(Cheerful 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 ♪
(upbeat music)
(magical chime)
- Hi, Auntie Lena.
- Oh, hello, Possum.
And hello, friends, it's nice to see you.
- Whatcha doing?
- I'm using this garbage picker
to pick up trash in our neighborhood,
because I'm an Earth steward
and I wanna take care of Mother Earth.
- And all its living creatures.
We took a pledge, and you're keeping your promise.
- That's right, Possum.
And I'm proud of you for remembering our pledge.
- Oh, thank you, Auntie Lena.
Well, I've been learning about pollution and recycling
at school too.
- Oh.
Well, can you tell me and our friends what pollution is?
- It's the stuff that makes the Earth dirty.
- You're right, Possum.
By not putting trash where it belongs,
people can make the air, the Earth,
and the water dirty or polluted.
That's why we want to pay attention
to where we put our garbage.
And before we throw something away,
we can also think about how to reuse or recycle it.
- That's the trashy homework I have to do.
- Possum, did you call your homework trashy?
- (laughs) I guess I did.
- Well, what do you mean by that?
- For homework this weekend,
we have to make an art project out of something
in our recycle bin.
- Oh, I see.
You get to take something that was tossed in the recycle bin
and come up with another idea for it.
That's a perfect example of what recycling means.
- Yeah. And we read a book called "Scrap Metal Swan."
It's about pollution
and how yucky stuff like garbage gets in the river.
- Oh, yes. By Joanne Linden.
I think that would be fun to read with our friends, Possum.
- Oh, me too.
And maybe you can help me think about my trashy homework.
- All right, Possum.
Well, you know,
I'm always happy to help you with your homework,
but first, let's go to the Woodland Park Zoo
and listen to the story.
(magical chime)
- [Miss Susan and Gia] Hi, friends!
- I'm Miss Susan.
- And I'm Gia.
- And today we're at the Woodland Park Zoo
where we're gonna be reading
a book called "Scrap Metal Swan: A River Clean-Up Story"
by Joanne Linden, illustrated by Estrellita Caracol.
You ready?
- Yeah. - Let's do it.
Okay.
River clean-up, springtime chore.
Townsfolk gather near the shore.
Flowing water runs downstream.
Save our river: make it gleam!
Is this dirty, or what?
Look at all this. Oh my God.
Look it. It's so dirty, they don't even go in the water.
- [Gia] Yeah.
- Have you ever seen a river that dirty?
- No. - No.
It's very dirty.
Okay. Sunny day, silver shimmer.
Old chrome bumper meets a swimmer!
River jammed, no longer free.
All clogged up with dark debris.
[Miss Susan] How do you think all that got there?
- People throw it in.
- People throw it away. That's not nice, huh?
- Yeah. - I know.
Where should we put garbage?
- In The trash can.
- That's right, in the trash can to get to the dump.
That's right. Piles of junk along the street.
Friends all help to make them neat.
Plastic bottles, rusty cans,
empty milk crates.
Busy hands!
[Miss Susan] Isn't that nice? They all come together.
Yeah, I love how it looks like these are, like,
cut-up illustrations.
Like, it's not just all drawing.
Everything's all cut up by paper.
It's cool, right? - Yeah.
- River barge picks up junk.
Bang, clang, bump. Thud, thud, thunk!
Foghorn sounds loud and low.
Barge pulls out. Watch it go!
Barge arrives, dumps its weight,
gets paid money for the freight.
Here comes trucks to haul it out.
See the drivers wave and shout!
That big boat with all that stuff brought it over here.
Tennis ball floats to the shore.
Artist grabs it, looks for more.
Now our friend has a plan.
Throws scrap metal in her van.
What do you think she's gonna do with it?
- Make it into a sculpture.
- Yeah, that's right.
Artist's helper empties van,
fills garage, turns on fan.
Hammer, anvil, chisel, wrench,
sander, crowbar, big workbench.
Blowtorch welds: zap, zap, zap!
Form takes shape from bits of scrap.
Sculptors working day and night.
Something's growing tall and bright.
What's that shining on the lawn?
Artists built a giant swan!
And what I like about this is it's not just the one artist,
but her helper's also an artist too.
So now there's two artists.
Now our friends all join the fun.
Statues gleam beneath the sun.
All these artists worked together.
saved the river, made some treasure.
River clean, river wide.
People's pleasure, city pride.
River sparkling, river free.
Ever flowing to the sea. Is it a clean river now?
- [Gia] Yeah.
- The end. How do rivers get dirty?
What did you see in those photos?
- Well, I thought that people just throw trash
whenever no one's looking.
- Yeah, they don't think they're gonna get
in trouble, right?
So they throw trash in there.
That's right. So people do it.
And then sometimes big factories are made near the waters
'cause they need the water's energy to run.
But then a lot of pollution comes out of the factories,
or sometimes they might put bad chemicals into the water.
And then you know what happens after that?
It impacts the animals and the whole ecosystem.
It's bad for the fish and for the humans.
Yeah? Okay.
So let's talk about what we can do to help.
- Clean the trash so no animal can get dirty.
- That's right.
So we can do clean-up, pickup, park beautification.
We can turn off the water when we're brushing our teeth.
And we can also tell our government leaders and say,
"Hey, this is not okay."
And we can write letters to them and take action too.
And then remember what they did in this book.
We can take trash and make it beautiful
by reusing things too.
But first and foremost,
we shouldn't even put the trash in the river, am I right?
Yeah, that's right.
So next time you look at trash,
maybe you can turn it into art.
Gia, thanks so much for reading with me today.
Did you have a good time?
- Yeah. - Awesome.
All right, it's time to say goodbye to our friends, okay?
Bye-bye. - Bye!
(magical chime)
- You know, Possum, in addition to reusing and recycling,
there's one more thing that we can do to make less trash.
- Oh, really? What's that?
- We can reduce and reuse.
I have a lot of things at home that I don't use.
So I go through them from time to time
and try and give them to someone else who can.
- Oh, like what, Auntie Lena?
- Books, dishes, clothes I don't wear anymore.
- Oh, well, Mama Possum wants to give away some
of my T-shirts from when I was little,
and I also found a paper bag
and an egg carton in our recycle bin.
Maybe I can reuse one of them for my art project.
- Oh, I bet we can come up with something.
How do you think that you could reuse a paper bag?
- I could paint on it or,
oh, make a book cover out of it.
Or I could make a puppet like our friends taught us.
- Good ideas, Possum.
And how about that egg carton? How could you reuse that?
- I could plant seeds in it, like Miss Ellie taught us.
- Mm-hmm. And the T-shirt?
- Hmm. I'm not sure.
- Yeah, me neither, Possum. Hey, I know.
Let's go to Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery
and see if Mr. Isaiah has an idea for us.
(magical chime)
(upbeat music)
- Hey, friends.
My name's Mr. Isaiah,
and I'm at the Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery.
Today we're gonna be talking
about reduce, reuse, and recycle,
and we're gonna be making some really cool reusable bags
out of an old T-shirt.
So today I have an old T-shirt
that I don't really wear anymore.
What we're gonna do is we're gonna start
by folding it in half.
It's only three easy steps to do at home.
All you're gonna need is your scissors,
markers, and a T-shirt.
So you're gonna wanna fold it.
Make sure it's as neat as possible.
That's gonna help you while you're cutting it
to make it nice and even on both sides.
So I'm gonna try to line it up as best as I can.
We're only gonna be using two cuts today.
We're gonna be cutting off the sleeves and the neck.
So I've got my handy scissors, and let's get started.
So I'm gonna start with the bottom.
I'm holding the fabric together as closely as I can
to make sure it's as even as possible.
Now, having a reusable bag is great for at home
when you don't want to go to the grocery store
and maybe use one of those plastic one-use bags.
You could bring this all around with you.
I'm going nice and slow,
trying to get that cut as even as possible.
Sometimes the fabric can get bunched up,
so you might have to move it around a little bit as you go.
Go. So that's the sleeves.
Now we're gonna be cutting off the neck of the shirt.
This is kind of a swooping inward cut.
You might need an adult at home
to help you out with your scissors.
Always be safe when you're using scissors.
Perfect. All right.
When you're all done, it should look a little like this.
The next step is we're going to be opening up our shirt,
and we're gonna be folding it inside out.
(cheery music)
Perfect.
Now we're just gonna be bunching up the bottom of the shirt
as tightly as you can.
You don't want to have any holes in there
'cause then your bag might have a hole in it.
Now, we can actually reuse this piece of fabric
that we cut earlier.
So we are really getting the most out of our T-shirt.
All right.
Now I'm gonna kind of bunch this up
as tightly as I can at the bottom.
Maybe do some twists while I'm at it.
And I am going to use my piece of fabric and tie a knot.
You might also want to have your parents help you with this
so you're knot is tied as tightly as possible.
(cheery music)
There we go.
I'm gonna do one more for good measure.
Sweet.
Now all we have to do is flip our shirt right side out.
And there we have it. We have a really nice reusable bag.
And now we can draw a nice design on there too.
I think I'm gonna draw Planet Earth
'cause we're talking about ways
that we can reduce our plastic use.
So I'm gonna start by drawing a nice circle on there.
Okay. So I got my outline of my Earth.
Maybe I want to put some continents on there.
So I'll start with North America, where I live.
Why do you think it's important to recycle?
Yeah, it saves the planet, right?
I remember when I grew up,
my parents would always bring home lots of paper
from their different business deals,
and they would always let me draw on the back.
So that's kind of how I fell in love with drawing,
was just kind of scribbling on recycled paper.
Now, by using this recyclable bag or a reusable bag,
we're getting rid of all of those bags that kind of end up
in the ocean and landfills out there.
So we're saving our sea friends
and having a stylish bag while we're at it.
Maybe I want to write a little saying like "I love Earth"
on my shirt so everyone really knows
how much I love our planet.
(cheery music)
And there we have it, a reusable bag.
Thanks for joining us, friends. Bye for now.
(magical chime)
- Oh, is that your T-shirt bag, Auntie Lena?
- It sure is. Isn't it adorable?
- Mm-hmm. And are you already using it for something?
- I sure am.
I have some food that I'm not gonna be able to eat
before it goes bad,
and I'd like to share it rather than have it go to waste.
- What? People waste food, Auntie Lena?
- Yes, Possum. People throw out a lot of food.
And like your homework assignment,
I like to find ways to use all my food.
For example, when veggies get soft, I can put them in soup.
Old coffee grounds are very nutritious
to plants in the garden.
And I can freeze extra fruit to use at another time.
- Or you can give them to me, Auntie Lena.
So what food do you have in your T-shirt bag?
- Well, I have potatoes and eggs.
I made potato salad, but I have extra ingredients.
And I wonder if you and Mama Possum would like them.
- Oh, well, I'll ask her,
'cause I sure like potatoes and eggs.
But what did you say you made?
- Potato salad. Mm.
- I've never had potato salad before.
- Well, would you like to try some?
- You know, I would. I love trying new foods.
- Great.
Let's go to DayoSense Kwanzaa campus.
Chef Dayo can show us how to make potato salad
just like she taught me.
- [Chef Dayo and Cameron] Hi, friends.
- I am Chef Dayo, and-
- And I'm Cameron.
- And we are here at the DayoSense Kwanzaa campus
where today we are going to be making-
- We're making potato salad.
- Oh, yes.
One of my favorite reuse/recycle type of meals.
I love it.
Every time that I cook for my family,
I love using the extra ingredients just
to make an added little something for lunch the next day
or a little snack for dinner.
Would you like to get started?
- Yes, ma'am.
- Awesome.
So the ingredients that we have are some
that we just have just regularly in our refrigerator.
We have already cooked potatoes.
We have boiled eggs. We have salt and pepper.
And then, of course, we have all the ingredients
that make things nice and magical.
We have mayonnaise, mustard, sweet relish,
a little bit of sour cream,
and a little pinch of dill just to make it special.
Are you ready to do this?
- Yes, ma'am.
- Awesome.
Well, already I started the process
of cutting down the potatoes for you.
You could go ahead and put it in this bowl.
Perfect. Here's some boiled eggs.
Give it a little mix there.
Oh yeah. They're getting happy together.
I can see it already.
Now we're going to add a little bit of pepper.
I'm gonna sprinkle some in there for you.
Do, do, do, do, do.
- Thank you. - [Chef Dayo] And a little bit of salt.
- [Cameron] Salt and pepper always.
- [Chef Dayo] Oh, yes.
Well, that's gonna be fun. - Do I mix?
- Oh, go ahead and mix.
It's already starting to look good.
- This is.
- Now we're gonna set this bowl aside.
Now we're going to make the glue,
the yummy glue that makes it all stick together.
Are you ready to do that with me,
Cam? - Yes.
- [Chef Dayo] We are going to start
with mayonnaise. - Mayonnaise.
- Can you take another spoon
and just kind of dump that in there?
Perfect.
And then I'm going to take some sour cream.
Gonna do this together.
For the mayonnaise and the sour cream,
they're both about a quarter of a cup each.
Then, next, I'll give you the sweet relish
that you can slide in there
while I'll put the yellow mustard to give it some color.
- [Cameron] Perfect.
- Okay. Are you ready to mix this together?
Let's do it together.
Oh my. - This actually looks cool.
Kind of.
- Here we go. Yes.
You see how it's kind of making
a thick paste? - Like, yellow and green
and white. - Yellow, green.
You have all sorts of different colors flowing in it.
Are you ready to blend these two together?
We're adding the glue to the potatoes.
Oh, yes. Uh-huh.
And then we're gonna mix this all together.
So aside from foods that you can recycle and reuse,
are there any other ways
that you recycle during the day?
- Recycle cans, plastic water bottles.
- Yeah, it's very important to, you know, even at your age,
starting to understand we're recycling and reusing
and how that can help our Earth
and how it can all come together to-
- And not to litter. - help make this Earth
a better place.
Oh, that looks beautiful.
Okay, are you ready to kind of scoop this out
and then do a little finishing touch with our dill?
Awesome. And I'm gonna give you a little pinch of dill.
- [Cameron] This looks good.
- [Chef Dayo] Okay, let's try it. Okay, bon appetit.
Cheers! Bing!
Let's do it.
- This is good. This is great.
- Awesome, awesome, awesome. That is good.
And it's even better when you cool it
in the refrigerator for another day.
You could kind of stretch this for even a couple more days.
You really like it. Dude, high five.
I love it. I love it.
So, Cameron, it was such a joy making potato salad with you.
- Yes, ma'am.
- And thank you-
- [Chef Dayo and Cameron] Friends for joining us.
Bye.
(cheery music)
- It's time for Movement Minute.
(spring boings)
- Hello, friends. Welcome to Movement Minute.
I am Coach Mayra.
And today we are here at Rainier Health and Fitness,
and we are gonna learn how to do a crab walk.
So first, we're gonna bring our bodies all the way down
to the ground.
Our feet are gonna be flat on the ground,
and then our hands are gonna be right behind us.
We're gonna push our hips up towards the sky.
And then we're gonna walk back,
moving our hands and feet at the same time.
From here, we can go sideways,
from side to side.
Good job, guys.
If you want the extra challenge,
we're gonna try to reach for our toes.
Opposite arm, opposite leg.
(cheery music)
Nice work, guys.
Thank you for joining me, and I'll see you next time.
(magical chime)
- Auntie Lena, there are so many ways
to be a good Earth steward.
It's awesome.
- It sure is, Possum.
In every way and every day,
we get to think about how
to keep Mother Nature healthy and clean.
And when we practice recycling, reusing, and reducing,
it becomes even easier.
- Oh, I can't wait to make my T-shirt bag
and make more art projects out of things in my recycle bin.
- Let me know what the other kids
in your class made for their trashy homework too.
- I will, Auntie Lena. Thank you for helping me today.
- You are 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.
(cheery music)
Please stay tuned after the credits
for Auntie Lena's parent tip.
(cheery music)
- [Narrator] Brought to you by Public Health,
reminding you to keep your family's protection strong
with updated COVID vaccines.
Resources and information available
at kingcounty.gov/vaccine.
(cheery music)
- Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Today's episode is all about getting crafty
with the junk we throw away and the stuff we don't use,
otherwise known as trash.
When I think about skills that children need,
what to do with your trash isn't one of them.
However, stories like
"Scrap Metal Swan: A River Clean-Up Story" remind us
that trash is an important subject for early learners.
Why?
Well, for starters, by teaching children
where their trash ends up and the harm it can cause,
we help them learn about the natural resources
that the Earth provides.
Learning to reduce, reuse, recycle
also instills a responsibility in little learners
to take care of our planet.
Finally, reusing and recycling helps slow down
the throwaway train.
Rather than tossing things into the garbage,
we can find new uses for them or share them with others.
Growing up in the '70s,
there were lots of messages that helped me think
about being a good Earth steward,
such as "Don't trash where you splash"
"Don't be a litterbug"
Or, "Give a hoot? Don't pollute"
Reduce, reuse, recycle is another fun
and easy reminder that you
and your little one can practice every day
to continue caring for Mother Earth
and all its living creatures.