(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 excited that you made it back today.

I hope that you're out of your pajamas and wiping the sleep from your eyes because we're gonna get ready to sing our good morning song.

Are you ready?

♪ 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 ♪ All right, Miss Maria, you ready to go down?

We're going to talk about what we're going to do today and it's a whole lot!

We're going to learn about being worried this week.

What does it mean to be worried?

We're gonna read books about being worried and do some projects that will help calm us down when we feel worried.

We're going to get a letter, do some foundational skills, today, it's gonna be beginning sounds, and then we're gonna make a worry box.

Have you ever heard of a worry box?

Well if you want to follow along with me, get a box and some paper ready and we'll make one together, but right now, I think I hear... (doorbell ringing) It's the doorbell!

Here's our letter for today.

And our letter is from our character, Wemberly, that we learned about yesterday.

Now remember, when we read, we start on the left, then we go to the right.

♪ So, this is the left ♪ ♪ This is the right ♪ ♪ When we read ♪ ♪ We start at the left ♪ ♪ And go to the right ♪ Let's see what it says today.

I'm nervous.

Dear Mrs. Lara, I met a friend!

Her name is Jewel and she worries just like me.

Do you have a friend who worries like you do if you worry?

I do, I have lots of friends that worry like me.

It helps me out.

I also went to school.

I love it!

I got to play and sing songs.

It was fun.

So you might be worried about going to school, but our character, Wemberly, she loved going to school.

She got to play and read books and she met her friend, Jewel.

I think that Wemberly's story is gonna help our friend, Sonya the snail.

Sonya is really nervous because she has to start kindergarten soon.

I wonder how Sonya is gonna react.

Let's watch the story of Sonya the snail going to school together.

(bright bell music) "Exploring Feelings with Sonya the Snail".

(celebratory music) It was a busy day for Sonya Snail.

It was her first day of kindergarten, (dramatic music) but Sonya was worried.

She was shaky and her stomach felt a little queasy.

She didn't know what to expect in kindergarten.

What if they gave her a test on the very first day?

A spelling test?

Oh no!

She was terrible at spelling.

(dramatic music) She imagined herself failing on the very first day.

Sonya decided to hide.

Maybe next year was a better time to start kindergarten.

(snail crying) Sonya's aunt knocked on the door.

(knocking) "Sonya!

Are you ready for school?"

Sonya didn't answer.

Her aunt walked in and said, "Sonya, you look worried.

It is okay to feel worried.

Lots of people feel worried or scared when they try something new or have a new experience.

It feels strange not to be in control of things, doesn't it?

Do you know what I do when I feel worried?

I draw a picture of my family and put it in my pocket.

Let me show you.

See?

I look at that picture in my pocket whenever I feel worried.

It helps calm me down and reminds me that I have people who love me and that everything will be okay.

Do you have something that calms you down, Sonya?"

Sonya had to think, but then she answered, "My stuffie helps calm me down."

"I wonder if your stuffie would like to go to kindergarten too," said Sonya's aunt.

Sonya really loved this idea.

Sonya picked out her favorite stuffie and got ready to go to school.

(bright piano music) Sonya and her stuffie soon found themselves in their new classroom.

It was great!

There were toys and new friends and a fun slide in the playground.

Sonya loved kindergarten!

When it was time to go home, Sonya realized she wasn't worried about coming back to kindergarten anymore, but she was still glad she brought her stuffie just in case.

She even wanted to share a song with you.

♪ Here's a little song I wrote ♪ ♪ You might want to sing it note for note ♪ ♪ Don't worry ♪ ♪ Be happy ♪ ♪ In every life, we have some trouble ♪ ♪ But when you worry, you make it double ♪ ♪ Don't worry ♪ ♪ Be happy ♪ ♪ Don't worry, be happy now ♪ ♪ Don't worry ♪ ♪ Be happy ♪ I'm so glad that Sonya the snail figured out how to calm down after she was worried.

Starting school can be a little bit hard and make you nervous, can't it?

Having a friend helps.

Now, do you remember we read a book or watched a story yesterday about a little mouse who found a friend to deal with her worry?

Do you remember what that book was called?

It was called "Wemberly Worried".

Now we're gonna read it.

If you have your copy, you can read along with me.

"Wemberly Worried" by Kevin Henkes.

And look, there's those circles that we made yesterday.

Let's read.

First page.

Wemberly worried about everything.

Big things.

Look, there she is with the flashlight going into her parents' room.

"I wanted to make sure you were still there," she said.

Little things, like when she spilled grape juice, and things in between, like when she was in the bathtub and she was thinking, "Mama, what if I shrink?"

Wemberly worried in the morning!

She worried at night.

And she worried throughout the day.

Her mother would say, "Wemberly, you worry too much."

And her father would say, "When you worry, I worry."

Her grandmother would say, "Worry, worry, worry.

Too much worry."

At home, Wemberly worried about the tree in the front yard.

"What if it falls on our house?"

she thought.

And the crack in the living room wall.

"What if it gets bigger and something comes out of it?"

And the noise the radiators made.

"What if there's a snake inside?"

Now boys and girls, you might not know what a radiator is, but it's something that keeps you warm.

It's found in homes.

At the playground, Wemberly worried about the chains on the swings, and the bolts on the side, and the bars on the junglegym.

"Too rusty, too loose, too high!"

She is not having fun, is she?

Look, she's huddled up with her father while all the other kids are playing.

And always, she worried about her doll, Petal.

"Shouldn't Petal have a car seat too?"

she thought.

"I found her, sweetie," said mom.

"Oh no!

Petal!

She's lost forever!"

Then she's in the washing machine.

"I'll wait for you, Petal!"

"Don't worry," said her mother.

"Don't worry," said her father.

But Wemberly worried.

She worried, and worried, and worried.

When Wemberly was especially worried, she rubbed Petal's ears.

Can you rub like this?

Wemberly worried that if she didn't stop worrying, Petal would have no ears left at all.

So Wemberly was using Petal to help her when she was worried.

On her birthday, Wemberly worried that no one would come to her party, and when people showed up, her mother said, "See, there was nothing to worry about."

But then, Wemberly worried about not having enough birthday cake.

On Halloween, Wemberly worried that there would be too many butterflies in the neighborhood parade.

"See," said her father.

"There was nothing to worry about."

But then Wemberly worried because she was the only one.

So it sounds like she worries.

If there's too many or too little, it doesn't matter.

Worry, worry, worry.

"You worry too much," said her mother.

"You worry, I worry," said her father.

"Worry, worry, worry," said her grandmother.

"Too much worry."

Soon, Wemberly had a new worry.

School.

Wemberly worried about the start of school more than anything she had ever worried about before.

Now I want you to stop and think.

Are you going to be starting school soon?

Are you a little bit worried?

By the time the first day arrived, Wemberly had a long list of worries.

"What if no one has spots?

What if no one else wore stripes?

What if no one else brings a doll?

What if the teacher is mean?

What if the room smells bad?

What if they make fun of my name?

What if I can't find the bathroom?

Or what if I hate the snack?

What if I have to cry?"

Well that's a lot of worries.

"Don't worry," said her mother.

"Don't worry," said her father, but Wemberly worried.

She worried, and worried, and worried.

She worried all the way there.

So there she is going to school, so stressed.

While Wemberly's parents talked to the teacher, Mrs. Peachum, Wemberly looked around the room.

Then Mrs. Peachum said, "Wemberly, there's someone I think you should meet."

Now do you remember in our letter, Wemberly said she met a friend?

That's right, her name was Jewel.

Let's see if it was Jewel that she met.

It is Jewel!

She was standing by herself.

She was wearing stripes, she was holding a doll.

She looks a little bit like how Wemberly looks when she's worried.

At first, Wemberly and Jewel just peeped at each other.

"This is Petal," said Wemberly.

"This is Nibblet," said Jewel.

Petal waved.

Hello.

Nibblet waved.

Hello.

"Hi," said Petal.

"Hi," said Nibblet.

"I rub her ears," said Wemberly.

"I rub her nose," said Jewel.

So it sounds like they have a lot in common.

Throughout the morning, Wemberly and Jewel sat side-by-side and played together whenever they could.

Petal and Nibblet sat side-by-side too.

Wemberly worried, but no more than usual and sometimes even less.

Now do you remember at the start of the story when she was with her father and there were all these children playing on the slide?

Look at Wemberly now.

She's sliding down the slide on her own.

Before Wemberly knew it, it was time to go home.

"Come back tomorrow!"

called Mrs. Peachum, as the students walked out the door.

Wemberly turned and smiled and waved.

"I will," she said.

"Don't worry."

The end.

Now I hope that you enjoyed that book.

Don't forget to check out books like this at the library or on the Sora app.

And you know I love reading books to you, it's my favorite, but I can't wait until you read books to me.

So we're gonna explore the beginning sound of the words that we see here.

We're gonna try to find words that start with wuh like Wemberly and worried.

W, wuh.

Now finding out the beginning sound of the word or the first sound you hear is important to taking apart sounds and learning how to de-code when you read a text.

So let's see our first word.

Your picture here.

We're looking for the wuh beginning sound.

Is walking a word that starts with W, wuh?

Walking, wuh, wuh.

It is!

Yes!

That's W. Let's put it right up here.

How about the word window?

Wuh, wuh, window.

Do you hear that beginning sound?

Is it wuh, wuh?

It is!

Yay!

So, so far we have walking, window and "Wemberly Worried" that start with W. How about this word?

Do you recognize this?

It's a whistle.

Wuh, whistle.

Do you hear the wuh at the beginning sound?

I do too!

Let's put it right here.

How about this?

This is a schoolhouse.

Now it doesn't look like the schools look like today, but this is what schools used to look like.

Now let's take the word school.

Ss-chool.

Ss-chool.

Does that say wuh at the beginning?

No.

Boo to that.

How about this word?

It's a birthday cake.

Birthday, buh, buh, buh.

No.

It doesn't say wuh.

That would be worthday.

That's not one.

Last one.

Are you ready?

Do you recognize what this is?

It's a washing machine.

Wuh, wuh, washing.

Do you hear the wuh at the beginning?

Yes, it's a W word.

So look at all the words that start with wuh, W that we found today.

Window, whistle, walking, washing machine, and "Wemberly Worried" all start with W. Now this week, we've been learning about worry, another W word, and I wanna share a project with you that's gonna help calm you down when you have the worries.

Are you ready?

Let's go to the "Project Place".

Here we go.

So you can see, boys and girls, that I made a worry box.

Now this activity actually comes from Harvard, Harvard, a very fancy school, and they recommend that children that are very anxious make a worry box, I think it would work for adults too.

Basically, it's a box that you put a hole in, you write down your worries and then you put them in the worry box.

The idea is that you kind of set them aside so you don't think about them as much.

And then you revisit them later, maybe a week or two later, and see if any of those worries came true and it will help children and adults kind of see that the things that we worry about sometimes don't end up happening.

So you can see that I decorated my box very special.

I put lots of Wemberly colors like orange and yellow and purple and then I added some hearts to remind me that we should always be kind and I even label it worries.

And then, I used butterfly paper, my favorite, to kind of decorate the rest of the box.

So, I have a box here that I'd like to decorate with you, boys and girls.

It's an old puzzle box from a puzzle that I made and no longer use.

So what we're gonna do, the very first thing, is first ask for a parent to help you because we're going to take the puzzle box and we're going to cut a hole in it.

You kind of have to stab it with some scissors.

Now this might take a little while here because this box is kind of thick.

(box squeaking) That even scared Mrs. Lara.

And then you're gonna cut a hole by going back and forth just like that.

Making a funky sound here.

This is kind of a thicker cardboard.

You're gonna want your whole rectangle to be just big enough to put in some notes.

There we are.

(woman giggling) (box squeaking) There goes our hole.

Tah-da!

Just to put in notes.

Then you're gonna wanna decorate the front cover like I did with my box.

So I used different colors, so that's what I'm gonna do here.

So here, I'm gonna use some orange paper.

So maybe I'll cut out some circles on this one.

Of course, you can do anything you want.

You can make monster trucks, dinosaurs, anything you want on your worry box.

One idea I had, if you want this to be something that's a little more permanent and you think you'll use it all the time, is maybe print out some pictures of your family so that every time you feel a worry coming on and you go to the worry box, you're reminded of the people that you love, which is kind of like Sonya the snail and her aunt who told her to have some pictures of her family ready.

I'm gonna glue on some circles.

What color should I use next?

Can you tell me?

Okay, I heard a green.

We'll use green.

If you didn't say green, don't worry.

I bet your color's coming up.

I'm gonna fold it in half, meaning in two pieces, and cut out some more circles.

So I want this to be a polka dot worry box.

So here we go.

I'm gonna use my glue stick.

You can use glue or anything you like.

And you don't even have to decorate your box, actually.

You can just have a regular box and you don't have to cut a hole.

You can just open your box every time you wanna put a worry in.

Having a hole just makes it more fun.

Should I do some hearts now?

Let's do some hearts.

Now, to do a heart, I fold my paper in half like this and I go around like this like I'm making the letter J and down.

Here we go.

Tah-da!

Hearts.

Let's put them on our worry box.

Now I was telling you, boys and girls, that adults should have a worry box too.

Do you ever notice that adults make a stressed face?

They might make a stressed face like this.

I'll show you in just a minute.

They might make it and go (sighing).

And they might wrinkle their brow or they might tell you that they're stressed or tired, so you can tell them all about the worry box and tell them I heard this great tip, make a worry box and you put your worries in there.

Then you don't have to think about them all day long because just like the song said, when you worry, it makes your worries and your troubles double.

Here, almost done.

I'm gonna cover it with some more hearts.

Here we go.

Here's that stress face I was telling you about.

You might see that face quite a bit with grown-ups.

We have a lot to be worried about.

First, we have to take care of you, the kids, and I know most of you are perfect angels, but sometimes, we have to keep you out of trouble, huh?

One more heart and then I'll show you what I'm gonna do with my worry box bottom part here.

This is what it's looking like so far.

Lots of hearts just like the front of mine here.

Now the next thing I'm gonna wanna do, and I'll have just enough time for, is to put some butterfly paper.

Now this is gift wrap paper that I bought at the place where everything costs $1, but one idea that I had to make your worry box really special is you're gonna wanna save some paper from when it's your birthday if you celebrate or if someone special gives you a present.

That way, your worry box has some meaning.

So I'm gonna wrap this just like I would a present.

Going down the side just like that.

I'm gonna use a little tape.

I'll try to go as quick as I can here and show you.

Down, side, down another side.

Now I have, in my years of teaching, have had many students who are worriers, just like in our book "Wemberly Worried".

Sometimes they just need to make a friend, or seeing other peers too helps a lot.

Sometimes it just takes some children a little bit longer to take the risk than other children.

So if you have a child that's very nervous about school or shy, just know that as a teacher, we know what to do to make them feel comfortable and that once they get into the routine and start to make friends, they'll be so much better and they'll love school, they'll love to go.

They won't cry every time that you have to get ready, at least not to go to school.

Look.

You're gonna have your worry box like this.

Oh no, my paper's a little thick, so I will just kind of glue it like this so it looks like this.

And here is a larger one I made earlier that I showed you.

Now, what you can do is take something that you're worried about.

Like me, I'm always worried about cooking, so maybe like for example, the eggs I made this morning, they burned.

(woman sighing) No good.

So I'm worried that I'll never learn to cook.

So I draw a picture of an egg, maybe write some words, put it in my worry box and now it's out of my head.

And then I'll revisit it later to see if I'm still worried about that so I can do something about it.

All right, boys and girls, looks like it's time to say our goodbye letter song.

Now I hope that you join me tomorrow for some more reading fun, but for right now, let's sing our song.

♪ 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 ♪ ♪ V, W, X, Y, and Z ♪ All right, I will Z you tomorrow and let me tell you what we're going to do.

We have a whole new book that we're gonna read called "Henny Penny", all about a hen that worries that the sky is falling on her, kind of like how Wemberly worried about everything, and the hen at the end of the story learns how to deal with her anxiety and nervousness.

So until I see you tomorrow, Mrs. Lara gives you a big squeeze, a big smooch, and reminds you to read, to play, to use your five sense and be a scientist every single day.

And don't forget, use that imagination to look at the world around you.

Goodbye friends.

(upbeat music)