(gentle music) ♪ Hello readers ♪ ♪ Hello writers ♪ ♪ Hello campers, I'm glad you're here today.

♪ ♪ Hello readers.

♪ ♪ Hello writers.

♪ ♪ Hello campers, I'm glad you're here today.

♪ Hey, welcome to Camp Read-a-lot.

I Mrs. Hammack and I am so excited that you're here with me at camp.

Camp is so much fun.

It's a time for learning and having fun.

And at Camp Read-a-Lot we will spend our days reading and talking and singing and learning and enjoying all kinds of activities together that will help us become strong readers.

Hey parents, before you step out of the room I want you to know that.

Did you know that the research shows that if your child reads six books, while they're on summer break, just six, that they will not do the summer slide and lose any of their learning in their reading progress.

That's all it takes.

Just six books.

So won't you do that?

Have your kids read to you this summer, you only need six.

Anything above that's just even better.

I am so happy that you're here with me today.

Did you hear the song I was singing?

I want to teach that one to you.

Are you ready?

It goes like this.

♪ Hello readers.

♪ ♪ Hello writers.

♪ ♪ Hello campers, I'm glad you're here today.

♪ Isn't that great?

You know, at camp we sing a lot of songs and so you're going to learn some songs.

And when we sing, I want you to sing out loud with me.

Now, one of the other things that we do at camp is we have a pledge.

And a pledge is like a promise that we make to ourselves and to others.

So we're going to give our scout salute, which is just two fingers and it goes like this.

So I'm going to say the words then you repeat after me.

Are you ready?

On my honor, I will try my best to be kind to everyone have a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

Great job.

We're going to say that each day and I want you to make that same pledge and promise with me every day.

Now, Oh, you know, I had a friend who was going to come today and help me with our sound game, but let me look in my backpack.

Oh, look, you didn't think I'd forget my ears did you?

I always bring my ears.

And when I was packing for camp I thought there's going to be all kinds of amazing sounds to hear at camp.

So we're going to train our ears to hear sounds even here at camp.

But back to my friend.

Can you find him?

I can't find, do you see, what?

Oh, in the tent, he's in the tent.

Let me see.

No, I don't see anyone in the tent.

Where else could he, what?

Oh, there he is.

Scooter, what are you doing down there?

You're supposed to be up here with me.

The boys and girls are here and they're ready for camp.

Are you ready to teach them your sound game?

Okay.

Are you ready campers?

Great.

All right, what game are we going to play today?

Oh, okay.

That's a good one.

We're going to play the blending game.

You guys are great at that game.

Are you ready to try it?

Okay.

My friend's Scooter is going to tell me the sounds and I'm going to put them up here on our board with just a little acorn and then we're going to blend it together so you can tell me what the word is.

Are you ready?

Okay, Scooter are you ready?

Okay, what's the first sound.

Buh.

Okay, here's our first sound Buh, buh.

All right, what's the next one?

Ah, okay.

Let's see, we have buh, ah.

What's that last one?

Oh, g. All right, here we go.

Here are three sounds.

Let's say the sounds, buh, ah, g. Bag.

What's my word?

Bag.

Great job.

Did they get it Scooter?

Yay, good job.

Oh, look, he's clapping.

That's awesome.

All right.

Do you have the next sounds for us?

Okay, ready?

Are you sure?

Okay.

All right.

Here's the next one.

K, k. Okay.

Ah, okay, here we go.

Ah, k, ah All right, what's next Scooter?

Mm, mm.

K, ah, mm.

One last sound?

Okay.

P, p. - Okay, here we go.

Okay.

You ready?

Okay.

Let's do it.

K, ah, mm, p. Camp.

What's my word?

Camp.

Great job.

Oh, he's very excited.

You got that one fast.

All right.

Do you have one more?

Okay.

Okay.

That's a good one.

I like it.

Here we go.

T, t. Eh, eh.

T, eh Nn t, eh, Nn.

Oh.

Got to borrow one from here.

T, t, eh, nn, t What is it?

What is it boys and girls?

Tent.

Great job.

You did that so well.

Hey, I heard a funny joke.

Are you ready?

I'm going to tell you a joke.

Scooter, are you ready?

What has four legs and cannot walk?

He's thinking.

Can you see him thinking?

What has four legs, but can't walk?

Do you know what it is?

No?

A chair.

Ha, ha, ha.

That's a good one, huh?

Oh, he said no.

He said that wasn't very funny.

Well, I'll try again later, okay?

All right, Scooter, I'm going to set you down here for a little while, while we get ready for our story.

And then you can come back later when we get ready to do another fun thing.

Okay?

Okay.

Cause you're going to sit right here, so you can watch.

All right, boys and girls, we are going to learn some words.

I have the catch of the day.

Which are words that are going to help us with a story that I'm going to share with you.

So let's take a look at what our catch of the day is.

So this word is blackout.

Blackout.

Do you know what a blackout is?

Well, a blackout is when we lose power like all the lights go out and it's dark.

Now, sometimes we lose power during the day and it's not quite as dark but it's still called a blackout when we lose power.

So in our story today, you're going to hear about that.

Okay.

Let's look at this one.

This one says normal.

Normal.

Do you know what normal is?

Right, it's just normal.

It's usual or ordinary, nothing special.

So if something is normal, it's just regular.

Like how it normally is.

Normally, normal.

All right, and our last word for today is.

Community, community.

This is an important word for us today and for tomorrow because boys and girls we're going to talk about what a community is.

And it is a group of people who are connected in some way.

So like we are going to build our camp community.

We're going to be a community.

You probably belong to several communities.

You belong to a school and that's your school community.

You might go to church and that is your church community.

You could even belong to your neighborhood community.

It means that those groups of people are connected together because of something they have in common.

And so we're going to read a story together today about a community and we're going to learn a little more about that.

Okay.

Great.

All right.

Let me get my handy dandy backpack so that I can get our story for today.

Our story is called Blackout by John Rocco, Blackout.

Now we talked about what a blackout was.

So I have a question.

Why do you think John Rocco, who's also the illustrator.

Why do you think he used such dark colors in his illustrations?

What do you think he was trying to show us?

Right, that's the name of the story, right?

Blackout.

So, we can't have it all lit up and bright because a blackout means there's no power.

Good thinking.

Now, we look at books and there's some parts of a book that I want to make sure you know.

So this we call the front cover of the book.

It tells us the name of the story.

It tells us the author's name.

And then we have the back cover of the book.

Now, some books like this one doesn't but some books have a little writing here that tells us a little bit about what the story is going to be.

And sometimes that's a good way to see if it's something that looks interesting to you.

When we open the book, we can go here.

And what do you notice?

Right, the title of the story.

This is called the title page.

Can you say that?

Great.

Now, before I read, I need some help, my eyes are going to need some help because they're not as strong as they used to be.

So I'm going to use my glasses.

And if you wear glasses, when you read or even just when you see, that's great.

Because we need to use the tools that help us be our best.

So, today we're going to read the story Blackout by John Rocco.

And along the way I'm going to have you look at the pictures and I'm going to ask you some questions.

Now you're going to have to use your very good looking eyes because there are not a lot of words in this story but the pictures give us a lot of good information.

Okay?

Do you have your good looking eyes on get them out of your pocket and put them on?

Let's get started on our story.

You ready to jump in?

Let's do it.

All right.

It started out as a normal summer night.

The city was loud and hot.

Oh, look, you see the garbage truck going by, making all kinds of noise.

All the lights are on, aren't they?

There's a taxi.

Beep, beep.

All right, now I want you to look at how he did the pictures.

Do you see how he's got windows?

And we're going to peek in to what people are doing.

So here, this guy is, I think standing on, he's trying to reach something up here, high.

He's standing on a chair.

This girl is sitting on the phone.

She says, "and then he said", and she's petting her cat.

Oh, here's a lady typing on a computer.

Here's a dad cooking in the kitchen.

Inside, everyone was busy.

Oh, look, here's the same boy that was in this picture.

Look what he has, a box.

And what is it?

Can you tell?

Yeah, it's a game.

Oh, he's going to find his sister.

Uh oh, she says "get out".

Oh my gosh.

Do you have a brother and sister that tell you to get out of their room?

Yeah, it happens.

All right, so on to the next he goes, down the stairs.

Where'd he go next?

Right to dad in the kitchen.

Dad says, "sorry, much too busy".

Then he asks, mom.

Mom says the same thing.

He's not having any luck, is he?

Oh, looks like he gives up.

He's going back up the stairs.

What's he doing now?

Yeah.

He's decided to play his own game.

All right, so think about what we've seen so far.

Each person, what are they doing?

Dad's cooking.

Mom's working.

Sister's on the phone.

And what is he, the boy, what is he wanting people to do?

Right, he wants them to play a game together.

And then, the lights went out.

All of them.

Has that ever happened to you?

Yeah.

Mom!

Oh, can you tell how he might be feeling in this picture?

How would you feel?

Right.

He's a little scared isn't he?

So what do you think's going to happen?

You're so smart.

I think you're right.

And look, you were right.

Mom comes.

What does she have?

Right.

A flashlight.

Oh, nothing worked at all.

Look, even the phone doesn't work because you have to have power to make the cordless phone work.

All right, let's see what they're going to do.

Oh, peeking out the window.

The city was dark and quiet and still.

Remember before it was hot and noisy.

And now look.

We huddled around flashlights and candles.

What are they doing?

Look at this.

She's afraid of the shadow.

Until it was just too hot and sticky to sit inside.

Can we go?

Look, he's pointing up.

Look how the author or the illustrator did the picture.

So it looks like you're looking down on the kitchen.

Isn't that cool?

And he's saying, let's go up.

Where do you think they're going to go?

I don't know.

Let's see.

So we went up and up and up to the rooftop and found the lights.

Look how beautiful that is.

Look at all the stars.

Look, they're shining a flashlight on the cat and look it makes his shadow over here.

Isn't that neat?

And people, we found people.

It was a block party in the sky.

We waved to everyone.

Then we heard sounds below.

Why do you think he says it's a block party in the sky?

Right, because look, here they are.

Here's all their neighbors outside on the roof too.

So we went down and down and down to the street.

Come on!

A party was going on there too.

Look at that.

They're using the lights from the cars.

And look, the fireman is putting the water out of the hydrant so the kids can play in the water.

They are coming together as a community to enjoy the night.

Even though they lost all the power they're singing.

Oh, look, the ice cream ladies giving out free ice cream because she knows it's so hot.

And no one has air conditioning and everyone is trying to help each other be together.

What do you think's gonna happen when the lights come back on?

You think they'll stay out there and play?

Let's see.

No one was busy at all.

But when the lights came back on, everything went back to normal.

Oh look, he's back by himself playing the game.

She's calling someone on the phone.

Mom's back at the computer.

Dad's fixing the clock in the kitchen.

Oh, do you see?

What's he doing?

But not everyone likes normal.

"I gotta go", said his sister.

Great idea, buddy.

So he turned out the lights.

They had their own personal blackout, didn't they?

Why do you think they did that?

Right, because he wanted his family to spend time together playing games.

Isn't that cool?

The end.

So the family is playing a board game.

And what do you think the author?

Why do you think the author ended the story this way?

Is there a message?

I think so.

Yeah.

You're right.

I think the author wanted us to remember that spending time together is so important.

It is how we show community.

We build each other up and we spend time together and it helps us feel like we belong together.

Isn't that a great story?

I think so too.

And John Rocco was the author and the illustrator.

Isn't that amazing.

All right.

Well, we are gonna use our story together today.

You've got to help me, and you too, Mr. We're going to do some thinking about our story and we'll go back to the text to help us answer some questions, okay?

Because we want to be strong readers.

So we've got to build our brain.

And so we're going to think about this story.

It says before the lights went out.

And then it says retell the event.

All right, so before the lights went out what was going on in our story?

Try to think, think back in your mind about what the story said.

If you're having trouble, we will go back to the story.

Oh, I heard you.

Good for you.

You're right.

Let's see.

I'm going to find that page.

All right.

Look here.

Before the lights went out, what are some things you wrote?

Oh, I heard that word.

Normal.

Good job.

Good.

So let's write down some of the things we see them doing.

All right.

So what is, what are some things they're doing?

Talking on the phone.

And what about dad?

What was dad doing before the lights went out?

Right.

He was cooking dinner.

Cooking dinner All right.

How about mom?

What was mom doing?

She was working right?

She was on the computer.

Well, we don't know if she was working.

She might've been shopping.

She was on the computer though, wasn't she?

So let's write that.

On the computer.

And what was the little boy doing?

Right, he gave up, right?

He started playing a video game.

Good.

All right.

Okay, now think about when the lights went out.

This says during the blackout.

What did they do during the blackout?

Do you remember?

Let's go back to the text and see.

Remember, here come the lights.

They're off and there they are.

Oh, they're complaining.

She looks like she's complaining.

Oh, the phone.

And then look, do you remember what they did?

Oh, look at that.

What are they doing?

Right.

They made shadow puppets.

What did they do after the shadow puppets?

Remember it got really hot and they didn't want to stay inside anymore.

Yeah.

Good.

They went up to the roof.

Good job.

All right.

I know there's some other things but let's skip down and see what happened after the lights came on.

Right, back to normal.

But how did it end?

Right, they turned the lights out themselves.

Turned the lights out.

Woo.

Handwriting's getting a little crazy, sorry.

Great thinking.

Wow.

You were paying such close attention to our story today.

Blackout.

Great job.

Hey, you know what?

I have another joke.

Are you ready?

Come here.

Let's, I have another joke for you.

Let's see, you ready to know?

Okay.

All right, this is a good one.

This is really good.

All right.

Okay.

How do trees access the internet?

Do you know?

Hmm.

He's thinking, he's thinking how to trees?

They log on.

Ha, ha, ha.

Isn't that a good one?

Oh, he said that one was good.

All right.

Well, see, he liked that one.

I'll keep trying to find good jokes.

That was awesome.

Boys and girls today ,and Scooter, today, we've been talking about what a community is, and I want you to think about what you can do in your community to help people feel welcome.

So what are some things that you might do to help people in your community feel welcome?

I would love it, if you wrote up some sent, tell me what, make a list.

What are some things you can do?

You could draw a picture of it.

I would love it if you sent a letter here to camp.

That would be great.

I'd love to know.

The address is on the screen.

And I want to know what your doing to make people in your community feel welcome.

I think you are an excellent community member and we are building a great community here at camp.

And tomorrow I have a whole new story about community and I want you to join me, but you know, Mrs. Hammock always asked to sing.

So I have a goodbye song.

Are you ready?

Okay, here we go.

♪ Skidamarink a dink a dink, ♪ ♪ Skidamarink a doo, ♪ ♪ I love you.

♪ ♪ Skidamarink a dink a dink, ♪ ♪ Skidamarink a doo, ♪ ♪ I love you.

♪ ♪ I love you in the morning ♪ ♪ And in the afternoon, ♪ ♪ I love you in the evening ♪ ♪ And underneath the moon; ♪ ♪ Oh, ♪ ♪ Skidamarink a dink a dink, ♪ ♪ Skidamarink a doo, ♪ ♪ I love you, you and you and you.

♪ Come back tomorrow to camp so we can share some more fun activities.

I cannot wait to see you.

Bye.