- Hi friends, my name is Carlton and today I am so, so excited to be with each and every one of you.

And today we are gonna read a very fun book.

I'm so excited.

And the name of the book is called "My Friend Earth."

It's written by Patricia MacLachlan, and the illustrator is Francesca Sanna.

Shh.

I think she's taking a nap.

You gotta be quiet.

My friend Earth wakes from a winter nap.

She hears the busy spring sounds.

The farmer's hoe tap-tapping in the garden, the caws of crows.

She sees the little.

The silent seed, the spider spinning silver, the robin and the wrens.

And the large, the long winged albatross crossing the sea, the mole tunneling in the under dark.

She guides a chimpanzees to her night nest and the zebra baby to find his mother in the hundreds of black and white striped mothers.

Friends, where did she go?

Oh, I see her.

She's all the way in the back.

She tends the prairie where the sun dappled wild horses run through the grass that swooshed against their legs.

The tundra where the reindeer graze for moss and the glistening ice where the young polar bear pads on mitten feet.

It looks like we're going into the ocean.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

She guards all the creatures in all the oceans.

The black manta race, sleek like shadows, the shining parrotfish, the tiny krill who swim with millions of other krill to look big.

And the whales who are big.

My friend Earth pours the summer rain to fill streams, flowing down mountains, through the fields, to the rivers, to the sea.

Sometimes she pours too much rain, flooding towns and meadows and roads until she dries the land.

And uh-oh, it looks like the mountains are covered with rain.

Sometimes she blows fierce autumn winds sweeping the limbs of trees and shingles from the roofs of the barns until she sails the wind.

So red and orange yellow leaves float on the ground.

Friends, do you know what season this is?

This is the fall season, which is one of my favorite, favorite seasons.

When cold comes again, my friend Earth sprinkles the snow, whisper silent, covering the dens where the baby black bears are born in soft darkness, drifting over the icy pond where the turtle sleeps in mud, settling into the empty nest of birds.

Under the white, the silent sea is cradled in the dark soil watching.

Friends, what kind of animals do you see in this picture?

I see a bear.

I see a fox.

I see a squirrel.

What else do you see?

Great job.

Let's keep going.

Waiting to fly up again in the warm, bright sun of spring.

Okay, friends, wasn't that a great story?

I think so myself.

Now I have an activity for us.

I want you to look out your window and tell me, what do you see?

What do you see out your window?

Do you see a bird, a building?

Do you see trees?

What's the weather like?

Okay, now once you do that, let's draw what we see.

Okay, so I have, out my window, I have a large tree, and the the trees are changing colors, so that's what I'm gonna draw.

Okay, friends, I have a brown crayon, a red crayon, an orange crayon, a green crayon and a yellow crayon.

First, I'm gonna draw the trunk of the tree.

Remember, I see a large tree outside of my house, right outside my window.

Now I need to color in the leaves.

Some of the leaves are red.

You got a lot of different red.

Some of them are falling, some of them are already on the ground.

Next, I'm gonna color in the orange leaves.

Friends, what is your favorite color, by the way?

Well, actually, my favorite color is orange.

So I'm having a lot of fun right now doing this.

All right, some of the leaves haven't changed colors.

Some of them are still still green.

So I'm gonna color in the green leaves and some of the leaves are turning yellow.

So let's fill in the the yellow leaves.

And look, friends, we have a tree that has multiple colors on the leaves.

So, oh, we can't forget about the sun.

And there you have it, friends.

This is what I see outside of my window, a tree with different colors.

Some of the leaves are falling, some of the leaves are are different colors.

But this is what I see.

What do you see?

Can you draw it?

You guys are awesome.

Thank you so much for spending time with me.

I cannot wait to spend time with you again.

All right, bye-bye.

[playful music]