(cheerful music) - Yeah, and then I got to go there to do.

Oh, hey, good morning.

Welcome to Camp Read-A-Lot.

I'm Mrs. Hammack, and I am so excited that you're here at camp.

Camp is such a great place for learning and having fun.

At Camp Read-A-Lot, we're going to spend our days reading and talking, singing, learning, and enjoying all kinds of activities that will help us become strong readers.

I'm super glad you're here.

Parents, encourage your kids to read outside of books.

Here's what I mean by that.

As you're traveling through town in the car, encourage them to look for the signs and the stores and read what they say.

If they're not readers yet, they can look for the letters that they know.

Or if you're at the grocery store, there are a million things they can read.

Have them help you with your shopping list, have them read the list and then to go find things.

It will be a great experience.

And if you're cooking together, have them read the recipe or have them help you read the recipe.

These are examples of how we can show our kids that reading is an everyday skill.

It's something that we need to do for our whole long lives.

And yes, reading books is so much fun, but we read even when we're not reading books and we want our kids to know that.

So parents get reading outside of books with your kids and watch what a difference it makes.

All right, campers.

Let me put my clipboard down and let's sing our hello song.

Are you ready?

♪ 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 ♪ And I am.

I am so glad you're here today Hey, are you ready to do our pledge?

All right.

Get your solute ready.

Remember, I'm going to say it.

You repeat after me.

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

Great job.

All right.

We are ready to train our ears for sound.

There are some great sounds here at camp, but one of my favorite sounds is you practicing sounds with me.

So it's time for us to play our game.

Do you see our helper?

He doesn't know it's time.

Let's go get him.

Scooter!

It's time.

What are you?

Are you cooking more acorns?

Oh my goodness.

You're gonna be so full of acorns, you're gonna pop.

Yes, I know you like acorns and smores.

I totally get it, but it's time for us to do our game.

Are you ready?

You are.

Do you remember what we're doing today?

Oh, oh, okay.

Well he says he's ready.

We're going to play the syllable clapping game.

Do you remember what that means?

Let's review just so we're safe and we know, everybody knows.

So a syllable is a part of a word that has a vowel sound.

Words have to have vowels, sounds.

And sometimes they have more than one.

Would you sit still?

You're wiggling all over the place.

So a syllable is a part of a word that has a vowel sound.

So we're going to be clapping some syllables of some words, and then you can tell me how many syllables or how many claps you did.

Are you ready?

Okay, I chose some words that are perfect for our camp today and to go with our story.

So our first word is redwood.

Redwood.

Are you ready to clap it?

Okay.

Ready?

Red, wood.

Great job.

How many syllables did you?

Two.

Very good.

We clapped two times, right?

All right, Are you ready for the next one?

All right, let's try it.

You ready?

Animals, animals.

Ready?

Let's break it apart.

An ih mals.

Good job.

Very nice.

How many times was that?

Oh, three.

Very nice, head nodding.

Good for you.

All right, let's try another one.

This one's a tricky one.

Don't let it trick you.

Here we go.

Trees.

Trees.

Here we go.

Trees.

Great.

I didn't trick you.

It only has one vowel sound.

That means it only has one syllable.

Terrific.

All right, the last one, I saved the best for last.

Are you ready?

Gardener, gardener.

You ready to clap it?

Okay, let's do it.

Gar den er.

Very nice.

Three syllables.

Great job.

Now, do you remember why it's important to know how to break words into syllables?

That's right, because it helps us to break apart larger words so that we can sound them out.

It also helps us when we're writing large words.

Because we can write them one syllable chunk at a time, and then it makes those words a lot easier.

Good job.

All right, I have a joke for you.

I tried to pick some really good jokes today to go with our story.

So I'm a little nervous, but okay.

I have courage and confidence.

So here we go.

Why didn't the tree answer your question?

Why didn't the tree answer your question?

Oh, he's thinking.

Do you know?

It was stumped.

(laughs) Get it, get it?

Tree stumped.

It was stumped.

Like you didn't?

Okay.

Well, I hope you thought it was funny.

I thought it was wildly funny.

And I have another joke for you later.

So are you ready for our catch of the day?

Yes.

Oh good.

Today's story is called "Tree Lady."

"Tree Lady."

So we're going to find out more about that, but let's first take a look at some of the words that we might hear, or we will hear in our story that might help us to understand.

You ready?

Okay.

You know what to do.

Good job.

All right.

We only have two today.

This story has the word soil in it, the word soil.

Do you know what soil is?

Right.

It's dirt.

It's another way of saying dirt.

Earth, soil, dirt.

They kind of all mean the same things.

All right, here's the word we just clapped the syllables.

Gardener, gardener.

Do you know what a gardener is?

Right, it is someone that takes care of a garden.

When we have that er at the end.

There's garden, gardener.

That means it's a person or someone who does something, and this person gardens.

So are you getting any ideas of what our story might be about?

Soil, gardener, "Tree Lady."

Let's take a look.

This story has some of the most beautiful pictures.

I really love it.

So let me get my reading tools.

Those are my glasses.

Make my eyes strong.

This story is called "The Tree Lady."

Isn't it beautiful?

Look how pretty.

Look at her laying down there, looking up at the trees.

Isn't that so cool how the illustrator made it look like they're looking down at her?

Isn't that amazing?

Yeah.

I love that.

All right, "The Tree Lady."

Here's the front cover of the book and the back cover of the book.

This story is about hope.

Hope.

Do you know what hope is?

Hope is that feeling that you have when you want something to happen.

And you believe that your effort today, the things you do today, will help good things happen in the future.

That's hope.

And so this story is about hope.

And I want you to be looking for examples of hope in our story today, because I think you're going to find some.

Let's take a look at the title page because it has some interesting information for us.

Here's the title again.

It says "The Tree Lady."

Now listen to this.

Don't miss it.

The true story of how one tree-loving woman changed a city forever.

What!

This is a non-fiction story.

That's what a true story means.

I have no idea who this person is, but I am excited to know how one woman changed an entire city.

Aren't you?

Wow.

Okay.

Let's jump in and see.

Katherine Olivia Sessions grew up in the woods of Northern California.

She gathered leaves from oaks and elms.

She collected needles from pines and redwoods, and she braided them together with flowers to make necklaces and bracelets.

It was the 1860s, and girls from Kate's side of town weren't supposed to get their hands dirty, but Kate did.

What do you think that means?

They weren't supposed to get their hands dirty.

And did you hear how long ago that was?

1860.

(gasps) It's 2021 now.

So 18, 19, 20, that's 200 years ago.

Isn't that amazing?

So what do you think they mean, they're not supposed to get their hands dirty?

Well, back then, in 1860, girls had certain things they were supposed to do and things they weren't supposed to do.

And playing outside in the dirt was not one of the things that girls were supposed to do.

It wasn't considered ladylike.

I'm sure glad that things have changed, because I love playing outside.

Kate listened well in school, and she learned how to write and count.

She remembered the poems and stories she read.

Best of all, she liked studying wind and rain and muscles and bones and plants and trees, especially trees.

Most girls were discouraged from studying science, but not Kate.

Did you notice something in her class?

Look at her classmates.

Right.

They're all boys, but not her.

She is ready to study.

Kate felt the trees were her friends.

She loved the way they reached toward the sky and how their branches stretched wide to catch the light.

Trees seemed to Kate like giant umbrellas that sheltered her and the animals, birds, and plants that lived in the forest.

Not everyone feels at home in the woods, but Kate did.

Do you?

I do.

I love it here.

When Kate grew up, she left home to study science at college.

She looked at soil and insects through the microscope, and she learned how plants make food and how they drink water.

And she studied trees from around the world.

No woman had ever graduated from the University of California with a degree in science, but in 1881, Kate did.

After graduation, Kate took a job in Southern California.

When her boat docked in San Diego, she saw that her new home was a desert town.

Kate never thought she would live in a place with very few trees, but now she did.

Wow.

Do you see any trees?

Me either.

Kate began her job as a teacher.

She was also the vice principal of the school.

So she had to make sure that everyone followed the rules.

Kate missed studying science and was not sure that she would stay on the job.

But for two years, she did.

From her school, Kate could see City Park in the hills above town.

It was called a park, but it didn't look like one.

It was where people grazed cattle and dumped garbage.

Most San Diegans didn't think trees would ever grow there.

But Kate did.

Do you see an example of hope?

I do.

When Kate's love for the woods, with Kate's love for the woods, she thought San Diego needed trees more than anything else.

She left her teaching to become a gardener.

She knew she must plant trees that could live in dry soil with lots and lots of sunshine.

Her friends worried that Kate wouldn't find trees like that, but she did.

Kate became a tree hunter.

She wrote letters to gardeners all over the world and asked them to send her seeds that could grow in a desert.

She also traveled south into Mexico to look for trees that liked hot, dry weather and steep hills and canyons.

Not everyone knows how to hunt for trees, but Kate did.

Look at all of these different types of trees that she got to grow in the place where she lived.

That's a yucca, a eucalyptus.

Here's a bristlecone pine tree, Italian cypress.

Wow.

Soon Kate's trees were planted along streets, around schools, and in small parks and plazas all over town.

People bought trees from Kate's nursery and planted them in their yards.

From elms and oaks to eucalyptuses and palms, by the turn of the century, young trees from Kate's nursery were growing in every part of San Diego.

Most people didn't think a desert town could sustain so many trees.

But Kate did.

Then in 1909, the city leaders announced that a great fair called the Panama-California Exposition was coming to San Diego in 1915.

The fair would be held in the city park, which was now called Balboa Park.

Kate felt Balboa still needed more trees, thousands more to look beautiful and to shade the visitors that came to the fair.

Trees, trees, more trees!

That was too many trees for Kate to plant by herself, but she knew lots of people could do it together.

She asked her friends to bring their friends and to come to the park for a tree-planting party.

Again and again people volunteered to help.

And those volunteers weren't sure they could plant enough trees but before long, they did.

A tree planting party.

That sounds so fun.

And when the fair opened, San Diego was ready.

Millions of trees and plants filled Balboa Park.

The fair had so many visitors, it stayed open for two years instead of one.

People came from near and far to see the attractions and to stroll in the cool shade.

The fairgoers couldn't believe San Diego had such magnificent gardens, but thanks to Kate, it did.

In the years after the fair, Kate was given many awards for her work, and people took to calling her the mother of Balboa Park.

She continued gardening and planting trees until her death in 1940.

Back then, few could have imagined that San Diego would become the lush leafy city that it is today.

But all along, year after year, Kate Olivia Sessions did.

Wow, isn't that amazing that one person could do so much for their community just by having hope of something different?

Did you see all those beautiful trees?

Now, Balboa Park is a real place in San Diego, and it is filled with beautiful trees and plants, and they all started because of Kate.

Isn't that awesome?

How did her hope change her community?

Right, look, it went from a desert.

Remember when she came in on a boat?

What did it look like?

Wow.

And because of her hope that it could be different, it ended up looking like this.

Isn't that fantastic?

See how hope can make great things happen when you believe that you can make a difference?

I love that story.

All right, let's take a little look.

Today, we're going to do something a little different because there were some words in the book that maybe you don't know.

And we're going to use clues from the story to figure out what they mean.

So one of the first words that we heard was oak, oak.

And we might not know what that means, but in the book it said she gathered leaves from them, gathered leaves.

So I'm going to write that.

She gathered leaves.

Okay, so if it has leaves, what does that kind of give you a hint?

Right, it's probably some kind of a plant.

And guess what?

A tree is a plant, and an oak is a tree.

Great job.

Do you see how you can use clues in the story to help you figure out words that you might not know, but you have to look closely at the details and think about what the author is telling you with the words they choose, so that you can figure out some of those unknown words.

Isn't that awesome?

I know.

I love it.

There's branches and grazed.

We can also look for those.

But I think we're gonna stop here, because I want to make sure that we have enough time for our activity today.

'Cause I think you're going to like it.

So before we get there, though, I do have another tree joke.

Are you ready?

Okay.

What kind of.

I'm so excited.

Okay.

(sighs) What kind of tree fits in your hand?

Do you know?

Do you know?

A palm tree.

(laughs) Get it?

A palm tree.

Yeah, the palm of your hand, a palm tree.

Oh.

All right.

Well, it was a good effort.

You ready to go over to the table and see what we're going to do today?

Today, my friends, we are going to watercolor some trees.

Let's go to the craft table and see what we can find.

All right, I'm gonna put my book here because I want to be able to see it.

And I'm going to put you right there, Mr. Scooter.

And today, we're going to do some water coloring.

Now, don't worry, because watercolor is really fun.

Now mine might look a little bit different than yours, but if you have the watercolors that come in the long tray, those are perfect.

Now, I do have some thicker paper that's called watercolor paper.

And that's just because sometimes when we use watercolor on regular paper, the paper gets a little soggy.

So I've chosen to use this thicker watercolor paper.

But if you don't have that, don't worry.

Just use a little bit less water so it doesn't get too soggy.

All right, now I've got my paints here.

This is my little palette.

And I've already put some colors in it that I know I'm going to use.

'Cause if we're painting trees, I'm going to need brown.

Good.

I'm going to need green.

But not just one type of green, because look at all the various colors and shades and hues of green.

Isn't that pretty?

So we don't want all of our trees to be just one color, because trees are lots of colors.

All right, I have water because it's called watercolor, right?

Okay, so I'm going to use a wider brush to start with, and I'm going to dip my brush in the water, and then I'm gonna dip it into my paint.

And I'm gonna dab it just a little bit.

Now, I'm going to paint first just some, they look like sticks, and that's okay.

Remember, they don't have to be straight, because trees are not all straight, right?

So I'm gonna make mine kind of going in different directions.

Don't worry.

You can't do it wrong.

That's the nice thing about art, campers.

Art just is beautiful, and you can't really do it wrong.

It's just, it might go a different direction than you planned, but it's still very beautiful.

Now I'm gonna see.

Now, do you see how I have some dark spots here?

That's good because that tells us that the light is hitting the tree at different places.

So I'm just gonna put some branches here.

All right, now I'm gonna rinse off my brush.

I'm gonna get rid of all of that brown because I'm going to use my little paper towel here to dab off the extra water.

Because now I want to dip it into the green, and I'm going to, now, here's what I'm going to do.

I'm not gonna paint like this.

I'm just going to, I'm going to just brush on some different colors right around.

I'm just gonna tap it.

Do you see I'm just tapping it?

And the water will stay in a little puddle, but it will also dry dark in some spots, and light in others, which will look more like a tree.

I don't have time to finish, but I hope you'll finish yours.

♪ Skinnamarinky dinky dink ♪ ♪ Skinnamarinky do ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ I love you in the morning ♪ ♪ And in the afternoon ♪ ♪ I love you in the evening ♪ ♪ And underneath the moon, oh ♪ Come back and see me next week, and we'll do some more talking about hope.

Bye bye.

(cheerful music)