(upbeat music) - Hello, little learners.

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

I'm so excited that you're here today.

My name is Mrs. Lara.

Can you tell me your name?

Hey, shall we start our morning off with a song?

Of course, Maria, our mail person, is here to help.

Ready, Maria?

Let's sing.

♪ Good morning, good morning ♪ ♪ It's a sunshine kind of day ♪ ♪ Come join Mrs. Lara for some learning and some play ♪ ♪ Will we sing a song ♪ ♪ Of course we will ♪ ♪ Make our brain strong ♪ ♪ Like super strong ♪ ♪ So come along ♪ ♪ Yes, come on, friends ♪ ♪ For some learning and some play ♪ - Hello, jello!

- Hi there, grizzly bear!

- What's up, buttercup?

- Not much, coconut!

- What's shakin', little bacon?

- Not a lot, tater tot!

- Are we done, silly one?

- Just the start, brave heart.

And it is just the start of our day, isn't it?

I hope you're settled in and ready for a fun time.

We're going to actually continue our learning around "Corduroy" today, and I'm going to read the book to you.

Maria might be delivering it later.

We're gonna talk about how Corduroy was feeling.

Was he feeling left out?

Maybe at the end, was he happy that a little girl finally took him home?

Then we're gonna work on some foundational skills.

Today, it's beginning sounds, and it's so important as you learn to read that you're able to take apart the sounds in words.

And we're gonna end our day with a fun project and game that's gonna help you practice beginning sounds at home.

Are you ready to start the learning?

I think I hear the doorbell!

(doorbell ringing) There it is!

Maria is dropping off a letter!

Let's see who wrote to us today.

Now remember, when we read, we start at the left and go to the right.

So, ♪ This is the left ♪ (snaps fingers) ♪ This is the right ♪ (snaps fingers) ♪ When we read, we start at the left and go to the right ♪ (snaps fingers) So let's read.

"Dear Mrs. Lara, I found a friend!"

Ooh, what does that mean, friend?

A friend is someone you can rely on, isn't it?

Someone you can count on to always be a pal to you.

"Her name is Lisa and she has a little bed just for me.

She even sewed a new button on my green overalls."

Do you remember Corduroy was missing a button?

that was so kind of Lisa.

"I found where I belong at last!

Love, Corduroy."

Oh, that makes me so happy!

Now, I have a friend here who wants to tell you about belonging.

Her name is Sonia the snail.

We learned about her yesterday.

Sonia, come on out here!

Here she is.

I plucked her from the garden.

Say "hello," Sonia!

- Hello, Sonia.

- No, say "hello" to the boys and girls!

They want to know what belonging means.

Do you know what it means?

Well, belonging means when you feel at home somewhere, you're at a place that makes you happy.

Have you ever been at a place that makes you happy?

Where?

- The garden.

I love to chew delicious leaves!

- Yeah, that's true!

The garden makes you happy!

I feel at home here at Camp Read-A-Lot, with lots of mosquito repellent, of course.

All right, Sonia, thanks for sharing with us today.

I think Maria dropped off a box with the book that's gonna help us learn more about belonging.

Let's see, she dropped off our words that we're gonna need to learn.

And then here is our book.

Maria is so generous, isn't she?

She's always leaving us treats.

So let's review our words that we're gonna need to learn in order to help us understand the story.

So the first word is "apartment."

An apartment is a building where lots of families live.

It's their home.

Next is "night watchman".

Night watchman is kind of an old-fashioned word for security guard.

You may see a security guard when you're in a public place.

They help guard the people and things around them.

And our last word is "escalator."

An escalator is like a moving set of stairs.

It helps take you from one place to another.

All right, now that we have our vocabulary words, I'm gonna introduce you to the story.

I'm just gonna set these down here.

Our story this week is "Corduroy," and we watched it in video, but now I'm gonna read it to you.

The author's name is Don Freeman.

Now let's look at the front cover.

What do you notice Corduroy is doing?

How do you think he's feeling?

If I look closely, I see that he is missing a button on his green overalls, and it looks like he's pointing down to grab the button off what looks like a bed.

Is that part of the story?

Let's find out.

I'm gonna open up the first page, and I'm gonna start to read.

Ooh, Don Freeman is the author.

That means he wrote the words.

He's also the illustrator!

That means he drew the pictures.

"Corduroy."

"Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the toy department of a big store.

Day after day, he waited with all the other animals and dolls for somebody to come along and take him home."

Now I want you to think about how Corduroy might be feeling, waiting and waiting for someone to take him home.

(hums thoughtfully) "The store was always filled with shoppers buying all sorts of things, but no one ever seemed to want a small bear in green overalls.

Then one morning, a little girl stopped and looked straight into Corduroy's bright eyes.

'Oh mommy,' she said, 'Look!

That's the very bear I've always wanted!'"

Do you think that her mom is gonna say yes or no?

(hums thoughtfully) "'Not today, dear,' her mother sighed.

'I've spent too much already.

Besides, he doesn't look new.

He's lost the button to one of his shoulder straps.'"

So think about mother is saying, "I've spent too much already."

It takes money to buy things, doesn't it?

And sometimes the grown-ups in our lives just don't have the money to get us all the toys we want.

Now I want you to think about how you feel when your grown-up tells you, "Sorry, we can't get that."

How might the little girl be feeling?

"Corduroy watched them sadly as they walked away.

'I didn't know I'd lost a button,' he said to himself.

'Tonight, I'll go and see if I can find it.'"

Oh, he's on a mission!

"Late that evening, when all the shoppers have gone and the doors were shut and locked, Corduroy climbed down carefully from his shelf and began searching everywhere on the floor for his lost button."

Can you search with him?

Oh, I wonder if he's gonna find it.

Oh, do you remember what this word is for stairs that move?

An escalator!

Well, "Corduroy suddenly felt the floor moving under him!

Quite by accident, he had stepped onto an escalator and up he went!

'Could this be a mountain?'

He thought.

'I think I've always wanted to climb a mountain.'

He stepped off the escalator as it reached the next floor, and there, before his eyes, the most amazing sight!

Tables, and chairs, and lamps, and sofas, and rows and rows of beds.

'This might be a palace!'

Corduroy gasped.

'I guess I've always wanted to live in a palace.'"

If you went to a mattress store, would you think it was a palace?

Maybe, huh?

"He wandered around admiring the furniture.

'This must be a bed,' he said.

'I've always wanted to sleep in a bed' And up he crawled onto a large, thick mattress.

All at once, he saw something small and round.

'Why, heres my button!'

And he tried to pick it up.

But, like the other buttons on the mattress, it was tied down tight.

He yanked," Can you help me yank?

"He yanked and he pulled with both paws until pop!

Off came the button, and off the mattress Corduroy toppled.

Bang, into a tall floor lamp.

Over it fell with a crash!"

Now who heard that sound?

(hums thoughtfully) It was the night watchman!

He was there awake in the store.

"He was going his rounds on the floor above.

When he heard the crash, he came dashing down the escalator!

'Now who in the world did that?'

He exclaimed.

'Somebody must be hiding around here!'

He flashed his light over and under sofas and beds until he came to the biggest bed of all.

And there, he saw two fuzzy brown ears sticking up from under the cover.

'Hello,' he said.

'How did you get upstairs?'"

Now how did Corduroy get upstairs?

And I want you to think, if he was hiding under the covers, how might have Corduroy been feeling?

How do you feel when you hide under the covers?

Maybe a little scared?

"The Watchman tucked corduroy under his arm, and carried him down the escalator, and set him on the shelf in the toy department with the other animals and dolls.

Corduroy was just waking up when the first customers came into the store in the morning.

And there, looking at him with a wide, warm smile, it's the same little girl he'd seen only the day before.

'I'm Lisa, she said.

'And you're gonna be my very own bear.

Last night, I counted what I saved in my piggy bank.

And my mother said I can bring you home.'"

A piggy bank is a place where you put money that you want to save, isn't it?

"'Shall I put him in a box for you?'

The saleslady asked.

'Oh, no thank you,' said Lisa.

And she carried Corduroy home in her arms.

She ran all the way up four flights of stairs into her family's apartment, and straight into her own room.

Corduroy blinked.

There was a chair and a chest of drawers, and alongside a girl-sized bed stood a little bed just the right size for him.

The room was small, nothing like that enormous palace in the department store.

'This must be home,' he said.

'I know I've always wanted a home.'

Lisa sat down with Corduroy on her lap and began to sew a button.

'I like you the way you are,' she said.

'But you'll be more comfortable with your shoulder strap fastened.'

'You must be a friend,' said Corduroy.

'I've always wanted a friend.'

'Me too,' said Lisa.

And they gave each other a big hug."

Now I like what that book said.

I like you just the way you are too, boys and girls.

I hope that you enjoyed that story.

Now, it's really fun reading books to you, but what I want is for you to be able to read books to me.

So for that, we have to practice our beginning sounds and our letters, so let's practice together.

So we're gonna work on our beginning sounds today.

Now remember, a beginning sound is the first sound that you hear in a word.

Now today's letter and sound is "buh," B.

B for bear.

We're gonna go through a couple of things and see what starts with the letter B and makes the "buh" sound.

Let's see our first one.

How about button?

Button.

Do you hear the "buh" at the beginning?

Yes, I do too!

Thumbs up!

Let's put it over here by the bear.

How about this?

Escalator, eh, eh.

Does it say "buh, buh" at the beginning?

No!

Boo to that, huh?

Nope!

You get to stay right here.

How about this one?

A bed.

That's where Corduroy found his button, huh?

Where he knocked it off on the floor, the lamp, and the night watchman came.

Bed.

Buh, buh, bed.

Yes, it makes the "buh" sound!

I'll put it here.

How about apartment?

Ah, apartment.

No, that doesn't make the "buh" sound.

Putting it down here.

Piggy bank.

Puh, puh, puh.

No, that doesn't say "buh" like B, huh?

Very close, though.

Now, let's do one more over here.

Ooh, this is a lamp.

Lamp.

Does lamp say "buh?"

No!

Oh, it looks like we have one more.

Don't want to leave anybody behind.

This is a box.

Does box say "buh?"

It does!

That's our last one.

So to continue practicing your beginning sounds, I'd like to leave you with a project that you can do at home.

So here are the materials that you're going to need.

We're calling it the Beginning Sound Button Match.

You're going to need some paper plates, paper, glue, and magazine cutouts, so let's go over to our project place so we can get started.

Here we go!

So as you can see, I have some paper plates here.

What we're going to do is we're gonna make a beginning sound game.

Now, in our game, we're gonna flip these over so they look like buttons, and we're gonna put pictures of things on the back, and then letters on the back of other things so that we can match them like a matching game.

Now, to make this look like a button, what I did is I took some green paint and I painted the whole paper plate.

I'll show you in a minute how I did it.

And then I added some circle details for a button.

Then I cut out a magazine cutout and glued it to the bottom here, so let's make one together.

So I kind of started painting one already here, and I'll show you kind of what I did with some of the negative space that I have left over.

And I'll leave some room so that I can show you how to put the details for the button on.

So, I just take my paintbrush, I dip it in, and I kind of go around like this.

Now, if you don't have paint, that is okay.

Use markers, use anything you have, I want it very green.

So you can kind of see what I did there to paint it.

Now, of course, I want to be able to show you how to put the button details on, so I'm not gonna paint the middle.

I'm just kind of demonstrating for you.

That means showing you.

Okay, now, to make it look like a button, what I'm going to do is pick my favorite color.

So, Ooh, let's go with pink.

Let's see.

On Monday and Tuesday, we read a story about a chair that was painted pink, huh?

And "Corduroy" is also about reusing something that's kind of not so new.

Corduroy wasn't a new bear, but the little girl loved him anyway.

The chair from "Peter's Chair" wasn't new, but they reused it into something special for a new baby sister, Susie.

Okay.

So what I did, as you can see, I always tell you my trick.

You have to stack papers on top of each other so that you can just kind of cut once, and I'm making circles.

So I'm gonna put them right here for the buttons and I'm gonna glue them down.

Now, when I glue something, I'm very careful to just tap a little glue in the middle.

I have two circles for the button, three circles for the button, and my last one, four.

There we go!

So see, it kind of looks like a button here.

The next thing we're gonna do is take some magazine cutouts.

Now, I pre-cut some that I thought we might use here today, but I love using old magazines for getting some free, almost free color pictures, because ink is so expensive, isn't it?

Now make sure when you're cutting out things that you ask your grown-ups if it's okay.

So I have something here.

Can you see what it is?

It's milk!

So I'm gonna cut it out.

This one's a little tricky to cut because it has a straw.

Milk.

What do you think the beginning sound of milk is?

Do you know what letter makes the "mmm" sound, like you're eating something delicious?

It's the letter M. M. So I'm gonna glue my milk over here on the back.

I don't get to glue milk very often.

This is exciting!

Remember, dot-dot, not a whole lot.

And then I'm going to take another button and I'm going to write my letter M, because they are going to be a match.

So I'm gonna show you how to write the M here.

I'm using a marker and I'm gonna start at the top, big line down, jump back to the top, big line down, top and top.

I have made the uppercase letter M!

So now I have a match here.

Let me create some more matches.

'Cause we have a little more time.

Ooh, let's see.

Of course, we did milk, so now we gotta get some cookies in there.

So let me cut out some cookies.

These are chocolate chip cookies.

Are those your favorite kind of cookies?

They're mine.

I recently ate some cookies that were not just chocolate chips, they had pretzels, and marshmallows, all kinds of things, yum.

Now I'm gonna glue the cookie on the back here.

Look, I'm just gluing all the way around.

Of course, parents, if you want to teach your child about shapes or being more in control of where they glue, have them trace around the edge.

That may seem simple to us grown-ups, but surprisingly difficult when you're four years old.

So I glued it to the back.

That's gonna be my other button.

Now, let's see.

Oh, come here, plate!

Now I need to make the letter C. The letter C is really easy to make because it's just one big curve.

Gonna start at the top and big curve down.

All right, so then we've made two pairs, and I think we can make a few more.

Next one, let's see what I got here.

I got, surprisingly, a lot of food products.

(laughs) I must've been hungry.

Either that or magazines just have a lot of food.

So, let's see.

I have a horse.

Horse.

What beginning sound do you hear in the word horse?

Hah, hah, hah.

It's the letter H, isn't it?

All right, cutting it up, gluing it down, and then we'll make the letter H, and I'll show you how to play.

Okay, glue it down over here.

Of course, families, if your child is not at the stage where they're recognizing beginning sounds, you can do this with letters.

You can just do this to develop their oral language.

That's so important, too.

Have them tell you about the pictures they uncover behind the buttons.

That's one way to adapt it.

Okay, now we're gonna write our H. We're gonna do big line down, another big line down, and a little line in the middle to make the letter H for horse.

Now let's see if we can play one round of the Beginning Sound Game!

I'm so excited.

It's just me playing, but somehow I always lose!

Doesn't seem fair.

I'm gonna flip them over, and mix them around, then, if there's room here on the table, you flip them over, mix them around, and put them on the table, and then you practice taking turns and see what you can uncover.

Let's see if I get a match.

Oh, milk.

I'm looking for the M for milk.

C. No, not a match.

Let's see.

Ooh, cookies!

That's "kuh, kuh" beginning sound, C. There we are!

I got one match.

And you continue playing like that until there are no more buttons left, they're all gone.

Okay, it looks like we have just enough time to do our goodbye song so we can practice our letters, too.

Are you ready?

It goes like this.

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

And actually, before we go, I'm gonna tell you what we have going on.

So tomorrow is actually gonna be a very special day because we're going to cover Independence Day, which is this weekend!

We're gonna make a special Independence Day hat that's gonna look like a firework on our head.

Oh, that'll be interesting!

We're also gonna learn a little bit about what Independence Day means.

So why do we celebrate, and how does your family celebrate?

My family likes to go look at fireworks, which can be kind of loud.

My dog doesn't like it.

We also like to barbecue.

And actually, I heard a little friend had a barbecue here at Camp Read-A-Lot already.

Maybe we'll join them.

All right, I hope that you can join me tomorrow for some more fun.

And until then, Mrs. Lara sends you a big squeeze and a big smooch (blows kiss), and reminds you to read, and to play, and to use your imagination every single day.

Goodbye!

(upbeat music)