bouncing)
(Diego speaking in Spanish)
(magical chime)
- Auntie Lena, when I see Mouse at the library,
should I ask him to play soccer with me and Turtle again?
I know he is shy,
but I think we would have so much fun together.
- It can't hurt, Possum, but Mouse may need some time,
to get to know you better before he says yes.
You might wanna ask him to do something
with just the two of you at first.
- Hmm, well like, what?
- Well, do you know what other superpowers
Mouse has besides soccer?
- Well, superpowers?
- Yes, what does he like to do?
Or what is he good at?
In the story, the sea creatures saw
that Melo's superpower was organizing,
so they let him take the lead in rebuilding the city.
- Oh, well, Mouse did mention that he likes to play music.
Maybe that's his superpower.
- Did you tell him that you're learning
how to play the concertina?
(Possum gasps)
- No, I forgot.
- Then you can tell him next time,
and maybe he'll want to show you what he likes to play.
- Oh, I like that idea, Auntie Lena!
- The fun thing about music is,
that there are so many different instruments,
styles, and ways to express yourself.
There's something for everyone.
- Oh, well makes me wanna play music right now, Auntie Lena!
- Me too.
Let's find out what Mestre Silvio is playing
with our friends at Union Cultural Center.
(magical chime)
- [Together] Hi friends!
- How are you doing today?
My name is Silvio.
We are here at the Union Cultural Center,
and I'm here with my friend...
- Lilliana.
- Yeah, me and Lilliana are here today to try
out some different sounds, music instruments.
Okay, Lilliana? - Uh-huh.
- I have here, some interesting instruments.
I'm from Brazil. I'm Brazilian,
and I like to play around
with the instruments and figure out different sounds.
Have you seen this instrument before, Lilliana?
- Um, no. - No?
What kind of sounds do you think the instruments gonna make?
Lower sound or higher sound?
- High? - High?
Let's try out 1, 2, 3.
(agogo knocks)
Oh!
(agogo knocks)
You wanna try it?
Okay, look, I have the same instrument that you have.
Do you think it's gonna be a lower sound or higher sound?
- I don't know. - You don't know?
Let's try, I have to see.
(agogo knocks)
Yay!
Let's try with me, 1, 2, 3.
1, 2, 3.
Yay!
Look, those instruments, they're made by some nuts.
You see that?
Okay, and here I have another instrument.
Oh, you see that material?
What is that?
- A metal? - It's a metal.
Let's check it out to see which sound make it?
Let's try.
(instrument dings)
You gonna try it?
Okay, let's switch.
You try this one and I'm gonna try this one.
You're gonna try the same rhythm.
Boom, ba, boom, okay, ready?
1, 2, 3.
(instruments ding)
Lilliana do you wanna make up a rhythm
for me and I can follow you, anything you want.
(instruments ding)
Oh, very good! - Thank you.
- That instrument, the name is agogo.
- Agogo. - Agogo, okay?
Those are from Brazil and those are from Africa.
Do you have any questions for me, Lilliana,
about those cool instruments in the music we did?
- Uh...
What, what is this, what is this made out of?
- That's a very good question.
You see that that's a kind of nut,
kind of like Brazilian nut. In Brazil, this kind of nut,
we don't eat it because it's very bitter, brb brb brb brb.
And we use it to make instruments,
we us it for some decorations and very different things.
And here I have a bamboo, a piece of bamboo,
attach it to the nut and here is open,
in this way we can have a kind of speaker,
to make the sound bigger.
(agogo knocks)
And here, is just a stick.
(agogo knocks)
Did you like to play the instruments with me?
- Yes.
- I like to play the instruments with you, too.
Let's say bye to our friends?
- Mm-hmm. - 1, 2, 3.
- Bye! - Thank you friends!
Have a good day! (magical chime)
- That was awesome!
I wonder if Mouse will like any of those instruments.
- And if not, then maybe you can try
and find out what other music he likes.
- Mm-hmm.
Or I'll try to find out what other superpowers he has.
- That's a great plan, Possum.
When someone is feeling shy or nervous,
it's important to be kind and patient,
so that they feel comfortable sharing with you.
- Like Melo's grandma and the sea turtle in the story.
- Exactly. Everyone takes their own amount of time
to say, "I'm proud to be me."
But it's helpful to have friends
who remind them that they're unique
and special just the way they are.
- And that they're a beautiful mosaic.
- Yes, our new word of the day.
- Mm-hmm.
Oh, thanks for your help Auntie Lena.
- You're welcome, Possum.
And friends, thank you for taking the time
to look, listen, and learn with us today.
Remember, you are the best you that the world will ever see.
- Bye for now! - Bye-bye!
(gentle music)
Please tuned after the credits,
for Auntie Lena's parent tip.
(uplifting music continues)
One of the many joys of being a caring adult,
is seeing our little ones grow
and develop into their own unique personalities.
Your child may be bold and curious,
or gentle and quiet, or maybe they're combination
of these traits and a dozen more.
In today's episode, Possum makes a new friend
named Mouse, who has a very different personality.
What seems like a fun activity
to Possum is a daunting situation
for Mouse who is shy around new people,
but rather than decide that they can't be friends,
Possum is determined to find out what he can do,
to make his new friend feel more confident and comfortable.
Whether your child is like Possum, or more like Mouse.
It's important to teach our children
ways to both embrace themselves and show kindness
to others who navigate the world differently.
As a reminder, think about your strengths,
and what you love about you.
Then help your child discover what they love
about themselves and identify their own superpowers.
Find out what their strengths are,
and then ask how they can use
those strengths to help others.
Like Auntie Lena mentions,
building these skills can take a lot of practice and time,
but it is well worth the effort,
so that your child can learn to say, (clears throat)
"I am proud to be me."