“Follow me to the garden! Let’s check out the magic of nature!”
Rosemary the Garden Fairy shares gardening tips and natural lore with children.
How does your garden grow?
All seeds need water to sprout. Sometimes rain waters the garden. You can also collect rain, in a rain barrel, to make sure you have it at exactly the right time you need it.
Irrigation systems are another way to get the water to the plants in a garden or farm.
After the seeds sprout, the vegetable plants or seedlings needs the right amount of sunlight. Most need six to eight hours a day.
Other important things that will help your garden grow… keep an eye out for pests, like caterpillars and other bugs who like to eat the plants.
Compost and fertilize when needed, and pick the vegetables when they are ripe and ready!
I am really excited to be giving a presentation today at the 2017 New Orleans International Music Colloquium on “Children’s Music & Rhymes from Louisiana.” This is an opportunity to share all the really amazing stuff I’ve gathered over the last couple of years from Louisiana kids and musicians with some of our leading musicologists in New Orleans.
I’ll be sharing photographs of the children and adult creators I’ve met from all corners of our state along with the sound clips of poems, jump rope jingles, clapping songs, and music. It should be a lot of fun!
Confetti Park is a community radio program out of New Orleans. We feature local storytellers and songs that kids love, songs created for kids, or created by kids, inspired by life here Louisiana. This medley of kids music shows the diversity of our state sound.
Also featured in this episode, a music memory from Andrew Baham and the storytime feature A Pig’s Tale by Jerica Guillory.
The Confetti Park podcast and radio program, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!
Mike Strecker is a stand up comedian who has published a series of joke books for kids. Photo by Sally Asher
Mike Strecker is a stand-up comedian who has been performing in the New Orleans area since 1995. And now, he is a published book author. Mike recently released two volumes of jokes, Young Comic’s Guide to Telling Jokes Vol. 1 and 2, which are nationally distributed by Sterling Children’s Books.
“The way it came about… my wife’s a school teacher, and I have a habit of coming up with these corny little jokes. And she would say, ‘You have to write these down; kids love these kinds of books.’
So I wound up writing them down, and sure enough, I sent them away and a publisher wantedto publish them.”
“First I wrote 150 jokes—I figured that would make one volume. Little did I know!” laughs Mike. “I sent it away, and they said, ‘Yes, we like this. But we want to make two volumes of 600 jokes each.’”
Whew! That’s a lot of jokes!
Mike rose to the challenge, and spent the next few months torturing his wife and kids with experimental puns and word play.
“I have to say, the experience was pure joy,” says Mike. “Some days I’d come up with ten, other days, I’d come home and say, ‘Honey, what a day! I did 45 jokes!’ Finally, she was like, ‘Can you turn this off?’”
“There is a pun every where you look…. Once you start looking for them!” says Mike.
Mike’s books came out in January 2017. Included with over 600 jokes each are tips of how to deliver jokes, which Mike developed from his 20+ year career in standup comedy. For example, a joke should always be delivered conversationally. “Act natural,” says Mike. “Don’t read your jokes from this book or any book.”
Mike is already working on a followup, which is tentatively titled “Jokes for Crescent City Kids.”
You can catch Mike performing his family-friendly brand of stand up comedy around New Orleans. Check out his schedule at http://openmikestrecker.com/index.html
Treasures from the Point and Family Pyrate Day – Saturday, March 25 The Confetti Kids Treasures from the Point porch sale starting at 8 a.m. will be followed by a day-long family-friendly celebration of pirate culture hosted by Confetti Kids & the NOLA Pyrates starting at 11 a.m. in Algiers Point
Arghh, mateys! It’s the first annual Family Pyrate Day in Old Algiers Point, a family friendly event celebrating pirate culture in New Orleans.
Join Confetti Kids, Confetti Park and our mates of NOLA Pyrate Week for a swashbuckling good time on the Mississippi River in Algiers Point. SEE MAP There will be storytellers, musical performances, a pyrate market and cafe…games, demonstrations, and crafting, too.
Confetti Park Storytelling Stage
You can look forward to the sea shanties of The Whiskey Bay Rovers and the Confetti Park Players, and pirate tales spun by authors such as Dianne de Las Casas, John Couret, David Ray, Erin Rovin, Ol’ Chumbucket, Sam Staley, Zachary W. Mohr, and crafting with Karen Konnerth of Calliope Puppets.
Lots more piratical fun
Next door to the kids pirate cafe at Warren’s Corner at 601 Patterson is the 21+ pirate tavern, the Old Point Bar. There will be fun along the river all the way down to Larkin Playspot, including pirate merchants, magicians, historians, nautical knot lessons, and a neighborhood-wide treasure hunt co-sponsored by Hubbell Library. And it’s all coinciding with the Treasures from the Point sale of the century in Algiers Point (beginning at 8 a.m.)
Take what you can, give something back
All proceeds from Pyrate Day food sales, garage sales, and donation buckets go to building a new children’s park in Algiers. Want to help in other ways? Bring your old instruments to donate to children. The Hungry for Music bus will be parked at 601 Patterson to take donations! And bring canned food for the Algiers Point Lil Free Pantry and take a “pigture” with Coco the Pirate Pig! More information about Family Pyrate Day
Confetti Park is a community radio program out of New Orleans. We feature local storytellers and songs that kids love, songs created for kids, or created by kids, right here in Louisiana. This medley of kids music shows the diversity of Louisiana musicians.
Songs featured in this episode, in order:
Woody, Lead Belly & Pete – Ph Fred
Pig Latin Song – Lead Belly
Woodpecker – a poem by Nola Frazier
Lost in the Library – Judy Caplan Ginsburgh
O’Guillori – Michael Doucet
This Old Man – The Swing Setters
Goodbye in the Bayou – Jazzy Ash
The Confetti Park podcast and radio program, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!
Treasures from the Point and Family Pyrate Day – Saturday, March 25 Rain or shine! The Confetti Kids Treasures from the Point porch sale will be followed by a day-long family-friendly celebration of pirate culture hosted by Confetti Kids & the NOLA Pyrates
Join Confetti Kids, Confetti Park and our mates of NOLA Pyrate Week for a swashbuckling good time on the Mississippi River in Algiers Point. SEE MAP There will be storytellers, musical performances, a pyrate market and cafe…games, demonstrations, and crafting, too.
In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear an excerpt from the enchanting fairy tale To Dream of Dancing: Desdemona’s Dreams, Volume 1. Z.W. Mohr, the author, narrates for us a dream poem and an introduction to Desdemona. This is an excerpt from the first book in his original series co-created with illustrator Aaron Damon Porter.
Desdemona is an 11 year old girl who is being raised by her two mysterious aunts and guardian teddy bear. When we first meet Desdemona, she is battling a mad maestro who wants to steal away her dream of dancing. When she awakes, her adventures continue…..
From this introduction, we, along with Desdemona, will discover she can bring her dreams into the waking world at a time when everyone else is forgetting how to dream.
The Desdemona’s Dreams series offers a whirlwind of adventures in magical places, with inspiring and strong female characters. It also shows us the beauty of a child’s imagination, and how dreams shape the very world around us.
Stay tuned for an interview with Z.W. Mohr and Aaron Damon Porter on Confetti Park.
Also featured in this episode, a story called “The Lord’s Supper” by Ms. Chocolate and a music memory from Dirty Dozen saxophone player Roger Lewis.
The Confetti Park podcast and radio program, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!
Also featured in this episode, a story called Alphonse and the Alligator by Black Guidry and a music memory from Carole Gauthier Lancon.
The Confetti Park podcast and radio program, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!
The Confetti Park podcast and radio program, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!