(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 ♪
(cheerful piano music continues)
(magical chime)
- Hello, friends. Hello, Possum.
- Oh, hi, Auntie Lena.
- Ooh, what you got there, Possum?
Are you practicing for the opera?
- No, it's the words to the solo
I'm singing in the school concert.
- Oh, that's great, Possum. Congratulations.
- Thanks, Auntie Lena.
- But Possum, you don't seem excited.
- Well..
I love music and singing when I'm alone or with Mama Possum,
but singing in front of a bunch of people I don't know.
Oh, I don't know if I can do it.
- It sounds like you're worried about this, Possum.
Tell me more.
- Well, how am I gonna sing a solo in front of everybody?
And what if I get a note wrong?
Or what if my singing isn't good,
or what if I forget the words? (groans)
- You need some confidence in your singing.
- Confidence? Like feeling good about something?
- Yes. Singing in front of people is new to you.
So naturally you're worried about doing a good job.
- Yeah, I am.
- Listen, Possum, your music teacher
asked you to sing the solo,
so they must have confidence in your singing voice, right?
- My music teacher said they heard me singing
on the playground and thought I'd be good
at singing the solo.
- Well, there you go.
Your teacher has confidence in your voice.
Maybe that can help you feel a little better.
Think about her compliment. How's it feel?
- Well, it feels good.
I feel kinda gooey in my heart.
- Oh, that's sweet, Possum.
You know, I remember you were worried
about playing the concertina in front of people,
but you gave it a try.
- And I practiced and practiced,
and I'm not nervous anymore when I play a concert,
so I just need to do the same thing with singing?
- You got it, Possum.
You're trying new things.
Just like Gabby in the book I read last night.
- Ooh, what's the book called?
And do you wanna read it again with our friends?
- Sure, we can.
It's called "When Gabby Finds Her Song" by Gabby Latimore.
Let's go to the Douglas Truth Library
and listen as Miss Monique reads to us.
(magical chime)
- Hi friends.
- I'm Miss Monique.
- I'm Marcus.
- And today we're reading "When Gabby Finds Her Song"
by Gabby Latimore.
You ready, Marcus? - Yep.
- Did you see the character's name is Gabby
and so is the author.
Do you think maybe it's the same person?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Okay, let's find out.
[Miss Monique] Okay.
Once upon a time in a peaceful town,
there lived a sweet and curious little girl named Gabby,
who loved to explore and dream.
Gabby was a quiet soul,
but she was always listening to the world around her.
She enjoyed hearing the leaves dancing in the wind,
and the rhythmic drops of the mid-day..
- Rain. - Rain, yeah.
Oh, it's coming down in that picture.
And owls hooting throughout the night. What's -
[Marcus] Hoot Hoot. Good job.
That's exactly how an owl sounds. Have you ever seen one?
- Yes. - Yeah, they're cool.
[Miss Monique] Gabby had a deep dream within.
She wanted to discover her voice,
a special melody that was uniquely hers.
What's she doing in that picture?
- Singing. - Yeah. Do you like to sing?
- [Marcus] Yeah.
- Singing is a really good way
to like express how you're feeling.
Is that what you do sometimes?
- Yeah. - Yeah, good.
She longed to share her thoughts and feelings
with the world, but whenever she tried to open her mouth,
her words would hide from her.
One joyous day, as Gabby skipped through her favorite park,
she discovered a secret forest beyond the river!
In the heart of the forest stood a wise old tree
named Harmony.
What do you think of that tree?
Does it look nice?
- And tall. - And tall.
Yeah, it does look like a really tall tree.
- And big.
Let's see what happens.
The mighty tall tree- - See?
- Could feel Gabby's deepest dream
and offered to help her find her voice.
- [Marcus] Close your eyes, dear Gabby.
- [Monique] Harmony whispered,
You wanna do the next part?
- [Marcus] And listen to the music within your heart.
- Yeah.
As Gabby closed her eyes,
she felt a warmth in her heart carrying sweet melodies.
She realized that the music she sought
was already inside her, waiting to be heard.
So what do you think Gabby's gonna do now?
Now that she knows that the music is inside of her?
- Sing to people. - Yeah, she's gonna share it.
You're right.
With each passing day, Gabby began to hum and sing..
- [Marcus] Her own unique tunes to herself.
- Her first time sharing her voice
was with a group of deer in the secret forest
underneath Harmony's branches.
Her melody soon brought all the animals in the forest
to listen as they praised her with delight,
causing Gabby to sing even louder.
Look at all these animals.
What kind of animals do you see on this page?
[Marcus] Fox. [Miss Monique] Mm-hmm.
[Marcus] Robin. [Miss Monique] Mm, good.
What are these? - Deer.
- Deer, yeah.
All the animals came out to hear Gabby sing.
As her melody carried from the forest
to the rest of the town,
everyone was soon enchanted by Gabby's sweet songs.
One sunny afternoon, the townspeople covered the park
with colorful decorations and held a musical celebration
in Gabby's honor.
Isn't that so nice?
All her friends and family came out to hear her sing?
[Marcus] As Gabby stood in front of everyone,
her heart beating with excitement, she opened her mouth
and let the music pour from deep within.
[Miss Monique] As she sang,
all the townspeople were filled with joy
and warmth as her voice touched the hearts of everyone.
From that day forward, Gabby's voice became a cherished
part of the town's melody.
Her dream had finally come true.
She continued to explore the world, sharing her songs
and spreading joy and light wherever she went.
The once quiet girl had found her voice,
and in doing so, she had discovered the power
of self-expression and self love.
She looks really happy. Why do you think she's so happy now?
- Because she found her voice.
- Cause she found her voice, yeah.
[Miss Monique] And so
Gabby lived happily ever after,
with her sweet melodies echoing through the streets.
Remember, we all have a unique song to share with the world.
We just have to look deep with our hearts
to find what has been there all along.
And look, what's the tree doing?
- [Marcus] Winking. - It's winking.
- [Marcus] The end. - Good job.
- Thank you for reading with me today.
- Thank you. You're very welcome.
It was fun.
Why don't we say goodbye to all of our friends?
Ready?
- [Both] Bye, friends.
(magical chime ) - Wow.
Gabby found a lot of confidence in her singing
and sang solos in front of the whole town.
Oh, I hope I can sing my solos as well as Gabby.
- And do you remember how she found her song,
her confidence? - Mm-hmm.
She went to the park and closed her eyes.
- And listened.
- And then she started dreaming about stuff
she'd like to do.
- Dreaming is a great way to imagine yourself
doing something different and doing it well.
- And like me, she enjoyed singing too.
- Trying new things, learning what we like to do
and what we're good at?
It all helps to build a confidence.
- Well, I have confidence in some things,
but how do I get more of it?
And how do we find out what we're good at?
- Well, Possum, like we've talked about before,
you have to try new things.
- Oh, I like trying new things, Auntie Lena.
I just don't know how to choose.
There are so many things that I could try.
- You can do what Gabby did.
Dream about the new things you'd like to try.
I can help you, Possum.
- Oh, I'd like that.
- Okay, first step.
Think about three things you'd like to try.
What are you curious about?
One, two, three, go.
- Oh, um, okay.
Uh, uh, doing a puzzle.
Learning to line dance.
And then, um, oh!
Making a blueberry treat for you.
- Oh, those sound great, Possum. And guess what?
- What?
- My friend, Ms. Suzanne, was going to teach us
how to do a new dance step today.
I can ask her to show us how to line dance.
At Wa Na Wari Art Center with our friends.
- Oh, yippee! (laughs)
(magical chime)
- [Together] Hi, friends.
I'm Miss Suzanne,
and I'm here with my friends today, Sydney and Aziah.
We are at Wa Na Wari Art Center,
and we're gonna teach you how to do a line dance.
I hope you'll join us.
Are you ready, girls?
[Together] Yes.
Let's do it.
Oh, let's freestyle a little bit.
Just warm up to the music. Feel the beat.
To the right.
And one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, to the left.
And one, two, three, four,
five, six, and seven and tap.
Kick right. Kick left, kick right.
And eight little steps.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, to the right, here we go.
And one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, to the left.
Two, three, four,
five, six, seven, kick it out.
Kick right, kick left.
Kick right, kick left. And march.
Two, three, four, five, six.
And one more time to the right. Two, three.
Make it special.
To the left, use your arms.
Two, three, four, yeah.
Kick it out. Kick right, kick left.
Kick right, kick left. Little marches.
Five, six. To the right, to the right.
Let's add your own flavor.
To the left.
Two, three, four,
five, six, seven, kick it out.
And one and two and three.
Take it low on those little steps. Take it low.
Two, three, four, five, six.
Good job, to the right.
Two, three, four,
five, six, seven, to the left.
And one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven.
Girls, you've done such a good job today.
Thank you for dancing with us.
We're almost out. It's time to say goodbye.
Goodbye to our friends at home. Bye, friends.
And five, six. Let's head on out.
Let's go. Let's dance, let's dance, let's dance.
(Possum giggling)
- What's orange and sounds like a parrot?
A carrot.
- What did the snowflake say to the road?
Let's stick together.
- Why was 10 afraid of seven?
Because seven ate nine, ten.
- What gets more wet the more it dries?
A towel!
- What did the triangle say to the circle?
You're pointless.
(magical chime) - Oh, Auntie Lena,
I had so much fun line dancing
with you and our friends,
and now I can do another kind of dance.
- Look at you, Possum.
You're practicing and gaining more confidence
in singing your solo.
You're learning new dance moves.
- Oh, now can we try another new thing?
I'm on a roll!
- (laughs) Okay, Possum. It sounds good to me.
Let's see.
You're already confident in your cooking,
so would you like to try a new recipe?
- Yeah!
- At my berry good blueberry party,
my friend gave me a recipe
to make my very own blueberry cheesecake bites.
- Mm-mm, that sounds really good.
- Yes, it does.
- And can you show me how to make it?
- I've got a better idea.
- But we're still gonna make something to eat though, right?
- Oh, don't worry. Yes, Possum.
My better idea is to go to the Dayo Sense Kwanzaa campus.
And Chef Dayo can show us how to make berry good
blueberry cheesecake bites with our friends.
- Oh, goody good good!
(magical chime)
- [Both] Hi, friends.
- My name is Chef Dayo.
- And my name is Aerin.
- And we are here at the Kwanzaa Campus
in Seattle, Washington.
Today, we are making something that is going to increase
our confidence by dealing with everyday ingredients
from our kitchen.
Are you ready?
- Yes.
- We're going to make a blueberry cheesecake bite,
something that is really, really easy,
but something that you could serve to anybody
and they're gonna love.
Aerin, would you like to introduce to them
what ingredients we are using today?
- Sure.
So we have blueberries, cream cheese,
sour cream, and honey.
- Absolutely.
And the star of the show is our graham crackers.
Nice and easy.
Okay, let's get started.
You wanna break the graham crackers down for me?
Lay it out.
And now we're gonna make our mix.
[Chef Dayo] So the first thing
that we can do is make the
yummy, creamy sweetness
that's gonna go spread all over the graham crackers.
How about you grab up the sour cream
and I'll get the cream cheese.
We'll put it in the bowl together.
Now, the key to this mix
tasting like cheesecake
is you have mainly the cream cheese in there
[Aerin] Mm-hmm
and the sour cream gives it the little tart bite to it.
[Aerin] Mm-hmm
And what makes it
nice and flavorful are a couple of things.
We have vanilla extract
and we're gonna put a couple of drops in.
[Aerin] Mm-hmm
Here you go, I'll twist it off for you.
And you can plop that in there.
Perfect.
And then instead of putting sugar in there,
we are going to put raw honey in there.
If you could pour about two seconds of raw honey in there,
that would be perfect.
One, two.
A little bit more.
Perfect.
There we go.
Now we're gonna work together to mix it up.
Oh, yeah.
(laughs) This is so fun to do.
Cream cheese sometimes comes out the refrigerator
really hard, so when you mix it with the sour cream
and the honey and the vanilla,
it makes it nice and loose and spreadable.
Have you made cheesecake before?
- Yeah.
- Have you? Nice.
The process is a little bit different
when you do it in the oven,
[Aerin] Yeah
[Chef Dayo] isn't it?
Yes, yes.
I love this recipe
because it takes something that is pretty difficult to make,
you know, the big adult sized version of a cheesecake,
and it makes it really simple
that even you can just go in the kitchen
and do yourself and surprise everybody and stuff.
Absolutely.
Okay, well, next thing, you mixed it up really well.
Now we're gonna take our knife
and start spreading it on our graham crackers.
What type of things do you like to cook?
- I made cheesecake before, but with strawberries.
Ooh,
It tastes really good.
- That is yummy. That is yummy.
Well, today I heard that Auntie Lena
had a blueberry party,
and so this is some of the leftover blueberries
from her gathering.
So let's see how this is gonna taste. I love it.
Oh, that's perfect. That's perfect.
Let's do a couple more.
What other things do you like to bake at home?
- I make coffee cake, which is like really good.
- Oh, wow. That sounds so delicious.
- Sometimes I get two pieces without my mom knowing.
- Oh, absolutely.
I mean, that's what it's all about
is kind of sneaking little bites here and there.
[Aerin] Yeah.
I love it.
That is great.
I love baking things as well,
and this is a perfect little bite to have.
Okay, I'm gonna start as you are spreading on
the cheesecake spread,
I'm going to give everybody three blueberries.
- What have you made? Like what do you make?
- I like to make cobblers, which is lots of,
yes, cobblers with cold ice cream with it
is like one of my favorites.
I love making pies as well.
[Aerin] Oh I love pie.
Sweet potato pies.
And I love cheesecakes,
Um, because you could put all sorts
of really fresh fruits on there.
Would you like to put a couple blueberries on there?
- Sure.
- What other fruits do you think would be really good
with this cheesecake bite?
- Sometimes I do raspberries
because they like, like wash them first,
but like, yeah, so they're really good.
- Nice, nice.
Yes, raspberries, strawberries, all sorts of berries.
It just seems like we got a berry theme going on here.
I love it.
[Aerin] Mm-hmm
Well, I think the last thing,
which will be like the little razzle dazzle
that we put on the top will be a little drizzle of honey.
Yes.
So you could get that
and kind of pour it on top of our graham crackers.
Oh, yeah.
[Chef Dayo] Perfect.
Perfect. There we have it.
Did you wanna taste it?
- Sure. - Perfect.
- They're good. - Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. They're gonna love this.
Absolutely.
Erin, it seems like you love cooking different things.
How did you start building your confidence in the kitchen?
- Because I work with my mom a lot and I'm like,
"Okay, I feel like this is not gonna work out."
And then we try, and then I just try new things, so.
- Yes. Yes.
That's exactly what I absolutely love
about cooking in the kitchen.
You can bring family together,
learn from your older family members,
and then even if you mess up, you just learn real quick
what works or what doesn't work,
and you know exactly what to do next.
Sometimes you make even better recipe if you do that.
- Yeah. Thank you for making me blueberry cheesecake bites.
- It was such a pleasure working with you, Aerin.
Hope this was nice and easy for you
and it's definitely yummy.
- Yeah. - Cheers.
(Dayo imitating clinking)
Let's say goodbye to our friends.
- [Both] Bye friends.
- [Possum] It's time for Movement Minute.
(bouncing)
- Hi, friends.
I'm Coach Charmaine, and welcome to Movement Minute.
Today, we're gonna be working your upper body.
So for this, you're going to need two cans
from your kitchen.
The first one we're going to do is a bicep curl.
So your palms face up, you bend your arms,
and then you bring your fists closer to your shoulders,
trying to move as slow as you can,
bringing your hands closer to your shoulders.
Next we're going to do a shoulder press.
So your arms go to a goalpost, palms face forward,
and then you're going to punch up towards the ceiling
and then back down to a goalpost again,
moving as slow as you can,
keeping your palms facing forward.
And next, let's add a twist.
So you go to your goalpost,
bring your right arm to your left leg,
and then go to the other side, left arm to your right leg,
making sure you're twisting to each side.
And that is your Movement Minute for today.
So thank you for joining me, and I'll see you next time.
(magical chime)
- Well, what did you think of your blueberry
cheesecake bites, Possum?
- Oh, yum, yum, yummy! It's totally awesome.
Oh, try yours!
- Oh, yeah. Okey doke, I sure will. Let's see.
(Auntie Lena humming)
Ooh!
They are scrump delicious, Possum!
You know, you've also tried another new thing now.
- Oh, I sure did.
- You know, it's almost time to go,
but I have one more thing I'd like to share with you today.
- Oh, okay. What is it?
- (laughs) Da da da da!
- Auntie Lena, it's a puzzle!
The last thing on my list!
- It sure is, Possum.
I knew I couldn't go wrong picking this one out for you.
- Oh, me and Mama Possum could do it right now.
- Well, yes you can, Possum.
But first, let's say goodbye to our friends.
- Oh, right. (laughs)
And I forgot to say thank you, Auntie Lena.
(Possum clears throat)
Thank you for helping me with my confidence.
- You're welcome, Possum.
And friends, thank you for taking the time to look,
listen, and learn with us today.
Remember, you're the best you that the world will ever see.
- Bye for now! - Bye-bye
- Now for Auntie Lena's Parent Tip.
- If I asked you to name three things that you're good at
with a "One, two, three, go,"
how long would it take you to come up with your list?
Like Possum, we all have things we don't mind doing,
but we're not fully confident about.
Helping early learners find comfort with their discomfort
can help deepen their sense of self-awareness
to ensure they feel confident and set up for success.
Auntie Lena reminded Possum
that his teacher was already an admirer of his talents.
All he needed to do was find his own confidence.
These types of intentional conversations
and experiences help children broaden their self-awareness
and self-determination.
When we help our early learners master a ,
throwing in a "You're so good at X, Y, Z,"
or asking them, "Tell me how you did that,"
gets them talking about the process.
Building our confidence through identifying our strengths
and talents is a clear path
to helping one ease on down the road
to being the best that they can be.
(cheery music)
(cheery music continues)
- [Announcer] "Look, Listen, and Learn" is brought to you
in part by Thistle Theatre.
Thistle Theater is a local professional puppet theater
for families.
We feature an ancient Japanese style of puppetry
called Tabletop Bunraku.
Learn more at thistletheatre.org.