(upbeat 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?

Oh I heard some of you!

Hello, happy Friday.

It's the end of our week.

Let's start with the Good Morning song and you'll notice I don't have Mrs. Maria today I have Rusty with me.

Say hello, Rusty.

- Hello, Rusty!

- Silly.

Hey, let's start our song.

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 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.

♪ Let me put you away Rusty.

That's right, I'm so glad that you woke up.

Hopefully you're still in your pajamas, eating some breakfast when you see this, wiping the sleep from your eyes.

This whole week, we've been talking about being worried.

Rusty, I'm gonna put you down here.

Being worried.

Do you remember what worried means?

It means just feeling uneasy about something that you're thinking might happen or something that is going to happen next.

And we've been getting letters from our friend, Henny Penny.

I wonder what she'll say today.

We're going to get another letter and then we're going to work on some shared writing.

We're going to work on things that worry us, either from the book or things that we think about that might worry us.

We're going to end our week by making a calm down jar using a jar, some water clear glue and some glitter.

I can't wait to make that with you!

Should we get started with our day?

Because I think I hear, do you hear, even though Mrs. Maria isn't here, I think someone dropped off a letter.

Oh, here it is!

So let's start.

Here is our letter for the day.

Now you'll remember, we always start reading on the left.

That's right.

And then we're going to go to the right.

So let's do our song.

♪This is the left (snap, snap) ♪ ♪and this is the right (snap, snap) ♪ ♪When we read, we start at the left and slide to the right.

♪ (snap, snap) Now when we go to the right and it's done, what do we do?

Do we just keep going forever?

Hello?

No, we come back.

We slide right back down to the other left and keep going.

So let's read together.

Dear Mrs. Lara, What did you learn about worried this week?

Oh, we learned so much about worry.

We read Henny Penny and we read about worry monsters.

Someone told me there might be some here.

Keep your eyes open.

I learned that it is easy to get carried away with worry.

Love, Henny Penny That's true.

It is so easy to get carried away with worry.

Do you remember that book we read?

And it said, give your worry to the monsters.

I don't know.

Someone told me there might be some here.

I'm still a little nervous.

(suspenseful music) Do you hear that?

What is that?

(suspenseful music) Who could it be?

Is it worry monsters?

(suspenseful music) Oh I think it is!

It's the worry monster!

Here it comes!

Oh no!

(suspenseful music) There's the worry monster.

Oh, I was so scared of you.

Here's my worry monster.

Do you remember I introduced him to you?

You scared me with all that noise.

Now worry monster has a song that he wants us to sing together.

It's kind of a poem, so we're actually going to say it two times and it involves touching different parts of your body.

That's why we're going to do it twice.

Once so you can watch me and the second time so you can do it with me.

So you're going to stand up in an area where there's nothing around you.

So let's stand up.

Here we go.

Standing up, worry monster.

You're going to do it with me?

Here we go.

Monsters here, monsters there, worry monsters everywhere.

Monsters on your shoulders, monsters on your toes.

Worry monsters on your belly, worry monsters on your nose.

Monsters on your arms, monsters on your lips, Worry monsters on your knees and worry monsters on your hips.

Oooh!

Monsters here, monsters there, worry monsters everywhere.

But do I look worried?

No siree!

They're my friends, I give them my worries you see.

Yay, worry monsters!

Do you think you can do it with me now?

All right, here we go.

Monsters here, monsters there, worry monsters everywhere.

Monsters on my shoulders, touch your shoulders, monsters on my toes.

Worry monsters on my belly and worry monsters on my nose.

Monsters on my arms, monsters on my lips, worry monsters on my knees and worry monsters on my hips.

Monsters here, monsters there, worry monsters everywhere.

But do I look worried?

No siree!

Worry monsters, I give them my worries as you can see.

Alright.

So boys and girls, I hope that if you have a worry, you give them to the worry monsters just like in our book.

Doo doo doo doo.

Alright, let's put my worry monster away.

And I think Mrs. Maria dropped off a book for us.

Let me see here.

Excuse me, Rusty.

Here's our book about another character that's really worried.

This character does not want to go to school.

Are you worried about going to school?

I think you'll relate to Chester the Raccoon and the Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn.

She's the author of the book.

Now remember the author writes the words.

It's illustrated by Ruth Harper and Nancy Leak.

They drew the pictures.

Now this one's a little bit long.

So settle in for a good book.

It's fresh, I had to buy a new copy this morning.

I couldn't find mine.

I have other kinds of monsters in my home.

The kind that take all my things because I never find them.

Alright.

Chester Raccoon stood at the edge of the forest and cried.

"I don't want to go to school", he told his mother.

"I want to stay home with you, I want to play with my friends and play with my toys and read my books and swing on my swing.

Please, may I stay home with you?"

Oh no, he's feeling so sad.

Mrs. Raccoon took Chester by the hand and nuzzled him on the ear.

"Sometimes we all have to do things we don't want to do" she told him gently.

"Even if they seem strange and scary at first, but you will love school once you start".

Hmm maybe you're feeling a little like Chester?

"You'll make new friends and play with new toys, read new books and swing on new swings.

Besides" she added, "I know a wonderful secret that will make your nights at school seem as warm and cozy as your days at home".

I wonder what her secret could be.

Chester wiped away his tears.

(sniffs) "A secret?

What kind of secret?"

He said.

"A very old secret" said Mrs. Raccoon.

"I learned it from my mother and she learned it from hers.

It's called the kissing hand".

"The kissing hand?"

asked Chester.

"What's that?"

"I'll show you".

Mrs. Raccoon took Chester's left-hand and spread open his tiny fingers into a fan.

Leaning forward, she kissed Chester right in the middle of his Palm.

(kissing sound) Muah!

Chester felt his mother's kiss rush from his hand up his arm and into his heart.

Even his silky black mask tingled with a special warmth.

Now tingled is a feeling you get when your skin feels funny like this.

It kind of goes up and down like it's bouncing, tingly.

Oh, look, there's the hand with the heart in the middle.

Mrs. Raccoon smiled "Now" she told Chester, "whenever you feel lonely and need a little loving from home, just press your hand to your cheek and think 'mommy loves you, mommy loves you'.

And that very kiss will jump to your face and fill you with toasty, warm thoughts".

She took Chester's hand and carefully wrapped his fingers around the kiss.

"Now do be careful not to lose it" she teased him.

"But don't worry, when you open your hand and wash your food, I promise the kiss will stick."

So there he is talking to his mom.

Chester loved his kissing hand.

Now he knew his mother's love would go with him wherever he went, even to school.

So he was worried, but then he got a kiss from his mother and felt much better.

That night, Chester stood in front of his school and looked thoughtful.

Looking thoughtful means you're really thinking hard about something.

Suddenly he turned to his mother and grinned.

"Give me your hand" he told her.

What do you think Chester's going to do?

Can you make a prediction?

Oh look, there he is with his mother.

I wonder.

Chester took his mother's hand in his own and unfolded her large familiar fingers into a fan like this.

Can you make your hands like this?

Next, he leaned forward and kissed the center, or middle, of her hand.

"Now, you have a kissing hand too" he told her.

And with a gentle goodbye and an "I love you" Chester turned and danced away.

Mrs. Raccoon watched Chester scamper across a tree limb and enter school.

As the hoot owl rang in the new school year, she pressed her left hand to her cheek and she smiled.

The warmth of Chester's kiss, filled her heart with special words "Chester loves you" it sang, "Chester loves you".

And look, there he is going to school.

And they made the sign language, "I love you".

And because it's a whole special new book, I had these fun kissing hand stickers that you can put on your hand.

So if you buy the book or see it somewhere, be on the lookout for those stickers you can use when you start school.

Now I hope that you enjoyed that story.

Now I love reading to you, but one day I hope that you can read books to me.

And part of that is learning to write, and learning to take apart words, and make sounds and put them together to form new words.

So we're going to do some writing here together, and our focus is going to be being worried.

So let me get down right here so I can get really close.

Now we read a couple of books this week about being worried, didn't we?

The first book that we read was about a little girl named Wemberly.

Let me see if I can draw Wemberly really quickly here.

Now, do you remember Wemberly was so worried about starting school, wasn't she?

Oh my goodness, she just did not want to start school.

She had a little friend that she would carry with her.

Do you remember her little friend's name?

It was Petal, that's right.

Petal was there with Wemberly whenever she felt sad.

And actually Wemberly would rub Petal's nose when she felt sad.

And she was worried that Petal would just disintegrate or fall apart because she rubbed the nose so hard.

So maybe let's label Petal.

Puh-ehh-t-t-t-al I wrote that in proper case because that's her name.

Petal.

She was worried.

What was Wemberly worried about?

School, that's right.

So maybe we'll write the word school down here because maybe that's something you're worried about too.

So let's see, the beginning sound of school.

Sss Do you know what letter makes that sound?

The sss?

Yes, it's an S so I'm gonna write an S. Sc-c and because I've been writing a long time, I know there's an H here.

Ooo double O and the last ending sound, schoolll, L. Wemberly was worried about school.

We also read a book about a hen.

Do you remember the hen's name?

Henny Penny, that's right.

And we have a hen here.

Let's make our little hen.

Oh, there she is.

Now Henny Penny was very unusual wasn't she?

She had an acorn that fell on her head.

Just like that.

And what happened when the acorn fell on her head?

She said "the sky is falling!"

She went too far with her worry into panic, right?

So let's write that word, panic.

Being worried can get too, you can get too carried away.

So let's see the beginning sound of panic.

P-p-p P A-a what letter makes the "ah" sound?

A. Pan-nnn ic-c-c Panic.

She was so worried about that.

And then today we read a story about Chester the Raccoon, and he was also worried about school like Wemberly.

And let's write, let's make a little hand here.

Three, four, and we'll make five, make a little hand.

And do you remember Chester was worried, but his mom gave him a little kiss in the center of his hand and then he felt calm.

So maybe we'll write the word calm here.

C-c-that's a C C-ahhh- A Now let's see calm l-l- oh, L like Mrs. Lara.

And last sound mmmm mmmm calmmm.

There it is, calm.

Now we read one last book, do you remember?

It was the worry monsters.

It was all about how you can give your worries to these worry monsters and not have to think about 'em.

So let's draw a little monster here.

I like to draw my monsters fuzzy.

Maybe give him some eyes, and maybe some funky ears.

There's a worry monsters.

So you can give your worries away.

So let's write that, give away.

So g-iii-vvv I know there's a secret E at the end.

Away.

A-aaaa-w-w-aayyy and I know there's a y.

Give your worries away.

Now look at all the things we've learned about worry this week from all the books that we read.

Now you can of course add to this at your house.

Put another little worried face in the center and draw and write about all the things that worry you.

And when you're thinking about things that worry you, you might also think, gosh, now I need to calm down.

So at our project place today, I'm actually going to show you an activity for calming down.

This is a calm down jar.

Now the materials that you'll need for the calm down jar are A jar.

Now I use glass and using glass with children is very controversial for my teachers.

You know that Montessori is a big advocate of using real things like glass, but if you're uncomfortable with it you can always use an old water bottle or any other plastic bottle that you have that's see-through.

Now I filled it about three quarters of the way with water and the water should be warm.

Not boiling, but kind of warm.

Next ingredient that you're going to need is some clear glue.

Now it's important that it be clear so that you're able to see through it.

I had to go buy a whole new bottle.

Oh, here it is the clear glue.

But I'm pretty sure that you can make slime with this glue too.

So maybe a slime activity is coming soon to you.

And then you're going to need some glitter.

Now I read a tip that the best glitter to use for a calm down jar is a fine glitter or glitter that's not so coarse.

That means like it's cut up really really thin so really looks like really shiny and pretty.

But I have both green fine glitter, and coarse silver glitter.

And then a drop or two of your food coloring a color of your choice.

I'm going to ask you what color boys and girls are going to use in just a minute.

So the first thing I'm going to do is take my jar with water and I'm going to pour my clear glue in it.

Now you're going to need quite a bit of clear glue so you can see I'm going to try to fill up.

It looks just like water.

I want to stick my fingers in it, but I know it's sticky.

There we go, now and you can see the mixture at the bottom starting to form kind of (chuckles) No, you probably can't see it, it's crystallizing, forming that.

So you kind of want to give it a little shake so it can all kind of mix together.

Now, if the water was a little warmer it would kind of mix together a little better.

And we give it a little shake.

Make sure the lid is on nice and tight.

And give it a little shake just to mix it up a little.

There we go.

Next, we're going to add the glitter.

Ooh, this is the best part.

You know, I love sparkly things.

So I'm going to add my green glitter here.

Come on, glitter.

I might just take the lid off, 'cause I'm going to add that much glitter.

Now you're going to want to let the foam at the top settle or create a little space where you can still see the water and glue.

If not, the glitter will get stuck on the foam.

Okay, here goes.

I'm going to have quite a bit.

And you'll start to see that'll go down here eventually or stick to the glue (chuckles) There it goes.

I also use this glitter for showing children about germs.

Then I'm going to add some silver glitter.

This one's a little coarser.

That means it's cut up into larger pieces.

All right, there it goes.

Starting to go down and I give it a little mix and I'll give it a little stir in just a minute.

Oh, it's already feeling so calm.

Just watching it.

Having something like this when your child feels agitated, giving them something that they can actually look at and watch as the glitter settles or moves around is so important.

Gives them just another strategy to use when they're very agitated or upset.

Next thing, let's see.

I want to make just the tiniest amount of color, tiniest amount.

I'm going to try to make a little space here at the top here.

Oh there goes the glitter.

I'm sure you can see it.

Oh, I know.

Look at that.

Isn't that beautiful to watch?

And I mixed it all together.

Oh, there we go.

It's starting to mix so you can kind of see how this would be used to calm a student down.

It's just so calming to watch.

Let me give it a little stir and then we're going to look at it together.

A little shake.

Okay make sure it's on nice and tight.

That would not be very calming if I put glitter everywhere.

Okay, ready?

♪Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, ♪ ♪shake your calm down jar.

♪ ♪Shake your calm down jar.

♪ All right, here we go.

What do we think?

Do you see it?

It looks like stars in my hands, doesn't it?

It's actually really relaxing just to watch.

I might just (snoring) fall asleep here looking at it.

And you can see up close you can start to see the glitter settling down to the bottom.

And just watching it, really helps calm adults and children alike.

So I hope that you try this at home.

Alright boys and girls, it looks like it's almost the end of our time together.

I don't have my letter cards, but I will sing the ABC song with you.

If you have your letter cards at home, you can use them while I sing.

Are you ready?

It goes like this, ♪A is for amazing.

♪ ♪That's what you are.

♪ ♪B is for brave.

That'll carry you far.

♪ ♪C is for caring and community.

♪ ♪D is for determined to be the best me I 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 to people and animals too, ♪ ♪and L is for love put it in all that you do.

♪ ♪M is for mindful be present every day, ♪ ♪N is for nice words in everything you say.

♪ ♪O is for original, always be you.

♪ ♪and P is for persevere until you make it through.

♪ ♪Q is for quiet those bad thoughts, ♪ ♪R is for remember all greatness that you've got.

♪ ♪S is for strong, body and mind, ♪ ♪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, ♪ ♪X, don't X out those mistakes they're what make you, you.

♪ ♪Y is for yes, we're at the end of this rhyme ♪ ♪and Z, that's the alphabet so I'll Z you next time.

♪ That's right I'll Z you next time.

Now, let me tell you what we're going to do next week.

Now next week, we might have a few changes here to our set or might be the week after, but you're going to start to see things are going to look a little different and that's because it's the start to a whole new school year.

For some of you that means you'll be going to school for the very first time.

Others will be going to kindergarten, first grade, second grade.

You'll get to meet new teachers and new friends.

You'll get to learn whole new routines with all of the people around you.

So if you're feeling a little bit scared, I don't want you to worry because I promise that school is going to be a safe place, a fun place where there's lots of books and songs.

And of course, if you start to feel scared, you can always come back.

I'll be here for you on YouTube or the valley PBS website.

And I'll come back and film some more episodes for you so we can read and have fun together even when you're in school.

So even though things are changing boys and girls, just remember, some things will always stay the same.

And one thing that is always going to stay the same is that I'll be here and my heart is always open to you.

And a big I love you from me, to you.

Don't be worried about starting school.

You will do just fine, I promise.

Until I see you next week boys and girls, a big squeeze, a big smooch, and remember to read, play, and use your imagination every day.

We'll see you next week, goodbye.