- Oh, Gosh, it's good to be back.

Yeah, no, don't worry, the boys and girls and all of the learners that are coming today are here, they're here.

Don't worry, they're kind, they're nice.

Hey, learners, I am excited to see you for our brand new school year.

Welcome to our PBS classroom.

Chester and I are so excited that you have joined us here in our PBS classroom.

This year we're going to learn all kinds of routines and things that will help us to grow our brains to be strong readers and writers and thinkers.

Isn't that awesome?

So, I am so excited that you are here to join me and my buddy Chester because we have some fun planned for today.

All right, the first thing, though, is I'm gonna have Chester sit down right here, he's gonna watch 'cause he does not know this song and I want to teach you a new song.

Are you ready?

♪ 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 ♪ Good morning to you, I am so happy that you're here today.

Let's start with some ear training and we're going to train our ears for sound and we're gonna play a little game using some pictures here on our board.

This game is called The Onset and Rhyme Game.

So, I'll show you what I mean.

So, here I have a picture of a cat.

When we play The Onset Rhyme Game, we're gonna say this word in parts.

So, I'm gonna say the beginning sound of cat.

Do you know what that is?

Cuh, great job.

And what is the ending part?

At.

Good job.

So, we have cuh, at to make cat.

Do you get it?

All right.

Let's try some others and I think as we practice, you'll get the hang of it.

Here we have a fish.

All right, so the first sound or the onset sound is f and then we have the rest of the word, ish.

F, ish, fish.

Great job.

Let's try this one.

Are you ready?

Mop.

All right, what's that onset sound?

Mm.

And what's the ending part?

Op.

Mm, op, mop.

Great, you're getting the hang of it.

Let's try this one.

This one is fan.

Say it with me.

Fan.

Did you hear the f onset sound?

F and then an.

F, an, fan.

Great job.

All right, we have one last picture card for you, you ready?

This is a dish.

Let's listen for that onset sound.

Dish.

D, ish, dish.

Terrific.

That was fantastic.

We will practice training our ears for sound all year long because when we can hear the sound, then we can figure out what to do when we're reading and when we're sounding words out for writing and we're gonna do all of those great things this year.

I'm excited to help you learn and grow your strong brain.

So, next on our things to do is we're going to look at some letters and sounds.

I have my sound spelling cards here and we're gonna review five of the sounds that come from the alphabet.

Now, sound spelling cards are a little bit different than just a regular alphabet and that's because we use them as a tool to help us remember the sound that the letter makes, but also how to spell that sound when we get ready to do some writing.

So, I want you to get really comfortable with the sound spelling cards because they are a great tool to help you read and write.

So, we're gonna start with the insect card.

Insect.

Can you say that?

Great.

All right.

So, this is the letter I. I, insect, ih.

Let's say it again.

I, insect, ih.

Great job.

And when we spell that ih sound, we're just gonna use a lower case I.

This is the spelling pattern.

Now, it only has one way to spell that sound, so when you hear the ih, you know what letter to write.

All right, let's look at the dolphin card.

Dolphin.

D, dolphin, dih.

Say that with me.

D, dolphin, dih.

Good job.

Now, did you notice something about the dolphin card?

That's right, there are two ways to spell the sound dih.

Now, the first way is just the letter D and that's the way that we're going to think about it for right now.

Later in the year, we're gonna learn some words that have the dih sound that use the E-D.

But, for now, when you hear dih, I want you to think of the letter D. Okay?

And think of that dolphin.

Good job.

The next card I have for you is the guitar card.

Gih, guitar.

Can you say that with me?

Gih, guitar.

All right, so, a lot of boys and girls get this one mixed up because listen to the name of this letter.

G. It doesn't say, its name doesn't give you a hint for the sound, does it?

Because the sound is actually kind of a hard sound.

Gih.

Put your hand right here, can you feel it?

Gih.

It's different, it makes your throat vibrate a little.

So, G says gih.

So, we have G, guitar, gih.

And there's only one way to spell that, so that's kind of an easy one, right?

All right, next we have the piano card.

The piano card.

Say that sound with me.

Puh, puh, piano.

P, piano, puh.

Good job.

And there's only one way to spell the piano card, puh, just the letter P. Then we have the rose card.

Rose.

Ruh, rose, ruh.

R, rose, ruh.

Got that mixed up, sorry.

Now, look at the spelling patterns.

There are two ways to spell that sound.

We have the R by itself, that's the most common or the way that you will hear that and see that written most of the time when you, or most commonly when you see the, or hear the sound.

But there's also some words that start with a W-R and that's called a silent letter, that W, because it doesn't make the sound it normally makes.

So, for now, though, we're gonna concentrate just on the very top, okay?

So, R, rose, ruh.

Terrific.

So we have ih for insect, dih for dolphin, gih, guitar, pih, piano, and ruh for rose.

Great thinking.

We're also going to be learning and reviewing some sight words.

Those are the words, or high frequency words, sometimes they're called, high frequency words are the words that show up in almost everything we read.

They are frequently in stories and poems that we read.

And I have six of them that we're gonna practice today.

Now, when we practice high frequency words, we are going to use the read, spell and then write routine.

So, we're gonna read the word, this word is he.

Now we're gonna spell it.

Spell it with me.

H-E, he.

Good job.

And if you have something to write it with at home, write that down.

All right, our next word is has, has.

Spell it with me.

H-A-S, has.

Great job.

The next one is one I'm sure you remember, the word go.

♪ G-O spells go ♪ ♪ G-O spells go ♪ Good work.

This word is my, my.

Let's spell it.

M-Y spells my.

M-Y spells my.

The next one is just a single letter.

Do you remember what this word is?

It's just the word A.

It's a word all by itself and it's also a letter.

And then we have this word.

Look.

L-O-O-K.

I like to do a little thing to help me remember.

I do it like this, L-O-O-K, and that helps me remember that it says look.

How'd you do?

Great.

Now, if there are some of these words that you're not sure about, don't worry.

We'll be practicing and practicing.

These words are gonna help you be great readers and writers.

All right.

So, next, our next job today is we're going to practice and review how to write these letters on our writing board right over here.

So, we're gonna move that direction, I'm gonna get Chester and scoop him up and put him right here in our chair and we're going to write the letters that we are reviewing today.

So, we have the insect card, that's the letter I.

So, to make the letter I, we're gonna do a capital I.

We start at the top line and go all the way to the bottom, nice and straight.

We put another straight line on top and on the bottom.

That is the uppercase I.

Now, lower case I is a little bit shorter.

We start at the dotted line and we make a straight line down and then we put a dot on top.

That is I for ih, for insect.

Let's try the letter D, are you ready?

Okay.

We start the same way.

We always start at the top of our lines, go straight down, then we lift up our pen and now we go to the top and we put a, kind of a half circle on it.

That is the letter D for dih, dih, dolphin.

Now the lowercase D, we start in the middle and we make kind of a circle and then we can put a stick on it like that.

There we go.

That is the D for dolphin.

All right, our next letter, do you remember what it is?

Guitar, right.

Okay, so G is kind of tricky.

So, start a little bit under the big line, we're gonna go around all the way down and up to the middle and in.

Want to make that darker, so you can see it.

And then, the lower case G has a monkey tail.

So, we're gonna start in the middle and make a circle and then we're gonna come back to the side here and trace all the way down and it's gonna hang underneath that line.

That is the G for gih, gih, guitar.

Good work.

All right.

We have three more to go, are you staying, are you sticking with, oh, two more to go.

Now we're gonna do the letter P for piano.

You ready?

Start at the top, go all the way down.

Did you notice a lot of these start with nice straight tall sticks?

Yeah.

And then we're going to do, just up at the top section, a, like a half circle, a small one.

For the lower case P, it looks just like this except we're gonna start in the middle where the dotted line is, we're gonna go down under the big line and this guy, his half circle is going to be right there.

And that is a P. All right.

Our last letter for today is the letter R. Guess what?

We start with a straight stick from the top to the bottom, then we're gonna make it kind of look like a P and then we stick a leg on it and that is R. Lowercase R, we start at the dotted line, we go straight down and then we put on a little tiny hook.

How'd you do?

Great job.

You are gonna be such great readers and writers.

Today I have a story to share with you kind of about going back to school because that's what we're doing.

This story is called "The Kissing Hand" and my friend Chester is the star of this story.

So, let's read it and find out about this story.

All right, I'm gonna put on my glasses because those are the tools that my eyes need to help me to see.

Chester's gonna pop up here in my lap and we're gonna read the story, "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn.

Look, that's you.

All right.

Let's jump in.

Chester Raccoon stood at the edge of the forest and cried, "I don't want to go to school."

He told his mother, "I want to stay home with you, I want to play with my friends and play with my toys and read my books and swing on my swing, please, can I stay home with you?"

Did some of you feel that way about starting school?

It's hard when we've been home for awhile, isn't it?

Mrs. Raccoon took Chester by the hand and nuzzled him in the ear and "Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do," she told him gently, "even if they seem strange and scary at first, but you will love school once you start."

All right.

Let's see what happens.

"You'll make new friends and play with new toys, you'll read new books and swing on new swings."

"And besides," she added, "I know a wonderful secret that will help make your nights at school seem as warm and cozy as your days at home."

What?

Did you notice?

She said his nights at school.

Do you go to school at night?

No, we go during the day.

So, Chester goes at night because he is a raccoon and raccoons are nocturnal, that means they're awake when we're sleeping.

Chester wiped away his tears and he looked interested, "A secret?"

"You know a secret?"

"What kind of secret?"

"Oh, it's a very old secret," said Mrs. Raccoon.

"I learned it from my mother and she learned it from hers, it's called the kissing hand."

"The kissing hand?"

said Chester.

"What's that?"

"I will show you."

Mrs. Raccoon took Chester's left hand and she spread open his tiny fingers into a fan and she leaned forward and she kissed Chester right in the middle of his palm.

Chester felt the rush of his mother's kiss rush from his hand all the way up his arm and into his heart.

Even his silky black mask tingled with warmth.

Mrs. Raccoon smiled.

"Now," she told Chester, "whenever you feel lonely and you need a little loving from home, you just take and press your hand to your cheek and you think, 'Mommy loves me, Mommy loves me,' and that very kiss will jump onto your face and it will fill you with toasty warm thoughts from home."

She took Chester's hand and she carefully wrapped his fingers around the kiss, "Now, do be careful," she said, "don't lose it," she teased him.

"But don't worry, when you open your hand and wash your food, I promise, the kiss will stick."

Chester loved his kissing hand.

Now he knew his mother's love would go with him wherever he went, even to school.

That night Chester stood in front of his school and looked thoughtful.

Suddenly, he turned to his mother and he grinned.

"Give me your hand," he said to her.

Chester took his mother's hand in his own and unfolded her large familiar fingers into a fan and next, he leaned forward and he kissed the center of her hand.

"Now you have a kissing hand, too," he told her.

And with a gentle goodbye and I love you, Chester turned and danced away.

You see all the little, little baby animals going to school?

There they go.

Mrs. Raccoon watched Chester scamper across a tree limb and enter the school.

And as the hoot owl rang in the new school year, she pressed her left hand to her cheek and she smiled.

The warmth of Chester's kiss filled her heart with special words, "Chester loves you, Chester loves you."

There they are at school.

There's our teacher and there's all the animals ready to learn.

Aww.

You know, learners, sometimes it's just as hard for our grownups when we leave to go to school as it is for us when we leave.

We love to be together.

And so, maybe you want to give your grownups a kissing hand.

Maybe that kissing hand will help them while you're away at school all day.

And then they can put it up to their face and remember that you love them.

Wouldn't that be nice?"

Oh, I thinks so, too.

I know that Chester did a great job going to school, he was very brave and he listened to his mom and he followed her directions and he used his kissing hand whenever he felt sad and wanted to go home.

And that might help you too.

So, here's something, I have a little project, that you might try at home.

You can take a piece of paper and trace your hand on the paper.

I'm gonna hold mine right here.

You're gonna, don't move your fingers, you're gonna trace around your hand.

I'm going kind of fast.

You go slow so that your hand turns out just like your hand.

Look at that.

Wow, it's like magic.

Now, I've already cut it out, but you could cut out your hand like this and then you would have a hand print that's just like your hand.

And you could take this hand and you could give it a kissing hand.

Now, I'm not really good at drawing lips, so instead of that, I'm just gonna draw a heart because a heart is another way to say love.

So, I'm gonna draw a heart here and I'm gonna put some little lines around it, so it looks really fancy.

And now, I have a kissing hand that I can share, so that when I'm away at school, whoever I need to give this to will have a reminder that I love them and that we'll be back together at the end of the day.

You might want to make a kissing hand for your family.

You could make one for everybody in your family.

That way they have the reminder that you love them.

'Cause love is a nice thing to remember and we love our families.

So, maybe you want to try a kissing hand.

You could also decorate it and make it really fancy.

It can be as fancy as you want it to be.

Okay?

Awesome.

All right.

So, we've learned a lot today.

We reviewed some onset and rhyme with our listening ears, we reviewed our letters, the I, short I, ih, and D for dolphin and G for guitar and P for piano and R for rose.

We reviewed those.

And we reviewed our sight words, he, go, a, has, my and look.

And then we learned about Chester and the kissing hand.

And we learned a way to help our families to feel good when we leave home to go to school.

So, I hope you share that with your family and that you make a kissing hand to help you and your family.

I'm so glad you came today to practice these letters and sounds with me and to practice some of our things that we're gonna be practicing this whole year to be strong readers.

I want you to come back tomorrow, I have a whole new story about how to be a good student and I think you will want to hear it.

All right, it's time for us to go.

♪ Goodbye now, goodbye now ♪ ♪ The clock says we're done ♪ ♪ I'll see you tomorrow ♪ ♪ Goodbye, everyone ♪ Have a great day, I can't wait to see you tomorrow.

Bye bye.