(cheerful music) - Hello, little learners.

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

My name is Mrs. Lara.

Can you tell me your name?

I'm so excited that you made it here today, because we're celebrating something special today.

My hat is a clue.

Shall we start our morning off with a song so that I can tell you all about it?

Okay, let's sing together with Maria, our mail person.

Here we go.

♪ 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 brains strong.

♪ ♪ - Like super strong.

♪ ♪ - So come a long.

♪ ♪ - Yes, come on friends for some learning and some play.

♪ Hello, jello.

- Hi there, grizzly bear.

- What's up, butter cup?

- Not much, coconut.

- What's shakin', little bacon?

- Not a lot, tater tot.

- Are we done, silly one?

- Just the start, brave heart.

- Ooh, you're right, Miss Maria.

We're just starting our day.

So, let's go through our plan.

So, we're going to start off our day with some mail from Miss Maria and I think she has something special that she delivered in our box.

And then we're going to move on to a song.

We're going to celebrate Independence Day today.

So, I have a fun song that we can sing together.

And of course, if you like my hat, I'm going to share how you can make one at home so that you can celebrate with your family this weekend.

Are you ready to get started?

Oh, I think.

I hear.

Is it?

(door bell chiming) Ooh, it's Miss Maria.

She delivered some mail for us.

So, let me see what it says here.

Now of course, when we start reading, you have to remember we start at the left and go to the right.

♪ This is the left.

♪ ♪ This is the right.

♪ ♪ When we read, we start at the left and go to the right.

♪ Are you ready?

This one's to all of us.

It says "Dear Camp Read-a-lot," That's us.

"Did you know on July 4th we celebrate Independence Day?"

Ooh, independence.

That's a very long word.

Can we clap out the syllables or its parts?

Let's see.

In de pen dence Long word and it means freedom.

Hey, we're going to learn more about that in a second.

"On that day in 1776", which was a long time ago, even before Ms. Lara was born, if you can believe it, "the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of" We're going to hear that word again.

"Independence making the United States", which is where we live, "a free country.

How will you be celebrating?

Love, A special friend."

Now, independence is a word that means freedom.

And I wanted to share with you a symbol or a sign of our freedom.

Miss Maria delivered it in the box.

Do you recognize what this is?

This is a flag.

It's the American flag.

Have you ever taken a look at it and wondered what do those stripes mean?

Why is it red, white, and blue?

And how about those stars?

So we're going to talk a little bit about that.

So you'll notice there red and white stripes.

The stripes represent the 13 colonies that declared independence.

Oh, poster board.

I knew that was going to happen.

So when you think about freedom before, a long time ago, the United States used to be 13 colonies and there used to be a king named King George.

And he used to rule in Great Britain and he used to rule all over the 13 colonies and tax the people here, meaning they had to pay money to King George.

But they didn't get a say on how things were run.

So they decided, hey, we don't like that idea.

We want our freedom.

So they declared their independence way back in 1776.

And you might be thinking, well, Mrs. Lara does that mean they didn't have any rules?

No, that means they got to make their own rules for themselves.

And that's what they did together.

So that's what the stripes mean.

Those original 13 colonies.

Now the stars, if you take some time to count them, and I hope you do, because it's great counting practice.

They represent the 50 states that are part of our United States of America, which is where we live.

Now, I encourage you to read more books about the history of the United States and Independence Day, which really is a big, happy birthday for our country.

All right, let me see what else Maria packed in here.

Ooh, yay.

She packed a book for us.

She always picks the best books.

And since we're learning about reading it's "America ABC".

And what it is, it's a different letter for things that represent America.

So let's read it together, "America ABC".

And this is the front cover of the book.

There's an illustrator and her name is Irene Chan.

Oh, the illustrator draws the pictures.

Of course, we have a spine of the book that holds all the pages together.

Just like your spine does.

You can reach way back and touch it.

And the back of the book which gives some information about what's inside.

So let's take a look.

"America ABC".

A is for Abraham Lincoln.

B is for baseball.

Now we have a baseball park here where I live in Fresno.

Do you ever go visit and play?

C is for chocolate chip cookies.

Ooh, cookies.

My favorite.

D is for Death Valley.

That's a desert.

Ooh, this one's a big long one.

E is for Empire State Building, which is a really tall building here in the United States.

Well, this one's fun.

F is for Ferris wheel and also fair.

Have you ever ridden on a Ferris wheel?

I hope it's not too scary for you.

G is for Grand Canyon.

H is for Halloween.

That's a holiday that some people celebrate.

You get candy if you do celebrate.

I is for ice pops.

Now, if you go outside where I live right now it's super hot.

So, I'm wanting some ice pops.

J is for July, July 4th, which is Independence Day, America's birthday.

K is for key lime pie.

L is for the Liberty Bell.

Now I want you to notice that the Liberty Bell has a crack in it in this picture.

Hmm.

Can you investigate why?

M is for Martin Luther King?

We studied him a little bit.

Remember, he had a dream that everybody here in the United States would be treated fairly.

N is for New Orleans.

O is for orange juice.

P is for peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Q is for quarter.

Now there's some presidents on the money that we use here in the United States.

Maybe ask your family who they are.

R is for Rocky Mountains.

S is for Sacagawea.

T is for Thanksgiving.

Oh, my page got stuck here.

U is for uniform.

So, people that serve in the military should also be honored during this time.

It wasn't easy for America to get it's Independence.

V is for volcano.

W is for White House, which is where the President lives.

X is for Malcolm X. Y is for Yellowstone National Park And Z is for zipper.

Now we went through all the alphabet with America.

So, I hope boys and girls that you take a look at more books that teach you about the history of our country.

Right now, I want to teach you a fun song that'll help us celebrate.

Oh, there.

My firework hat wants to come off.

There it is.

All right, this one's called "Fireworks in the Sky" and the tune is ♪ "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".

♪ Okay, ready?

It goes like this.

♪ Boom, crack, whistle, pop.

♪ ♪ Fireworks in the sky.

♪ ♪ See them lighting up the night on the 4th of July.

♪ ♪ Red, blue, gold, and green ♪ ♪ with fire works we say ♪ ♪ happy birthday, America.

♪ ♪ It's Independence Day.

♪ Now, do you hear all the rhyming words in that song?

Let's see there's sky and July.

Sky and July.

They both say I.

And there's say and day.

Say and day.

They both say ay.

All right, so I want to teach you how to make this hat that I have on my head.

Let's go through the materials.

It's our Independence Day hat.

Here we go.

And the materials are paper, scissors, glue, and decorations of your choice.

So, let's take it to our project place.

This one might take us a little while.

So, I'm going to take off my hat so I can show you what it looks like.

So, I wanted to make a hat that looked like a giant firework on our head.

I thought, ooh, that'll be so much fun.

So the first thing I did was measure a blue band around that's going to hold all the pieces together.

And then I cut different pieces of paper, red, white and blue, just like a flag, and glued them around the sides.

Then I decorated the blue band with some stars just like on our flag.

Of course, you can decorate it however you want.

So, let me show you our first steps.

So the first step is to take a blue or red or white piece of paper about this length and you're going to want to fold it in half.

Fold it into two equal pieces, that means two sides, or pieces, that are the same.

So you're going to reach over and fold it and see how I fold my paper and kind of go over it.

This gives me a guideline for where to cut right down the middle.

I'm going to take my scissors and I'm going to start my cutting.

Now during Independence Day, families celebrate in different ways.

So, my family likes to barbecue.

It might be a little too hot to barbecue where I am.

Then we like to go swimming in the pool just because it's hot.

So here is our band.

So the next thing you're gonna do is you're gonna take your band and you're going to stack one on top of the other like this.

And you're either going to glue it down, which is good, it just takes a little while to dry, or you're going to staple it.

Now, today, I'm going to staple it only because we don't have a whole lot of time here and I want to show you what to do and how to measure it around your head.

So see, you have one long strip of paper.

Next, you're going to put it up to your head like this and you're going to kind of wrap it around like this and hold it in place.

Now you might have a grownup help you, may be a little tricky.

And once you have your circle, like this, you can staple it or glue it together again.

So, I'm going to staple it again here.

All right, we're going to staple it.

So now we have the base for our hat.

You see that?

Now we can add our decorations.

Now to make it look like a proper firework, we are going to need some paper.

So I have some red paper here.

Now for this part, you're going to want to cut it into tiny strips, or narrow strips, like this.

I'll show you here.

Just cut all the way down and I'll show you what we do with each one.

Now the thinner, or narrower, that they are, the more curl you're going to get out of them.

So here I go.

Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.

All the way down.

Now, parents, if your child needs a little practice cutting what I might do is draw some lines on the paper so they can cut and it'll help guide them.

Otherwise they might end up with strips that look more like triangles.

That's my experience.

So, here we have some red.

So let's glue them on our base.

I have some glue here.

I'm going to take a little bit, open it up.

Do you ever forget to close your glue and then it gets all gunky?

Oh, I do that all the time.

I need to remember.

I'm going to put it on the other side of my base here like this and hold it down.

So I'm going to hold it for five seconds.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

And then to curl it, I'm just going to take it between my two fingers and kind of go like this around.

You can also wrap it around your finger like this until you get it just as curly as you want.

It almost looks like antennas.

Huh?

Let's add a few more reds.

How many should we add?

I like adding the red.

I think it looks really fancy.

So I'm going to leave a little space and add some more red over here.

Ooh!

There we go.

Is it starting to look like fireworks yet?

Not quite.

Now, my dog named Luna is very scared of fireworks.

When she hears them, first she tries to pretend that she's brave.

Do you have a dog like that?

When they're around you, they try to pretend they're brave?

But then as she hears them get louder, she gets very scared and she goes and hides.

So you have to be very careful for dogs around July 4th, because they will run away.

All right, I'm going to add some more red.

One more after this.

Okay.

Then we'll add the blue and the white.

Now I'm going to show you how to add it in a pattern because just because we're focusing on reading skills doesn't mean you can't bring in some math skills too.

Patterning is so important as you enter kindergarten.

Ooh, look at that.

It almost looks like an octopus.

Doesn't it?

Or jellyfish.

All right, let's add our blue.

Again, we're going to cut thin strips.

Here we go.

Now you'll notice I used a different blue from the one I used for my base.

That's just so it can stand out.

You use whatever you have.

And if you're thinking Mrs. Lara, I only have some white paper.

You can use that to, just color it with crayons or just make yours white.

That's the fun part of doing these activities.

You create it so that it looks exactly how you want it.

Not what everybody else wants it to look like.

I'm just here to give you some ideas.

All right, let's add some blue.

Now, I'm going to make a little pattern.

I'm going to do red, blue.

Then the next one, red, blue.

And then the next one, red, blue.

All right, here we go.

More glue.

It wants to plop over, because I haven't curled it.

I'm going to do that.

All right, one more blue and then we'll add the white and almost be done.

If you're following along with me, remember if I'm going too fast for you, you can always rewatch our episodes on YouTube or on the valley PBS website.

And if you happen to try and make this hat, I'd love to see a picture.

It makes my whole day to get a note for me.

So, maybe our friends can put the address below here where you might send in a note or a picture.

Oh, there it is.

They're so good.

I hope to hear from you.

All right, let's add some white and then it'll be the best part, which is playing with glitter.

Okay, we're continuing on with our pattern.

Red, blue, white.

Red, blue, white.

How's it looking?

All right, then I'm going to teach you how to draw a star.

I always have the hardest time drawing a star.

Some of the legs always come out strange.

So, I found a lady who showed me how to draw it and I'm going to pass it along to you.

So here's what our hats looking like so far.

What does your hat look like?

I can't wait to see it.

Okay.

So you'll notice on my hat that I did.

I actually added some stars in the front with some glitter.

So, I'm going to show you how to draw a star.

I'm going to do it with marker, but you're going to want to do it with pencil, because you're going to want to erase it.

So when I draw a star, it's almost like drawing an upper case letter A.

Always start off with from the top, going down.

Like this.

See?

So you're going to start off there and then you're going to want to draw a point kind of right here and right here, like two little eyes right there.

And you're going to want to start down and go up like this.

You see that?

And then do it again, go down and up like this.

Ooh, it's coming together.

And one last line to connect my eyes or my dots.

And there is my star.

So of course, if you were doing it in pencil, you would erase all these lines in the middle and then you would cut out all the pointy parts.

Have you ever noticed how many points a star has?

It actually has five.

I wonder what a 10 pointed star might look like.

Hmm.

Okay.

I'm going to cut out this star.

Again, your stars can look like what ever they end up looking like.

I have a few stars that have very, very narrow points.

Very thin points.

And then comes the fun part.

We have glitter!

Yay!

I'm sure all the parents watching love glitter, right?

Because it's super hard to clean up, they really don't.

Mrs. Lara's always making a mess for you.

Huh, parents?

Okay.

So I'm going to put some glitter on my star so I can glue it in the middle of my hat.

So for glitter, you know how Mrs. Lara always says dot, dot, not a lot.

This time, I'm going to tell you put quite a bit down, because wherever you put glue that's where there's going to be glitter.

Okay.

There we go.

Here comes the glitter.

Now I say it's parent's favorite, but really glitter makes a huge mess.

So, you'll notice that I'm using a paper plate with a lip to kind of keep it in.

Ooh, look how sparkly.

I love sparkly things.

Here we go.

The grand reveal, my sparkly star.

What do you think?

All right, let's put it on our hats and maybe I'll try my hat on.

And if you made yours, you can try yours on at home too.

Okay.

Gluing it down.

Just like that.

There it's coming.

There you go.

And then of course, in my hat, I added some gold star stickers that I happen to have that I got at the place where everything costs a dollar.

And then I wanted to show you, you can really make your hat super fancy.

I used these pipe cleaners and then put stars on top of them so they stick out kind of like antennas.

I'll put my on.

If you made yours, put yours on now, too.

What do we think?

Do I look like I have a firework on my head?

I hope that you try this boys and girls.

For now, let's sing our goodbye song with our letters.

Now, this one's going to tell you about our character and how we are as a person.

Are you ready?

♪ A as far amazing, that's what you are.

♪ ♪ B is for brave, that'll carry you far.

♪ ♪ C is for caring and community ♪ ♪ and D is for determined to be the best you you can be.

♪ ♪ E is for empathy, caring for all.

♪ ♪ F is for friends, that'll catch you when you fall.

♪ ♪ G is for grateful for everything around ♪ ♪ and H is for hopeful, there's more good to be found.

♪ ♪ I is for imagine all the fun things we could do.

♪ ♪ J is for joyful, how I feel when I'm with you.

♪ ♪ K is for kind of people and animals too.

♪ ♪ And L is for love putting all that you do.

♪ ♪ M is for mindful, be present every day.

♪ ♪ N is for nice words and everything you say.

♪ ♪ O is for original, always be you.

♪ ♪ And P is for perseverance until you make it through.

♪ ♪ Q is for quiet those bad thoughts.

♪ ♪ R is for remember all the greatness that you've got.

♪ ♪ S is for strong body and mind.

♪ ♪ And T is for talent, why not make yours being kind?

♪ ♪ U is for unique, special and loved.

♪ ♪ V is for victorious, always rise above.

♪ ♪ W's for worthy and wonderful too.

♪ ♪ And X, don't x out those mistakes, ♪ ♪ they're what help make you you ♪ ♪ Y is for yes, we're at the end of this rhyme.

♪ ♪ And that's the alphabet, boys and girls, ♪ ♪ I'll Z you next time.

♪ I hope that you enjoyed our fun week of learning.

Come back next week where we'll read more books and have more fun.

Until then, have a great weekend boys and girls.

We'll see you on Monday.

Goodbye.

(cheerful music)