(upbeat music) - Good morning.

Hey, welcome to Camp Read-A-Lot.

I'm Mrs. Hammack.

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

Camp is such a fun place to learn, to read, to talk, to think, to do all kinds of activities that will help you grow into a strong reader.

And that's what we want.

We wanna be strong readers.

Parents, make reading into a fun family bingo game.

This might be something fun that you can try for the remainder of summer, but also maybe something you could do as a family for the fall.

Grab a sheet of paper, make some boxes like a bingo card, and then together, think of some things that you could put in here.

Let me show you what I mean.

You could write read by the pool.

You could write read to a pet, read your friend's favorite book.

Read in bed.

Read with a flashlight.

Read in a park.

Read while eating ice cream.

Whatever your family comes up with, put it in a box.

And then each day your kids can choose a box and do that activity.

And then they can mark it off.

And when they get a bingo, you can find a prize.

It doesn't have to be anything expensive, it can be a popsicle.

Or maybe they get to plan a dessert for the family, or help fix dinner, whatever would motivate your kids.

And you can talk about those things too.

This is a great way to motivate kids that might not choose reading as something to do for an activity at home.

And we want all of our kids reading at home.

And so this might be a fun way for you to encourage them to read.

You will definitely see the benefits of them reading.

And what a fun way to do it!

You could all do that together.

I hope this helps give you some ideas of how to engage your kids in reading at home.

All right, campers.

It's time for us to sing our song.

♪ 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 ♪ All right, it's time for our Camp Read-A-Lot pledge.

Now, you have learned it really well, but if you need to, you can repeat after me.

Here we go.

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.

How'd you do?

Good job.

All right, today, we're going to play the same ending sound game.

Same ending sound.

So we're gonna train our ears for sound.

Let me get my ears.

We're gonna train our ears for sound by listening for the ending sound that is the same.

Scooter is somewhere around here.

And he's supposed to be cleaning up his tent so that we can get packed up because tomorrow is our last day here at Camp Read-A-Lot.

But I haven't been able to find him.

Do you wanna help me find him?

I would love your help, let's call him.

Scooter!

Oh, Scooter!

Oh!

Well, he's not packing up his tent, he's sitting on his tent.

Let's go get him.

What are you doing up there?

Yes, I said to clean up your tent, not climb up your tent.

Oh my goodness!

I think you need to train your ears for sounds so you know what you're doing.

Yes.

(laughing) All right, the campers are here and we're gonna play the same ending sound game, okay?

All right, let's take a look at our pictures and that will help us.

We have soup, sun, up, see, it's pointing the escalators going up.

Soup, sun, up.

Did you here two that have the same ending sound?

Yes.

Soup and up.

Good job, they both have the p sound.

Terrific, you did that really well.

All right, let's see, what else Let's try the next one.

All right, you ready?

Let me hold it up.

Trumpet.

Op, I lost it.

Trumpet, wrist, and pen.

Trumpet, wrist, pen.

Did you hear the two that have the same sound?

Let's listen.

Trumpet, wrist, pen.

Oh, good.

Trumpet and wrist have the same ending sound.

Yes, they do.

Good job.

Okay, now this is a tricky one.

I'm gonna tell you what it is because I don't want you to guess incorrectly.

This is a gem, gem.

So we have a gem.

We have a pig, and an inchworm.

What do you think?

Did you hear that?

Mm-hmm.

Gem.

Pig, g. Inchworm.

Very nice.

Gem and inchworm have the same ending sound.

Great listening.

We've been practicing the ending sounds because often it's hard to pay attention to what the ending sound is.

We practice the beginning sounds a lot, but it's good to practice those ending sounds and help train our ears to listen all the way to the end of the word.

Good for you.

All right, I have a joke before we get to our catch of the day, are you ready?

Why wouldn't the clam share his treasure?

Why wouldn't the clam share his treasure?

What do you think?

Well, it was because he was a little shellfish.

(laughing loudly) Shellfish!

A clam is a shellfish and selfish, okay.

(laughing) Oh, I love those, those are so good.

All right, we have a story that's going to be so good, I think you're gonna like it.

But we need to do our catch of the day words first, okay?

Are you ready to sit down?

Okay, let's do it.

You get right there in your spot.

And here is our catch of the day.

Let's see, we have imitated, imitated.

That means copying something or someone.

When you imitate someone, it means you're copying what they're doing.

All right, how about startled, startled?

Startled means to surprise someone, or make a person jump.

That means they were startled.

And this is a crazy looking word, look at that.

Onomatopoeia.

Do you know what that is?

It's when a word or words, they imitate the sound of something they're trying to make, like the word pop.

The action of pop actually sounds like the word pop.

And so onomatopoeia are those words that sound like what they sound like, what they're trying to explain.

Like when you read a comic book and it says bam or whack, those are onomatopoeia, they sound like the sound that the action makes.

And today there is some examples or there are some examples of that in our story.

Let me get my reading tools on.

Glasses on, here we go.

This story is a new story for me.

I had not read this story before until we came to camp.

This is called "Max Found Two Sticks" by Brian Pinkney.

What do you notice?

He looks like he's sitting on some steps.

What does he have?

Two sticks.

What does it look like he's doing?

I think it looks like he's banging the sticks, right?

Do you know any instruments that might use two sticks like that?

Yeah, a drum.

Oh, good, yes, you remembered the xylophone had two, good thinking.

All right, so here's our front cover and our back cover.

And here is our title page.

Let's jump into our story and see where it takes us, okay?

All right, here we go.

It was a day when Max didn't feel like talking to anyone.

He just sat on his front steps and watched the clouds gather in the sky.

Have you ever had a day like that where you just wanted to be quiet, kind of just keep to yourself?

Yeah, some days are like that.

A strong breeze shook the tree in front of his house and Max saw two heavy twigs fall to the ground.

Oh, I love how they used the swirls, do you see the swirls in the picture, to make the wind, make you think about how that wind was behaving?

Love that.

"What are you gonna do with those sticks?"

Max's grandpa asked as he washed the front windows.

Not saying a word, Max tapped on his thighs, pat, pat, pat.

Putter, putter pat, pat, his rhyme imitated the sound of the pigeons startled into flight.

When Max's mother came home carrying new hats for his twin sisters she asked, "What are you doing with grandpa's cleaning bucket, son?'

Max responded by patting the bucket, tap, tap, tap.

What is he doing?

Right, he turned the bucket into a drum.

That's pretty creative.

Tipi tip tap tap, created the rhythm of the light rain falling against the front windows.

So do you see how he's imitating the sounds that he hears?

Right, he's trying to make those same sounds with his two sticks.

After a while, the clouds moved on and the sun appeared.

Cindy, Sean and Jamal showed up drinking sodas.

"Hey Max, What you doing with those hatboxes?"

Again, Max didn't answer.

He just played on the boxes.

Dum, dum deram, dum deram.

He's finding all kinds of things to use as a drum, isn't he?

Di, di, di, di, dum dum, Max drummed the beat of the Tom Tom's in the marching band.

Now, are they really in the clouds like this?

No, you're right.

He's using his imagination, isn't he?

He's imagining a time when he saw the marching band and what it looked like, and what it sounds like, and he's imitating that with his own homemade drum.

"What are you up to with those soda bottles?"

His dad asked as he brought out the garbage cans on his way to work.

Max answered on the bottles, dong, ding, du.

Oh, look, he put them on top of the fence post so that he can play them like an instrument, pretty clever.

I bet they make really pretty sounds.

Dong, ding, dong, his music joined the chiming of the bells in the church around the corner.

Soon, the twins came out to show off their new hats.

"Hey, Max?"

They asked.

"What are you doing with those garbage cans?"

Max hammered out a reply on the cans, cling, cling, cling, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, cling.

A cling, cling, diding, diding, Max pounded out the sound of the wheels thundering down the tracks under the train on which his father worked as a conductor.

Do you know what a conductor is?

He's the one that drives the train, right?

Suddenly, Max heard thump, di di, thump, di di, thump, di di, thump, as the marching band turned around the corner.

Oh, look, he's going to join them, isn't he?

That's pretty cool.

Max watched the drummers with amazement as they passed, copying their rhythms.

The last drummer saw Max.

Then with a nod and a wink, he tossed Max his spare set of sticks.

Wow, that is so cool!

He's giving him some encouragement about playing the drums, isn't he?

That's pretty awesome.

"Thanks," called Max, and he didn't miss a beat.

Just kept on playing.

What a great story!

Did you see all of the ways that he was making music?

Yes, I bet you could do the same thing.

We're gonna have a chance to do that in a few minutes, but let's take a look at some of the examples of the onomatopoeia that were in our story.

Yeah, let's look.

So sounds in Max's neighborhood.

The pigeons were startled into flight.

Okay, so they were sitting on the building and then they jumped and took off in the air.

And do you remember what the sound was that he said?

Putter, putter, pat, pat.

Putter, putter, pat, pat.

So it sounded like the wings of the birds.

Then the church bells were chiming.

Ding, dong, ding.

Then it says the train wheels, wheels.

How about wheels?

The train wheels thundering down the track.

Cling-cling, Da-Banngg.

Marching band music sounding louder and louder as the band comes closer to Max.

Thump, didi, thump, thump, thump, didi, thump, thump.

So you could hear all those.

All of those crazy sounding words are examples of onomatopoeia.

It's a word that represents a sound that someone heard.

And it's kind of fun to use those when we write.

And you might think about doing that in a story that you write.

Try to find some ways to make a word that sounds like the sound that you're talking about in your story.

I bet you'll do a great job with that.

Oh, I think you are amazing.

So all this time, this story is kind of like a celebration because we're celebrating the end of camp.

We've talked about courage, and hope, and friendship, and kindness, and we're celebrating by talking about celebration.

So what are some things that you have learned here at camp?

Can you think about some of the stories we've read and maybe some things that you have learned that maybe you can remember to take with you when you go to school in a few weeks?

I hope you learned some things about kindness and friendship.

I hope you learned some things about courage.

Those are all important strengths that you can use as you prepare to start going back to school.

I know some of you were not at school at all last year.

And so you might need to have some courage as you start the school year and you're back on your campus.

Maybe it's the first time you've been on campus.

It will be a celebration, but you will need kindness and friendship, and you will need some courage.

So I hope that you'll think back to some of our stories and that will help you feel courageous and brave and kind and friendly.

Remember to take your smile too 'cause that is always the way to start a friendship, is by sharing your smile.

All right, I have a joke for you and then we're going to try a few things like Max.

Max did what in the story?

He was making music.

And we're gonna try some things.

And I want you to be able to try some things at home too.

But before we do, let's have a joke.

This is a great joke for this story, I think you're gonna like it, it kind of goes together with the story.

What kind of vegetables do drummers like best?

Hmm, what kind of vegetables do drummers like best?

Oh, Scooter said carrots because they're like drumsticks.

That's good thinking, but no, that's not it.

Do you know?

They like beets.

(laughing loudly) Beets 'cause drummers keep the beat to the rhythm of the song.

Yeah, beats, what?

You don't know what a beat is.

Oh, a beet is a vegetable that grows in the ground.

Yeah, often people will pickle them and they turn really bright red and they're really beautiful.

Yeah, so you might try that.

I think you learned something new today.

No, it's not like a smore, it's a vegetable.

I know.

Let's go to the table so we can get going with our craft and our activity because today we are going to make a marching band, right?

Okay, let's go.

All right.

You can make music in all kinds of ways, and you don't have to have a fancy instrument to do that.

So I was thinking about some things that we have just here at Camp that I might be able to make an instrument with to make some music.

And I bet if you look around your house, you'll find some things that you can make an instrument with.

So I'm gonna show you right now.

So here you can see, I have an empty water bottle, and I kept the lid 'cause I'm gonna use that.

And then from our snacks, I had some almonds, but you could use anything, right?

You could use a beans, or a rock or maybe some pennies, I'm not sure if a pinny would fit, but you could try it.

So we're going to put them inside.

Oh, listen.

Listen, just putting them in makes kind of a fun sound, doesn't it?

Let's put these all inside.

Oh, we should have counted them, right?

Okay, one last one.

All right, now that I've got my things inside, my almonds inside my water bottle and whatever you have in yours, I'm gonna close it up nice and tight because I don't want them to fall out.

And then I can make an instrument, an instrument kind of like a maraca or a noisemaker instrument.

So watch, when I move it, does that sounded like something that might be a movement?

So maybe it sounds like somebody walking down the street.

Or you can do it this way.

You can make all kinds of different sounds with that.

Another thing, and you could make one of those at home, I bet if you put different things inside and maybe put different amounts, it might make a different sound.

Try it and see it it happens, I think that would be fun.

Then I also thought about Max and his two sticks and how he found those two sticks that fell off the tree.

And, well, we have lots of trees here at camp.

And so look at this, I found two sticks.

And there's a couple of things we could do.

So we could tap them together.

You know, that actually sounds like a woodpecker who's trying to find an insect to eat.

But we could do all kinds of things.

I wonder if it sounds different on the top.

Oh, it does.

Now look at the end of this one.

Do you think it would sound different if I tapped this end that's broken off, let's try it.

Oh, it was just a little different, isn't it?

Got to play the table.

That's a different sound too, isn't it?

What about my stump here?

Another different sound, right?

So we can try all kinds of things to make music.

You know what else would be really fun to use?

Like Max did in the story, a box, that would make a great drum.

I want you to look around and see what you can find to make music with.

♪ Skinnamarinky dinky dink ♪ ♪ Skinnamarinky do ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ 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 ♪ ♪ Skinnamarinky dinky dink ♪ ♪ Skinnamarinky do ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ And you, and you too.

Have a fabulous day.

Go make yourself a marching band and sing and dance and have a great time, bye-bye (upbeat music)