Hello, my friends. Welcome to Storytime With The Met. Can I get a "what-what?"
Yes, my name is Kai and I'm working at the Watson Library here at The Met.
And I am so so so excited to read with you all, because my favorite people in this world
are kids, my favorite thing to do in this world is to read, and my favorite place in this world
is The Met, so what can be more perfect? Okay, but before we get started with our story, I wanted
to remind you, um, to check back every Thursday at noon for another new Storytime With The Met. Okay.
And you know what, I'm definitely going to, so I hope you will join me.
Now before we get reading, we have to start off with the one and only Storytime that song, yes,
and it goes to the tune of This Old Man. Now I will also pull out my handy dandy guitar
and ask all my friends to help me sing this song. Okay, let's go.
Welcome, friend! Get ready, get set! For Storytime With The Met, where
we love to read and sing and look at works of art and picture books.
We'll use our eyes to look and see. We'll use our ears to hear stories.
Now we'll take a seat and give a shhhh! Let's begin now with our book.
Thank you so much for singing with me! Wow, you all are magnificent.
Ah, get it. Okay, now onwards to the main part of our time together, which is reading, woo!
And the story that I chose for us today is one of my favorites of all time, um,
by the author Eric Carle, it's called, yes, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Now I want you all
to look very closely at all these colors and all these textures. Do you know how that works?
Well, it's because Eric Carle used a lot of different pieces of paper to collage
it all together and make very awesome looking illustrations for a lot of his other books too.
And fun fact, at the Watson Library, we have a book that has original pieces of paper that Eric Carle
used for not only this book but other children's books. But, um, yes, now it's time for reading.
And I know I keep on saying this, but before that, I want to say I will be reading this both in
Japanese and in English. Um, so that way you can kind of see how those two languages intersect
or interact within such a lovely story such as this. Okay. So this is The Very Hungry Caterpillar,
腹ペコの青虫。エリック・カール作者
by Eric Carle.
(Oh my goodness, do you see all those colors? Wow, beautiful, it's like a rainbow, huh? Okay.)
In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf. Where is the egg?
(Oh, do you see it? Yes, it is right there.)
お月様の明かりの下、小さな卵が葉っぱにありました。
(Oh, and look at the moon. The moon looks quite calm and quite nicely situated.)
One Sunday morning, the warm sun came up and — pop! — out of the egg came a tiny and
very hungry caterpillar. (Now look at that caterpillar, he is very tiny
and the sun is grinning, huh? Ah, I wonder what the sun is thinking about. And remember to look
at all the different kinds of shades of orange and yellow. What do you feel when you see the sun?
Warm, I feel warm when I see all these colors together. Okay- oh, and in Japanese:)
日曜日の朝お日様が登ると。。。ポン！小さな青虫が生まれました。
He started to look for some food.
とてもお腹がすいています。 食べるものないかなあ～ っと思い始めました。
So on Monday, he ate through one apple but he was still hungry. (Do my friends like apples? Ah,
I love apples. I especially like fuji apples. I wonder what your favorites are?)
月曜日リンゴを一つ食べました。でもまだ腹ペコです。
On Tuesday, he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry.
火曜日なしを二つ食べました。でもまだまだ腹ペコです。
(Oh, there's the hungry caterpillar and he's moving on to three plums.) On
Wednesday, he ate through three plums, but he was still hungry.
水曜日プラムを三つ食べました。でもまだまだまだ腹ペコです。
On Thursday, he ate through four strawberries,
but he was still hungry! (Oh my goodness, for such a small caterpillar he has a pretty big stomach.)
木曜日イチゴを四つ食べました。でもまだまだまだまだ腹ペコです。
(So, you say 'ichigo' for 'strawberry' in Japanese.)
And on Friday, he ate through five oranges, but guess what? He was still hungry. (Are we surprised?)
金曜日オレンジを五つ食べました。それでもやっぱり腹ペコです。
(And, oh my goodness, look at this feast.) On Saturday, he ate through one piece of chocolate cake,
uh, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of swiss cheese,
one slice of salami, one lollipop, one slice of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake,
and one slice of watermelon. (Oh my goodness, that is such a feast. What would you want to
eat on Saturday? Hmm, I think I would want to eat definitely an ice cream cone and lollipop.
I have a sweet tooth.) But that night, he had a stomachache. (Oh, he doesn't look too happy, huh?)
土曜日青虫はチョコレートケーキを食べました。それにアイスクリームにピクルスにチーズにサラミにぺろぺろキャンディー
にチェリーパイにソーセージにカップケーキ。それからそれからスイカも食べました。お腹が痛くなっちゃった。​
Well, the next day was Sunday again, and the caterpillar,
caterpillar ate through one nice, green leaf, and after that he felt much better. (Now...)
また日曜日がやってきました。緑色の葉っぱを食べるとすっかり良くなりました。
(And if you look at the green, there's so many different shades, right? I see-
what kind do you see? Maybe a lime green, a light green, a forest green,
an olive green, and a fancy word, um, of saying green is "verdant," so maybe you can
learn a new word today with me. Can you say it? That was brilliant. Verdant. Good job.)
(Oh, wow.) Now he wasn't hungry anymore and he wasn't a little caterpillar anymore.
He was a big fat, caterpillar.
もう腹ペコでもないし、小さな青虫ではありません。 丸々太って大きくなりました。
He built a small house called a cocoon around himself. (There's the cocoon right here.) And he
stayed inside for more than two weeks. Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way
out, and (oh yeah, look at that cocoon. Again, so many different patterns and textures, it's so beautiful.)
青虫はさかざまになってねむりました。そのまま二週間が過ぎて、今度は外へでようと一生懸命。。。
​きれいにチョウになりました！
He became- and he was a beautiful butterfly! [end.] And just look at all those colors, oh my goodness, what do you see?
Yeah, I see indigo too, and a majestic purple, maroon turquoise, yellow, oh it's so pretty. And you know
what? Like this caterpillar, I want to challenge you to be very hungry, not only for yummy foods, but
also for knowledge and for learning. Read as much as you can, use your imagination as much as you can,
and be as adventurous as you can be. Then i think you can also turn into a really beautiful
butterfly of learning. Now I want to share with you this beautiful piece in The Met collection.
Can anyone tell me what they think it is? I see. A robe, a dress. Did I hear someone say a kimono?
Because if so, that's correct. Now this is actually the topmost layer of a kimono
called an uchikake. And a kimono is a special piece of clothing that many, many women from Japan
historically and even now wears for special events like maybe graduation, a wedding, a funeral, or, um,
a girl's 20th birthday. And this kimono, if you look closely, has a special fruit and an item on them.
Do you see the clementine? And do you see the books? Yes yes yes yes, I hope you do.
And look, all the books have different patterns and colors, just like Eric Carle's book did.
So maybe the next time you come to The Met, you can look for this exquisite piece of garment. But, hmm,
I'm getting hungry like our friend, and luckily our craft today is making our
very own hungry caterpillar with some food. So you'll need a cucumber, you'll need a red
pepper, you'll need a knife, and also a helping hand to make sure you can slice things safely.
You will need a straw cleaner, a pipe cleaner, and you will need some cheese. Now what you'll
want to do is slice thin pieces of the cucumber so it turns into little pieces like this. Okay.
And then also, um, slice the pepper in little thin pieces like this. Um, and then using our
straw cleaner, we will make little holes in our cheese like that. Okay, um, and then lo and behold,
we will have our very own—let me move the camera— hungry caterpillar! Do you see that? Whoa, he looks
so happy, huh? And he looks like he's ready to be eaten by hungry people like me. Let's see.
Crunchy. And not only is it yummy, it's quite healthy.
Oh. It seems like our time together is at an end, but oh my goodness, I had so
so much fun with you all, so thank you so much, um, yeah. Thank you for joining me
this Thursday with our hungry caterpillar friend, and I hope you'll join me next Thursday at noon
for our next Storytime. Okay, now I'll see you all, have a good rest of your day, bye!