(upbeat music) - Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to Camp Read-A-Lot, the place where we read books and sing songs, and keep the learning going all summer long.

Are you ready to start off our day with a song?

I have my friend Maria, the mail person here who's gonna help us sing.

Let's sing together.

Ready?

♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ It's a sunshine kind of day ♪ ♪ Come join Miss Lara for some learning and some play ♪ ♪ Will we sing a song ♪ ♪ Of course, we will ♪ ♪ Make our brains strong ♪ ♪ Like super strong ♪ ♪ So come along ♪ ♪ Yes, come on, friends for some learning and some play ♪ So Maria, hello, jello.

How are you, Caribou?

Just fine, Porcupine.

What's shaking bacon?

Not a lot, Tater Tot.

Is this the end, Smiley Friend?

Nope, Just a start, Kind Heart.

Oh, you're right, we're just getting started with our day.

So let's go through our visual schedule and find out our plan.

So this morning, we're gonna start off with a letter that's gonna explore a feeling that a character is having in one of our books.

We might even get a special guest appearance from Rusty the Robot.

I'm so excited for that.

And then we're actually gonna read our story, "Peter's Chair," a story about a little boy who gets a new baby sister, and has some conflicting feelings about what that means.

Remember what the book said, "Little sisters can be big trouble."

And of course, we'll work on our foundational skills that are gonna help us to become strong readers.

Today, it's rhyming words and we'll end our day at our project place where we're actually gonna make a chair and use it to learn some rhyming words.

And it can also be used to learn some beginning sounds.

Okay, so I think I hear, did Maria drop off?

(doorbell rings) There she is.

She's dropping off our letter, so here it is.

It starts here with, "Dear Miss Lara."

Now notice how I read.

♪ This is the left ♪ (fingers snap) ♪ This is the right ♪ (fingers snap) ♪ When you read, start at the left, slide to the right ♪ (fingers snap) So let's read.

"Dear Miss Lara, It is true!

I decided to run away."

You should never do that.

That's not safe.

"My favorite chair was painted pink, yuck!

My baby sister is also getting all of my parents' attention."

Oh no.

"Please help!

Love, Peter."

Now, do you remember Peter from our story?

It sounds like he's feeling left out.

Rusty the Robot helped us yesterday figure out what to do when you feel left out.

Let me see if he's around.

Hey, Rusty.

Rusty, it's your turn to come out.

(humming) Here he is.

Rusty, can you help us figure out what to do when we're left out?

Say hi to the boys and girls.

All right, Rusty, what does feeling left out mean?

Ooh, my research indicates that feeling left out means feeling sad that you're not part of something.

Oh, feeling sad that you're not part of something.

Do you ever feel left out?

When do you feel left out?

Ooh, I feel left out when everyone goes swimming.

Oh, I guess robots can't really swim, can they?

No, that would make me feel left out too.

So what do you do when you feel left out, like if people are going swimming and you can't go, or if your family is paying attention to something else, other than you?

I practice breathing.

You use your belly breaths.

Okay.

Let's practice together.

So, first don't I have to name my feeling?

Oh yes, yes, yes.

Okay.

Name my feeling.

So I put my hands on my tummy, and I say my feeling out loud.

I am feeling left out, and then I take deep belly breaths.

Breathe in and out.

(exhales deeply) Breathe in and out.

(exhales deeply) And that helps calm me down, doesn't it?

Yeah.

And when you're calm, what can you do?

Think of solutions.

That's right.

You can think of solutions, like talking to people about how you feel when you're left out.

I'm so glad that you joined us today, Rusty.

I would hate for you to bot all your feelings up.

Oh no.

So let's put you away, and we'll go through and check to see if Maria left us other mail that'll help us with Peter's dilemma, feeling left out.

So let's see.

She gave me this box, she sent here to the station.

Oh, it's the book, we'll read that together.

And I think she left some vocabulary words.

Yeah, that's right.

Let's look at them together.

So our first word is rascal.

Do you remember what that means?

That means somebody's doing something naughty, huh?

A rascal is someone who's maybe doing something they're not supposed to do.

Our next word is fussing, like the baby in the picture.

That means to make a big deal out of something.

Like when Peter's mother checked the cradle.

And the last word is muttered.

Can you say that word?

Muttered.

Muttered means you say something kind of under your breath.

You're not whispering, but you don't want people to hear it.

So let's read our story, and see if we might help Peter, as he feels left out.

So this is the front of our book, and we have a front too, don't we?

The front of a book tells us who the author is, Ezra Jack Keats They write the words.

And who the illustrator is.

In this case, Ezra Jack Keats is the illustrator as well.

It also gives us clues about what's inside.

So we see a picture of a boy and a chair and a baby.

A book also has a spine.

It holds all the pages together.

And if you reach way back to your back, you will also have a spine too.

And then there's the back of the book, that tells us a little bit about the story.

In this case, it tells us that a little sister can mean big trouble, and it did for Peter.

So let's read our story together.

Opening up the pages.

"Peter's Chair."

All right, here we go.

"Peter stretched as high as he could.

There, his tall building was finished."

But we know what happens next, huh?

"Crash!

Down it came.

'Shh,' called his mother.

'You'll have to play more quietly.

Remember, we have a new baby in the house.'"

Now, why do you think Peter's mother is asking him to play more quietly?

What would happen if there was a lot of noise?

Do you think the baby might wake up and cry?

"Peter looked into his sister, Susie's, room.

His mother was fussing around the cradle.

'That's my cradle,' he thought.

'And they painted it pink.'"

Oh no.

"'Hi, Peter,' said his father.

Would you like to help paint sister's high chair?'

'It's my high chair,' whispered Peter."

Now, I want you to think, hmm.

How do you think Peter's father felt when Peter did not want to paint the high chair with him?

I wonder.

"Peter saw the crib and he muttered, 'My crib.

It's painted pink too.'

Not far away stood his old chair.

'They didn't paint that yet,' Peter shouted.

He picked it up and he ran to his room."

And look who's following him, him companion, Willie.

"'Let's run away, Willie,' he said.

Peter filled a shopping bag with cookies and dog biscuits.

'We'll take the blue chair, my toy crocodile, and the picture of me when I was a baby.'

Willie of course got his bone."

So he's running away, and remember, he stood outside his house.

'This is a good place,' said Peter.

He arranged his things very nicely, and decided to sit in his chair for awhile."

Now, do you remember what happened when he tried to sit in his chair?

That's right.

He was too big for his chair.

See, he doesn't fit.

I wonder if that's why his parents were going to recycle it and reuse it for his baby sister, Susie.

"His mother came to the window and called, 'Won't you come back to us, Peter, dear.

We're having something special for lunch.'

Peter and Willie made believe they didn't hear.

But Peter got an idea."

Now I want you to think, how do you think Peter's mother feels when they ignored her?

Hmm.

She knows that Peter has run away, right, because he's outside the house, but she's giving him a choice to come in.

Hmm.

"Soon, his mother saw signs that Peter was home.

'That rascal is hiding behind the curtain,' she said, happily.

She moved the curtain away, but he wasn't there.

'Here I am,' shouted Peter.

And Peter sat in a grownup chair.

His father sat next to him.

'Daddy,' said, Peter, 'let's paint the little chair pink for Susie.'

And they did.

The End."

So I wonder, why did Peter change his mind at the end of the story?

Was it because he didn't fit in his chair, or maybe he realized that growing up can be fun too.

He got to sit at a grownup chair at lunch with his parents.

If you know, or have some ideas, talk to your family about the story.

That can be really fun too.

For now, I want to teach you some foundational skills like rhyming.

Rhyming will help us to read the stories that Miss Lara reads here at Camp Read-A-Lot.

I can't wait for you to read them to me.

So remember, rhyming words are words that sound the same at the end.

So we have our rhyming focus here, chair.

And we're gonna find some words that rhyme with chair.

So let's see.

Dog, chair.

Do they sound the same?

No.

Boo to that.

Dog and chair don't sound the same.

How about this one?

Hair, chair.

Hair, chair.

They both say air.

They sound the same.

So I'm gonna put it right here.

I'm gonna put the hair on the chair.

How about blocks?

Now there were blocks in the story that Peter was playing with, right?

Blocks and chair, do they sound the same?

No, they don't sound the same.

We'll put them over here.

How about this one?

Ooh.

Maybe Willy has one of these signs.

It's a Beware sign.

It says, "Beware the dog."

So let's see, beware, chair.

They both say air.

They do rhyme.

So, I'm gonna put it up here.

How about this one?

It's pink paint.

Pink paint and chair.

Do they sound the same?

No.

Chair, pink paint.

They don't sound the same.

Ooh, how bout this one, way over here?

Now, you might be tempted to say that it's a rabbit, but it's actually a hare.

Not the kind of hair you have on your head.

Hare, chair.

Do they rhyme?

Hare, chair.

They both say air.

Yes, they do rhyme.

I'm gonna put it right here.

We have two more to go.

Let's look.

We have a bear.

Bear and chair.

Do they rhyme?

Bear, chair.

They both say air.

They do rhyme.

And last one, way down here.

It's a, do you remember from the story?

A cradle.

Do cradle and chair rhyme?

No, cradle and chair don't rhyme.

They don't sound the same at the end.

So look at all these rhyming words.

Chair, beware, hair, bear, hare.

Lots of rhyming words.

And of course, we always want you to practice that at home.

So I have a project for us to do together that's gonna involve science, balance, stability, and rhyming words, or beginning sounds.

So let's go to the project place.

So here we are.

So this is what our final product is going to look like.

It's going to look like a chair, just like in "Peter's Chair."

And of course, I painted it pink, just like at the end of the story.

So you'll notice that I needed four legs.

If you have a chair around you, you can see how it's built.

And then it's gonna have a bottom.

This is what we sit on.

And then a back, this is what we put our back on.

Okay.

So let's start building our chair.

Now you can build the legs of the chair in a couple of different ways.

If you have toilet paper rolls, you can use those for the legs.

If you have old cups that you were gonna throw away, you can actually use those for the legs too.

But I decided to make it more fun to use paper, so I'm going to roll up my paper.

Now this is kind of a heavier paper that I had on hand, but you can use any kind of paper.

So to roll it up, you'll see, I took both of my hands at the end and kind of curled it up.

Here we go.

Rolling it like a tube like this, and you can do a couple of things.

You can glue it, and that's gonna take a little bit longer to dry, and you'd have to hold it here for a minute.

So since we're here in TV land, I'm just gonna tape it.

So here's some tape I'm going to use.

Put at the end.

I'm gonna tape it all the way down.

Cut a little piece here.

Now, you'll notice if you look at a chair in your house that the legs are all the same size.

So you can bring in some math skills with this activity.

Have your children measure out the legs, that they're exactly the same size.

And they can use what we call non-standard measurements.

They can use paper clips or pencil erasers, anything, not just a ruler.

So I have my tubes.

I can see you.

This seems a little tall for a leg, doesn't it?

So I'm gonna cut it about in half.

That means I'm gonna have two equal pieces.

It means the same.

So I'm gonna eyeball it right here in the middle.

Oh, I think I got it.

And then I'm gonna check to see if they're about the same.

Oh, this one's a little taller.

Do you see that?

So what would happen if I made a chair with one leg that's too tall?

It would be lopsided, huh?

It would make us fall over.

So I'm gonna cut it a little bit like this, just so it's about the same.

There we go.

There you are about the same.

So I have two.

So how many more do I need to make four?

So I have two.

Ooh, I need two more legs.

So I'm gonna do the same thing with another piece of paper.

Take it, roll it up.

Ah, there you go.

Make a tube.

Take a piece of tape, or if you have glue.

A stapler might also work too.

You can use that.

And then you're gonna put it on there, just like that.

Stick on, look how quick that was with the tape.

And then again, I'm gonna cut it about in half, making about two equal or the same pieces.

Let's check.

Ooh, do you see?

I'm using them to kind of measure against each other.

This one's a little tall, so I'm gonna cut it.

Snip, snip, snip.

All right, I think I have my four chair legs.

The next thing to do is to make sure that they're about the same.

Oh, I'm noticing this one's a little tall.

I'm gonna snip it again.

Snip, snip, snip.

There we go.

All right, there we go.

We have our base.

That almost fell off.

Let's put them right here.

Our base there.

Ooh, is it stable?

That means is it gonna stick?

If I put a piece of cardboard, will it hold it up?

Now this is a good opportunity to talk to your children about stability and balance.

The next thing I'm gonna do is I had a piece of cardboard that came with an old picture frame, and I'm gonna cut a rectangle out.

Now, you'll remember, that a rectangle has two short sides and two long sides.

I'm gonna cut it out right here.

Cutting cardboard can be a little bit hard for little hands, so you might need a grownups help.

Okay.

So we have a rectangle.

Now, remember we talked about the parts of a chair.

We need our base, and then we need our back.

So, I'm just gonna fold it up like this and see how it's gonna work.

Ooh, I'm nervous.

And, of course, you would glue it down.

But I don't think I'm gonna have time to do that.

Okay.

We made our chair.

The next thing you can do is paint it.

So I painted it pink, and you'll end up with something like I have here, which is my pink chair.

Now that can be a great learning activity all on its own.

But since we're working on foundational reading skills and rhyming, I thought we would turn our chair into a rhyming chair.

So you can do this at home by making your chair and then finding different objects around the house that you wanna find rhymes to.

So let's see, I found a fork.

So I'm gonna put it on the rhyming chair, and I'm gonna think of something that rhymes with fork.

And for some reason, the first thing that came to mind is pork.

Fork, pork.

They both say ork.

Let's see if I can put something else on the rhyming chair.

How about the number nine?

Let's put it on the chair.

What rhymes with nine?

Ooh, nine, spine.

Just like our book, and like we have, huh?

Nine, spine.

Let me put that down.

How about, ooh, how about these guys?

(keys jingling) keys.

Let's put it on our chair.

Can you think of something that rhymes with a key?

I'll give you a clue.

It buzzes around, (Miss Lara buzzing) and might sting you.

A bee, that's right.

Key, bee.

They both say e. So let's see.

How about wood?

Wood.

Let's put that on the rhyming chair.

Can you find something that rhymes with wood?

Think of something, hmm.

How about a feeling word?

Like good.

Wood, good.

They both say ood.

Let's try one more.

I have a ball here.

It's shaped like the earth.

Ball.

Ball.

Let's see if it stays on the rhyming chair Ooh, it does.

It's stable enough to stay on top.

Ball.

Hmm.

Ball.

Ooh, here's a clue.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

Hmm.

That's right.

Call.

Ball, call.

They both say all.

So you can turn your chair into a rhyming chair.

Or if your child already has mastered rhyming, move on to beginning sounds or change the beginning sound of a word like fork.

So it can be fork.

If I added "p" at the beginning of fork, what word would that make?

You can extend the activity to meet the needs of your children.

I hope you enjoyed that activity.

And, boys and girls, if you make it at home, make sure you send me a picture or a note.

It makes my whole day.

Here's the address below.

All right.

Looks like we have just enough time to put things away carefully, and then get our letter cards out, so that we can sing our goodbye song.

Are you ready?

What's our first letter?

♪ A, B, C you later ♪ ♪ D, E, F, G I'm gonna miss ya ♪ ♪ H, I have to go now ♪ ♪ J, K bye-bye now ♪ ♪ L, M, N, O I had a good time ♪ ♪ P, Q, R you gonna miss me ♪ ♪ S, T, U are my best friend ♪ ♪ V, W, X, Y and Z ♪ That's right, boys and girls, I'll Z you tomorrow.

We're gonna have a lot more fun.

Tomorrow, we're actually gonna read another book, called "A Bike For Sergio."

And it's about a little boy who sees his friends having bikes and him not being able to afford it.

Just like Peter, in our story, he is feeling left out.

We might see Rusty the Robot give us more tools and tricks for dealing with our emotions.

And of course, we'll have a lot more fun singing songs and working on our foundational skills.

Now, if you want to work on our project, we're gonna be working on some beginning sounds, and it's gonna involve a bike.

I might bring in my bike to show you what it looks like.

Maybe I'll even wear my bike helmet, so I can remind you of some bike safety.

So don't forget to tune in tomorrow for more learning in Camp Read-A-Lot-Fun.

Until then, Miss Lara's gonna send you a big squeeze, (grunts) Ooh, I squeezed you extra hard, and a big slobbery smooch.

(smooches) It's gonna remind you to read and to play, and of course, to use your imagination every single day.

All right, boys and girls, we'll see you tomorrow for another fun time.

Goodbye.

(upbeat music)