 Do-do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do. Welcome to the Curious Giraffe Show for curious kids of all ages where there's always a song and no question is wrong. So we're going to start with our curious giraffe song and listen for the last verse so you know what today's topic is going to be. A big high five yeah we're different and we know if up we all get along cause we can all share and we can all care we're different but we all belong. Giraffe looked over at zebra and said why do I have spots why do you have stripes zebra just shrugged and said we come in all types but we all share one big sky. Oh yeah share a big sky share a big sky give the world a big high five yeah we're different and we know if up we all get along cause we can all share and we can all care we're different but we all belong. Giraffe looked over at jaguar and said why am I so tall why are you so fast jaguar just shrugged and said it's all a plus but we all share one big sky. Oh, yeah, share a big sky, share a big sky Give the world a big high five, yeah, we're different And we know, we thought, we all get along Cause we can all share, and we can all care We're different, but we all belong Giraffe looked over at Snake and said, Why do I like to stretch? Why do you like to curl? Snake just shrugged Let's give it all a whirl, lest we all share one big sky Oh, yeah, share a big sky, share a big sky Give the world a big high five, yeah We're different, and we can all share, and we can all care We're different, but we all belong Alright, that was a great warm-up So, we've had a lot of verses who would like to tell us what today's show is going to be about I guess Aralea would like to, go ahead Exercising Exercising So, can you guess why giraffe has this helmet on? What do you do with helmets? Do you ride bikes? Bikes? With that kind of helmet This kind of helmet is a bike helmet You can also skateboard or horseback ride I don't think giraffe would horseback ride That's alright, giraffe is pretending to be a person So, types of exercise that a person might do where they wear a helmet She named a couple, anybody think of others? I'm thinking of a scooter, but you don't have to use a helmet Okay, but it's a great idea Okay, and what sport? Let's see, yes, go ahead, Monet That's for tennis Right, and can you think of other racket sports? I have one that is for racket ball, but that's a different kind of sport That's correct, racket ball, tennis, anything else? Badminton Badminton, yes I'm thinking of cricket and baseball That's not really That's different, but great, those are different exercises, we'll certainly count them I just learned about a new racket sport called pickle ball Anybody ever heard of that? It's sort of like tennis, but you can set it up in your driveway If you have a safe driveway to set it up in It's smaller, but fun So, I am curious, for each of you, is there a way that you like to exercise? Yes Play basketball outside Basketball outside Okay, let's start with, go ahead, what else? Swimming Swimming, indoors or outside? Do you have a preference? Outside Lila? Biking Biking Nea? I'm seeing as with Monet, I like swimming And do you prefer inside or outside? Well, outside like in the lake Yeah, so summertime we love to be swimming outside Yes, next one Camping Camping, how is that exercise? Well, because you're walking You have to gather food and let the fire It's not general exercise, but it's mental Well, you do have to carry things to your campsite And it's also hiking Yeah, you use a lot of different muscles It's not usually thought of as, we didn't say sports We just said exercise So, I think we can stretch beyond a planned sport To other kinds of movement Yeah, go ahead Soccer, biking and yoga Oh, so she has stretched us too So, yes Tai Chi And Tai Chi Thank you That is a natural segue We have a visitor today Master Ken LaCours Has been willing to come and share with us About Tai Chi And I'm thrilled to have him come on up, Ken And you can tell him To have him come on up, Ken And you can have my spot And enjoy a conversation with the kids About some of the sports and exercise That you know about How are you guys doing up there? Good Good Anyways, you know, I started the martial arts When I was about nine years old It was a long time ago for me anyways And the, you know, the martial arts It's a great exercise program It's good for your mind And good for goal setting And everything else that goes with it Recently I had injured myself And I used the martial arts like you were saying Tai Chi I've been a Tai Chi instructor for 24 years And it got me back on my feet again Pretty much I'm not all the way there yet But I'm pretty close Any of you have any questions about the martial arts? Where did the Tai Chi originate? Oh, that would be back in China So, the monks would use the You got to remember the martial arts was pretty much the beginning Like an exercise program To get the monks out their butts To get them exercise in the movement And that's a good idea To get people moving Anybody else? You know, quite about it Yes, sir Do you know how many types of martial arts there? To be honest with you, I really don't It started out as a very small thing in China Then it's grown immensely from that point You have new things like They call in the martial arts like an MMA thing on TV And that's kind of passed what we do But I'd rather be on the side of the classroom with kids Because I teach kids from age 4 up to age 60 And so, it's a big range of people And so, yes, sir How long have you been teaching? I've been teaching for 35 years Since 1980 It's been a lot of fun I've met a lot of different people and it's just It's good for me So, what are you on? One guy's asked the whole question It's okay, no problem I think I've been in your class For like 7 years now Yeah, but you still... It's a lot of fun working with you I met you guys You're about 4 or 5 years old You're pretty crazy then You know about it, thank God Which is great, it's been a lot of fun I don't have big names now And so, again to martial arts You do a lot of kicking, do a lot of punching What's the first thing I had you guys do in coming to class? Exercise Jumping jacks, push-ups, set-ups And make you stretch out Do all the things you need to do What do a lot of kids do all day long? Sit around me You know, they play with their video games or whatever But you need to get out there and exercise your mind Get the sand, yes, ma'am I used to take martial arts for like A half or something Cool And I did aikido Cool, that's real good Excellent, it's crane style That's a lot of fun, a lot of throws And the wrong hands, that can be pretty dangerous You're instructed really good But you're instructed really good Excellent, excellent Want to tell? You were a real good instructor Thank you Any other questions? Yes, ma'am Ranging about how many forms and combinations do you have? Oh, well, in the Belar system There's 108 combinations I have about 80 of the combinations Fighting techniques that you're talking about Form-wise, I have You're calling them katas and pinions And weapons forms and all that I have about 40, 40 forms And right now you guys are working on 14 of them Which is really good, doing really good with them What was really interesting Was that you or Max asked me to teach you the tai chi form And I was amazed how quickly you guys caught on to it That was pretty cool The form by itself, it's almost 12 minutes long And if you do it nice and slow And it's not like the other action forms Where you're going to get punched and kicked really hard In the air all the time They're doing rolls, whatever But these are, you know, it's a lot more simplified It's a lot more rhythmic And it's a really pretty form when it's done right And so Before I ask you to go I'm just wondering, could you show us Just maybe a minute worth of moving through some of the moves Or do we have enough space? You really don't have enough room for it We don't Can you just show a couple I think part of why some of us are so quiet Is they don't know what tai chi looks like Tai chi Or, yeah, yeah, so Is there a little bit you could show us or not I could do a little bit You need a lot of space The tai chi form will take about I'm going to ask you to stand up It will take actually this whole wall of the wall No, you can't do any of this Yeah Okay, well thank you very much Sure And if you want to learn more And take classes with Ken Since he teaches people from age 4 to 60 Yes, I do You can follow the information on this screen And look him up Very good, thank you very much So thank you very much It's a pleasure to meet you Thank you Same And I just will speak from experience That I was at the ocean one day And learned that these guys knew Had been taking tai chi And not only did they show me But they taught probably another 8 or 9 or 10 adults To do some of the moves So it was very exciting So, we have another song And this is kind of about that For some people, the martial arts like tai chi Are something that makes you feel good And strong and growing in your body And spirit But for some people, other types of sports Are good exercise So we're going to try this new song So many ways to be smart This sign means smart So here we go So many ways to be smart So many ways to be smart So many ways to be smart Some folks are good at numbers and math Some folks are good at making you laugh Some folks are good at So many ways to be smart So many ways to be smart At your heart So many ways to be smart Some folks are good at reading books Some folks are good at reading people's books Some folks are good at drawing and arts so many ways to be smart so many ways to be smart so many ways to be smart some folks are good or swimming or some folks like yoga and tai chi very nice okay so let's stand up and move for a minute and here I'm gonna let the okay pumpkin respite okay thank you there we go okay let's just move a little bit okay we'll warm up let's exercise our bodies starting with our arms today exercise your body exercise your mind learn about exercise your body exercise your mind this way exercise your body exercise your mind learn about very nice have a seat let's see what story is waiting for us in the mystery box let's see okay these are a hint what are these anybody canteens canteens is one word for them and or maya water bottles and this one I really like because I can push the button there and it opens the spout and when I let go even if it tips over it doesn't spill but this one stays nice and cold you have two ways to get your drink that way or opening the top like a spout so this is a story that I found in the newspaper in May and I wrote a song about it that will do afterwards but this is a true story and it was written Tuesday May 5th 2015 runners rescued on range fire chief urges better plans for the seven sisters race I forgot okay so this race takes place in the Pioneer Valley on the Holyoke range and this is called the seven sisters mountain race because somebody figured out that there are seven tops to this ridge and this has become a famous race and I'm going to read to you about it maya will you just hold that like that okay great alright so this happened in Amherst two emergency incidents involving participants in the seven sisters trail race on Sunday prompted the Amherst fire chief to ask organizers to add more water stops the annual 12 mile run takes participants through the peaks of the Mount Holyoke range in Amherst Hadley and South Hadley the two rescue efforts in the area of Bear Mountain near the notch Sunday afternoon involved runners showing symptoms of dehydration anybody know what dehydration is okay a bunch of you have a thought mona you are having trouble because of lack of water excellent anybody else want to say something when you don't have enough liquid in your body for instance if you don't have enough water again right juice so okay great I'm good okay great okay in one case a runner who became dehydrated on the course continued through to the finish line despite being advised to stop the race for treatment paramedics were first called to the scene at 1243 when a department of conservation and recreation ranger at the State Park alerted the Amherst fire department that a runner in his early 20s was experiencing dehydration the eight paramedics arrived with an ambulance engine and rescue truck sometimes when you start a newspaper article then they write the rest of it on a different page so I'm turning to what says page 5 and here it is runners over heat so that's the article I'm going to okay a team of rescuers trekked up Bear Mountain found the man and brought him down probably this kid had not done a lot of training and he overextended himself so the victim was taken by ambulance to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton for treatment runners follow the New England National Scenic Trail formerly called the Metacomet Monadnock Trail on an outback route from the notch on route 116 to a turnaround point near route 47 and the Summit House at Skinner State Park water stops are stocked with jugs of water positioned every two miles now the second rescue had more problems okay the I'm going to paraphrase now to save time another person realized he was getting dehydrated and called for help and the paramedics said stay where you are we will come and help you but that person's friends said come on come on we can do it we can do it just push on you make it let's go and they pushed on to the end of the race but the paramedics had come and had to take to a longer to get to him because he had moved from where he had first called so they urge at the end of the article they say please if you call for help stay where you are when you call and we can help you sooner so that was something people learned from that race the Seven Sisters Trail had 430 finishers this year and this trail is included on the list of best trail races the race benefits the Friends of Mount Holyoke Range which works with the state to purchase and preserve land what does that mean preserved land yes to keep it in shape in what kind of shape in good shape in its natural shape yeah not to develop it the race has raised more than seventy five thousand dollars over 25 years of the race so I thought that was an important story and I wrote a song about it after I read the paper yes yes yes yes yes isn't that great so her school walks on the Seven Sisters I am happy to hear that I did Lila thank you I'm gonna let this rest here and we're going to do the song follow with me 12 miles is pretty far here we go to start the rate up make sure everybody has your water bottle everybody have your water bottles make sure it's okay okay here we go we're full of energy the beginning of the race ready 12 miles through the holy oak range 12 miles through the mountains 12 miles I'm gonna make that run push myself through the mountains over the seven sister mountains your hearts working hard is pounding on the holy oak range hard is pounding in the mountain hard pump stronger gonna make that run push myself through the mountains over the seven sister mountains feet growing heavy and push myself through the mountains I'll sing the last part wishing for more water throw in drum they should have stopped a while ago feeling faint and feeling dizzy but I gotta go on gotta finish what I started without convinced myself that I can go much farther when I get there gonna drown myself in water okay so that was based on a true story swimming water if you can dive into a lake that would be nice but what did I learn from reading that article should I push on if I'm getting that tired yeah if my heart and my throat are telling me you're really tired your body needs to rest that comes first even if they say the finish line but I'm just curious we all have different personalities when you have a challenge when it gets hard do you like to push on or do you say to yourself it's okay if I rest well how do you feel it depends it depends on what the challenge is it depends like what no I know I just had this one thing like if I was gonna do something and a little bit afraid to do it like I would tell myself you can do it there we go you give yourself a pep talk right but so that's when I can push myself but if I'm like getting tired and I can't do something anymore because I'm feeling sick or dizzy then I have to stop then you tell yourself like I have to stop like if I'm reading a book and I'm like just reading and I get thirsty I'm like oh I'm not gonna read this book anymore because I'm thirsty now you're gonna get a drink anybody I don't you don't do that you could just read yeah I can you think I can go get a drink and then keep on reading the book but I'm not gonna be like oh I can't read this book anymore I see yeah okay cuz you can read it more okay I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you to flip back to so many ways to be smart and did you want to respond to that question sometimes I'll push on depending on how possible it is depending on how possible it is okay you have to make your best judgment in that if I'm like two miles and there's like a mouth there's like ten miles to go I'm like gotta go and I'm like that's a little unrealistic okay so I think we're gonna end with being smart about it's smart to exercise it's smart to find exercise that you like and it's also smart to listen to your body and know when to rest okay your arms up six inches off the ground and do like um it's like it's called by the fire it's like fast breathing but it's like not like it's not short shallow you know how to do it can you show us breath of fire yeah so that's it it's called and that's how it goes yeah and it's not like okay a little bit and then pushing out a ton because dad you're gonna get like so little bits in and out in and out no it's like deep breathing but it's deep breathing but fast okay everybody try it for a minute go for it really it's hard go ahead show them again okay thank you we're feeling very healthy but then um and it's at first when I like first when I learned the pose I could only do it for like five seconds okay now I can do all right it's pretty hard okay well I just remembered that I had a gift for you all and it's because I believe that the exercise that you choose needs to be enjoyable and we're gonna finish up and I'm just gonna show our home audience they're each going to get a curious giraffe homemade Frisbee that they can play catch with in the fields and run and and have a good time with so let's everybody let's thank our audience thank you for being here today and we'll see you next time on the curious giraffe show for curious kids of all ages bye