 Hello everybody and welcome back to Virtual Storytime with Mr. Carl. Today we have a very special story time plan and I bet you can guess what it is just by looking at me. Any guesses? Let's see, I have a white beard and a red, white and blue hat. Hmm, let's see, what could we be reading about today? Let's see, I'll give you another hint. It has something to do with the number four. Any guesses? I bet you did guess it, we are absolutely celebrating National Hot Dog Day. Woo, there's going to be stories about mustard, we're going to do a catch-up dance because everyone knows on July 4th we celebrate hot dogs. No? We don't celebrate National Hot Dog Day on July 4th? Are you sure? All right, well if you're sure it must be something else, what could we be celebrating? Oh, I know, I figured it out, it is International Pie Day, my mistake, see I get the two mixed up all the time, all right, so I'm going to grab some books on some Boys and Berry Pie, some peach pie, we're going to have a pie filled dance, no, what else could it be? How could I have gotten so confused? I know why I got it confused because what we're reading about has hot dogs, pies, barbecues, and America because we're reading about Independence Day, July 4th with firecrackers and freedom. I am so excited to jump into the story time and in fact I think the first thing we need to do is we need to start off with a song. I'm going to teach you a new song right now, it's called America is Having a Party, okay? Are you ready? Here we go. America is having a party, the colors are red, red and blue, America is having a party, the guests are me and you, America is having a party, they'll be pie and a barbecue, America is having a party, it's freedom for me and you, one more time. America is having a party, the colors are red, red and blue, America is having a party, the guests are me and you, America is having a party, they'll be pies and barbecues, America is having a party, they'll be freedom for me and you, yay, good job, guys. Isn't that such a fun way to start off story time? I love starting off story time with a song and as you can see, I am dressed up in my best Uncle Sam impersonation costume that I made with materials around the library that you probably have right at your house and we're gonna make you a costume later on right after we read our stories. So let's get started. Our first story is called Apple Pie Fourth of July, Apple Pie Fourth of July, okay? And this is by Janet S. Wong in Photographs by Illustrations by Margaret Chodos Irvine. Okay, let's get started. Read with permission by Marry Court Publishers, Apple Pie Fourth of July, all right. Seven days a week, 52 weeks, 364 days a year and 365 in a leap year. Our store is open. Christmas is the only day we close. Even on Thanksgiving, we open the store, even on New Year's Day, even today, the Fourth of July. She does not look happy about her store being open. I hear the parade coming this way, boom, boom, boom. I smell the apple pie and Laura's oven upstairs and chow mein and our kitchen. Chow mein, Chinese food on the Fourth of July. No one wants Chinese food on the Fourth of July, I say. Fireworks are Chinese, Father says. Enhance me a pan full of sweets and sour. Bork. Mmm, look at all that delicious food. I hear the parade, boom, boom, boom. I hear the parade passing by, oh, she wants to be out there, but instead, she's cooking. Noon and customers come for soda and potato chips. One o'clock and they buy ice cream, two o'clock the egg rolls are getting hard, three o'clock ice and matches, four o'clock and the noodles fill like shoelaces. No one's buying Chinese food, all the food is getting hard. No one wants Chinese food on the Fourth of July, I say. Mother pows noodles on my plate. My parents do not understand all American things. They were not born here, even though my father has lived here since he was 12. Even though my mother loves apple pie, I cannot expect them to know Americans do not eat Chinese food on the Fourth of July. So I strain the milk in the videos and then sample a few new candy bars until five o'clock when two hungry customers walk inside for some Chinese food to go. I tell them, no one, no one came. So we ate it all up ourselves, but they smell food in the kitchen now. I wonder where that what they smell in the kitchen. And mother walks through the swinging door, holding a tray of chicken chow mein. And father follows her step for step with a brand new pan of sweet and sour pork. That does sound so good. And three more people get in line, 11 more at six o'clock, nine at seven and 12 by eight. Look at all those people who want Chinese food on the Fourth of July. More and more and more to the line out the door. Until it's time to close the store, time to climb to our rooftops chairs, way up high beyond the ground where we sit and watch the fireworks show. Look how pretty those fireworks are. And eat our apple pie. The end. So I guess it turns out that people do love Chinese food on the Fourth of July. I like Chinese food whenever I can get it. OK, guys, it is time for us to learn another song. And this one is all about firecrackers because who doesn't love firecrackers? Are you guys ready? OK, here we go. It goes firecracker, firecracker up, up, up, up, up, up as high as you can. Booming all your colors, booming all your colors just for us, just for us. Good job, guys. Let's do it again. Firecracker, firecracker up, up, up, up, up, up, booming all your colors, booming all your colors just for us, just for us. One more time. Firecracker, firecracker up, up, up, up, up, up, booming all your colors, booming all your colors just for us, just for us. Good job, guys. Give yourself a round of applause. Firecrackers are probably my best Forza July tradition or my favorite Forza July tradition. What's yours? Some people probably like barbecues. Some people probably like apple pie. Like in that last story, or maybe you like Chinese food. Well, that brings me to our last book before we make our craft. And that book is called Hats Off for the Fourth of July. And this book is going to go through a lot of Forza July traditions. Are you guys ready to read it with me? OK, this book is called Hats Off for the Fourth of July. And it is read with permission by Viking publishers. It's by Harriet Zyford and illustrated by Gustav Miller. And Catherine and Chapman Town on the Fourth of July. A grand parade will go marching by music and drum, music and drum. We're all waiting to see it come. Look at all those people waiting for the Fourth of July parade. The twirlers are walking down the street. They spin and strut and lift their feet. Music and drum, music and drum. Who will be the next to come? Cowboys and horses yell out loud. We all shout back. What a happy crowd. Music and drum, music and drum. Who will be the next? The big kids sit on top of the well. All right, next year, right near his tail. Music and drum, music and drum. Miss Elgrass will be the next to come. I think some students are marching in the parade. She's the favorite of Chapman Town. Her hair is green and wraps around music and boom, music and boom. The big brass drum should be coming soon. What an amazing parade. The high school band proudly marches by. What a sunny day. What a bright blue sky. Music and room, music and room. The motorcycles need plenty of room. Patriots march with their muskets and hats. The Little League follows with baseball bats. Everyone marches on the 4th of July. Hats off the flag is passing by. Music and drum, music and drum. We're sorry the end has to come. The parade is over, but look in the sky. Hurray for us all on the 4th of July. Airplanes, that's another 4th of July tradition. The end. Well, guys, that was our last book. We sang our songs, we read our books. I think it's time to make our costume. Are you guys ready? OK, I'll meet you there. Today we are going to be making a 4th of July Uncle Sam costume hat and beard. It's super simple and you probably already have the materials you need to make it right in your house. You're going to need a glue stick. You're going to need a paper plate. You're going to need a pair of kid safety scissors or an adult to help you cut. You're going to need cotton balls and you're going to need tape. And then you're also going to need several pieces of paper. You're going to need an 8 by an half by 11 sheet of white paper. You're going to need four strips of red paper that about an inch wide and eight inches long. Or maybe a little less, seven or eight inches long. You're going to need a piece of blue paper that is two by eight, two inches high and eight inches wide. Then you're going to need a strip of paper. It doesn't matter what color. It just needs to be able to go around your head when closed. OK, so you want to measure your head. You want to get a loop of paper that looks pretty much just like this. And you're also, last but not least, going to need some yarn or some thread. OK. Oh, and of course, a paper plate for your beard. Let's get started. The first step is to cut your plate in half. Just like so. OK, doesn't have to be perfect. Just has to be somewhat in half. You're going to pick the half that you like. I'm going to pick this half. And then this part of the plate, the inside, you're just going to cut it out. OK, you want to leave enough of the plate there so that your cotton balls have something to stick to. But for the most part, you want to get rid of most of it. You end up with a plate smile. That is going to be our beard. OK. Next, we're going to work on our hat. So you're going to take your 8 by 10 piece of paper, just like so. And you're going to take your glue stick. And the first thing you're going to do is you're going to glue down, starting at the top of your hat, your four pieces of red paper for your hat. So starting right at the top, you're going to grab your glue stick and you're just going to put a little glue and it doesn't matter how far spaced out they are. It is your hat. You make it look how you want it to look. OK, so you're going to stick them down just like that. Glue. I'm going to put enough glue to make sure that sticks. And you just want to space them out. I use four. You can use bigger stripes. You can use smaller stripes. You can have 50 stripes, however many you want to put on your hat, however many you can fit exactly what you want to go with. OK. And in fact, I cut out four, but it looks like I only need three. So I'm just going to use three. Then I'm going to take my blue strip and I'm going to put that right over where my red strips end. OK. I'm going to put a little glue on the back of this, a little glue on the back of this and just like that. OK. And again, it doesn't have to be perfect. And that is the structure of our hat. OK, so now that we're done with that part, we're going to turn it over. OK. And then we're going to find or take that loop that we have for our heads. And we're just going to take it like this. And we're going to put it right down first at the end of our paper on the back of our hat. Measure it out. We're going to do a circle like so. And then we're just going to glue it. Of course, I didn't measure my head because my head is much bigger in this little circle, but you want to have an accurate measure of your head before you glue it to the back of your hat. OK. So it may require more paper, less paper. If you need more paper, you can use two of these and you're going to glue it down like that. OK. And to help that along to make sure it stays nice and strong, I'm just going to put a little bit of tape on the back of it. OK. So now it should look like that. And the front should look like this. All right. So we're going to set that off to the side. Right here. Like that. And then we're going to take our beard. We're going to turn our bear around and we're going to open our cotton balls. And we're going to take those out. And now we're going to take our glue stick and we're going to cover it in glue. Get a nice thick coating on there, just like that. OK. Then we're going to start placing our cotton balls on here. And they really stick to because the glue is so sticky. So you can just fill up any places. And they might even try to stick to your fingers, but that's OK. And you're just going to continue putting them all the way around your beard. I want to make sure that I need to have some extra glue in some places, but you want to make sure that no one can see the plate underneath your beard when you're done. It should look something like that. OK, so we are halfway done, more than halfway done, actually. The next step is to connect our beard to our hat. OK, and for that, you're going to flip this over and you're going to flip this over. And then you're going to take some yarn, string or thread, whatever you have. And you're going to measure out two pieces. You want this to sit underneath, come to just about above your chin so that the beard will be right underneath your chin. So what you're going to do is you're going to measure it from your ear to probably the bottom of your chin or just below it. And you're going to cut double the size of that or have an adult help you. And then you're going to cut that in half. Just about again, it doesn't have to be exact. I'm just eyeing it and that's pretty close to half. Then I'm going to take one in and I'm going to take it to the inside of my band, just like so. I have cotton on my fingers from gluing the cotton balls to my beard, which is fine. I'm going to do the same thing for this side, right here. And again, it just has to be close. They don't have to be exact. Then I'm going to take two more pieces of tape for each side, one here and one here. Then I'm going to take two pieces of tape for here, put one here and one here. Now, when you flip this over, you should have a Uncle Sam hat and costume ready to go. Thank you guys for joining me and enjoy your Fourth of July celebrations. Bye, everybody.