- Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to our brand new classroom.

Do you like it?

It's kind of fancy, huh?

Oo!

Super fancy!

My name is Ms. Lara, can you tell me your name?

I'm so happy that you made it back today.

We're gonna sing our new song with Miss Maria.

Miss Maria, are you ready?

Okay, now remember we're gonna sing this song two times.

And it has some actions that go with it.

Okay, here it goes.

♪ Climb aboard the school bus ♪ ♪ We're heading off to school ♪ ♪ Hurry and get ready ♪ ♪ We're going to leave soon ♪ ♪ Put on your seat belt ♪ (Miss Lara imitating seat belt clicking) ♪ Buckle it real tight ♪ ♪ Because here comes the countdown ♪ ♪ So count with all your might ♪ So you have to put 10 fingers up to count.

Ready?

10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

There goes the bus!

(Ms. Lara imitating bus sound) Here we go to school.

All right, one more time, here we go.

♪ Climb aboard the school bus ♪ ♪ We're heading off to school ♪ ♪ Hurry and get ready ♪ ♪ We're going to leave soon ♪ ♪ Put on your seat beat ♪ (Ms. Lara imitating seat belt clicking) ♪ Buckle up real tight ♪ ♪ 'Cause here comes the countdown ♪ ♪ So count with all your might ♪ Here we go.

10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!

And there goes the school bus taking off.

(Ms. Lara imitating school bus revving) I hope that you enjoyed that little song poem.

And we get to do it again tomorrow.

So that you can learn it and know it, and put it in your brain for the rest of the week.

Right now I think Miss Maria dropped off some mail.

(doorbell ringing) There she is!

Okay, here is our letter for today.

It's gonna introduce a whole new character.

Because this week we're learning all about school, and we're learning about different book characters that are going to school for the first time, and maybe making some mistakes like eating their classmates, or banging on some pots and pans.

Hm, not things we do at school.

So let's see what new character we're gonna learn about today.

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

♪ This is the left ♪ (fingers snapping) ♪ This is the right ♪ ♪ (finger snapping) ♪ ♪ When we read we start at the left ♪ ♪ And go to the right ♪ (fingers snapping) It says, "Dear Miss Lara, "Do I have to go school?

"I already know almost everything.

"Well, not everything.

"I do not like waking up in the morning.

"I need to sleep!

"Love, The Pigeon."

Oh, no, I'm not a morning person very much either, Pigeon.

But I do know that going to school is very important.

When you go to school, you learn to socialize with friends, write your name, numbers, letters, work with puzzles, blocks, imagine, build.

All those things.

Important to go to school.

Now let's see what book Miss Maria left us.

♪ Dah dah dah da ♪ "The Pigeon has to go to School".

Now, if you've read any of the Pigeon books, you'll know that this pigeon is very grumpy, isn't he?

There's "Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the School Bus", another good one if you like this one.

So let's read this one together.

The words and pictures are by Mo Willems Now, you'll remember the author writes the words, and the illustrator draws the pictures.

And this one was illustrated and written by the same person.

So let's see what it says.

"The Pigeon has to go to School".

Oh, here's some school desks.

It says, "Wait!

Don't read that title!"

(Miss Lara chuckling) The pigeon has to go to school.

I think that's why he doesn't want us to read it.

"Too late!

Rats!

"Why do I have to go to school?"

There's the pigeon, he doesn't wanna go.

"I already know everything.

"Go on, ask me a question, any question."

Can you think if a question that the pigeon might know?

Like, what's 93 times a 1,002.

I wonder if he would know that one.

Oh, I don't think he did.

"Well, 'I know almost everything,' says the pigeon.

"Does school start in the morning?

"Because you know what I'm like in the morning.

"It is not pretty.'"

How are you in the morning?

Oh, in the morning, my hair is out to here, and I'm so grumpy.

Oh, I can't even talk to anyone until I had my coffee.

Do you drink coffee?

Probably not, huh?

Maybe cereal's your thing?

I think the pigeon is the same way.

"I wish I was a little chick again.

"A little, itty-bitty not-going-to-school, "baby, wavy pigeon."

There he is, he's a tiny pigeon, he has a little photograph with a little train.

And he's hugging it and wishing for yesterday.

"What if I don't like school?

"What if I really don't like it?

"What if I really, really don't like it?

"What if?

"Oh, no!

"What if the teacher doesn't like pigeons?"

How do you think he's feeling now?

He's wondering if the teacher is gonna like pigeons.

Hm?

Big exclamation point, even his feathers are falling off.

I think he's a little scared.

"And the stuff?

"What about all the stuff?

"There's so-o-o-o-o much stuff to learn!"

Look, he's exasperated!

He's done for!

(gasping) "What if I learn too much?

"My head might pop off!"

Oh no, there's his head going, pop!

"I'm, I'm scared."

Now, have you ever been scared before?

Sometimes when we try new things, it makes us fearful, doesn't it?

Just like the pigeon in this story, hm.

"What will happen at school!"

Look at him!

oh no!

He's very nervous.

"What if there is math?

Or numbers?

"Why does the alphabet have so many letters?

"Reading can be one big, "can be hard with one big eye!

"What about lunch?

"What will the other birds think of me?

"Will finger paint stick to my feathers?

"What's up with those heavy backpacks?

"I'm a fragile bird!

"The unknown stresses me out, dude."

He's so frazzled, his feathers are all sticking up.

"There should a place to practice those things!

"with experts to help you, "and other birds to work and play with.

"And books and classrooms.

"Maybe a playground?"

If only there was such a place, huh?

"Oh," said the pigeon, "That's school.

"Well how am I supposed to get there anyway?"

Do you remember in our song?

How did we get there?

Let's see what he says.

"Wazza, wazza, wazza, wa?"

What is it?

It's a school bus, that's right.

Some children get to school by riding the school bus.

"Step aside, coming through!

"The Pigeon has to go to school!

"The end."

So what do you think?

At the very end the pigeon wanted to go to school.

Maybe you're feeling like the pigeon was feeling when you first started school.

What if nobody likes me?

What if my teacher is mean?

But I think you'll find, you'll make lots of new friends, and that your teacher will love you right away.

I promise.

Now, in order to extend the story, I thought it would be fun to go through some scenarios and practice and help the pigeon learn what to do in school.

Do you think we can help the pigeon?

Okay, let's see.

All right, Pigeon, what mess have you gotten yourself into?

What should Pigeon do?

Here he is with a big question mark.

Pigeon is nervous about being away from his parents.

He wants them to stay in school with him.

Now that's one thing.

When you're going to pre-school, or transitional kindergarten, it's the first time that you've been in a classroom really away from your parents.

So grown-ups don't get to come to school.

What should Pigeon do?

He's feeling nervous.

Can you think of something?

I thought of something.

You can actually take a little picture of your family that you draw, or you can take a picture from home, an actual picture.

And put it in your pocket.

That way, every time you're nervous, you can look at it.

You can also read the book, "The Kissing Hand".

We read it here together, didn't we?

We can put a little kiss on the palm of your hand.

And whenever you're feeling nervous, just rub it right against your check.

You can also say, "I'm nervous," to your teacher.

I'm sure that your teacher will have other ways to help calm you down from being away from your family.

Let's see?

What other thing can we help you with, Pigeon?

Pigeon had a great day at school.

He loves his new teacher and his classmates.

So what should Pigeon do?

He should share his happiness, of course.

When you've had a good day at school, make sure you tell your family all about it.

And say, "Family!

I had a great day at school!

"I wanna keep on coming back!"

And tell your teacher, too.

They'll love it.

All right, next scenario.

Oh, you guys might know this one.

Pigeon must wake up early in the morning to go to school.

He wants to stay up, though, to play video games.

Like he did on summer vacation.

Now do any of you play video games?

Or maybe watch movies on your phone, and in summer, you kind of got to do that for maybe a longer time than you will when you get to school.

That can be really hard to give up.

What should Pigeon do?

Let's see.

Hm?

If he doesn't go to bed early, he's gonna be really grumpy and tired in the morning.

So maybe he should make himself a schedule and say, "Okay, I can only play video games "for this amount of time.

"And when it's bedtime, I have to stop."

Maybe give himself a little sticker, every time he sticks to the plan.

That's actually a good tip, parents.

Have a little sticker board.

This can be a really hard one if your student or child is really wanting to play video games, or stay up past their bedtime.

So hopefully that helps Pigeon, too.

Let's see another one.

Pigeon is running late to school.

He does not know if he will have enough to eat breakfast.

Oh no!

What should Pigeon do?

He doesn't have enough time to eat breakfast.

So let me think, he's running late, and I know that breakfast is so important.

When you don't have breakfast you feel really tired.

And you can't learn a thing if you're tired.

So maybe Pigeon can pack himself some breakfast, before, at night.

So that he can just grab it, or grab a banana, or something quick.

Plan for those emergencies when you are running late, and you don't have breakfast ready.

Breakfast is super-important.

Let's see our last one.

Pigeon is grumpy.

He did not want to start school today.

So my experience as a teacher, is the first day, not too many grumpies.

I have a lot that maybe cry, that are nervous to be there.

But it's by the fourth, fifth, and that second week, that students are like, what?

I have to come back to this school thing again, and keep waking up early?

That's when the grumpies happen.

So staying on a schedule, making sure you have plenty of sleep and lots of good breakfast before you go to school helps.

But if you are already grumpy when you come to school, the teacher can help you, of course.

We have what are called emotion check-ins in most of our classrooms, where you figure out how you're feeling, and then we help you work through those feelings.

And if you don't go to school in a classroom, then you can just take your belly breaths.

We had a few episodes back, some techniques with Sonja the Snail, for how to take your belly breaths.

Make sure you go back and watch those.

So I think that we helped Pigeon work through some problems that he might have, as he goes to school.

Now I have an activity for us to do, where we're gonna make a pigeon mask.

And then, we're going to write some words and letters that start with my special letter, which is something we're gonna learn about.

Okay, let's go over to our project place.

So here is the mask we're going to be making.

We're making a pigeon mask like this.

Oh, you don't see me now.

I'm the pigeon.

(chuckling) So, this mask can be used in a lot of different ways.

So one, it can be used to re-tell the story.

Re-telling the story is so important to comprehending the words that you're reading.

You can also use this mask to kind of go around wherever you are, and find things that start with a particular letter, which is what we're going to do today.

Instead, I'm gonna sit down and write some things, just so I can stay right where I am.

So in order to do this activity, you're going to need a couple of materials.

You're going to need a paper plate, some blue paint, white paper, black paper, orange paper, scissors and some glue.

So hopefully you have a lot of that paper right in your scrap pile that I've been telling you to keep.

Okay, so first thing we're gonna need to do, is we're going to need to paint our paper plate.

Now I chose blue, because that's the color of the character in the story.

But you can pick another color.

You don't have to make your pigeon exactly how it is in the book.

Sometimes its more fun to make it different, isn't it?

All right, so here we go.

I'm gonna dip my paint in.

And you can also paint using your fingers.

That would be a lot of fun.

I won't do that today, because I'm gonna try not to get so messy.

I developed quite a reputation for making a mess, and I don't think parents like it.

And I want them to keep letting you watch me, so, I'm gonna try to keep it clean.

I'm gonna use a paint brush today.

So here it goes, all the way around.

And now remember, the thicker your paint, the longer it's going to take to dry.

So I do try to make it a little bit thin, just because I'm impatient.

Go all the way around like this.

Now you can put your mask on in a couple of ways.

You can actually glue it to a popsicle stick, or you can hole punch it, and put two pieces of yarn, so you can wrap it around your face.

That's really fun, too.

And teachers, if you end up making this, this makes a great picture when all of your students are wearing it for the first week of school.

It can be really fun.

You can even make a prop school bus, how fun would that be?

All right, here is my paint, I did it kind of thin.

It's all the way around.

It would be so much fun if you did it with finger paints, too.

Here we go.

There's our face, starting to look like that.

So what do we need to add?

Oh, it's a circle.

I see we need to make a circle right here for the eye.

Now for circles, I can tell you, I'm not very good.

They always end up coming out like ovals, which is okay.

So I'm gonna trace mine first, or draw it.

So to make a circle, start at the top, go around, go around.

Oh, oh, oh.

What do you think?

I'm gonna show it to you.

See if it's a perfect circle.

No such luck.

I tell 'ya.

But perfect is boring, isn't it?

What if everything was perfect?

Snore, snore, snore.

Then I'm gonna cut around my circle like this, to make my eye.

(scissor crunching) Ta-da!

Scrap pile material.

Here it is!

I'm gonna use my glue, right here.

This is still a little wet, but I'm gonna put it on just to show you.

I'm gonna use my glue and go all the way around the circle, the edges like this.

And back and forth like this.

And in the middle, well, kind of in the middle.

Let me show you what it looks like so far.

And then, I'm going to use my black.

And I'm gonna free-style the circle this time.

I'm gonna make the little inner part of the eye.

Here it goes.

I think it's going to be an oval.

(chuckling) An oval is like a circle, but stretched out.

Here we go.

And glue all the way around.

Now using glue is something that you're going to use in school, as well.

You're not gonna wanna put a whole lot of glue because again, it takes a long time to dry.

I think I put more than I should, oops!

There we go, put it right there.

Then I'm going to make a beak.

Now you can always reference the book, and look at the book, and say, "What does the beak look like?"

I like to just think of it myself, and kind just make one, so I made one that kind of looks like that.

And I'm gonna glue it on, as well.

All right, here we go.

I'm gonna glue it to the underside.

And the last part of the beak.

Let me hold it down, I don't think it's gonna stick.

One, two, three, four, five.

All right, one more.

Okay.

Little, smaller one.

Here we go!

More glue.

(chuckling) Underside here, a little bit of blue paint on there.

And... Wallah!

We have our pigeon mask!

And like I said, use a popsicle stick to hold it up, or you can hole punch it on either side, and tie it around your face.

You can re-enact the story.

That'll be really fun to do that.

And make sure you send me a picture, if you end up doing that.

Now right now, the pigeon is gonna help us write, and look for some words that start with my special letter.

Now special letters are something that you're going to hear about in school.

Everyone has a special letter.

You do, I do, the person next to you, wherever you are, does.

My special letter is the first letter of my name.

It's L. And that's your special letter, too.

The first letter of your name.

So to make an L, I'm gonna make it right here, it is big line down, little line across.

L for Lara.

Now if you make this mask, what I want you to do is try to find things around your house that start with your special letter.

Now, I am in my classroom, but I'm gonna stay right here and write some things.

So I'm trying to think, what's something that starts with the letter L?

For some reason, my mind goes to sugar and food.

Probably not a good thing.

But let's see if can draw it, and you tell me what you think it is.

Okay?

Swirl.

Let's see, what do you think that is?

Yes, it's a lollipop.

Pigeon, what do you think?

Does lollipop start with L?

Yes, let's write the word lollipop.

L, let's see, L for lolli, I know, so excited about lollipop, there.

O-P, oh!

I kind of made a few mistakes there, but that's the writing.

All right, lollipop.

Let's think of another word that starts with L. Pigeon, let's think.

L for?

Hm?

L, oh I have a good one.

See if I draw it, if you can tell me what it is.

(humming) Does that look like, mountain with some lava!

L, A, V, A, Lava.

Let's think of one more before we sing our goodbye song.

Another L word that starts with L. How about?

Oh, I know this is short, and this is long.

That's another word that starts, L, O, N, G. Long, special letter L. So that's one way that you can use the pigeon.

Of course, I stayed sitting down, because that's just what's most convenient for me.

But you would fly around and try to find words that start with your special letter.

Okay, looks like we have just enough time to sing our extra-special goodbye song.

So let me get my alphabet cards, and we'll get ready to sing together.

Excuse me, Mr. Pigeon.

Here we go.

♪ A is for 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 Determine ♪ ♪ Be the best 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 every thing around ♪ ♪ And H is for Hopeful ♪ ♪ There's more good to be found ♪ ♪ I is for Imagine ♪ ♪ All the fun things we can 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 ♪ ♪ And 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 the greatness that you got ♪ ♪ S is for Silent ♪ ♪ All the thoughts, too ♪ ♪ T is for Together ♪ ♪ That means me and you ♪ ♪ U is for Unique ♪ ♪ Special and Love ♪ ♪ V is for Victorious ♪ ♪ Always rise above ♪ ♪ W is Worthy ♪ ♪ And Wonderful, too ♪ ♪ X, don't X out those mistakes ♪ ♪ They're what make you, you ♪ ♪ Y is for Yes ♪ ♪ We're getting to the end of this rhyme ♪ ♪ And that's the alphabet ♪ ♪ Boys and girls, we'll Z you next time ♪ all right, we got through our alphabet.

Now boys and girls, we're gonna continue to read stories about school characters.

All this week.

Because it's our first week of school.

First week of school!

Are we so excited?

All right, we're going to read the story of "The Little Engine That Could" for the remainder of the week.

And we're going to read a story called "Before the First Day of School", about sheep.

The crazy stories that Miss Lara reads to you, huh?

All right, until then, Miss Lara sends you a big squeeze, and a big smooch.

(kissy smack) And reminds you to read, play, and use your imagination every day.

See yous next time!