(cheerful music) - Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to our learning space.

My name is Mrs. Lara.

Can you tell me your name?

Oh, I'm so excited that you're here today.

Today is day three of the five days that we're going to be together this week.

We have so much to do.

We're gonna continue our study of food and culture for this week and next week.

But should we start our day off with a song before I tell you what our plan is?

Okay, Ms. Maria is back.

Are you ready, Ms. Maria?

Here we go.

♪ God morning, good morning ♪ ♪ It's a sunshine kind of day ♪ ♪ Come join Mrs. Lara for some learning and some play ♪ ♪ While we sing a song ♪ Of course we will!

♪ Make our brain strong ♪ Like super strong.

♪ So come along ♪ Yes, come on friends ♪ For some learning and some play ♪ All right, Ms. Maria, I'll see you later when I open the mail.

So we do, we have so much to do.

So you'll remember we read the books, "Jalapeno Bagels", and we read a book about saffron and a little girl who wore a shawl.

Well, we're gonna travel to different places across the world today.

Today is a really good one.

We're going to read our letter that's going to give us clues.

We have some more clues.

Read our book.

After that, do a project so that you can practice your reading skills.

And finish off at our table, where I'm gonna introduce you to some art, and we're actually not going to finish it today, it's going to take us the rest of the week or one, two, three days to finish the art project, but it's gonna be beautiful at the end.

So are you ready to get started?

All right, let's see if we hear Ms. Maria's doorbell.

It's coming.

(doorbell rings) Ah, there it is!

All right, let's see what our letter says about our book today.

Our letter starts off on the left because you'll remember that's where we start to read.

Now, if you have a book near you, I want you to open it up and follow along as I point to where the left is and the right as we sing our song.

Ready?

♪ This is the left ♪ (Mrs. Lara snaps fingers) ♪ This is the right ♪ (Mrs. Lara snaps fingers) ♪ When we read, we start at the left and slide to the right ♪ (Mrs. Lara snaps fingers) Do you see that?

You can use your pointer finger and follow along with me too on the screen.

It says, "Dear Mrs. Lara, have you ever been to Cuba?"

I haven't.

I've heard it's beautiful, though.

Cuba is a place in the world that I would love to visit.

"That's where my grandpa is from."

Now, I think in Cuba, they call grandpa, abuelo.

That's a Spanish word that means grandpa.

"He sells frutas and I help him when I visit."

Now, frutas is another Spanish word, it means fruit.

"He sings while he sells his fruit."

Oh, he sings a song as he sells his fruit.

Now, when you are driving by with your family, you might see people on the side of the road here in our town selling fruit.

The character in this story has a grandfather who lives in Cuba that does the same thing.

So, ooh, I can't wait to open it up and read it.

But I have some more clues that are gonna help us understand what's in our text today.

So the first one is a hat.

And this looks like a hat an abuelo would wear if he were out in the sun.

Hmm, I wonder if we're gonna be somewhere tropical where there's sunshine.

Let's look at our another clue.

We have a basket.

What could that have to do with the book?

I wonder if something is going to go inside the basket.

Mm, I have a hunch that is, something is gonna be in there, but what could it be like?

Let's keep looking.

Oh, we have a map.

So we're gonna be traveling somewhere in the world.

That's a map.

Now, the person that we're going to be reading about lives somewhere here.

I want you to take a look at a map when we're done reading and we'll point it out together.

Let's keep looking.

Oh, we have some fruit, an orange.

I remember in the letter, it said that her grandfather sold fruit, so I bet there's fruit in the story.

And then there's a, a rope!

Are we gonna be tying up fruit?

I hope we're not gonna be tying up a person.

Ooh, what could our story be about?

Basket, orange, a hat, a map, rope.

One more clue.

Let's see.

There are some grapes or uvas.

And I think there's a special amount.

Let's see if we can count how many grapes there are in here.

Here is my bunch of grapes, and this is how they grow, isn't that neat?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12.

12 grapes.

That's a lot of clues and I know all of these things are going to be put into one story.

Are you ready to see what our story is?

Here it goes.

Ta-ta-dah-ta!

Our story is "A Song of Frutas", and it was written by Margarita Engle.

Now, you'll remember the person who writes the story is called the author.

And it was illustrated by Sara Palacios.

That's who draws the pictures.

Now, let's look at the front cover a little bit.

We have a little girl and she's smiling and holding up some grapes and an orange.

Ooh, those were some of our clues.

There's a little dog down here, and this person is wearing a hat, he looks like a grandfather.

I wonder if that's abuelo.

Let's open up the story and read to find out.

Here we go.

Oh, I have to tell you this too.

I bought this at a special store and the author signed it right here, this is her signature.

Isn't that neat?

That doesn't happen very often.

To me, authors are like celebrities.

Here we go.

"When we visit abuelo, I help him sell frutas.

We sing the names of each fruit as we walk.

Our footsteps like drumbeats," Do, do, do, do.

"our hands like maracas," Shh, shh, shh, shh.

"shaking bright food shapes while we chant with a rhythm."

So there they are, selling their frutas in Cuba.

"Mango, limon, coco, melon, naranja, toronja, platano, pina."

That's all words in Spanish that mean fruit.

Well, here's a coco that means coconut.

And here's a limon that means lime.

Look at how happy our little character looks selling the fruit.

"Our voices are bridges that reach up to the windows, inviting strangers to look out and become friends.

Smiling people perch on balconies, listening to our cheerful music."

Now, a balcony is a place like if you live in an apartment or a place where there's two stories, you might have a little place where you can go outside and look, and it has a railing.

That's a balcony.

Do you see them here?

Looking out.

So here.

"A few send baskets down on ropes to buy fruit by placing money inside and then waiting until abuelo sends the basket back up filled with mangos, lemons, limes, coconuts, melons, oranges, grapefruits, bananas, pineapples."

That's where the rope and basket come into play.

See, she's lowering the rope with money and he's gonna give her fruit in return.

I wish I could buy things like that.

Just look, you know, send things out my window and give me back what I ordered.

"Sometimes people walk along the street beside us arguing about prices.

Other sing their own songs, trying to sell instead of buy."

So look at that, it's a marketplace.

Do our grocery stores or marketplaces look like this?

Maybe if you go to a farmer's market, huh.

"Whenever many lively people are all chanting at the same time, abuelo, el frutero," which means the fruit man, "he has to sing even louder, his song as powerful as an opera star's glorious voice.

Fruta!

fruta!

It's the only way to be heard over the melodies and rhythms of el tamalero, who sells tamales wrapped in slick green banana leaves, or la hierbera with her favorite herbs."

So there's la hierbera.

And there's the tamalero.

Have you ever had tamales before?

They are something from my culture that we eat around the holidays.

Okay.

"There's a man selling sweet potatoes and yams.

There's a dancing vendor who offers food, pointy paper cones filled with mani, roasted peanuts that smell like the salty blue sea."

Oh, I'm getting hungry.

I would love to eat some salted peanuts.

We skipped a page here.

Oh, this is my favorite person.

Can you tell what she sells?

She sells dulces or candies.

"Best of all is la dulcera, a woman with the voice of an angel, who croons so sweetly and praise of those caramelos, chocolates, and other delicious candies.

Sabroso!

Tasty!"

So there are some tasty treats.

Oh, the person who sold candy in Cuba would be my favorite person too.

I think I would follow them around everywhere.

What do you think?

"My favorite visits to abuelo are on the eve of el ano nuevo, when everyone wants to buy 12 grapes per person, las uvas, the fruit of each new year's good luck."

So that's something that's unique to Cuban culture.

They say that you eat 12 grapes right at midnight for the new year, that'll bring you good luck.

What traditions does your family have?

"At midnight, I gobbled 12 grapes while I make one wish per month for the whole coming year."

That's right because there's 12 months in a year.

"My last wish is always friendship between countries so that we can visit my abuelo more often.

And maybe somehow, someday, he can also fly high and wide across the glittering deep sea to visit us.

Each song I hear on New Year's Eve reminds me that soon I'll return to my own home."

We're gonna find out where she lives.

"Each time I go to the post office to mail a letter, I feel like I've crossed a bridge between mi abuelo's country and mine.

Now, here's a clue about where she lives.

It says US post office.

The US is an abbreviation or short for United States.

That's where we live.

So if you have a map in your home, I want you to look up where that is.

"It would make me so sad to live far apart from abuelo if I didn't know that we can sing rhymes back and forth, verses on paper, all our hopeful poems flying like songbirds who glide and soar through wild sky, each syllable un abrazo.

A hug made of words."

The end of the book, There's some mail.

And that's our story.

What did you think?

Was that a good story or maybe not one of your favorites?

My favorite part was the candy lady, la dulcera, because I love sweets.

I might go back and read that part again.

So of course, I love to read books to you, but my goal is for you to read books to me.

So now we're gonna practice a foundational skill, which is a skill that you need in order to read books and take apart sounds.

So we're going to see what fruits we're going to put in the basket.

So here's our basket.

Do you remember from the story?

What did the people used to do?

They used to lower their baskets full of money, and then they used to raise them up full of fruit when the abuelo was selling them in Cuba.

So I'm going to write a letter down here and we're going to find the fruit that starts with that letter.

So let me write one down here.

All right, I'm gonna use a big line, and one little curve and one little curve, and show you.

Ready to see it?

Tu-tu-du-tu!

What letter is it?

A B, it makes the buh sound.

What fruit starts with B that I can put in my basket?

Is it a melon or a banana?

Melon or a banana.

Buh, banana, that's right.

I'm gonna put that in my basket.

Someone's gonna raise it up there.

I don't see money, though, hmm.

All right, let me erase this and maybe I'll show you as I write the next letter.

Ooh, is it coming off?

Here it goes.

The next letter is going to be one here.

How about?

Ooh, there's a couple that start with this letter.

Big line down, big line down, line and big line.

Do you recognize what this letter is?

It's an M. It makes the sound you make when you're really hungry, mmm, and eating something delicious, mmm.

M, let's look.

How about lime?

Does that start with M?

No.

How about coconut?

No.

How about mango?

Let's see, mango.

Yep, I'm making that mmm sound.

I'm gonna put that in.

We'll find one more.

Orange?

No.

Mellon.

That's right, melon starts with mmm.

All right.

Now we're going to find one that starts with L. I'm gonna make an L with my magic finger.

Big line down, little line across.

I made that one a little different because L is my special letter, for Lara.

So let's see if we can find the one that starts with L. Is it coconut?

No.

How about lime?

Yes, that starts with L, L like Lara.

And it goes.

So let's review the fruits that are in our basket.

Banana, lime, melon, and mango.

I hope somebody enjoys that in their shopping bag.

Now, for our last little segment or bit, we're actually gonna go to the project table because we're gonna start our art project.

Remember I told you it was gonna take three days to finish.

Oof, that's a lot of work, but worth it.

Okay, let's walk over.

So here is our project place, and I'm gonna show you what we're going to do.

So I wanted to quickly reference these pictures here.

Now, you'll know from watching Mrs. Readwright's artful adventures that there's a lot you can do with art and literacy.

So I actually borrowed some of these prints from Mrs. Readwright.

They're called still lifes.

Still lifes are like a picture of something, and they're meant to be really realistic.

Can you tell what they're a picture or painting of?

Fruits, that's right, just like in our story.

This one is by Paul Cezanne and this one is by Wells, "Apple in a Hat".

So we're gonna use these as inspiration to create our own art print.

We're gonna make a fruit basket.

And just like the society where we have a lots of different people and things that come together, our fruit basket is gonna be filled with different things too.

Okay, so we're going to actually make the basket today, and to do that, we're going to need brown paper, white paper, I need color paper for this part, glue and some scissors.

So, you know I like to do things a little differently.

So I'm gonna take my brown paper and I'm actually gonna tear it.

So this is really fun, tearing paper, and it creates a lot of texture.

What we're going to create first is our basket.

So if you notice, if you look around in your community, not everyone is the same, right?

So this basket is gonna kind of represent our community.

And we're all kind of held together by a common thing, we all live together in one space.

So let's tear it up.

See, I made lots of lines, and actually I made them kind of thick.

I'm gonna make some thinner ones too, and just kind of tear them down.

Let's see here.

There we go.

Tear, tear, tear.

It makes an interesting sound as you go, doesn't it?

I don't think this one is very linear, this is more curvy.

(Mrs. Lara laughs) That's okay, because art is that way.

Sometimes you start off thinking you have an idea for something, and then it just doesn't work out.

You just gotta keep going.

Remember, like a spot of perseverance, just that book we read.

You just keep trying until you get it, and you will get it.

Okay, there you go.

And it's so interesting.

And you'll notice if you tear enough paper, if you tear it thin enough, something happens, they start curling up like this, they look like little chocolate curls.

I wonder if la dulcera would sell chocolate that's curly like that.

Probably not.

Probably some sugary sweets because chocolate would melt in the Cuban's sun.

I don't know, you let me know.

Okay, we have a few more to go.

And tear your paper.

This can be really exciting when you do it.

And see what happens, I get short ones and long ones and all kinds of ways.

Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna start weaving together my basket.

So I have a piece of white paper here and some glue, and I'm gonna lay down my basket here.

Ooh, I made a swirly line with the glue.

I'm gonna flip it over, and here's the first part.

I'm just gonna put them in rows all the way down.

You're gonna see what it looks like.

Another swirly line of glue.

There's actually a book called "Too Much Glue", and it's about a little boy who's very used to putting gobs of glue on his paper.

And then when he gets to school, the teacher's like, "Hey, you can't use that much glue.

Glue is expensive."

But if you read that story, you'll know what happens.

And if not, check it out on the Sora app, it's a good read.

Okay, let's do one more.

I did one, two, three, four.

Let's do one more to make five and then we'll do them across like that.

Okay.

Now we're gonna add some more texture by crossing them, and I'll show you how we're gonna do that.

Just kind of go across certain spots.

We're not really weaving it, we're just kind of creating the illusion of a woven basket.

Now, there are many different cultures that incorporate weaving into what they do, what they like to do.

So if you'd like to read more about that, I know the Native American culture, especially, does a lot with weaving.

I know the Hmong culture as well.

Now, we're gonna be reading a book next week about fry bread, which is a Native American food.

And I'm hoping to have somebody come and read to us in traditional dress.

Wouldn't that be fun?

Okay, I'm gonna take out some of these pieces because they came a little long.

And of course I got glue everywhere because I'm nothing if not messy, but it's okay to be messy.

And I'm pushing down.

And now we're gonna cut out our basket.

Now, you may wanna wait until it's a little more dry, but I've done this before, I know that I could.

So a basket, if you'll notice and remember from our story, kind of does look like this hat.

It has, you know, it's kind of a curve and a big line.

It looks like the letter D when you cut it out.

So I'm gonna do that really quickly here, all the way down.

There's my big curve.

Okay, and I'm gonna put that away here, and then I'm gonna make one line across.

Notice I'm using my helper hand, and then I'm making my scissors go up and down.

So here we go.

Here is our basket that we're going to need for tomorrow's project.

So if you want to join me and continue to make the project, you need some white paper, actually a little longer than this, I'll bring it.

We're gonna put the basket on and we're gonna create a background and some fruit.

So when I do it like Cezanne did, we're gonna use oil pastels.

Now, you may not have oil pastels at home because I know I didn't.

These were loaned to me, but you can also use crayons or colored pencils, really anything that you'd like and have at your home to be able to follow along and do this art project with me.

It looks like we're just about out of time.

So I'll sing our ABC song very quickly and then give you a big hug, goodbye.

So here are my letters.

Are you ready to go?

I'm gonna do the short one today.

♪ A, B, C you later ♪ Ooh, I got some turmeric on there.

(Mrs. Lara laughs) ♪ D, E, F, G, I'm gonna miss you ♪ ♪ H, I have to go now ♪ ♪ J, K, bye-bye ♪ ♪ Now, L, M, N, O, I had a good time ♪ ♪ P, Q, R you gonna miss me ♪ ♪ S, T, U are my best friend ♪ ♪ V, W, X, Y, Z ♪ And you are, you're my very best friend, boys and girls.

I hope that I get to see you tomorrow.

Now, before you go, I wanna leave you with a little book recommendation.

I went to our local library and I picked up two books that you can check out too that you may want to incorporate as we learn about food and culture.

This one is called "Crafts of Many Cultures".

And it's really neat because it takes you all around the world and it teaches you traditional crafts and art from around the world.

Like, look at this one from Morocco, they made a hand.

So if you'd like to learn more about our theme this week, check that out.

Miniature paintings from India.

Or you can also check out, "Green Is a Chile Pepper".

"Green Is a Chile Pepper" is a story about colors, but it has lots of different foods that you might find in Cuba or Mexico or other Latin American countries.

All right, so make sure you check out those two books.

I'm gonna leave you with a little homework.

Check out a map, let me know if you can find the United States and Cuba.

We'll visit another country tomorrow.

Until then, goodbye.

(cheerful music)