♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games to play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪ (guitar music) (upbeat music) - Hey, hey, welcome back to Discovery Ranch.

I'm so glad you could come back, because it's reading day!

And we've got to get started pretty quickly, because we have a lot to do.

Let's get started, but by the way, don't forget, write to me here at the station so that you can get your free activity book.

Let's get started.

Oh my goodness, we got to go fast.

All right remember, our essential question today is this.

What can happen when we work together?

What can happen?

Teamwork!

Teamwork!

That's right, we can work together and make things happen if we just work together and have teamwork.

Well today, our book is called "What's the big idea, Molly?"

Now remember, this is the front cover, the back cover and the spine.

But what I wanted to do today, I haven't done this in a while, I want to take a look at one page before we get started.

And I want to talk about how, when we read in Kindergarten and anywhere else, we always start on the left side and the top and we go to the right.

We start from the left and then we go to the right.

And then we get over here to the bottom and we drop down one row.

We call it return sweep and then we go again.

Do you see how I did that?

Drop down and we go again.

And then when we do this side, we do the left side and then we do the right side.

All right, now, as always, you know that you have to know whether it's a fiction or nonfiction and then you know I'm gonna be asking comprehension questions of course.

All right, this is a great story.

I hope you will enjoy this story.

What's it called, again?

"What's the big idea, Molly?"

Enjoy this story.

- [Narrator] What's the big idea, Molly?

By Valerie Gorbachev.

What's the big idea, Molly?

Molly put down her notebook.

It was not a good day for ideas.

Molly had been trying to write a poem all morning.

She loved beautiful words, but she just couldn't find an idea.

Now all her friends had come to Molly's house.

Tomorrow was Turtle's birthday, but no one could come up with an idea for a gift for Turtle either.

Molly put her pencil down.

"I know," Rabbit said.

"A nice picture is a great birthday gift.

I will draw a picture of a flower for Turtle."

"I like it," said Goose.

"I will draw a picture of a flower for Turtle too."

Frog jumped right off the couch.

"Me too!

I love to draw flowers."

"And me," said Pig.

"Flowers are my favorite thing to draw."

"No, no, no," said Molly.

"Drawing is a good idea and I like to draw too, but we can't give Turtle five pictures of a flower.

We need to think."

"I think of my best ideas when I run," said Rabbit, walking out of the house.

"I think best when I'm fishing," Goose said, following him.

"I get my best ideas down by the pond," Frog said.

"Mine come to me under the willow tree," said Pig.

"I'll be back soon."

"I'm staying right here," said Molly.

"My best ideas come to me right here, when they come to me at all, that is," and she sat down on the porch.

Maybe she'd do better thinking up a gift for Turtle than she did thinking up a poem.

Meantime, Rabbit ran and ran and ran until he got the perfect new idea of what to draw for Turtle's birthday.

Frog hopped to the pond and plopped in.

He swam and swam until he got a great idea of what to draw for Turtle's birthday.

Goose waddled down to the lake.

He fished and fished until he got just the right idea of what to draw for Turtle's birthday.

Pig went right to the willow tree and she took a nap.

That's how she got her best ideas.

When she woke up, she knew just what to draw.

When all the friends ran to Molly's house with their new ideas, Molly still had no idea at all.

"What ideas did you come up with?"

she asked them, a bit grumpy.

"Running through the woods, I saw a beautiful tree.

I am drawing the tree for Turtle," said Rabbit.

"I am sure Turtle will love it."

"Oh dear," said Frog.

"Jumping into the pond, I saw a beautiful tree too.

Two pictures of trees will be all right, won't they?"

"You will not believe it," said Goose, "but I caught a fish under a most beautiful tree as well.

I have drawn that tree for Turtle.

Three very good pictures of trees will be all right too, right?"

"Oops!"

squealed Pig.

"The tree that I was sleeping under, was the perfect tree.

I have started to draw that very tree for Turtle."

"Oh goodness," said Molly.

"First it was all flowers, now it's all trees.

You can't all give Turtle a picture of a tree.

Hmm, wait, I've got an idea."

She sat down on the porch with her pad and pencil and began to write.

"What is it, Molly," said her friends.

"Do you want to draw a tree too?"

"No," said Molly without looking up.

"Just wait, please."

Then Molly told everyone her idea and they all loved it.

Molly and her friends got busy working on Turtle's present together.

They drew and painted and glued and stapled until it was finished.

The next day was Turtle's birthday.

They met him down by the pond and sang, ♪ Happy birthday ♪ to him, then all together gave him one, just one, wrapped present.

It was a beautiful book from his five friends with beautiful pictures for every season.

The summer picture was drawn by Rabbit.

Summer.

In summer it's so hot, I feel like I'm in a melting pot.

Goose drew an autumn picture.

Autumn.

Fall is in the air, leaves are blowing here and there.

Frog drew the winter picture.

Winter.

Snow, it's crystal white.

It shines in the night.

Pig, who loves spring best, drew spring.

Spring.

Spring is here, let's give a cheer.

It's the best season of the year.

And Molly wrote every beautiful word.

"I love this book," said Turtle.

"And I love all of you.

I will think of you whenever I read it."

And they all sat down and had a great birthday party together.

When Molly went home, she sat back on the porch step.

"I wonder," she said, picking up her notebook and pencil, "if I will get another big idea tomorrow.

I am ready for it."

- Did you like that story?

That was a great story, oh my goodness.

Okay, remember what was our first question I said I was gonna ask you?

Is this book fiction, which means what?

Not true, or nonfiction, which means it's true.

Which one was it?

Right, it's fiction.

How do you know it's fiction?

It's very obvious, because animals do not talk.

That is right.

That's right.

Now remember, every teacher wants to ask questions to make sure that you were listening.

So, I know that you're out there in TV Land, but you can still answer the questions.

Are you ready?

My first question is, what problem did Molly have in the beginning of the story?

What problem did she have?

Yeah, in this story, she couldn't- she didn't know what to write.

She didn't know what to write, no way, she didn't know what to write.

She's having all kinds of problems and then her friends came and then it was Oliver's birthday, oh my goodness, and so they're trying to figure out what to give the turtle for Chri- for his birthday.

I'm sorry, Christmas.

Birthday, yes.

What to give him for his birthday.

So what did they do?

Yes, they all had to get an idea and where did they get their best ideas?

Yeah, that's right, Rabbit had to run.

What did Goose have to do?

What'd Goose want to do?

Go fishing, right, right.

And where did Frog go?

To the pond and then how about the pig?

Where did Pig go?

Yes, under the willow tree.

Okay, now here's my last question.

How did Molly solve the problem of what to give Turtle for his birthday?

Right, she took all the pictures together.

She took all the pictures together and what did she do?

That's right, she made a book.

Do you see how she helped with our essential question of teamwork?

Teamwork, yeah, because she got all the animals to work together.

That is so good.

Now, if I look up here at our writing, because now it's time to write, it says, "What's the big idea, Molly?

How did Molly solve the problem of what to give Turtle?"

What did she do?

"How did she solve that problem?

Yes, she gets the other animals to work together.

She gets the other animals to work together.

I wanna use this color pen to write that sentence.

I wonder how many words that is?

Let's find out.

She gets the other animals to work together.

Ooh, that's eight.

That's a lot.

So, my sentence is, "She gets the other animals to work together."

What's the first word?

She.

Right.

Uppercase letter, Mr. Dawson, thank you.

She gets.

Gets.

Oh, what's the first sound in gets?

Ghu, ghu is for G. Gets, ts.

She gets the.

Sight word!

The.

What's the next word?

Other.

Ooh, we're running out of time.

Ooh my goodness.

She gets the other.

Animals.

Animals, animals.

A-ni-mals.

To, that's a sight word.

How do you spell that?

Yes, T-O.

T-O.

She gets the other animals to work.

What's the beginning sound in work?

Wha, wha, W. Work.

Together.

Here we go.

T-O-G. Oh, I'm going to have to move the book over here.

E-T-H-E-R. And don't forget our punctuation.

So, here's our sentence, are you ready?

She gets the other animals to work together.

That's how she did it.

Wow, I told you it was gonna be a fast day, 'cause that book was a great book.

Thank you for joining me today.

We had so much time- uh, fun, talking about our essential question and our book.

I hope you join me tomorrow for another reading and writing day.

We'll see you later.

Bye.

(upbeat guitar music) ♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games to play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪ (upbeat guitar music)