(cheerful music) - Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to our learning space.

My name is Miss Lara.

Can you tell me your name?

Well, I'm so excited that you made it back today.

Today's Tuesday and another fun day of learning.

Let's start our morning off with our good morning song.

So here we go.

Ready Miss Maria?

Good morning, good morning.

It's a sunshine kind of day.

Come join Miss Lara for some learning and some play.

While we sing a song, of course we will.

Make our brain strong, like super strong.

So come a long, yes, come on, friends.

For some learning and some play.

All right, Miss Maria, what do we have planned for today?

So yesterday, if you remember, we started reading our book "The Little Engine That Could."

Do you remember that fancy new word that we introduced?

Perseverance, that's right.

That means keeping going, even when things get hard, I want you to practice that all week long.

Well today, we're gonna read our book again, except I'm gonna do it here, live in the studio.

So if you have your copy, get it and we can read it together.

We're gonna see what our letter says today.

Work on one of our foundational skills.

Today, we're gonna sort letters and numbers and shapes from each other.

And then I have a project that you can do at home to extend the learning.

Does that sound like a good plan?

Okay, so right now I think I hear, (doorbell rings) oh, it's our doorbell.

That means we have mail.

So let's see, here's our letter.

And of course, we're gonna start reading on the left and slide to the right.

This is the left.

This is the right.

When we read, we slide to the left and moved to the right.

It says, dear, Miss Lara, did you hear about the little engine that could?

We did.

We watched that video story yesterday.

So we did hear about it.

What a great example of perseverance.

That's right, that's a great example of, you can really believe that you can do something and then you try it and get it done after practice.

That means doing something, even when it gets hard.

That is what it means, isn't it?

Now I think Miss Maria left me the book here that we can read together, "The Little Engine That Could" by Watty Piper.

That's the author of the story.

And it's celebrating its 90th year anniversary.

That means it was a written 90 years ago.

That's a long time.

This book was illustrated by Dan Santat.

Now I want you to remember that name because next week, we're going to read a story that was also illustrated by Dan Santat, he is pretty famous.

"Little Engine That Could, this is a little bit longer of a book.

So settle in, grab a book buddy so you can read with me.

Here we go.

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga.

Puff, puff, ding dong, ding dong.

The little train rumbled over the tracks.

She was a happy little train for she had a jolly load to carry.

Her cars were filled with good things for boys and girls.

There's the little engine.

There were toy animals, giraffes with long necks, Teddy bears with almost no necks at all, and even a baby elephant, a pink baby elephant.

Then there were dolls, dolls of blue eyes and yellow curls, dolls with brown eyes and brown bobbed heads and the funniest little toy clown you ever saw.

And there were cars full of toy engines, airplanes, tops, jack-knives, picture puzzles, books, and every kind of thing boys and girls could want.

Now, do you remember I told you this book was written 90 years ago, almost maybe a little longer.

In the story, they have jack-knives for boys and girls.

Back when this book was written, it was okay for that to happen.

Nowadays, we would not play with knives.

But that was not all.

Some of the cars were filled with all sorts of good things for boys and girls to eat, big golden oranges, red cheeked apples, bottles of creamy milk for their breakfast, fresh spinach for their dinners, peppermint drops and lollypops for after meal treats.

My favorite is the lollypops.

The little train was carrying all these wonderful things to the good little boys and girls on the other side of the mountain.

She puffed along merrily.

Can you puff along merrily?

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga.

Puff, puff.

Then all of a sudden she stopped with the jerk.

That means she stopped suddenly.

She simply could not go another inch.

She tried and she tried, but her wheels would not turn.

So if you can see, the little engine has a very sad face.

What were all these good little boys and girls on the other side of the mountain going to do without the wonderful toys to play with and good food to eat?

Oh, good thing.

"Here comes a shiny new engine" said the funny little clown who jumped out of the train.

"Let's ask him to help us."

So there's the shiny new engine.

Now, if you remember from yesterday, does that shiny new engine help?

So all my dolls and toys cried out together.

"Please, Shiny New Engine, won't you please pull our train over the mountain?

Our engine is broken down and the boys and girls on the other side, won't have any toys to play with or good food to eat unless you help us."

But the Shiny New Engine snorted, snort means, you go like that.

Can you snort with me?

Go.

"I pull you?

I am a passenger engine.

I have just carried a five big train over the mountain with more cars than you've ever dreamed of.

My train has sleeping cars with comfortable berths, a dining-car with waiters that bring hungry people whatever they want, and parlor cars in which people sit in soft armchairs and look out a big plate-glass windows.

I pull the likes of you?

Indeed not."

So the Shiny New Engine thinks it's too good to pull the little engines, huh?

And off steamed to the roadhouse, that engine went, How sad the little train and all the toys felt.

Can you make a sad face?

Oh, it's so sad.

But then the little clown called out, "The Passenger Train is not the only engine in the world.

Here's another engine coming, a great big strong one.

Let's ask him to help us."

The little toy clown waved his flag and the big strong engine came to a stop.

So there's the big strong engine.

Look how tall and strong it looks.

Now, what do you think?

Is this big strong engine going to help?

So of course the dolls and toys together said, "Please, oh please, Big Engine.

Would you please pull our train over the mountain?

Our engine is broken down and the good little boys and girls on the other side won't have any toys to play with or food to eat unless you help us."

But the Big Strong Engine said, "I am a Freight Engine.

I have just pulled a big train loaded with big machines over the mountain.

These machines print books and newspapers for grown-ups to read.

I am a very important engine.

I pull the likes of you?

Indeed not," said the Strong Engine.

So once again, the little engine, little train was very sad.

But the toy clown said cheer up here comes another train.

He looks very old and tired, but our train is so little, perhaps he can help us.

So here comes the old train.

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga.

The little toy clown waived his flag and the rusty old engine stopped.

"Please, Kind Engine, please," cried all the boys and dolls and toys together.

"Won't you please pull our train over the mountain?

Our engine is broken down and the boys and girls on the other side won't have any toys to play with or any good food to eat unless you help us."

What do you think the Rusty Old Engine said?

He said, "I am so tired.

My wheels are weary.

I can't pull you over the mountain.

I can not, I can not, I can not."

And off he went.

Now the train was stuck.

How was he going to get over the mountain?

It was very, very sad story, but the little clown called out, "There's another engine coming.

A little blue engine, a very little one, maybe she can help us."

The very little engine came.

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga.

Chugging merrily along.

And when she saw the toy clown's flag, she stopped quickly.

"What is the matter, my friends?"

she has kindly.

"Oh, Little Blue Engine.

Will you please pull us over the mountain?

Our engine has broken down and the good little boys and the good little girls won't get their toys or food to eat unless we go over that mountain.

Help us, please."

The Little Blue Engine said, "I'm not very big.

They use me only for switching trains in the yard, and I've never been over a mountain, but I guess I can try.

So she said, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

And she hitched herself to the little train.

She tugged and pulled and pulled and tagged and slowly, slowly they started off.

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga.

The toy clown jumped aboard and the dolls and the toy animals began to smile and cheer, puff, puff, chug, chug.

Little Blue Engine said, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

Up, up.

Faster and faster and faster little engine climbed, until at the very last second they reached the top of the mountain.

"Hurray, applause."

Down in the valley lay the city.

So there they are going to the top of the mountain.

"Hurray, hurray" cried the funny little clown and all the dolls and toys.

"The good little boys and girls in the city will be happy because you helped us kind, Blue Engine.

And the Little Blue Engine smiled and seemed to say she as puffed steadily along.

"I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could."

The end.

So what do you think of that story?

That little engine has a huge perseverance spot, doesn't he?

Now I wonder how our friend, Sonia The Snail is doing.

I think she's working on perseverance too.

Let's watch and see what she's doing right now.

(cheerful music) - Exploring feelings with Sonia The Snail, (musical fanfare) Sonia snail was struggling.

She needed to learn to tie her shoes.

All of the other students in her school knew how to tie their shoes.

There was Hedgie Hedgehog, (shoelace whooshing) (bell dings) and Petunia Pig.

She could tie her shoes with her eyes closed.

- [Voiceover] Yes.

- Poor Sonia, she tried and tried and tried, but always ended up in a tangled mess.

(bubble popping) This made her feel frustrated.

(Sonia screaming) "What's wrong, Sonia?"

said her aunt.

"I can't tie my shoes and I'll never be able to.

It's too hard.

"I can't do it and I can't do it."

"Sonia, when things are hard, you can push through.

That's called having perseverance.

Sometimes as grown-ups call that having grit."

"Perse, what?"

said Sonia.

"Perseverance, Sonia.

It's when you keep going even when you fail or make a mistake because it's really important to you to get to the end, you can always ask for help.

What's not okay is giving up."

Sonia decided to keep trying.

She kept trying and trying until one day she finally got it.

(children cheering) She was so excited.

until she remembered one important thing.

She didn't have any feet.

(sad trombone music) Oh no, Sonia doesn't have any feet, huh?

Wouldn't be helpful to learn how to tie her shoes, but I'm glad that she learned to stick to things.

Now, one of the things that I want you to stick to as you go to school is learning to read.

And one of the ways that you'll learn to read is by learning your letters, letter sounds because that's what you find in books.

So we have an activity here that's going to help you do that.

I'm calling this game, "All Aboard!

The Letter Train."

So you're gonna help me sort what is a letter and what is not a letter.

Are you ready?

We're gonna look at different ones and if it's a letter, it's gonna go on the train.

So let's take a look at this.

Is this a letter?

I haven't seen this as a letter before.

It's a heart.

It's a shape, right?

Does not go on the letter train.

Sorry, no ticket for you.

How about this?

Have you seen this?

Is this a letter?

It is, it's the letter A and that might be your special letter.

So it's gonna go on the train right there.

Oh, a little bit tricky because this has lines and curves as well.

Do you recognize this?

It's a number.

It's the number two.

Not a letter.

Sorry.

How about this?

It's a shape.

It's a crescent.

Not a letter.

Not used to make words.

How about this tricky one.

Is it a letter?

Looks like a circle.

Can a circle be a letter?

Yes, this is the letter O.

It looks just like a circle.

It's also a letter.

Let's put it on there.

How about this guy.

Is this is a letter?

No, it's a symbol.

It means don't do that.

Not a letter.

Let's squeeze over here for some more.

How about this one?

It has little lines, a big line, and another little line.

It's the letters Z.

That is a letter.

That goes on the train.

And this one is a number.

It's the number five.

Not a letter.

Let's do one more before we move on to our project.

How about this guy?

It has a little line and a big curve.

Yes, it's the letter D. That is a letter.

So if you wanna continue practicing at home, one of the first ways that I start to learn letters with children is I have them sort what is a letter and what's a number or a shape or a symbol.

Right now, we're gonna move over to our project place because we're gonna learn our letters through our names.

So let's walk on over.

Here we go.

So I thought it'd be really fun to make a train craft with you this week.

So here is what we're going to make.

See, it has a little engine here and all its cargo, and it has letters.

Now you can do this a couple of ways.

You can have your child write the letters if that's where they are, or you can write the letters yourself as a parent and have them do a name puzzle and put them in the correct order.

All right, let's see.

The very first thing that we're going to do is create this engine part that's gonna pull all of our cargo.

So let's pull that together.

I'm gonna use different color paper, some glue, some tissue paper, and scissors for this project.

So let's make it orange.

I'm gonna make kind of engine part that's a fat kind of letter L, isn't it?

So I'm gonna start off by cutting out a square.

And from that square, I'm gonna cut another smaller square just like this.

Here we go.

Ta-da.

Of course, save your scraps, we always use those.

And I'm gonna glue it on.

I'm gonna use a glue stick today, but you can use a liquid glue as well.

Here we go.

Putting it on.

There's the first part.

And then I'm gonna create a little triangle part that goes in the front like this.

I'm gonna use some pink.

Now, triangle has three sides, doesn't it?

I'm just gonna cut a corner off of a square and that should give me my three sides.

So here we go, gluing it down.

How to find the correct orientation or way that it goes.

All right, here we are.

Next part is we're gonna need this little part.

Now this is a steam engine.

This will be where the steam comes out of.

So I'm gonna use, let's use this purple.

So I'm going to make like a line with a little circle on top here.

And then another line down, here we go.

There we are.

And gluing it on.

And then a window.

Of course, we need a window.

It's another rectangle.

So lots of shapes.

Of course, as you're making this, you can call out what shapes you're making, what colors you're using.

It'll so much more engaging than flashcards to learn colors, shapes, letters, cutting skills, all kinds of things.

So now let's make our cargo, which is our four rectangles for me.

But yours, you might need more paper because you might have a longer name.

So my letters are L A R A for Lara.

So I'm gonna stack some papers on top of each other, that's my secret trick.

Thank you, Miss Cory for that trick.

And then I'm going to cut out a rectangle.

Now, rectangle is kind of a longer side here, and the shorter side here.

It actually has four sides just like a square, doesn't it?

One, two, three, four.

And I think I need one, two, three.

I need one more, Miss Lara.

I get that one here.

Let's use a purple.

Here we go.

You could make a pattern with this, practice patterns as well.

Well, maybe I'll do that to keep it extra fun.

Another rectangle, and then make a pattern with my name as well.

You can see how it's all integrated.

Then we're going to glue that down.

Here we go.

Another square rectangle, one, two, three, and one more makes four.

So we brought in some addition.

Now, when students are four years old, they really need this kind of concrete experience to learn abstract things like addition, subtraction, shapes, all of that.

So as much as you're able, keep it to manipulatives and things that they can use.

The next thing we're gonna cut out is the wheels and I'll show you how to add the steam as well.

So I'm gonna cut some rectangles out.

I think I'm gonna make, I don't know, eight wheels let's make eight wheels.

So I'm gonna cut my rectangles out and then stack them on top of each other just like so.

All right, here we go with a circle.

Du dudu, circle all the way around.

No sides, no corners and voila.

Here we go.

We're gonna put some glue here, add our wheels because how else is our train going to move?

Of course, gotta make it realistic looking, one, tow, three, four, five.

Let me cut out one more wheel just to make it look extra nice right here.

We don't wanna leave anybody out.

Five, here we go.

This one, two, three, four, five, actually six.

Last one, then I'm gonna show you how to make the little steam that's gonna come out, then we'll label our train.

So I took a tissue paper, you can do this with cotton as well.

And I'm separating the tissue paper like this, and just cutting out a little cloud of smoke by tearing it up just like so.

There we are.

I like using tissue paper because it's transparent.

So it almost looks like smoke when you glue it on the paper.

All right, sticky fingers, sticky finger alert.

Glue it down like so, and I do a couple of them.

So let's do one more.

Ta-da.

All right, tear it up.

There we go.

Last one, we'll label it up and then we'll be all done.

Ta ta-da ta.

Now, you can write your name on here.

I'm gonna write mine, Lara.

L A R A. I hope that you try this name activity.

Isn't it fun.

You can actually hang this in and practice the letters of your name.

And that will be really helpful as you start school.

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

So I'm gonna start sends you a big squeeze and a big smooch, (lips smacking) and reminds you to read and to play, to use your imagination and your five senses to be a scientist every day, we'll see you again tomorrow for more reading fun.

So join me then.

All right, good bye boys and girls (cheerful music)