- [Both] 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?

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

- Hi, everybody.

My name is Stacey and I'm a teacher.

I live in Brooklyn.

And like you probably are, I'm at home, and I'm very excited to read one of my favorite stories to you.

Maybe you've read it before.

It's called "Corduroy", and it was written and illustrated by Don Freeman.

"Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the toy department of a big store.

Day after day he waited with all the other animals and dolls for somebody to come along and take him home.

The store was always filled with shoppers buying all sorts of things, but no one ever seemed to want a small bear in green overalls."

So many, shoppers, right?

"Then one morning a little girl stopped and looked straight into Corduroy's bright eyes.

'Oh, Mommy!'

she said.

'Look!

There's the very bear I've always wanted.'

'Not today, dear,' her mother sighed.

'I've spent too much already.

Besides, he doesn't look new.

He's lost the button to one of his shoulder straps.'"

So what did the mom mean when she said she spent too much already?

What do you think she meant?

I wonder if she meant she spent too much money already.

And I do see that she's holding a lot of packages, so I bet that's what she meant.

And she noticed that Corduroy's button on one of his shoulder straps was missing.

"Corduroy watched them sadly as they walked away."

So the story told us that Corduroy was sad, but what about the little girl?

Take a look at her face.

How do you think she's feeling?

"'I didn't know I'd lost a button,' Corduroy said to himself.

'Tonight I'll go and see if I can find it.'

Late that evening, when all the shoppers had gone and the doors were shut and locked, Corduroy climbed carefully down from his shelf and began searching everywhere on the floor for his lost button.

Have you ever lost something?

Especially something small?

Could you show me how you might look for that?

'Cause I might go like this.

Look all around my floor looking for a tiny, tiny little thing.

Can you do that?

Let's see what happens with Corduroy.

"Suddenly, he felt the floor moving under him!

Quite by accident he had stepped onto an escalator, and up he went!"

Have you ever been on an escalator?

"'Could this be a mountain?'

he wondered.

'I think I've always wanted to climb a mountain.'

He stepped off the escalator as it reached the next floor, and there, before his eyes, was a most amazing sight, tables and chairs and lamps and sofas, and rows and rows of beds.

'This must be a palace!'

Corduroy gasped.

'I guess I've always wanted to live in a palace.'

He wandered around admiring the furniture.

'This must be a bed,' he said.

'I've always wanted to sleep in a bed.'

And up he crawled onto a large, thick mattress.

All at once he saw something small and round."

Can you go like this and show me what something small and round might look like?

"'Why, here's my button!'

he cried.

And he tried to pick it up.

But like all the other buttons on the mattress, it was tied down tight.

He yanked and pulled with both paws until POP!

Off came the button, and off the mattress Corduroy toppled."

Toppled.

What does toppled mean?

I think it means he fell.

"Bang, into a tall floor lamp.

Over it fell with a crash!"

Look what Corduroy's doing with his hands.

Do you ever do that?

I do that sometimes when something is way too loud for me.

"Corduroy didn't know it, but there was someone else awake in the store.

The night watchman was going his rounds on the floor above."

What do you think going his rounds means?

I wonder.

I think it means he was going all around the store to make sure everything was safe.

So he was going his rounds on the floor above.

"When he heard the crash, he came dashing down the escalator.

'Now who in the world did that!'

he exclaimed.

'Somebody must be hiding around here!'

He flashed his light under and over sofas and beds until he came to the biggest bed of all.

And there he saw two fuzzy brown ears sticking up from under the cover.

Do you know who those ears belong to?

"'Hello!'

he said.

'How did you get upstairs?'

The watchman tucked Corduroy under his arm and carried him down the escalator and set him on the shelf in the toy department with all the other animals and dolls.

Corduroy was just waking up."

Can you wake up with me?

Oh!

Stretch and yawn!

"Corduroy was just waking up when the first customers came into the store in the morning.

And there, looking at him with a wide, warm smile, was the same little girl he'd seen only the day before.

'I'm Lisa,' she said, 'and you're going to be my very own bear.

Last night I counted what I've saved in my piggy bank and my mother said I could bring you home.'

'Shall I put him in a box for you?'

the saleslady asked.

'Oh, no, thank you,' Lisa answered.

And she carried Corduroy home in her arms."

Why do you think Lisa didn't wanna put Corduroy in a box?

I wonder why.

I think that she thought Corduroy would be happier in her arms and maybe it felt good for her to snuggle Corduroy.

She ran all the way up four flights of stairs into her family's apartment, and straight to her own room."

How does Lisa look now?

Can you see her face?

"Corduroy blinked.

There was a chair and a chest of drawers, and alongside a girl-size bed stood a little bed just the right size for him.

The room was small, nothing like that enormous palace in the department store.

'This must be home,' he said.

'I know I've always wanted a home!'

Lisa sat down with Corduroy on her lap and began to sew a button on his overalls.

'I like you the way you are,' she said, 'but you'll be more comfortable with your shoulder strap fastened.'

'You must be a friend,' said Corduroy.

'I've always wanted a friend.'

'Me too!'

said Lisa, and gave him a big hug.

That's the end.

I was thinking about that we could give ourselves a big hug, and maybe you have a stuffy somewhere in your house.

And I brought some of my daughter's stuffies out to show you.

This is a little bear.

I'm gonna give him a hug.

This is Piggy.

Piggy's very soft.

He has a very soft belly.

And I'm gonna give Piggy a hug too.

And this is a little kitty.

It's actually a puppet.

And what do you notice about this little kitty?

Hello.

I'm Kitty.

Kitty has a little baby.

Do you see that?

Look at that.

Kitty has a kitten.

She's always hugging her baby and kissing.

And I'm gonna put the baby kitty back here and I'm gonna give them both a big gentle hug.

I love you.

I'm gonna put them back where they were so they're comfortable.

And I'm just gonna say that I hope you get lots of hugs every day.

And you can always ask a trusted adult for a hug if you need one, 'cause hugs are just the best.

Thank you for hanging out with me and reading "Corduroy".

See you soon.

- Hi, movers and shaker, this is Violet, and I'm gonna sing one of my favorite songs, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes".

And my friend Nico is going to join us and sing some in Spanish as well.

You can sing in whatever language you want, but can you stand up straight or sit up straight and get ready to dance and move with me?

All right.

♪ Head shoulders knees and toes ♪ ♪ Knees and toes ♪ Head shoulders knees and toes ♪ ♪ Knees and toes ♪ Eyes and ears and mouth and nose ♪ ♪ Head shoulders knees and toes ♪ ♪ Knees and toes [Nico singing in Spanish] ♪ Eyes and ears and mouth and nose ♪ ♪ Head shoulders knees and toes ♪ ♪ Knees and toes Thanks, everyone!

[pleasant upbeat music] - Hello, friends.

My name is Ms. Archie, and I'm a teacher in New York City.

Right now, I work as a universal literacy reading coach in Brooklyn, New York, and I support kindergarten, first and second grade teachers.

Today, we're gonna share reading a book together and at the very end, we're gonna write a sentence together.

So right now, if you can make sure you have paper and anything to write with nearby, you'll be ready after the reading activity.

Today, we're gonna read parts of a book called "Insects".

This book is non-fiction, or informational text, and I'm sure you remember in your own class with your teacher and doing remote learning you might've talked about informational texts.

These books are books that we can learn something or learn information about a topic.

They're not made up stories.

So what might this book give us information about?

Different types of insects?

I think so too.

I'm gonna think out loud and tell you why I think you and I both had the same idea.

I know we see butterflies on the cover, but we know it's not all about butterflies because the book would be called "Butterflies".

It's called "Insects", so definitely I think we're gonna be learning information about different kinds of insects.

So we're gonna read parts of the book from my chart.

I've put the text on the chart this way so that we can practice doing a few things.

We're gonna be reading smoothly and fluently together.

Also, this book is a little bit like a riddle.

They're gonna be describing things that an insect does and we're gonna use what we know about insects to predict what insect they might be talking about.

Also, we're gonna be looking and being detectives for compound words.

Those are words that have a small word and another small word, and when you put them together, it makes a new word.

Toward the end of the text that we read today, you're going to notice a vocabulary word.

Can you say habitat?

Yes.

Do you remember the meaning of that word?

That's right.

It's the natural home or environment where a plant or animal lives, so when we get to that word, remember the definition.

Remember as we read, we are gonna be listening for clues that might tell us what insect the text might be describing.

This will make us think deeply about what we already know about insects as we're reading.

We're also gonna be on the lookout for compound words.

When you see one, put your finger up in the air.

"Insects" by Laura Appleton-Smith.

This is an excerpt.

"This insect has strong back legs.

Its strong legs help it to hop in the grass."

Your turn.

I'm gonna think out loud and say I'm thinking I know what this insect might be.

I know of an insect that has strong legs, and I know of an insect that might hop in the grass.

Let's see if you're thinking the same thing that I am.

"This insect is a grasshopper."

Did you put your finger in the air?

Yes.

Grass, Hopper.

Grasshopper.

We found a compound word.

Let's continue.

"This little insect has wing caps with spots.

The wing caps can be red and the spots can be black.

Your turn.

I'm thinking out loud again.

I think I do know a little insect that might have wing caps that are red and spots that are black.

I think I'm visualizing.

Can you visualize that insect?

Let's see if we have a prediction that is correct.

"This insect is a ladybug."

Did you put your finger in the air again?

What did you see?

Compound word.

Lady, bug.

Ladybug.

Wow.

We have a grasshopper.

We have a ladybug.

Let's see what's coming next.

"This insect has fuzz on its body.

It collects pollen in the fuzz baskets on its legs."

Right.

Are you thinking the same thing?

I'm pretty sure I know of an insect that does collect pollen and is a little fuzzy.

Let's see if we're correct.

"This insect is a bumblebee."

Is that what you thought it was?

Me too.

Compound word.

You got it.

Bumble, bee.

Bumblebee.

Let's continue with the last part.

Here we go.

"This insect has a long slim body.

It has net-like wings.

Its habitat is next to ponds and rivers.

This one is a little tricky.

Long, slim body.

Net-like wings.

Its habitat, where it lives, is near water.

I'm not sure.

Do you have an idea of what insect that might be?

Let's read and see.

"This insect is a dragonfly".

Compound word.

Dragon, fly.

Dragonfly.

Wow, amazing.

We just read about a grasshopper and what did we learn?

Oh, we learned that it can hop in grass, and we predicted, we thought about it hopping, we thought about an insect that had strong back legs.

Then we, we learned about, yes, ladybugs, and we found that compound word.

And we thought about an insect that might be red and have black spots.

I saw it in my mind.

We also learned a little bit about fuzz baskets on the legs of a bumblebee.

And the last insect, I wasn't quite too sure, I'm not sure about you.

Oh, yes, dragonflies, and their habitat near ponds and rivers.

Now you're gonna read the entire text along with me.

Follow my pointer.

We're gonna read smoothly with expression without stopping.

Here we go.

"This insect has strong back legs.

Its strong legs help it to hop in the grass.

This insect is a grasshopper.

This little insect has wing caps with spots.

The wing caps can be red and the spots can be black.

This insect is a ladybug.

This insect has fuzz on its body.

It collects pollen in the fuzz baskets on its legs.

This insect is a bumblebee.

This insect has a long, slim body.

It has net-like wings.

Its habitat is next to ponds and rivers.

This insect is a dragonfly.

You did a wonderful job.

All right, buddies.

The last thing we're gonna do together is write a quick sentence that has to do with the text that we just read.

Write your sentence on the very bottom of your page so that you have space at the top to draw a detailed picture and label it later.

Do you remember our vocabulary word?

That's right.

Habitat.

How about we add some information to this text?

Where do bumblebees live?

In a hive?

Okay, so maybe we can write a sentence just like the book.

It could be this insect lives in a hive.

How about that?

Okay.

So I'm gonna dictate the sentence and you're going to write, and at the end we'll check it here on my chart.

First word.

This.

Next word.

Insect.

Insect.

Okay.

This insect.

Next word.

Lives.

This insect lives.

Next two words.

Easy.

In, a.

Okay.

This insect lives in a.

Last word.

Hive.

I hear a long I. Hive.

Okay.

Check that you have proper capitalization and you've put punctuation at the end of your sentence.

You're ready to check?

Let's do it.

Here we go.

This.

Insect.

All right.

This insect.

Lives.

Lives.

In.

In.

A.

Last word.

Hive.

Silent E. We have that long I.

And at the end of my sentence, yes, a period.

Let's read it back and you check yours.

This insect lives in a hive.

The last thing I'm gonna ask that you do, after the show, go back and make a very detailed drawing.

Everything that you could imagine.

The hive, the bumblebee.

What else might you add?

A tree where the hive is hanging.

Oh, flowers, where the bumblebee is getting pollen and filling up their fuzz basket.

Exactly.

So go back, make sure your sentence is correct, draw a detailed drawing, and the last thing you're gonna do is label everything you can on your picture.

I have had a wonderful time reading and writing with you today.

Until next time, have a wonderful day.

[bright casual music] - Hi, I'm Helena, and I have an amazing husband, Andrew, and a wonderful daughter, Leah.

Leah is very loving and caring.

There's such a range of emotions that I think children go through and that I know Leah must go through during the day, and so we try to provide an environment for her where she can express those feelings back to us in a safe place.

Before we go to sleep, we always ask her is there anything that you wanna talk about?

How was your day today?

- Sad.

- Why was it sad?

- Because they're older than me- - And we make sure that she understands that there's no judgment, and it's a safe zone.

It's a safe place that she can feel comfortable sharing whatever she wants to share.

And we always end it with some form of love, some form of saying even thank you for where we are.

And once you have that hug, you're calm, you're comfortable, and you'll fall asleep.

It continuously helps her grow.

She's learning that she can come to her parents at any time for anything.

And along with that, she's learning compassion, kindness, how to communicate with others.

This is not only helping her at home, but it's helping her in school, especially with her classwork, with her teachers, and, of course, all her friends.

[bright casual music] [pleasant upbeat music] - Hi there, I'm Liz, and I'm here to do some science.

I hope you like experiments.

Good.

So we're going to do three experiments today.

Just to remember how many, let's tap our heads three times.

You can do it with me.

Ready?

One, two, three experiments.

And I was thinking, what kind of experiments should we do?

And then I thought, well, I'm in my house, and lately I've been spending a lot of time in my house.

What about you?

So I was noticing that when I'm inside my house, I don't really notice and feel as much weather as I do when I go outside.

It never gets super cold or super hot, and it doesn't rain inside my house.

So I don't wear things that I might wear in the rain, like, what's something that we wear in the rain?

Maybe we wear rain boots or a raincoat or a rain hat.

And I have something here and I bet you can guess what it is.

It's something that we don't wear in the rain, but we use in the rain, we open it up and put it over our head so that it doesn't rain on top of us.

Can you guess what I have?

Right.

An umbrella.

So we don't usually open up an umbrella in the house because it doesn't rain in the house, but I thought we can pretend, and we could maybe learn a little bit about rain and do an experiment right in our homes.

Ready?

What is rain?

Rain is part of the water cycle.

There is collection, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.

Precipitation is rain.

Can you say precipitation?

When a cloud gets heavy, gravity draws its water droplets down to the ground.

For our experiment, we're going to take a pretend cloud and put some droplets in there.

Do you think that drops will come down when they get heavy?

What do you predict?

So we have what we need for this experiment.

Shaving cream, a clear bowl or jar of water, and some food coloring.

Now I have a spoon in the food coloring.

You can also use a dropper.

So we make the pretend cloud.

Kinda looks like a cloud, right?

And then we put in our droplets.

Let's see what happens when the droplets get heavy.

The more we put in, the heavier it will be.

What do you see happening?

Oh, I see that they're coming down.

It's almost like rain.

I see individual drops coming down.

Do you like to be out in the rain?

What do you like to do in the rain?

This almost looks like a rainstorm.

It's filling up.

Now we're going to make a tornado.

Can you say tornado?

Great.

For this, we need two bottles, and some water, and some tape.

And if you like, we can also add in some additional things like glitter or coloring or whatever you might have around your house.

So what is a tornado?

A tornado is a type of weather that often forms a funnel shape.

And there are three things that we need in order to have a tornado form.

First are droplets of water like those that form thunderstorm clouds, and air, when moist air that's warm meets with dry air that's cold, and wind.

When there are changes of wind direction, it causes the air to move around in a circle.

What do you think will happen if we put water and air and a circular movement together in a bottle?

Let's try that.

For our materials, we have two bottles.

These are two 2L bottles.

And then also some strong tape.

Now for the water droplets, we'll turn on our sink and take one of the bottles and fill it up about two thirds of the way with water.

If it's two thirds with water, that means it's one third with air, so the bottle will have both air and water in it.

And that's approximately two thirds of the way with water.

And now we put one bottle right on top of the other, and we'll put those together with tape.

Then we just need our circular motion to represent the wind.

And right here, I have the two bottles on top of each other, the tape in the middle, the water right here, and we just have to flip it over and spin it.

And let's see.

Look at that.

We can also add some glitter.

And I'm gonna add some silver, and some blue, and put it right inside the water.

Now let's think about what happens when water gets really, really cold.

Now water is a liquid, and when it gets really cold, less than 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius, it turns into a solid.

Do you know what that solid's called?

Ice.

So ice is water that's frozen.

If we put water in the freezer, it can turn into ice.

Something else we might have in our house is salt.

So we're going to make some ice and have some salt, and we're going to do an experiment together.

So the weather that causes water to turn to ice is freezing weather.

I wonder if salt will somehow make that ice different.

Let's check it out.

So for this experiment, we need salt, and ice, and food coloring.

So here, I touch the top of the ice and it's very smooth.

Cold and smooth.

What do you think will happen if we take the salt and put it on top?

Let's try it.

Take some salt and put it right on the ice.

What do you think will happen?

Let's try some more.

Can you make a prediction?

Can you think of what will happen to the ice if it has salt?

So give it a moment and then I'll touch.

Do we think it's still going to be smooth on top?

It feels very rough.

And the salt is disappearing that I don't see the salt anymore, but I see little holes in the ice, like little craters.

Now we can take the food coloring and we can pour it right on top.

Whoa.

Look at how the food coloring goes in all of those little holes.

Why do you think there are holes in the ice now?

What happened?

Let me try some more.

Now does that ice look smooth?

Not anymore.

Let's try another color.

We'll put some green.

What colors do you like?

If you try this at home, you can use any colors you like and you can make some beautiful designs on your ice.

I find that that ice that was so smooth now has lots of holes in it.

And do you know why it has holes?

It's because the salt makes the ice melt.

So the places where the salt landed, it went right into the ice and made little holes.

And those holes can be designed just the way you like.

So I hope you try this with your favorite colors.

I'm gonna try a little bit of orange on here too.

Ooh.

And this is how you can melt your ice and you can make something pretty.

Thanks for joining me for science today.

We got to make a pretend rainstorm and a pretend tornado, and we got to see how salt melts some ice.

We also got to learn a little bit about the actual weather, and I hope you never stop learning and exploring.

So before we go, I would love to hear about your favorite type of weather.

So when I say go, I'd like you to shout out what is your favorite type of weather.

Ready?

Go!

I like that kind too.

Well, thanks for joining me, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Bye-bye!

[pleasant upbeat music] - I'm Joy from Bedtime Math.

Today, we're gonna use some red and white squares to recreate some fun puzzles.

And we may even race against the clock to see how fast we can shuffle these shapes.

I've invited some of my friends to help me play these puzzles.

I have my friend, Peyton, Lindsey, Madison, Juliana, Samantha, and Kira.

We'll need some supplies.

Print out for the white squares, the red squares, and the red and white squares, printouts for the puzzles, and a pair of scissors.

Don't worry if you don't have a printer at home.

Later on in the show, I'll show you how to make all your own squares and puzzles.

Let's start by cutting out our shapes.

- [Announcer] Ask a trusted adult for help using scissors.

- Let's do a couple of puzzles together so we can be pros at shuffling our shapes.

We'll start with this puzzle here.

Now I like to go square by square across the row.

So start here with a solid white square.

Which way should we turn this?

It's a red and white one.

Which way?

Like that, yeah.

And this one is gonna be the mirror image.

And another white square over here.

Okay, which way should we turn this one?

That's not it.

Nope, not yet.

There it is.

Okay, and then... Yep, that matches.

We've made one side.

And then one side here.

Now we have the bottom.

So let's continue and make the top.

Now let's try another one.

We'll do this checkerboard puzzle.

So it starts with red.

Now that we're pros at shuffling our shapes, let's have a race.

Team 1: Lindsay, Kira, and Samantha.

Ready, set, go!

Good job, players.

Next team up is Juliana, Payton, and Madison.

Ready.

Set.

Go!

Good job, teams.

Let's see who shuffled those shapes the fastest.

Team 1 shuffled its shapes in an average of 30 seconds.

Team 2 shuffled its shapes in an average of 26 seconds.

30 minus 26 is 4 seconds.

So Team 2 shuffled its shapes 4 seconds faster than Team 1.

[children cheering] If you don't have a printer, you can gather some school supplies to make your own puzzles and squares.

You'll need a pencil, crayons, paper, a ruler, and some scissors.

Now that we have our supplies, let's make the grid for our puzzles.

It's four rows of four squares each for 16 total squares.

So you're gonna take your ruler.

Lay it like so on the paper.

And make a dot at the 0 line, the 1 line, 2, 3, and 4.

And repeat all the way around the square, each time putting the 0 mark on the existing dot.

And then we're gonna connect all of these dots to make our four by four grid.

Take your crayon.

I like red, but you can use any color you want and draw your design.

Just like that.

But you be creative and make whatever designs make you happy.

The playing pieces are made in a similar way, except this time, you'll mark your grid at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 to make two-inch squares.

Make one grid and leave it white for the white squares, make a second grid and color it red for the red squares, then make a third grid, but this time also make diagonal lines through each square to create the red and white pieces.

You'll color the bottom triangle red in each square.

You'll end up with three sheets of 16 squares each.

Just cut them up and you're ready to play.

I hope you had fun today shuffling your shapes.

You can play alone, play with friends, play against a clock, or just have fun.

Thanks for playing.

Bye!

[bright casual music] [translator speaking in Spanish] - How was your day today?

- Sad.

- Why was it sad?

[translator speaking in Spanish] [bright casual music] [pleasant upbeat music] [umbrellas flapping] - It's a swarm of bats!

- Hello!

- Hi!

- I'm Siobhan, and I work at the education department at the New Victory Theater, and this is my husband.

- Hi.

I'm her husband, Jesus.

- And today we're gonna teach you some scary sounds.

So first we'll teach you a few so you have a bank of scary sounds.

Then we'll show you a little clip that we created with those sounds.

And feel free to copy us or create your own.

So let's begin.

Okay, so first we're gonna do weather, like rain, 'cause what scary scene isn't good with a good spooky, scaryness of gloomy weather.

So to do this, you'll need a tray, kinda like a metal tray or like one of these little, we use these for bread, I think.

And rice.

- Uncooked rice.

- Uncooked.

I mean, that's a whole new sound effect, but we won't go there.

So rain.

So first you take your tray and you hold it.

Can you be the rain?

- Yes, I shall be the rain.

- So first, let's think about a little drizzle.

So you could actually take a few in your hand.

And then it starts to rain.

[tray rattling] Yeah.

Maybe it starts to pour.

[tray rattling crescendos] And then maybe, I don't...

I mean, wow, wow, wow.

- It's raining pretty hard outside.

- Next is a creepy door.

Now, if you happen to have, not a creepy door, a creaky door.

[door creaking] - Scary.

- So scary.

Now, if all the doors in your house are perfect, smooth, don't make a sound, you could sneak in and out of everywhere, we have a solution for you.

Don't you fret.

All you need is.

- A plastic cup.

Second tool you're gonna need is your hands.

Now let me show you why.

I place the cup right at the palm of my hand.

The base of the cup right at the palm of my hand, like this.

And then what you do is twist.

[cup creaking] Oh, my goodness.

That's a scary sound.

Let's try that again.

Ready?

Place it at the palm of your base.

Base of your palm.

Then you twist.

[cup creaking] Ooh!

- Who there?

Who is it?

The next sound we're gonna teach you is a swarm of bats.

- Scary.

- So scary.

Now, if you don't have bats at home, don't panic.

We got you.

We're gonna do it with umbrellas.

Okay, so what you do is you get it, I know, don't be superstitious, the superstition is actually when you put it over your head if you are really panicked.

Okay, here we go.

Do you have your bat ready?

- My bat's ready.

[umbrellas flapping] It's a swarm of bats!

- And then if you want to add more, you could squeak.

[squeaking] - Oh, my goodness!

- A swarm of bats.

Next one, you could actually use as a prank or as a part of your new scary video.

- The only thing you're going to need is a MetroCard.

Make sure it's empty and it didn't come from your parent's wallet.

- And if it has to, you need to ask first.

- Yes.

So what you're gonna do with this MetroCard is you're going to fold it over a few times left and right, left and right so that way it looks like in a zigzag position like this.

And then all you have to do is just push it up so it looks like this.

- Like a little bridge.

- And place it in your hand like that.

You wanna make sure the arch is facing up.

Then you roll your fingers over like this.

And then you go, wow, I think my neck is like hurting a little bit.

I think I slept on it wrong last night.

[card snaps] Oh!

Ow.

See?

Works just like that.

[card snaps] Ooh.

[card snaps] Ah.

So you're gonna need to twist it every time, [card snaps] ah, so that way that arch is always facing up on your palm so you can squeeze it like that.

So as soon as you squeeze it, you can flip it right over because it's already arched again, and then, [card snaps] ah, bone cracking.

But if you don't have MetroCards or all your MetroCards are full of money, you can use a plastic bottle, an empty plastic bottle, of course.

- Yes, empty.

- And you can twist it around to make those cracking sounds.

- So add some bone cracking to your scary video.

Three.

Two.

One.

Action.

[pan rattling] - That's weird.

I didn't know it was gonna rain today.

Okay.

Wait, even weirder, the rain just stopped out of nowhere.

[cup creaking] Hello?

Someone there?

[pan rattling] What is that?

[floor thumping] [monster grunting] Whoa!

- And that's it for the scary sounds.

[casual music] - Hello, my name is Liz, and I'm a teaching artist at the New Victory Theater.

I'm a teaching artist, circus artist, and I do magic, and here we are in my Connecticut home and workspace.

So I thought it would be fun to show you some of the amazing sequined, colorful and beautiful costumes, circus props and hats that I use when I'm performing my art form.

Today, I'm going to teach you two very simple fun magic tricks that you can practice and you can perform for all the family that you're hanging out with.

So what do you say?

Should we have some fun?

The first trick I'm gonna teach you is the amazing disappearing toothpick.

So first I'll show you.

Now to teach you how it's done, it's very easy.

All you need is a roll of scotch tape and a toothpick.

The first thing you do while no one's looking is you actually tape a toothpick to your thumb.

So a small piece of scotch tape is on my thumbnail.

To set it up, I turn my hand like this, I bend down my thumb, so the toothpick is sticking straight up, I'm gonna cover the tape with my pointer finger, close the other three fingers around, and this is what the audience sees.

And now the trick.

To do the trick, I wave my hands once, twice, three times, and then pop!

I open my hand very fast.

Then I wave my hand and close my hand very fast.

And that is the amazing disappearing toothpick.

For our second magic trick, we're going to do the incredible floating pencil, and all you need for this trick is a pencil and one of your hands.

I'm gonna use my left hand and demonstrate.

If I squeeze my wrist really, really tight, I can make this pencil float.

And now this is how you set it up.

Put your pencil in one hand, close your hand like this.

As you're bringing up your other hand and grabbing your wrist, you get your pointer finger ready to hold onto the pencil.

So as you slowly open up the other fingers, you're holding that pencil midair with your pointer finger.

Now for more dramatic effect, you can wiggle the pencil.

So to the audience, it looks like this.

And then to end the trick, I bend my knees and catch the pencil for a more dramatic ending.

So let's do it one more time.

And that's the incredible floating pencil.

So I hope you had fun learning the magic tricks today.

They do take a little bit of practice.

And in fact, I'm a little thirsty.

Do you mind if I have a drink of water?

Thanks.

Have a magical day.

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

[pleasant upbeat music] [light theme music]