(crickets chirping) >>Hey there, friends!

>>We're so glad you joined us today!

>>(chuckles) We sure are and as always, we've got so much learning to do together.

>>Okay, well, come take a spin with us.

>>Come on and spin!

♪ Come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ Welcome to Songs and Stories!

>>With Mary and Mike!

>>Where we tell the stories of music.

>>And we share the music of all people.

So, are you still dizzy from that merry-go-round?

(Mary laughs) >>A little bit, but I love the feeling of spinning.

>>Me, too, and I love things that spin like my pinwheel.

(blows air) Or my helicopter or my spinning sound toy.

(toy whistles) (Mary laughs) >>My goodness, Mike, you have a lot of things that spin!

>>I love it!

>>And that's wonderful because in today's episode, we are going to be focusing on the sound of spinning, that energy that happens when something spins, a song that sounds like spinning, and we're going to learn how to make something that spins.

>>Oh, perfect.

Today we have our teacher friend, Ms. Thomas.

And she's gonna teach us how to make something, a toy that spins.

>>And we don't know what it is but we know it spins and we can play with it!

>>Yes!

>>Yes, we're so excited to learn!

>>So let's go meet her right now!

>>Let's get to it.

Hi, Ms. Thomas!

>>Hi, how are you?

>>Thanks for joining us today.

>>Yes we're doing great.

And we're just so excited to have you here and so excited to learn with you today.

>>I'm excited too, I can't wait.

>>(giggles) So we have had the pleasure of knowing you for several years, but I have some questions so that our viewers can get to know you as well.

So first, where are you from originally if that's different from where you live now?

>>It actually is different.

I was born in a southern city called New Orleans, and it's in the state of Louisiana.

And when I was a kid, I moved around, a bunch, a bunch, a bunch, but now I live in Charlottesville, Virginia.

>>Excellent, excellent.

Wow, New Orleans.

It's like the home of jazz.

>>Yeah.

>>I've always wanted to go there.

>>And delicious food, too!

(Ms. Thomas laughs) >>Mm, I like that.

Speaking of food, what is your favorite dessert?

>>This might be the hardest question that you've asked me.

(Mike and Mary laugh) So many desserts but I think that my favorite dessert is actually a New Orleans treat.

It's called a snowball, but I like it stuffed.

So it's shaved ice with flavor and then ice cream in the middle.

It's so delicious.

>>What?

>>I have never heard of this dessert before.

>>It's so great and it's perfect for a hot summer day.

It's so good.

>>We are gonna have to get those!

(laughing) >>I know!

I was like, I've heard of all desserts, right?

Like I'm a sweets person, there's no way, but no, I've never heard of a snowball.

That's incredible.

>>So good.

(laughs) (Mary groans) >>Now I want one.

Okay, well, thank you so much.

We are so excited to be learning together with you today and we'll check in with you a little later.

>>Sounds great.

>>Awesome.

>>All right.

>>Let's get warmed up!

(blows faintly) (crickets chirping) (chuckles) Friends, I was standing here, blowing on this pinwheel and thinking, hmm, could I move my body like a spinning pinwheel?

Let's try it!

Stand up with me and this part of our body doesn't move.

It's the stick.

But our arms are going to start to make circles around us.

So let's start by our side with one arm making small circles and with each rotation, make your circle a little bigger.

Get it bigger, bigger till your arm is fully stretched to its full length!

Oh, that feels so good!

All right, now put that one down and do the other arm.

Small circles, remember.

And get bigger and bigger with each rotation.

Are you almost fully stretched out?

Here we go.

Big stretches!

Nice job!

Can we do both arms at the same time?

Oh, my goodness, here we go!

We're a pinwheel!

(laughs) Nice big stretches!

Oh, good job.

Now, boys and girls, let's end together.

We're gonna take an inhale through our nose and stretch.

(breathes deeply) (exhales loudly) Nice job.

Hmm, I wonder if there are other ways we could spin?

>>Let's make music!

>>Let's make music!

>>I love making music.

(Mary laughs) >>I do, too.

Friends, Mike is going to play a rhythm on the drum and I want you to join me with a steady beat right here.

(rhythmic drumming) Nice.

Now I'm going to start chanting some words.

I want you to just listen.

♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ >>Nice job.

>>That's a great word, Sarasponda.

>>It is a great word!

Sarasponda.

>>Sarasponda.

>>Sarasponda?

(laughs) It has lots of S sounds in there, doesn't it?

>>Yes.

>>All right, well now can you do it with us?

Did you notice the pattern of those words that I was speaking?

Hmm, how many times do you say Sarasponda before the ret set set part?

Let's do it together and find out.

You ready?

Here we go.

(rhythmic drumming) Ready?

♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ >>Oh, did you join us?

We say Sarasponda three times and then ret set set!

(laughs) Nice job!

>>Well, Sarasponda, does Sarasponda mean something?

>>Sarasponda.

You know, as far as we know, that word doesn't mean anything but it's a word that's made to sound like a big spinning wheel!

>>A spinning wheel!

And we're spinning today!

>>We're spinning today.

>>That's great!

>>And Sarasponda is made to sound like spinning wheels.

>>So what's a spinning wheel?

>>You may be wondering.

(giggles) Which is why we went to our local library, got this book so that we could show you a picture of a spinning wheel.

>>Okay, so I see this spinning wheel.

It looks like kind of an old machine.

>>It's an old machine that was used a long time ago.

So people would sit right here at the end of it and they would take some wool from a sheep and it's big and fluffy and fuzzy, and they would take pieces and start threading it onto the track of the spinning wheel.

And with their foot down on the pedal, they get that wheel spinning and each time the the wheel spun, it went around, the wool would get thinner and thinner and thinner until it looked something like this, where it was yarn that they could use to make their clothing.

>>That's terrific.

>>It's so neat.

So think about that.

It's not that Sarasponda has a meaning, it's made to sound like the Sarasponda, the spinning wheel.

And then I like to think that that ret set set part is the pedal with that steady beat and resetting the wheel.

So, boys and girls, this is a song and we've been chanting the words but now let's add the melody.

Let's sing it.

So Mike's gonna keep doing the rhythm.

I'm going to sing the Sarasponda part.

For right, now just listen and in a minute, I want you to sing with me.

Here we go.

(rhythmic drumming) ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ >>Oh, I love this melody.

Now I also changed what I was doing with my hands.

I was making my hands go around and round like that big spinning wheel.

So, friends, can you join me in singing Sarasponda ret set set and maybe even do your hands, too?

Aah, that's a lot!

Here we go.

Let's try it.

(rhythmic drumming) ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ >>Oh, nice job!

I can feel that spinning energy.

Now we're going to sing the whole song.

There's actually more to just the Sarasponda part.

But as you listen, I want you to sing the part we just practiced, the Sarasponda ret set set part.

Okay, so get your arms ready to be that spinning wheel and sing with us.

Here we go.

(rhythmic drumming) ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Ah door ray oh, ah door ray boom day oh ♪ ♪ Ah door ray boom day ret set set ♪ ♪ Ah say pa say oh ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Ah door ray oh, ah door ray boom day oh ♪ ♪ Ah door ray boom day ret set set ♪ ♪ Ah say pa say oh ♪ >>Oh, nice job singing Sarasponda!

>>That's a great spinning song.

And I actually have an instrument that spins to make sound.

Would you like to see it?

>>Also, spins to make sound?

>>Spins to make sound while we play Sarasponda!

>>(laughs) Yes, of course.

Show us this instrument.

>>Okay, so this instrument is my hurdy-gurdy.

>>(gasps) Hurdy-gurdy?

>>Hurdy-gurdy.

>>(laughs) It's another wonderful word to say!

Hurdy-gurdy is going to play Sarasponda.

Oh, I love it!

>>So, the hurdy-gurdy has a crank and it spins (hurdy-gurdy plays) And it makes a sound.

>>Oh, I love it.

Boys and girls, I'm going to play the drum, Mike is going to play the hurdy-gurdy and can we sing Sarasponda all together?

Let's give it a shot.

(slow rhythmic music) ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Ah door ray oh, ah door ray boom day oh ♪ ♪ Ah door ray boom day ret set set ♪ ♪ Ah say pa say oh ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set ♪ ♪ Ah door ray oh, ah door ray boom day oh ♪ ♪ Ah door ray boom day ret set set ♪ ♪ Ah say pa say oh ♪ >>Oh, wow!

With you singing and doing the motions, with the hurdy-gurdy and the drum, I could really feel the energy of a big spinning wheel.

>>Me, too.

>>(chuckles) Nice job, everybody.

>>Let's meet a new instrument!

>>Hi, friends!

Today I wanna introduce you to my hurdy-gurdy.

The hurdy-gurdy is a really old instrument but it's the perfect instrument for a day when we're spinning.

So the way the sound is made with this instrument is that there's this crank I grab and I turn.

It turns this wheel and this wheel passes across these strings and the strings vibrate.

So here comes the sound.

(hurdy-gurdy plays) I love that sound.

So how do we change that sound?

There are these keys over here and when I press them down while the wheel is spinning the pitch of the string changes.

The pitch means whether it's a high sound or a low sound.

These little tiny things in here are called tangents, press against the string and they make the part of the string that's vibrating, shorter, and the shorter it is, the higher the pitch.

So let's hear it.

So I'm gonna start over here, (hurdy-gurdy plays) and now here comes this one and we're getting higher and we're getting higher and we're getting higher and we're getting higher.

Okay, so let's do one other thing and learn about one part of this hurdy-gurdy.

It has these drones strings there are these other strings.

Right now, I have them off but I wanna put one on so you can hear it with a drone.

A drone is a sound that just goes and goes and it doesn't stop and it doesn't change.

So let me get my drone goin'.

(hurdy-gurdy plays different sounds) You can hear it, it's kind of a low sound.

So now, if I put the whole thing together, you can hear this.

(hurdy-gurdy plays Sarasponda) Well, I'm so glad I got to introduce you to my hurdy-gurdy today.

I hope you'll keep your ears open.

You never know where you might hear it.

>>Okay, we are back with Ms. Thomas!

Ms. Thomas, what do you have to share with us today?

>>So, today I wanna share with you all a toy that you may sometimes see today in toy stores or in the stores where you shop with your parents.

But this actually is a toy that comes from the past.

It's like a blast from the past.

It's a toy that native American kids used to play with and also kids in Colonial times and it's called a whirligig which is a really silly name for a really fun and silly toy.

>>Whirligig, I love that name.

>>I love that.

>>Yes.

>>I just kinda wanna say it over and over again!

(laughs) >>So today we're gonna get super creative because you can decorate your whirligig any way you'd like.

Actually the more creative the better!

You can use any color, any tool that you have in your house.

It's gonna be a nice, fun, spinning toy to play around with and fidgets with sometimes, too.

>>That sounds great!

>>I love this.

>>Yeah.

>>We are so excited to find out what this looks like, how to make it.

So without further ado-- >>Let's see it.

>>Let's check it out.

>>Awesome, let's do it.

(light music) Hi, team!

So in order for us to get started creating our blast from the past toy, the whirligig, we're going to need a couple of materials or items.

The first, cardboard.

I'm recycling this box from a package I received.

The next thing that we'll need is paper.

I'm using printer paper.

We'll also need scissors, a pencil, a glue stick, markers, crayons, colored pencils, whatever you use to make things colorful and beautiful, string, something that's in the shape of a circle.

I'm using my favorite bowl and what this is gonna do is help us make a really nice circle shape.

And at some point today, you'll need an adult or an older sibling, someone who can use a sharp tool to help us punch a hole.

I will let you know when to grab those people.

Are you ready to get started?

(light music) Okay, so now that we have all of our materials we're ready to go with our whirligig.

The very first step that we're going to do is to use our circle tool.

Remember, I grabbed my favorite ball from my kitchen.

We're going to use this tool to trace onto our cardboard and both sheets of our paper.

(light music and humming) Here's what my cardboard looks like with my circle tracing and one of my pieces of paper.

After we're done with our tracing, we're gonna need to cut those circles out.

Now, cardboard can be a little bit tricky to cut out.

Don't be afraid to ask for help.

(light music) Here's what my cutout cardboard looks like and here are my cutout circles.

The next part is my favorite.

We get to decorate.

I'm thinking that I'm going to make a rainbow circle pattern.

What were your pattern be?

Here's my rainbow circle pattern.

Do you like it?

I wish I could see yours.

I wonder what it looks like.

(light music) Next, we're going to need to glue our pieces of paper onto that piece of cardboard that we cut early on.

So what I need you to do is put glue using your glue stick.

You're gonna put glue on the back side of your paper the undecorated part, and put it onto your cardboard.

Let me show you what that looks like.

(light music and humming) This is what it looks like and I'm going to put this onto that round piece of cardboard that we have from earlier, just like this.

(light music and humming) And this is what it looks like.

You're gonna do that for both sides.

(light music) For this next step, you're going to need a little bit of help from someone who you trust and can use a sharp tool.

Can you go ahead and grab them?

So what I need you to do is poke two holes in the center of the whirligig.

This is what it looks like for me.

(light music) Team!

We're so close to play time!

We have exactly two more steps until we're ready to play with our whirligig.

The last material that you have is your string.

We're going to thread the string through the two holes that your friend just helped you make.

So I've already put it through the first hole.

Next, I'm going to put the second part of my string into the second hole.

Sometimes this can be a little bit tricky but just be patient, you can do it.

Whew!

Next, you're gonna pull your string all the way through so that it's even on the side and we wanna make a knot.

I like to make mine the way that I would tie a balloon.

This might be another place where you might need help from someone and that's okay.

After we've made our knot, you'll notice that your whirligig looks a little bit like a yo-yo.

In order to make our toy work, we're going to pull the string on this side through so we have an equal amount of string on both sides.

(whistling) Now it's officially play time!

We are ready to give our whirligig a go.

So what you're going to need to do is have it even in the middle, like we said, and you're gonna give it a spin and pull as tightly as you can.

What do you notice happens?

Let's take it a little bit slower this time.

And what about when we go really fast?

Do you notice anything different?

One of my favorite things about whirligigs is you can use all different types of patterns, pictures, and speeds and that will affect how it spins.

So play around a little bit with that today.

Also, think of someone who maybe you can make a whirligig for or teach to make a whirligig.

The opportunities are endless.

I hope you love this toy as much as I do.

>>I really like how your whirligig came out.

>>Oh, thank you!

I like yours.

Yours this making a really cool sound.

>>And I like how the string feels when I pull it.

Yeah, it's cool.

>>Mm-hm.

Yeah!

Friends, we hope that you will take some time to make your own whirligig.

And right now let's check out some friends who've already had a chance to make theirs.

(light upbeat music) Ms. Thomas!

Oh, my goodness, we have loved learning about the whirligig!

>>That was so much fun!

>>They're such a fun time, aren't they?

>>Mm-hm, yeah.

>>Yes!

I'm amazed with something so simple, right?

Not a lot of materials needed but it's so neat to watch move and the colors.

>>Mm-hm, I think my favorite part about making a whirligig is how creative you can be with it, right?

You can use a whole bunch of color.

You can draw a flower, you can make one for your favorite friend or someone who lives in your house with the things that they like.

Really, you can use whatever you'd like.

Your imagination can go wild.

>>Well, Ms. Thomas, we are so grateful for you being a part of our show today.

We love learning with you, we love getting to know you and spend time with you and we hope to see you again very soon.

>>Me, too.

Thank you so much for having me.

It was great to learn with you today.

>>Oh, wonderful.

>>Thank you.

>>All right, we'll see you next time.

>>Bye!

>>Bye!

>>Bye!

>>You are a beautiful learner.

>>So much fun, right?

>>(chuckles) So much fun.

And so many new fun words to say.

>>Right!

Sarasponda.

>>Hurdy-gurdy.

>>Whirligig!

>>Whirligig!

Love it!

>>I can say these words all day long!

>>I could, too.

And we've done so many things with spinning.

>>Right, what did we do?

We moved our arms.

>>Yeah, we moved our arms like a spinning pinwheel.

>>We sang a song about spinning.

>>We did.

And then Ms. Thomas taught us how to make a whirligig, a spinning toy.

>>That was great.

>>It was.

We have enjoyed learning all of these new things with you.

And remember what we always say when we learn new things.

Repeat after us.

I am brave.

>>I am curious.

>>I am strong because I can do hard things.

>>I am a beautiful learner.

>>I am a beautiful learner.

Oh, my goodness, yes, you are, friends.

We will see you next time.

(rhythmic music) ♪ Come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ We're gonna sing, yes, and we're gonna dance ♪ ♪ We're gonna learn to play some instruments ♪ ♪ Come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ We're gonna sing, yes, and we're gonna dance ♪ ♪ We're gonna learn to play some instruments ♪ ♪ Come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ We're gonna sing, yes, and we're gonna dance ♪