(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 ♪
(cheery music)
- Hello friends.
Hello possum.
Isn't it a beautiful day today?
- Oh, oh, hi Auntie Lena.
- Possum, what's wrong?
- Well, my friend Raven has been super sad,
and I don't like seeing him sad.
That makes me sad.
- Well, why is your friend sad?
- His parents are getting a divorce,
and he says he'll have to live in two trees
and only see each of them sometimes.
- Yes, divorce can be really hard to deal with.
Do you know how he's handling these feelings?
- Oh, handling?
But I thought feelings were in your head.
- Well, Possum, they are in your head
and a lot of times, feelings and emotions can be shown
through actions as well.
Have you ever been happy and did a little joy dance
or have you ever been sad and cried?
- Oh yeah.
- Well those are all ways to express your emotions,
but sometimes, people deal with hard situations
and need a little more help expressing
or showing their emotions.
That's when therapy can help.
- Therapy?
What's that?
- That's when you go to someone who's trained
to help you talk about your feelings.
They help us name our feelings
and talk about what to do with those feelings.
- Oh, like the counselor at my school?
- Exactly.
You know, this reminds me of a koala
I read about who everybody
went to, to talk about their problems.
- Oh, I like koalas.
They live in trees just like me.
- That's right.
And Kerry, the caring koala,
turns his tree into a therapy tree.
- Oh, a therapy tree.
That sounds fancy.
- Well, let's join teacher Ollie
at the Denise Louie Education Center and see what happens.
(cheery music)
- Hey friends.
My name is Teacher Ali.
- And my name is Aziah.
- And we are here today at the Denise Louie Education Center
and we'll be reading "Kerry the Caring Koala,
Where Feelings Find a Friend."
Let's get started.
In a tree that sits tall, near a river by the bend,
lived a koala named Kerry, who was everyone's friend.
His big giant tree was known from both far and near
as the place one could go to find a listening ear.
Knock on the door with a big smile.
He will open it and say, come.
Let's sit and talk for a while.
What's that say?
- [Aziah] Therapy with Kerry.
- [Teacher Ali] Oh, okay.
Kerry was a therapist,
so he used his koala time helping all the animals heal
their hearts and mind.
What's that?
- [Aziah] It says therapy is cool.
- [Teacher Ali] Oh, that's kind of cool.
One sunny day, Landon the lion came by.
His head was lowered, trying not to cry.
We lost our big game, and it's making me sad.
Will you help Mr. Kerry?
I'm tired of feeling so bad.
Have you ever lost something
and felt sad? - Yeah.
- Yeah?
Kerry nodded, of course I will help.
That's why I am here.
In this tree, you can talk about your feelings
with no judgment and no fear.
Landon took a breath, deep and long.
Then he told Kerry where everything went wrong.
You know how to take a deep breath?
- Uh-huh.
- Okay, let's take a deep breath.
Okay 1, 2, 3.
Hold it, hold it, hold it.
Okay, let's let go.
(Teacher Ali exhales)
As he spoke, Kerry listened with love and care.
He told Landon, it's okay to have tears.
Next came Liberty the lemur,
who was always seen with a smile or a laugh,
but deep down inside, she was not so glad.
Kerry, she whispered, ears dropping low.
Sometimes I have these feelings that just don't show.
Aw how does she look?
What do you think?
How do you think she feels?
- [Azaya] Sad.
- [Ollie] Sad?
Kerry, said Liberty, my friend.
You never have to pretend.
You are still a strong lemur when you don't want to smile.
Your value does not change
based on how much you laugh or frown.
The next day, Lauren the lamb made her way.
How do I pick which one of my friends should go or stay?
Rudy the rabbit only comes when the weather is fair.
But rain or shine, Brittany the bunny is here.
Do you have friends that show up?
- Mhm.
- What do you like about your friends?
- I like that they're really nice to me.
- That they're nice to you.
That's really good.
How do they make you feel?
- They make me feel good.
- They make you feel good.
I'm glad.
With an open heart and ears wide open,
Kerry began to listen and guide.
Lauren, my dear, this is your space.
Therapy helps put relationships in place.
Now that you've expressed what is on your heart,
let me tell you how friends can do their part.
Brittany the bunny is how all friends should be.
Loyal and true is what we all need.
Tell Rudy the rabbit how you feel.
If he changes, your relationship may heal.
Lauren went along, singing a song
about how therapy can help us all get along.
One by one, all the animals stop by
to give Kerry's therapy tricks a try.
Kerry taught each of them to express and say what they felt
and wanted in a healthy way.
Where is this again?
- [Aziah] Therapy.
- What do therapists do?
- They make you feel better.
- Oh, that's kind of cool.
Let's see, to draw, to write, dance,
or even sing, helps us make sense
of what our feelings bring.
Talking helps.
It's like a key to unlock emotions and set them free.
Do you do any of these to feel better?
- Just a little.
- Which one do you do?
- Write.
- You write? - Sometimes.
- You write sometimes?
What else do you do?
- Dance.
- You dance?
What kind of dance?
- Hip hop.
- Hip hop, is that fun?
How does it make you feel?
- It makes me feel happy.
- Happy.
So you like to do hip hop
and share your feelings in hip hop.
- Mhm. - That's so cool.
So if you're ever feeling a certain way,
think about what Kerry the koala would say.
Sharing feelings makes you strong.
With a little help, you won't go wrong.
Thanks for sharing your feelings with me.
You share a lot of feelings with me.
Can you point to which you're feeling today?
- [Aziah] Happy.
- Happy?
So these are some of my feelings and you're feeling happy.
That's so cool.
I think I'm also feeling happy.
Well, thank you for sharing your feelings with me.
- You're welcome.
- High five.
Let's say goodbye to our friends.
- Bye. - Bye friends.
- Kerry the caring koala is so cool.
I wish I knew him so I could talk
to him when I'm feeling down.
- He does seem cool, Possum,
but we all have a few Kerry the caring koalas in our lives.
- We do?
- Of course.
Think about all the people in your life
who you can talk to about your feelings
and they can give you advice.
- Like a friend.
- And also a caring adult may be able
to give you the help you need to feel better.
Sometimes people talk to their parents,
a counselor, a coach, or a teacher.
- Sometimes, I talk to my concertina teacher.
She helps me find a song to match my mood.
- That's a great example.
You can share your feelings
by talking things over and through music.
People express their emotions through songs all the time.
When I'm happy, I like to listen to pop and bop around.
And when I haven't had the best news,
I like to listen to the blues.
- Hmm.
And I can listen to hip hop when I am feeling on top.
- That's the spirit, Possum!
You know who could help us express
our feelings through music?
- Who, Auntie Lena?
- Mr. Gene and his piano.
(Possum gasps)
- A piano?
- Yes.
Let's go to the Seattle Opera with our friends
and Mr. Gene and listen.
(magical chime)
- Hello friends.
- My name is Mr. Gene and this is.
- Sarai.
- And you're joining us at the Seattle Opera today.
Today we're gonna be talking about piano and music
and how to express ourselves with music.
Today Possum was trying to deal with a lot of emotions
and so we could express emotions through music.
Music is a kind of language that we could do that with.
And so I'm gonna guide you
through major chords and minor chords
and then ask you to see how you feel and things like that.
Do you have any favorite songs
or favorite kinds of music that you like to listen to?
- One of the songs that I like
is called "Thing You Do" by Tori Kelly.
- Ooh, that sounds really fancy.
(Mr. Gene laughs)
That's wonderful.
All right, so we're gonna get into major and minor,
and we're gonna start with the C major chord, okay?
So can you play with me after I play it?
(piano music)
Wonderful.
Okay that's the C major chord.
And that starts with the root C, right?
And we're gonna try to C minor chord now.
(piano music)
Perfect.
Do those two kinds of chords make you feel any different?
- Yes.
- How does the major chord make you feel?
- The major chords makes me feel like happy feelings.
- Happy, right?
It's like bright and cheerful.
And what about a minor chord?
(piano music)
- The minor chord sounds more sad.
- Yeah, sad, dark, maybe scared, right?
Those kinds of feelings.
A major chord is always using the root word, root note C.
And the minor chord is always using
the root note C as well.
So roots are kind of like trees, right?
Where if you have a root, the rest of it could grow from it.
So these are like the leaves and the branches,
but you always have to have a root note.
We want to try to make up a song now.
Is that okay with you?
- Yes.
- Okay, perfect.
What kind of feelings do you want in your song?
- Happy feelings.
Okay so we're gonna probably work
with major chords, right, to do that.
So we could start with our names.
So I'll put something like Mr. Gene and Sarai
are singing a song.
And why don't our friends sing along?
♪ I'm Mr. Gene, and this is Sarai ♪
♪ We're gonna sing a happy song ♪
♪ Why don't you sing along ♪
♪ I'm Mr. Gene and this is Sarai ♪
♪ We're gonna sing a happy song ♪
♪ Why don't you sing along ♪
♪ I'm Mr. Gene and this is Sarai ♪
♪ We're gonna sing a happy song ♪
♪ Why don't you sing along ♪
Yay, that was great (Mr. Gene laughs).
All right, so now we're gonna try
a little bit of the minor chord.
Okay we're gonna try to sing a song about Possum
because Possum is feeling very sad today.
And so we're gonna try to sing a song to cheer him up.
Is that okay with you?
- Yes. - Perfect.
Okay, so this is minor.
♪ Possum is feeling very sad ♪
♪ We're gonna sing and make him glad ♪
Yay, thank you (Mr. Gene laughs).
Do you have other ways that you like to express yourself?
- Sometimes I like to draw
and maybe play outside.
- Oh wow, those are fun ways to express yourself as well.
Yeah, especially if you're feeling difficult feelings
sometimes or complex feelings.
There's different ways to express it and relieve it
and show the world how you're feeling.
Do you have a song you want to teach me today?
- Yes.
- Perfect, do you wanna start?
- Mhm.
(piano music)
- Wow, okay, so let me give that a try.
(piano music)
Yay, thank you for teaching me that.
Well that made me feel so happy being able to sing songs
with you and play music together.
How did that make you feel?
- It made me feel very happy also.
- Wonderful.
Let's join in and say goodbye to our friends.
Goodbye friends. - Bye.
- That was so fun.
I love making up songs about how I feel.
- Well Possum, want to know what I do
when I want to express my snap sassy do dah
when I'm feeling good feelings?
- Ooh, what Auntie Lena?
- I rap.
- What, say what?
(Auntie Lena laughs)
- Yes, I do.
I love poems and rhyming so rapping is right up my alley.
- Can I hear a rap?
- Hmm, well, I'll do some freestyle.
(Auntie Lena beatboxes)
♪ I'm Auntie Lena and I'm with awesome Possum ♪
♪ I'm feeling great today because I saw some ♪
♪ flower blossoms ♪
♪ The sun is out and I'm here with my friends ♪
♪ Look, listen, and learn until the day ends ♪
- Wow, Auntie Lena!
That was so good.
- Well, thank you Possum.
You know, expressing your emotions through
music is great,
but you can do it in other ways too.
- Like art, right?
- And crafts.
Have you ever heard of a calming jar?
- Um no.
- Well, let's join Miss Lisaa
and our friends at Denise Louis Education Center
to learn how.
(bright music)
- Hi friends.
My name is Miss Lisaa,
and today we're at the Denise Louis Education Center
and today we will be making calm down jars.
I'm so excited to be making this project with you.
How are you guys feeling today?
I hope you're feeling happy,
but you know some of us have different feelings
and that's okay too.
Some of us might be feeling sad,
some of us might be feeling upset,
and so we're gonna show you ways
on how you can help calm your emotions
and express how you're feeling.
So for this project,
what you're gonna need is you're gonna need an empty jar
or an empty container.
As long as it has a lid, then that'll work.
We're gonna have some glitter to add to our jars.
And I have a bunch of different colors here,
some blues, some pinks.
I also have some really cool water beads
that are really fun to use.
I have rubber bands and then some other things like sequins
and little crystals as well.
For this project, you're also gonna need water,
but not just any water.
You're gonna need to use distilled water
because we wanna make sure
that when we shake our jars like this,
we don't have any bubbles.
And then we're gonna use our clear glue to make sure
that our flow is really slow or really fast,
depending on how you're feeling.
We're also gonna use a sealant,
which is gonna seal your water jar shut
so that you can't open
because we don't wanna open our calm down jars
once they're closed.
So we also, one of our biggest things
we wanna do is we wanna make sure
that we have an a trusted adult
to help supervise this activity.
And it's fun to have an adult to do one with
because then you can help express your emotions with them.
First things first, I'm gonna take my jar,
and I'm gonna open it up.
And what I like to do is I like to add my water first,
so that the glitter doesn't get all stuck at the bottom.
And then I'm gonna add a little bit of glue too.
The really cool thing about making calm down jars
is that sometimes when you're feeling really upset
or even super excited,
you can use them to shake it up in the moment.
And then you watch all the glitter fall,
just kind of like this.
And as the glitter's falling,
you can implement different tools
such as breathing and counting.
So here's our glue and here's our water.
What we're gonna do next is we're gonna pick our glitter.
And I think I'm feeling pretty happy.
So I think pink makes me feel happy.
I like the color pink,
so we're gonna go ahead and do that.
In there.
It's a lot of glitter.
And then I'm also gonna use,
I think I'm gonna use some diamonds
'cause that makes me feel super excited,
especially when I'm having a bad day.
If I'm feeling upset or sad,
I like to be able to shake my jar
and really look at the pretty things that I put in there,
so that I can calm my emotions.
And sometimes, adults have big emotions too,
and that's okay, just like you.
But the important thing is we wanna make sure
that we're talking to our adults about our emotions
and being able to identify how we're feeling.
So I'm gonna do some of those.
Let's see, what else?
Let's go ahead and do some water beads
and we'll top it off with some rubber bands,
which is pretty cool.
So do some.
I'm gonna put some rubber bands in there.
And I think this looks pretty cool.
I wanna make sure that you get creative.
And when you're making these,
you make sure that you put whatever you want
in your calm down jar
'cause this is your jar to express
your emotions and your feelings.
So now that we have all the things that we want in there,
what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead
and fill the rest with water.
I think probably up to here
because I wanna make sure
that I have kind of like a faster flow.
And then I'm gonna put my glue in.
And so if you want it to be very slow,
you're gonna put more glue.
If you want it to be super fast,
you're gonna put more water.
And if you want half and half
then you're going to put,
you're gonna put half the glue and half of the water.
So let's go ahead and pour my glue inside.
And then the last part we're gonna do
is because once we're done being creative with our jars,
we wanna make sure that we close it really tight
because again, we don't wanna open those jars, right?
So this is when you're gonna need your adult to help you.
So we're gonna take our glue
and adults, you can use any type of super glue that's strong
and I'm just gonna put it around my edges.
I'm gonna make sure that it's shut really, really tight.
So this is my favorite part.
I get so excited when I get to do this part.
So now that I have everything in here, what I'm gonna do,
so I'm gonna shake my jar up, I'm gonna shake it,
I'm gonna make sure everything in there is all mixed in.
And that is what my jar looks like.
So one way I like to use my jar is when I'm feeling upset
or if I'm feeling excited, I like to go and grab my jar
and I like to shake it up and I set it down on my table
and I watch everything fall down.
And while everything's falling down,
I'll usually do my big arms and breathe.
(Miss Lisaa inhales and exhales)
Just like that.
And then sometimes I might even need to count too,
so I'll count to five or 10.
And then as my glitter's falling,
it's just a way for me to relax and calm my emotions.
And then when I'm calm,
we can go and we can talk to a trusted adult,
a parent to speak about how you're feeling,
because it's really important
to make sure that your emotions
and your feelings are being heard.
So I hope you guys enjoyed making these
just as much as I enjoyed making them with you.
And I hope that whatever you do
and however you're feeling, you get really creative
because creative is an emotion too.
Okay, friends.
Bye-bye, see you later.
(cheery music)
- It's time for movement minute.
(Possum boings)
- Hi, friends.
Welcome to today's Movement Minute.
My name is Coach Catherine.
Today I'll be sharing with you guys ballet arm stretches.
Step one, palms, rise up to the air
and slowly lower back down.
And then single arm, bring your arm across your chest,
hug yourself with one arm, open it back up.
Do the same with your opposite arm.
And then open up nice and big with your two arms.
Bring one arm behind your head, other arm behind your head,
and slowly lower it down.
Nice and slow.
All right guys, that was our ballet arm stretches.
Thank you so much for joining me for today's Movement Minute
and I'll see you guys next time.
Thank you, bye friends.
- Guess what I'm feeling right now, Possum?
- Hmmm, happy.
- Yes, I'm thrilled
we got to talk about our feelings
and I got to show off my rapping skills.
- Mhm, and maybe I'll make Raven a calming jar.
- That's a great idea, Possum.
You can also encourage Raven
to talk to their school counselor
so they can have their own Kerry the caring Koala.
- I will.
Thank you Auntie Lena.
That's a great idea.
- You are welcome, Possum.
And friends, thank you for taking time to look,
listen, and learn with us today.
Remember, you are the best you that the world will ever see.
- Bye for now.
(cheery music)
- As much as we try
to censor children from the hard realities of life,
difficult issues will inevitably come up.
It's crucial to equip children with the skills
to learn how to regulate their emotions,
feel their feelings, and talk it out with a grownup.
Tough life events such as death or divorce
are difficult for anyone to go through.
Healing from those events can be even more difficult,
especially for kids who may experience
their first bitter taste of emotions
such as grief and uncertainty.
Whether it's a children's therapist, the school counselor,
or you, children should be aware of the resources
they have to talk through
and handle tough emotions and situations.
Teaching children to express their emotions
through healthy avenues such as music, art, and cooking
builds a stable relationship
between a child and their feelings.
This can also instill a habit of healthy coping
so your child is prepared
for all the things we never want them to go through
or to deal with and know that they must.
(cheery music)
- [Narrator] "Look, Listen, and Learn"
is brought to you in part by Thistle Theater.
Thistle Theater is a local
professional puppet theater for families.
We feature an ancient Japanese style
of puppetry called tabletop bunraku.
Learn more at thistletheater.org.
(bright music)