(bright acoustic guitar music) - Hello little learners.

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

My name is Mrs. Lara.

Can you tell me your name?

I'm so grateful that you made it back this morning.

Should we start our day off with a song?

I have my friend here, Maria the mail person.

Ready Maria?

Let's sing our song.

It goes like this.

♪ 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 ♪ ♪ What's up, buttercup ♪ ♪ We have so much to do ♪ ♪ I'm glad that you are up ♪ That's right, Miss Maria.

I'm gonna put you back here.

I am so glad that you are up today, boys and girls.

Wipe the sleep from your eyes, get a good stretch because we have so much to do today.

We're gonna start our day today with a little song called "The Feelings Hokey Pokey" and I'm gonna try to put some music on, fingers crossed that it works, and then we're going to read a book, "Stellaluna".

Yesterday, we watched the video story, and today, I'm gonna read it live, so if you have your copy, bring it so you can read it with me.

Then we're gonna move into a project.

We're gonna make a bat using our hand prints.

And this bat flies and finds beginning sounds.

So I hope that you're excited about our day.

Now we're gonna get started with a little dancing.

We're gonna learn about our feelings.

For this, you're gonna need to know how to make a happy face, a sad face, a mad face, a worried face, and a tired face.

So get your faces on, find a nice, open space for you to dance.

I'm gonna put the music on and we're gonna dance together to "The Feelings Hokey Pokey".

Are you ready?

Here we go.

(upbeat jazz music) ♪ You put your happy face in ♪ ♪ You put your happy face out ♪ ♪ You put your happy face in ♪ ♪ And say woo hoo with a shout ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ And turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your sad face in ♪ ♪ You put your sad face out ♪ ♪ You put your sad face in ♪ ♪ And you cry your sad face out ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ And turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ Get your mad face ready.

♪ Mad face in ♪ ♪ You put your mad face out ♪ ♪ You put your mad face in ♪ ♪ And you stomp your angries out ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey ♪ ♪ And you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your worried face in ♪ ♪ You put your worried face out ♪ ♪ You put your worried face in ♪ ♪ And you're scared and full of doubt ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey ♪ ♪ And you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey ♪ ♪ Do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your tired face in ♪ ♪ Put your tired face out ♪ ♪ You put your tired face in ♪ ♪ And you yawn your sleepies out ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey ♪ ♪ And you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your love face in ♪ ♪ You put your love face out ♪ ♪ You put your love face in ♪ ♪ And you say I love you with a shout ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey ♪ ♪ And you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ You do the feelings hokey pokey ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ So I hope that you enjoyed that song and a little bit of movement.

Remember to start your day off with how you're feeling with a song or by looking in the mirror.

Right now, I think I hear... Let's see.

(doorbell ringing) We got some mail from Miss Maria.

Let's see.

Here we go.

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

Let's sing our song.

♪ This is the left ♪ ♪ This is the right ♪ ♪ When we read ♪ ♪ We start at the left and go to the right ♪ Here's what the letter says.

Dear Mrs. Lara, you will never believe it!

Oh no!

What can it be?

I found my mother.

She fed me the most delicious fruit.

Who could be writing this letter?

Was there a character who was searching for their mother and ate delicious fruit?

Let's see.

I will never have to eat a grasshopper again!

I love being a bat.

Love, Stellaluna.

That's our character, right?

And actually, Miss Maria dropped off a copy of "Stellaluna" the book.

Yesterday, we watched the video story.

Now if you remember, the book "Stellaluna", it was about a bat who had to learn to be a bird to survive, but then found his true or her true bat self.

So we're gonna read "Stellaluna" together.

I'll tell you, it's a little bit of a longer book, so settle in, grab a snack as we read "Stellaluna" by author Janell Cannon.

The author writes the words of the story.

Let's see.

Look.

On the inside, there's even a picture of what Stellaluna loves to eat.

Mangoes.

Yum.

I'm gonna wanna eat mangoes all week because of Stellaluna.

Here we go.

In a warm, sultry forest far, far away, there once lived a mother fruit bat and her new baby.

Oh how mother bat loved her soft, tiny baby.

"I'll name you Stellaluna," she crooned.

Each night, mother bat would carry Stellaluna clutched to her breast as she flew out to search for food.

So there she is.

One night, as mother bat followed the heavy scent of ripe fruit, an owl spied her.

On silent wings, the powerful bird swooped down upon the bats, Dodging and shrieking, mother bat tried to escape, but the owl struck again and again, knocking Stellaluna into the air.

Ah!

Her baby wings were as limp and useless as wet paper.

Now think about a time where you've wet paper.

See how limp it goes?

Do you think she can fly?

Down, down she went faster and faster into the forest below.

What will happen?

I'm nervous.

The dark, leafy tingle of branches caught Stellaluna as she fell.

One twig was small enough for Stellaluna's tiny feet.

Wrapping her wings about her, she clutched the thin branch, trembling with cold and fear.

Can you tremble?

To tremble means to kind of shake like this.

Try it.

Let's see.

"Mother!"

Stellaluna squeaked.

"Where are you?"

By daybreak, the baby bat couldn't hold on no longer.

Down, down again she dropped.

Now do you remember why she couldn't fly?

Her wings were limp as wet paper, right?

Flump!

Stellaluna landed head first in a soft, downy nest, startling the three baby birds who lived there.

Stellaluna quickly clamored from the nest and hung out of sight below.

When you clamor, it means you kind of climb up like this.

Can you try it?

Clamor up.

She listened to the babble of the three birds.

"What was that?"

cried Flip.

"I don't know, but it's hanging by its feet," chirped Flitter.

"Shh.

Here comes mama," hissed Pip.

Many, many times that day, mama bird flew away, always returning with food for her babies.

Stellaluna was terribly hungry, but not for the crawly things mama bird brought.

Finally, though, the little bat could bear it no longer.

She climbed into the nest, closed her eyes, and opened her mouth and plop and dropped a big, green grasshopper.

There she is eating the green grasshopper.

I wonder.

She must've been pretty hungry.

Stellaluna learned to be like the birds.

She stayed awake all day and slept at night.

She ate bugs, even though they tasted awful.

Her bat wings were quickly disappearing, except for one thing.

Stellaluna still liked to sleep hanging by her feet.

That's what bats do.

Once when mama was away, the curious baby birds decided to try it too.

When mama bird came home, she saw eight tiny feet gripping the edge of the nest.

"Eek!"

she cried.

"Get back up here this instant!

You're gonna fall and break your necks!"

The birds clamored back into the nest, but mama bird stopped Stellaluna.

"Stop!

You're teaching my children to do bad things.

I will not let you back into this nest unless you promise to obey all the rules in this house."

Stellaluna promised.

She ate bugs without making faces, she slept in the nest at night and she didn't hang by her feet.

Stellaluna behaved as a good bird should.

Now is Stellaluna a bird?

No.

I wonder how she's feeling now.

Let's keep going and reading on.

All the babies grew up quickly.

Soon, the nest became crowded.

Mama bird told them it was time to learn to fly.

One by one, Pip, Flitter, Flap and Stellaluna jumped from the nest.

Whoosh!

Their wings worked.

"I'm just like them."

thought Stellaluna.

"I can fly too."

Pip, Flitter and Flap landed gracefully on a branch.

Stellaluna tried to do the same.

When you land gracefully somewhere, that means you don't trip and fall.

Look at those pictures.

Stellaluna did not land gracefully on the branch.

How embarrassing.

"I will fly all day," Stellaluna told herself.

"Then no one will see how clumsy I am."

The next day, Pip, Flitter, Flap and Stellaluna went flying far from home.

They flew for hours, exercising their new wings.

"The sun is setting," warned Flitter.

"We had better go home or we will get lost in the dark."

But Stellaluna had flown far ahead and was nowhere to be seen.

The three anxious birds went home without her.

All alone, Stellaluna flew and flew until her wings ached and she dropped into a tree.

(woman sighing) "I promised not to hang by my feet," Stellaluna sighed.

So she hung by her thumbs and soon fell asleep.

She didn't hear the soft sound of the wings coming near.

Who could it be?

"Hey!"

a loud voice said.

"Why are you hanging upside down?"

Stellaluna's eyes opened wide.

She saw a most peculiar face.

"I'm not upside down, you are," Stellaluna said.

"But you're a bat.

Bats hang by their feet.

You are hanging by your thumbs, so that makes you upside down," the creature said.

"I'm a bat.

I'm hanging by my feet.

That makes me right side up."

Stellaluna was confused.

"Mama bird told me I was upside down.

She said I was wrong."

"Wrong for a bird maybe, but not for a bat."

More bats gathered round to see the strange young bat who behaved like a bird.

Stellaluna told them her story.

"You ate bugs?"

gasped one.

"You slept at night?"

said another.

"How very strange!"

"Wait, wait, let me look at this child."

The bat pushed through the crowd.

"An owl attacked you?"

she asked, sniffing Stellaluna's fur.

To sniff means to smell.

Can you sniff?

(woman sniffing) She whispered, "You are Stellaluna.

You are my baby."

Look.

There's Stellaluna.

"You escaped the owl?"

cried Stellaluna.

"You survived?"

"Yes," said mother bat, as she wrapped her wings around Stellaluna.

"Come with me and I'll show you where to find the most delicious fruit.

You'll never have to eat another bug as long as you live."

"But it's a nightmare," Stellaluna squeaked.

"We can't fly in the dark or we will crash into trees."

"We're bats," said mother bat.

"We can see in the darkness.

Come with us."

Stellaluna was afraid, but she let go of the tree and dropped into the dead, blue sky.

She could see.

She felt as though rays of light shown from her eyes.

She was able to see everything in her path.

Look at that.

Now I want you to ask your family why bats are able to see at night and birds are not.

Soon, the bats found a mango tree and Stellaluna ate as much of the fruit as she could.

"I'll never eat another bug as long as I live."

Stellaluna stuffed herself full.

"I must tell Pip, Flitter and Flap!"

Her bird friends.

The next day, Stellaluna went to visit the birds.

"Come with me and meet my bat family," she said.

"Okay, let's go!"

And the birds flew among the bats.

"I feel upside down here," said the birds.

"Wait until dark," Stellaluna said.

"We will fly at night."

Now what do you think is gonna happen when the birds try to fly at night?

Are they like bats?

Can they see at night?

When night came, Stellaluna flew away.

Pip, Flitter and Flap leaped from the tree to follow her.

"I can't see a thing!"

yelled Pip.

"Neither can I!"

hailed Flitter.

"Aye!"

shrieked Flap.

"They're going to crash!"

gasped Stellaluna.

"I must rescue them."

Stellaluna swooped down, grabbed her friends in the air and she lifted them to a tree and the birds grasped a branch.

Stellaluna hung from the limb above them.

"We're safe," said Stellaluna.

Then she sighed, "I wish you could see in the dark too."

They said, "We wish you could land on your feet."

They perched in silence for a long time.

"How can we be so different and feel so much alike?

And how can we feel so different and be so much alike?

I think it's quite a mystery," Flap chirped.

"I agree," said Stellaluna.

"But we're friends and that's a fact."

So here they are being friends.

And if you read this book, there are some bat facts that you might wanna check out with your family in the back.

So what do you think?

Stellaluna learned to be her true bat self.

She didn't wanna be a bird, right?

And she couldn't be a bird.

I love reading stories to you, boys and girls, but what I can't wait for is for you to read stories to me.

So we're gonna practice our beginning sounds so that you learn to take apart the sounds in words so that you can read books like I do.

So here is our sound.

It's the letter B and it makes the buh sound.

♪ Let's find a sound ♪ ♪ The sound, the sound ♪ ♪ Let's find the first sound in a word ♪ So let's look at some of our pictures here.

I have mango.

Mmm.

Mango.

Does mango say buh at the beginning?

Mango?

No.

If it did, it would say bango.

That's not it.

How about branch?

Branch.

Buh-ranch.

Does it say buh at the beginning?

Branch.

Yes.

So we're gonna put it right up here with our B.

How about this picture?

Nest.

Nnn-est.

Does it say buh at the beginning?

No.

It says nnn.

Nest.

If it did say buh, it would be best.

Let's see.

How about this picture?

What is this?

It's a picture of our bird just like our bat friends have bird friends.

Bird.

Buh-ird.

Does it say buh at the beginning?

It does.

Bird starts with B. I'm gonna put it up here.

How about this one?

This is an actual picture of a fruit bat and it's pretty large.

Look at its wingspan.

Bat.

Does bat say buh at the beginning?

Buh-at.

See, it does.

Bat starts with B.

Let's do one more.

Grasshopper.

Guh-rasshopper.

Guh-guh.

Does that say buh-buh?

No.

If it did, it would say brasshopper.

That's not what it says.

So let's review our words that start with B.

We have branch, bird and bat.

They all say buh.

Now of course, I'd love to leave you with a project so that you can extend the learning at home, so we're gonna make something that starts with a B right now, a bat, using our hand prints.

So let's go to the project place.

Here we go.

Bat.

Here is what our finished project is going to look like.

It's gonna be a little hanging bat like this.

And can you see my hand prints are the wings?

For this project, you're going to need some brown paper, some white paper, black paper, and some yarn if you want it to hang.

And then at the end, after we make it, I'll show you a trick for how to make it a learning activity using beginning sounds.

So the first thing you're gonna wanna do is make sure you have some clean hands and because we're a little running out of time, I'm going to fold my paper in half.

Now, you remember, half means make it into two parts.

So then, I'm going to take my hand, clean hand, and I'm gonna put it right on my paper and trace it.

Trace means I'm gonna go around.

So here we go around like this.

There we go.

There.

I'm gonna show you what it looks like once it's traced.

Looks like that.

Then you're gonna take your scissors and you're gonna put the thumb in the thumb spot and put three fingers on the lower spot, use your helper hand to hold the paper, and you're gonna cut around.

Now because you folded your paper in half, when you cut your hand out, you're actually gonna have how many?

Two.

That's right.

That's a little shortcut to make it quicker.

And go around all these curves.

This is hard.

Sometimes when I cut like this and I'm really tired or I'm really in a hurry, I end up with spaghetti fingers, very thin ones, 'cause I cut very thin along the curves.

Here we go.

Then we're gonna cut around.

Save our scraps for another project, of course.

And here we go.

We have our wings.

Look at that.

(woman humming) Wings.

So we're gonna set those aside.

What else do we need for a bat?

Let's take a look.

We have our wings.

We're gonna need our head.

Now what shape do you notice the head is?

It's a circle, so we're gonna make our circle.

Now you can do the circle freehand, meaning you're just gonna cut and take your scissors to it, or you can draw it on, you can even use tape like this to kind of trace the circle, a cup, a bowl.

That's what I'm gonna do 'cause I kind of want a very round circle.

I don't want an oval head today.

I'm gonna cut it the same way like this.

All around, all around.

There we are.

And of course, save my scraps for later.

And now is when I'm gonna need some glue.

Now you can use a glue stick or just regular glue and kind of glue your head here to the middle, to the center.

Come on, glue.

Here we go.

Glue it up, put it there.

Dot, dot, not a lot because then it just takes forever to dry.

And here's what it's looking like.

Now what else is it missing?

Some bat ears?

Okay.

Let's make those very quickly.

I'm gonna cut a rectangle piece of brown, fold it in half and cut out some ears, like a curve.

They look almost like a U, the letter U.

There's that.

Now let's see.

Letter U. I haven't met too many people whose name starts with the letter U.

Maybe that's you.

Then, I need what?

Some eyes.

Let's make some eyes very quickly and then I'll show you how you can use this to practice your beginning sounds because of course, it's always fun to do some crafts, but after you're done with the craft, how can you use them for learning?

See, here, you're learning how to create something, use glue, cut with scissors, but you can take it to a reading skill just with a little tweak.

I'm gonna make some eyes, a nose and a little mouth and show you what it's looking like so far.

(woman giggling) Here's my little bat.

And of course, you can always attach a yarn with some tape that I have here and have it hanging.

Now to make this a beginning sound bat, once you're through and you're done flying it around, because that's what I would wanna do first, you can actually go around your house and think I'm gonna find all the things in my house that start with buh.

So I'm gonna go how 'bout my bed and then you're gonna fly your bat to your bed.

How 'bout the bathroom?

Then you're gonna fly your bat to the bathroom.

Things like that.

So I hope that you try this activity out.

Right now, it looks like it's time for us to sing our goodbye song, so let me get my letter cards out and we'll sing together.

Ready?

♪ A, B, C ya 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 ♪ And you are.

♪ V, W, X, Y and Z ♪ That's right.

We're come to the end of our time together today, so I will Z you tomorrow.

Now boys and girls, tomorrow, we're gonna sing our "Feelings Hokey Pokey" song again, so I hope that you're ready to dance and sing with me and we're going to read another book about a little girl who's trying to find her true self.

She goes to school not matching at all and kids are making fun of her.

Oh no, I hope she solves her problem.

So join me tomorrow for some more reading fun.

Until then, big smooch.

Goodbye!

(bright music)