(soft music) - Yes, I know, I know.

Yeah, it's going to be great.

Oh, hey.

Hi, good morning super readers.

My name is Mrs. Hammack and this is Scooter.

Welcome back from Camp Read A Lot and your summer adventures.

I thank you so much for joining me here in our beautiful PBS classroom.

This is a place for us to learn, and practice, and grow our brains to become strong readers, writers and thinkers.

I am thrilled to be working with you.

This year, we are going to learn all kinds of amazing skills that we'll work together with each day.

So, are you ready?

You are?

Let's get started with some ear training.

Or as my friend Mr. Dawson always says, daily phonemic awareness.

Today, we're going to play a rhyming game.

All right, here's your job.

You are going to remember that rhyme means that they have the same ending part.

Okay.

I'll show you what I mean.

Fan and man both have the an at the end.

And that makes them rhyme.

Fan, man.

They both say an.

Okay, do you get it?

You remember it?

All right.

So your job is to listen to the pair of words.

I'm going to give you two words.

And I want you to listen.

And you're going to tell me if they rhyme, thumbs up.

Or if they do not rhyme, thumbs down.

Are you ready?

Okay, let's get those ears turned up.

Oh, good Scooter's turning up his ears.

Okay, here we go.

Sad.

Bad.

What do you think?

Sad.

Bad.

Oh, did you see that?

I saw a lot of thumbs up.

Good.

Sad, bad, they both say ad.

Terrific.

Okay, you ready?

Mad.

Let.

Mad.

Oh, Scooter's getting wiggly, he says, "No."

Let's see.

Mad has the ad sound.

And let has the et sound.

Those are not the same, are they?

That means they do not rhyme.

Let's try one more pair.

Are you ready?

Nap.

Tap.

What do you think?

Oh, do you see the thumbs up?

I do too.

Nap, tap, they both say ap.

Great listening readers.

You are training your ears for sound, and that's going to help you become a super strong reader and writer.

Yeah.

Oh, did you invite friends over?

No?

I wonder who it could be.

Let's look.

Oh!

Mrs. Nix!

Mrs. Vang!

Oh my goodness.

- It's so good to see you, we've missed you so much over summer.

- Oh, I missed you too.

- And guess what?

We found some little friends.

- We found some friends.

- We found some friends for you.

- That is awesome.

Well, this is Scooter.

- Hi Scooter, this is Tiny Tina.

- Oh, hi Tiny Tina.

- Hey, hey, hey.

Oh, I think I just saw some hay.

Just kidding.

I'm Retell Ricky.

- Retell Ricky, I'm so excited to meet you.

Does that mean you're going to help us retell some stories?

- Mhm.

- Oh, awesome.

I am so glad you're here because Scooter and I've been working on our jokes all summer long, and we have a joke for you.

- All right, let's hear it.

- Okay, you ready?

Yup, that's the one.

Okay, knock knock.

- [Mrs. Nix And Mrs. Vang] Who's there?

- Felix.

- [Mrs. Nix And Mrs. Vang] Felix who?

- Feel excited about school today.

(cheering) - Speaking of being excited, we've done all kinds of fun things over summer vacation.

And one of them is I learned some new songs.

Can I teach you a song and a dance?

- Oh, we would love that, right?

- Okay, I think we're going to have to put our little friends down though to do this.

All right.

Okay so, ready?

- But you guys feel free to take a little break.

- All right.

Let's get started.

Okay, all ready?

- Okay, we're ready.

- Okay, let's do it.

(soft music) - Okay, I'm going to watch you.

- Okay, we're gonna tap our hands.

♪ Adam has an apple and one empty in his head ♪ ♪ Empty in his head ♪ ♪ Empty in his head ♪ ♪ Adam has an apple and one empty in his head ♪ ♪ So let's all clap our hands ♪ - Ready?

(soft music) Let's all do it.

♪ Adam has an apple and one empty in his head ♪ ♪ Empty in his head ♪ ♪ Empty in his head ♪ ♪ Adam has an apple and one empty in his head ♪ ♪ So let's all clap our hands ♪ (soft music) - Wow, I love the song.

- Isn't it fun?

I'm so glad that you enjoyed it.

It's so much fun to sing, right?

- That was a great song.

What a great thing to hear because we were just training our ears, and I kind of thought I heard a lot of the same sound in that song.

Did you hear it too?

Yeah?

I heard a lot of a in that song.

- And guess what boys and girls?

That's our sound of the week.

Are you guys ready to learn our sound of the week?

All right, come on with me.

Okay, boys and girls.

So this week we are going to be focused on the apple card.

Help me say it.

Apple card.

You're right.

And the apple card says the apple card says a.

Let's try that again, ready?

Apple, a.

And we spell it with an A.

Good job boys and girls.

One more time.

Apple, a, A.

Good job boys and girls.

Remember, the apple card or the a sound is a vowel.

Remember?

We learned there are, that's right, five vowels, A, E, I, O and U.

And the a sound boys and girls is what we called a short vowel.

So this week we're going to be practicing our a sound.

That's right.

And how do we spell it?

With a A.

Good job boys and girls.

So, before we go and practice, blending and building words, let's refresh our memory or let's make our brains stronger by reviewing some words that we have or letters that we've already learned.

Are you ready?

Okay, let's wake up our brain.

I'm going to get our letters so that we can practice.

Are you ready?

Okay.

Repeat after me.

Remember these are just review.

Let's wake up our brain so that it's ready to learn.

So this is the map card.

Map, m, M. Good job.

Map card.

This is our nest card.

Okay, say it after me.

Nest, n, N. Good job.

And my second grade friends, you remember, KN and GN are what we call our silent letters.

Or do you guys remember what we call them?

Ghost letters, you're right.

Good job.

So nest says n, good job.

And let's review this letter.

This is the fire card.

The fire card says, f. Good job, I heard you out there.

Fire card says f, good job.

How do we spell it?

F. Good job.

Again, my second grade friend, there's another spelling pattern.

What is it?

PH also spells or says f. That's right.

Good job boys and girls.

Okay, I think we're ready to practice.

Are you guys ready?

Let's practice with some of my letters up here.

Do you guys see?

Okay.

Remember, we just review M says, m, good job.

We know the A is our focus sound this week.

It makes the a sound.

Good.

M, a.

Okay, here's our final consonant.

And it's an N. Good job.

N says n, good job.

Let's blend it.

Man.

What's my word?

Man.

Good job blending boys and girls.

Now, what if I wanted to build a word?

Okay, I'm going to give you a word.

What if I gave you the word fan?

Fan.

Like it's so hot in here, I need a fan.

Okay, how many sound did you hear?

F, a, n. Ooh, I heard three sounds.

And I know you guys have been practicing that listening skills with Mrs. Hammack.

Okay, first sound.

F, f. What letter says f?

Good job, the F says f. Good job.

F. What's the medial sound?

F, a, a.

Good job, that's our sound of the week.

A.

Okay.

And f, a, n. What's our final sound?

N. And what letter says n?

N, good job.

F, a, n. Fan.

F-A-N, fan.

Good job boys and girls.

Let's see if you guys can spell some more a words at home.

Now boys and girls, it is important to know your letters and your sound, but I guess what else is important?

We need to know our high frequency words.

So, where Mrs. Nix is going to help us learn our new high frequency words this week.

- Awesome, thank you so much, Mrs. Vang.

I so appreciate that.

Yes, boys and girls, we need to be able to practice our high frequency words.

These are words that we see often in our reading and our writing.

And so we need to practice them.

Here's our word this week.

The word is school.

Say it with me.

School.

Let's go through and let's spell it together.

Ready?

S-C-H-O-O-L spells school.

School.

Good.

Now, let's use school in a sentence.

What would our sentence be?

Hmm, let me think.

School.

I hear you.

I like school.

Okay, let's think about that for a second.

How many words do we have?

Let's count them.

I like school.

Three words.

Okay, let's go through and let's put them on our board here.

So we're going to start with I, which is hiding in here.

I, and it's a capital I because it's the beginning of the sentence.

Like.

And here's our high-frequency word school.

Read it with me.

I like school.

Are we all finished?

We're not?

We forgot something?

What did we forget?

Oh, I can't get anything past you.

We forgot a period.

There it is.

That's our stop sign to tell us we're done with our sentence.

Excellent job.

Okay.

With our high frequency words and our words that we're blending and reading, what do we get to do?

We get to read stories.

And so every day we're going to talk about a different reading strategy.

This week, we're focused on the visualized strategy and I have a little game and maybe I can have Mrs. Hammack and Mrs. Vang help me out with something.

I have a little challenge for you.

Okay, we're going to visualize.

And when we visualize what I mean, just like when we go and we watch a movie, we're thinking about the pictures in our head.

I'm going to give you guys a little picture and I'm going to see if you can come up with it.

Try it at home.

I want everybody to visualize inside their mind a dog.

Can you picture it?

What does it look like?

Is it big?

Is it small?

What color is it?

Can you picture what it's doing?

Okay, let's try this with Mrs. Vang real quick.

Mrs. Vang, what did you visualize?

- My dog was a big German shepherd.

- A big German shepherd.

Wow!

- All right, now let's go over and check out Mrs. Hammack.

Okay Mrs. Hammack, what did you visualize?

- I visualized a little short weenie dog, with a long body and little tiny legs.

- Oh my goodness, that is so much fun.

So boys and girls, we had the same word, but we had two things that we could visualize.

Today, as you are listening to the story, what can you visualize as you're listening?

All right, we're going to start our story right now.

We'll be back.

- [Narrator] "This School Year Will Be The Best," by K Winters, illustrated by Renee Andriani.

Today was the first day of school.

We went to the rug and sat in a circle.

Our teacher asked, "What do you hope will happen this year?"

We each shared a wish.

I went first.

I hope I get the best seat on the bus.

This year, I hope I'll remember my homework.

I'll look good in my school picture.

I'll bring my pet snake for show and tell.

We'll have a chocolate fountain at lunch.

This year, I'll kick the ball into the right goal.

On the day the firetruck comes, I'll be the one to squirt the hose.

We'll take a field trip to someplace really cool.

I hope I won't be a vegetable in our school play.

I want to take the class pet home for winter break.

Our mom will bring a birthday surprise to school.

I hope we get at least one snow day.

This year I'll win the science fair.

I hope I'll make friends in my new school.

When the nurse measures me, I'll be tall.

I hope our butterflies will hatch.

We'll have a skateboard day.

I won't lose things in my desk.

The principal will do something crazy.

Read a hundred books.

The principal will kiss a pig.

My report card will be perfect.

Then our teacher told us her wish, I'll get to know each one of you.

This year will be the best.

- What did you think?

Wasn't that a great story?

I bet your school year is going to be the best.

So, when we read stories, we want to always be able to talk about them.

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

You're going to help me out, And I have our friends who are going to help us kind of revisit some of the details about this story.

So "This School Year Will Be The Best" is the title of our story, that's right here on the front cover.

And then what we have next is what time of year does this story take place?

So let's think about that.

Is it at the beginning of the school year?

The middle?

Or the end?

What do you think?

You're right, it's at the beginning.

That's when we first come to our new classes and meet our teachers, right?

So let's see.

Let's see if you got it.

Ah, the story takes place at the beginning of the school year.

Great thinking.

That's awesome.

All right, let's see what some of the details are.

What are some things that children in the story wish in their new school year?

Do you remember what some of the things are?

Oh, let's see.

All right, let's see.

Get the best seat on the bus.

Did you remember the little person that said they wanted the best seat on the bus?

That was a good one.

If you ride a bus.

What about this one?

To look good in your school picture.

Everybody wants to look good in their school picture, right?

And let's check another one.

Oh, I bet this would be Mrs. Knicks and Mrs. Vang's favorite.

To have a chocolate fountain at lunch.

That's your favorite too?

That is awesome.

And at the end of the story, what is the teacher's wish?

Do you remember?

What did the teacher wish for?

Right, the teacher wished that she would get to know each one of her new students.

I think that's what all teachers wish.

All right, so we practiced doing some reading.

We talked about our story, and now we just have one thing left we need to do, and that is to write about our story.

And so I have our friends that are going to help us.

And we're going to write about the first day of school.

This says, write about your first day of school.

And I have my friends Scooter and teeny tiny Tina Turtle, and Retail Ricky is here too.

They're going to help us, because we're going to brainstorm some ideas about the first day of school.

And then we can do our writing.

So my first day of school was.

- Scary, it was scary.

- Oh, it was scary.

I'm sorry, Ricky.

Oh, that's a great word though.

I'm going to scoot over my little chart here and I'm going to pull the word scary, because you know what?

Sometimes starting school can be scary, and that's okay.

That's okay.

Scooter, can you tell me what was your first day of school like?

Oh, he says it was fun.

It was fun.

Was your first day of school fun?

It might have been.

I hope it was.

All right.

- Mrs. Hammack.

- Yes.

- I think my first day was great.

- Oh, I love to hear that.

And so I'm going to put the word great.

So we have some ideas of different ways that your day could be.

And then, what are some things you did with that?

What did you do?

My first day of school was, let's see Retail, you said scary.

Why was it scary?

- It was scary because I started a new school.

- Oh, that can be very scary.

Whenever you try something new, it can be a little bit scary.

I'm so glad you're brave.

All right, what else could we do?

What else could it be?

- Mrs. Hammack, Mrs. Hammack.

- Yes.

- You know what?

I started a new school too.

But you know what else?

- Tell me.

- I loved my teacher.

- Oh, I bet your teacher loved you too.

That's another idea that you could say.

I love my teacher.

You could say that.

What's that Scooter?

Oh yeah, Scooter said I met many friends.

I bet you did.

Scooter makes friends wherever he goes.

Thank you so much for helping us with our writing today friends.

And I want you to write about your first day of school too.

Okay.

Well, today we have been practicing reading.

We've been talking about our story.

We've been doing some writing.

And now we are going to have to get ready to end our day together.

So as we come back together, we are going to get ready because I have a joke.

I have a joke for you.

- Oh Mrs. Hammack, we need to hear your joke.

- All right.

Knock knock.

- [Mrs. Nix And Mrs. Vang] Who's there?

- Justin.

- [Mrs. Nix And Mrs. Vang] Justin who?

- Just in time to say bye-bye.

- [Mrs. Nix And Mrs. Vang] Oh Mrs. Hammack.

- Oh wait, but before we do I, Mrs. Nix has a great story she wants to share with you.

So let's give her a good listen.

- I love to share stories.

And I have to tell you over summer vacation, that's all I was doing was reading amazing stories.

And I was introduced to this story right here, and it's called "Mixed: A Colorful Story" by Arree Chung.

And it is all about the different colors.

And so you can see right here on the front cover, we have, oh, I've got shiny.

Here we go.

Red and yellow and blue.

And there were all those three colors, and they lived in a wonderful town and everybody thought that they themselves that their colors were the coolest.

So you can see here, blue thought that they were the coolest.

And everybody lived in harmony in their little town.

Everybody got along, until one afternoon when red said, "I am the best."

What do you think the other colors were thinking?

Hm.

And you know what?

I think you're right, because everybody started thinking that they were the coolest ones.

And they started arguing and not getting along.

And they started just all kinds of awful, awful things.

But then something happened.

And one day a yellow noticed a blue.

And if you want to find out what happened in the story, you're going to have to check out this book.

And I strongly recommend it.

I just want to say thanks for hanging out with us on PBS.

And we look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

Take care.

- Bye bye.

- Bye bye.

(soft music)