- Hey, welcome back from Camp Read A Lot.

I am so excited to get started with you in this new school year.

Welcome back to our PBS classroom.

I'm Mrs. Hammock, and I am so excited to be here with you back at school, in person.

Woo-hoo!

It's a celebration.

I cannot believe how grown up you look now, so much bigger, and I can tell your brains got stronger.

Great job learning at home.

I'm so proud of you.

We are going to spend some great times together here in our PBS classroom, practicing letters, and sounds, and reading, and writing, and all of the skills that you will need to be a strong reader and writer, and a great thinker too.

So I'm thrilled that you're here with me today, and I have some fun planned for us as a celebration to kick off this new school year.

So, the first thing we're gonna do, though, is something familiar.

We're going to sing our good morning song, and then train our ears for sound.

You think you, we're going to, I'm gonna teach you a new song.

This song has some sign language to it, so follow along, and when you know the song, sing along with me.

You might actually know the song, and maybe you just need to look at the hand movements.

Are you ready?

Okay.

♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning to you ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning to you ♪ ♪ Our day is beginning ♪ ♪ There's so much to do ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning to you ♪ And good morning to you.

I'm so, oh, I can't tell you how happy I am to see you.

Wow!

Are you ready to train our ears for sound?

Now, remember, when we train our ears for sound, we are learning to listen for sounds, because that helps us when we're sounding out words, and when we're writing.

Today, we're gonna play a rhyming game, so I'm going to have you help me.

You're gonna have to dust off the cobwebs, but you're gonna have to help me, because we're going to think of some rhyming words, and listen and see if the words that I tell you rhyme or not, and then I want you to tell me another word that rhymes, so let's try it.

I'll just give you an example.

All right, so if I said, cake, snake.

Do those two words rhyme?

They do, good.

Cake, snake.

They both say "ake."

Very good.

All right, let's try these, dog, fan.

Do those rhyme?

Dog, fan.

They do not rhyme.

Good listening.

Remember, rhyming words have the same ending part.

So, dog has the "og" sound, so we would need to think of a word that had the "og" sound.

Can you think of something that sounds at the end like "og"?

Dog.

Log, great.

Wow, that took you no time at all.

Super, all right, and our other word was fan.

Fan, that has the "an" sound.

Can you think of a word?

Hmm, tricky, isn't it?

Good, I heard someone say, "pan," and I heard someone else say, "man."

Great thinking, woo-hoo!

You are on the right track.

All right, let's try one more.

Are you ready?

Fish, dish.

Do they rhyme?

Yes, they both say "ish."

Fish, dish.

They both say "ish."

Great, can you think of another word that would rhyme with fish and dish?

Wish, great thinking.

Wow, you have a strong brain, and really good listening ears.

Excellent work.

We are going to do a story today about starting school.

Now, this story happens to be about starting first grade, but it really could be about starting any grade, and we're gonna talk about it, and read our story, and then I have a little poem.

We're going to do some letters and sound practice too, but I wanna get to the story right away, because I have a fun activity.

I hope you're a little bit thirsty, because I have a fun activity that we're gonna do to kind of tie the story in, and I wanna get to it right away.

I wanna make sure that we have enough time that we don't have to hurry our delicious, oops, our fun activity.

Are you ready?

All right, we're gonna go over to the story chair and get ready for the story.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

All right.

You know that I need to use glasses as my reading tool that helps my eyes be the very best they can be, and if you need to wear glasses, don't worry about it, put them on, 'cause we want to be the best that we can be, and today, we're gonna read the story, "First Grade Jitters" by Robert Quackenbush.

That's a fun name.

Now, it is about a first grader, but remember, like I said, it could be any grade, so don't get caught up in that part.

It might be kindergarten.

It could say "Kindergarten Jitters."

It could say "Second Grade Jitters."

It could say "Third Grade Jitters," first grade, it doesn't matter.

You ready to find out about it?

Do you know what it means, jitters?

Do you know what that means?

Well, I'm not going to tell you yet, because I want to see if you can figure it out by listening to the story.

See if you can figure out what that means.

All right, here we go.

Ooh, he doesn't look very happy.

"Mom says I have first grade jitters.

Dad says I'm cranky and I am not myself.

It's not true.

I am the same as always."

Does he look cranky?

What is cranky?

Yeah, kind of crabby or upset or mad, right?

He doesn't look like somebody who's very happy.

"I still watch TV.

I still draw pictures.

I still play with my soldiers.

So what if I don't feel like eating?

I just don't feel like eating.

So what if I hollered and kicked when my mom took me to the store to buy new shoes for school?

I liked my old shoes, that's all."

Maybe you felt that way about getting ready to come back to school.

It happens.

"School doesn't worry me.

Last year, I had a lot of fun there, playing blocks with Tammy and Kevin and Jason.

I was in kindergarten then."

Now, kindergarten for us was a lot different, wasn't it?

Yeah, so you might have some jitters about coming to school.

"Well, maybe I do think a little bit about first grade, and I wonder what it will be like, just a little."

Are you wondering?

"Things like, will Tammy and Kevin and Jason be there?

They've been away all summer.

And I wonder what the teacher will be like.

I might have to read or spell, or maybe do some math.

I don't know how to do any of those things.

What do I do then?

And what if I can't understand anything the teacher says?

She might say, 'Oogly boogly.'

When I ask her what that means, she might answer, 'Muncha, chumba, ziggla po.'"

Ooh, he's letting his imagination get the best of him, isn't he?

"Now I'm scared.

I think I'll go to bed and I'll just stay here.

'What's the matter, Aiden?'

Mom asks.

'Don't you feel well?'

'Oh, it's my leg.'

I tell her.

'I can't walk.'

'Oh, that's too bad.'

Mom says.

'I hope it will be better before school starts.'

'Oh, no, I don't think so.'

I say.

Just then, the phone rings.

Mom answers it.

'It's for you,' She says.

I take the phone.

Oh, it's Tammy calling!

'Where have you been all summer?'

I ask her.

'At my grandma and grandpa's,' answers Tammy.

'Can I come over to play?'

Tammy comes over and we play with blocks.

Later, Jason calls, and then Kevin, and they come over too.

Tammy tells us that she met our teacher today when she was with her mom at the supermarket.

'Her name is Ms. Welsh,' says Tammy.

'And she's nice.'

I ask Tammy, 'Did Ms. Welsh want to know if you could read and write and do math?'

'Of course not, silly.'

Answers Tammy.

'She knows I can't do those things.

That's what she's going to teach us.'

I start feeling better inside.

I ask Tammy, 'And did Ms. Welsh talk in a way that you couldn't understand her?

Did she say muncha chumba ziggla po?'

'No,' said Tammy, laughing.

'She talks like we do.'

My jitters are gone."

Oh, he looks different now, doesn't he?

Did he change from the beginning of the story to now?

What do you think happened?

I think you're right.

His friends helped him to feel better.

"I say, 'Let's play big yellow school bus, and I'll be the driver.'

And we did."

Oh, I think he's going to have fun at school, don't you?

Have you've been worried about starting school this year?

I know some people have, and that's okay.

It's okay to feel worried.

It's okay to not be sure about what you're going to do or who your teacher's going to be.

All of those things are so okay, and your teacher has been waiting so patiently to meet you.

Don't worry if you don't know how to do some of those things that you're going to learn.

That's why you come to school.

If you already knew it, you wouldn't need to be there.

I think you are going to be just fine.

I have a little poem and a recipe that I want to share with you.

It might be something fun to help you if you're having some first day jitters.

So let's go read our poem, and then I want to tell you about the, ooh, something that might help you with your jitters.

You ready?

Okay, so here is our poem.

It says, "Jitter Juice.

Have you heard of jitter juice?

It's magic and it's yummy.

It makes the butterflies fly away right out of your tummy.

The bubbles in this silly juice will help you not to worry.

So, grab a cup and drink it up!

Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Do you know what it means when someone says they have butterflies in their tummy?

Yeah, they don't really have butterflies in their tummy.

That would be weird.

No, it really means that they're nervous and their tummy feels kind of all flippity floppity, and they have just some anxiousness inside of them, and that, sometimes, we say they have butterflies, 'cause they're nervous.

Do you know how to make jitter juice?

No?

Well, you're in luck, because I have the recipe, and here it is.

We're going to pour eight ounces of lemon-lime soda in a cup, hm.

We're going to add eight ounces of fruit punch, and then we're going to add two scoops of rainbow sherbet, and add a straw and drink it up, and then there's a secret ingredient that I think will help.

Should we try it?

Great, now, we're going to make ours a little smaller.

We're not going to do eight ounces, because we're just going to make it in a regular cup.

So, come with me over to our table, and I will show you how to make some jitter juice.

Come on.

All right, so for our jitter juice, we are going to need a cup and a straw, and I already put the sherbet inside.

So have you ever had rainbow sherbet?

It's a little bit like ice cream, but it's also a little bit different than ice cream.

So I am going to put this here.

I'm going to pour some fruit punch into these, and I have some more over here.

So I'm going to get that.

All right, let's get this.

I'm going to pour this in.

Do, do, do, do, do, do.

All right, now, I'm going to pour in the lemon-lime soda.

Now, it doesn't matter which kind of lemon-lime soda you use.

Any lemon-lime soda will work.

Ooh, I hope it doesn't explode.

Oh, thank goodness.

Okay, so I'm going to pour this in.

I'm going to pour, oh, doesn't that look amazing?

Amazing!

Oh, I feel like my first day jitters are already going away.

How about you?

Yeah, I think so.

All right, so then I get- (doorbell ringing) Oh!

(Mrs. Hammock screams) Oh my gosh!

It's my friend, Karen!

- My friend!

- [Both] Oh, hello!

- How are you?

- Much better now.

- Oh, it has been so long since I've seen you.

- Oh, too long, but I heard you had jitter juice, and I know what jitter juice is.

- Of course you do.

- I have jitters, and I have juice.

- I bet you do.

- Yes.

- Oh, exciting.

- That is awesome.

- And look, I brought music.

I'm so glad, because we're talking about celebrating.

- I got you.

- Back to school.

- I got it.

- And so you are the perfect person.

- How sweet are you, yes, thank you.

Thank you.

- To help us celebrate coming back to school!

- Right, and music helps.

Music helps, right?

- Always.

- Music puts a smile on my face, and helps with the jitters.

In fact, I like to dance.

- It always does.

- When I have the jitters, so let's have some fun.

- I like that.

Yeah, I think that's a great idea.

Have you tried dancing when you have the jitters?

Well, you are in for a treat, because I have a feeling that my friend Karen has some dance moves to teach us.

So I hope you're up on your feet, because she's going to teach us some dance moves, and then we'll enjoy some jitter juice.

It'll be fabulous.

- And I have to tell you, this is exciting for me, because I heard you talk a little bit about celebration just now, when you saw me and gave me a hug, and that's what we're doing, is celebrating a brand new school year, and I gotta tell you, the way I like to celebrate is not just with music, but with some dance moves, and I took this crazy year that we lived in, and are experiencing, and I wanted to put it to some music.

So I have some new dance moves.

- Nice.

- So, it might help get the jitters out, and it's not a butterfly in your tummy, right?

- Nope.

- But it's just some butterflies about nervousness.

So we're going to have some fun right now, and I'm gonna need your help.

We're all going to stand up.

I'm going to teach you some new dance moves.

Come on, get up, get up, get up, and the name of the song just happens to be "Celebration."

Get it?

Celebrating a new school year.

- Oh, perfect.

- Celebration, with some new, because it's a new year with some new dance moves.

So, here we go, all righty, up.

- Awesome, okay, all right.

- Come on, boys and girl, get up.

I don't care what grade you're in, get up!

Get your family members up.

Here we go, okay.

- Yeah!

- Now, remember, Crazy Karen, I had to take some things that we're being asked to do, maybe some things we're being asked to do, and put them into some dance moves.

- Okay, okay.

- So, here we go.

I've been asked a lot.

- Okay, all right.

- A lot.

- I'm excited.

- To either sanitize or wash your hands.

So, here we go.

- Oh, absolutely, and we still need to do that, yeah.

- Right, right, dance move number one.

Okay, dance move number one, her we go.

Hands out.

Come on, up, up, up, up.

We're gonna wash our hands or sanitize.

Now, watch, watch, watch.

Real good, in between, real good.

Dance moves, get it.

- I love it, yes.

- Had to take it, real good, freeze!

And now, if you don't have a paper towel, or sometimes right after you sanitize, you have to air dry.

- Oh, I like that.

- Air dry.

- And that's a good dance move.

- Air dry, right?

Everything, everything we're being asked to do, I try to make into little element of fun.

- I love that.

- Fun, because I'm telling you, fun is key.

- Yes.

- Create fun and share a smile.

So, here we go.

That's dance move number one.

- Right, it helps you learn when you're having fun.

- A hundred percent.

- Yep.

- The more fun, the better the day.

- Absolutely.

- Here we go, okay, we sanitized, we washed, we air dried.

Now, we're going to, something I miss, and I was able to do this, but I've missed it a lot is hugging, and if you know me, you know I love smiles and I love hugs.

So, and I wasn't able to hug as much as I like to lately, so we're going to do air hug.

- Oh, I like that.

- Air hug.

Come on, boys and girls, air hug.

And freeze!

Something else, I was in a store a while back, and I saw someone I knew.

I was like, "Hey!"

And they were like, "Oh!"

And I did the elbow bump.

- Oh!

- Elbow bump.

- Oh, I love it.

- Elbow bump, elbow bump, elbow bump, and freeze!

- Nice.

- The other thing, we've got the hugs, we've got the bumps, and we do a fist bump.

- Okay.

- I have done this a lot, yeah.

Fist bump, fist bump, and freeze.

Oh, get it, get it.

- Nice.

- There's a theme here.

It's things we've been asked to do.

Okay, last dance move.

Hands out, everybody, get up, get up, get up, and we're going to, I've been asked to do this.

We're going to go to your left, your left.

- Okay, my left.

- We're gonna social distance, social distance.

Social distance, get it, get it!

- I love it!

- Oh, get it!

So, boys and girls, everything I've been asked to do, I just wanted to make it fun, a little silly.

Hopefully, you'll smile and maybe even laugh.

So, here we go.

I told you, celebration.

- Okay!

- Are you ready?

Get up, come on, come on, come on!

We're here to share smiles and create fun.

I will help you.

Here we go.

(upbeat music) Get it.

Come on, get it.

Uh-huh, okay, everybody, up, up, up, up.

Come on, get up!

Okay, get ready and wash your hands.

Wash 'em.

Come on, real good!

Remember, woo-hoo!

That's my cue to go real good.

Real good, and freeze.

We gotta dry 'em, air dry!

Woo-hoo!

- You've done this before, I can tell!

- Instead of doing this, no!

- No, no!

- Air dry!

♪ Celebrate good times ♪ - Speaking of air, air dry, now we're gonna air hug!

Air hug, air hug!

♪ There's a party going on ♪ - There's a party going on right here!

Uh-huh, a brand new year!

- Woo-hoo!

- A brand new year, and freeze!

Okay, here we go.

♪ And your laughter too ♪ - Hands here, elbows out!

Elbow bump!

♪ Celebration ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom.

Boom, boom, uh-huh, elbow bump.

Fist bump, ready?

Fist bump!

Boom, boom, boom, boom, what is happening?

Here we go!

And, everybody get up!

We're coming together.

What is it?

Hands out!

Get ready, up, up, and social distance!

Woo-hoo, woo-hoo!

How cool is this?

And freeze!

Okay, now, we've done them all.

I want to try to trick you, though.

I want to try to trick you.

- Uh-oh!

- We're going to go classics with new.

- Okay, oh, wow!

- We're taking old and we're taking new.

Here we go.

- Okay, okay, all right.

- I'm gonna try to trick you, okay?

We've got all the new dances.

- You're pretty tricky, so.

- But this is a new year, but we're gonna look back.

- Okay.

- Here we go.

Milk the cow!

Milk the cow.

- One of my favorite ones.

- Uh-huh, stir the menudo!

Uh-huh, eat a jalapeno!

You know this!

Now, let's see how good you are really are.

- Okay.

- Stir the menudo, and eat a jalapeno at the same time!

There you go!

Windshield wipers.

Classic, windshield wipers.

Right here, back window.

♪ Celebration ♪ - One more, a classic, and one of my favorites.

♪ It's time to go together ♪ - Oh, feel the burn!

Feel the burn!

Drive the mini-van!

Or the bus, bus!

Check on the kids!

Woo-hoo, drive it!

Check on the kids!

And get ready.

Now, we're going to go fast.

We're going to go fast, okay?

- Okay.

- We're gonna bring it all together.

Celebrate, get the jitters out!

Smile a lot.

The more you smile, the better you dance.

Somebody told me that.

Here we go.

- It's true.

- Wash your hands, real good.

♪ Celebrate good times ♪ - Air dry, we're gonna go fast!

Air hug, elbow bump!

Elbow bump, fist bump!

Uh-huh, air hug!

One of my favorites, air hug!

♪ We're gonna have a good time tonight ♪ - And milk the cow.

♪ It's all right ♪ - Social distance, ah!

♪ We're gonna have a good time ♪ - Windshield wipers, back window!

♪ It's all right ♪ - Drive the mini-van or the bus!

Check on the kids!

And lastly, air hug!

Three, two, one, and give yourself a hug!

- Oh my goodness!

- Oh!

- I feel so much happier!

- Right?

Music.

- Yes.

- Dance moves.

Simply smiling.

Boys and girls, in closing, from me, when you have a bad day, close your eyes, and remember those dance moves.

It'll make a bad day a whole lot better.

- That's right, and we better get to our secret ingredient.

- Oh, oh no.

- Sprinkles, yeah!

- Sprinkles!

- So we're going to have some jitter juice.

- With sprinkles.

Are you kidding me?

- With sprinkles.

- Unbelievable, jitter juice.

- Mhm, delish.

- Wow, amazing.

- Bye-bye!