(bright guitar music) - Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to our learning space, our classroom.

We've been learning so much this week and I'm so grateful that you made it back today, Friday, the last day of the week.

We have so much to do, so why don't we get started with a song?

I have Miss Maria here.

I'm Mrs. Lara and you need to tell me your name.

Let's see.

Thank you for introducing yourself.

Now let's sing.

Ready, Miss Maria?

She's our mail person.

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 brain strong ♪ ♪ Like super strong ♪ ♪ So come along ♪ ♪ Yes, come on, friends ♪ ♪ For some learning and some play ♪ All right, Miss Maria, let me put you away and we'll go through our day.

It's jam packed.

So all this week, we've been learning about a special word that means that you keep going even when things get hard.

You practice, you think about your yet, your spot of what?

Perseverance.

That's right.

I hope that you've practiced perseverance all this week.

We've also been practicing our reading skills.

We've been reading our letters, we've received letters from Humpty, we've received letters from our train, and we've also received letters from a new character I'll introduce today.

He is a jungle animal and I can't wait for you to meet him.

After that, we're going to do some shared writing all around our word, perseverance.

We're gonna think about everything we learned this week and write it down, so if you have your paper and your marker, get it ready so you can write with me.

Then, we're gonna finish off our week with a musical instrument that looks like the character that I'm going to introduce.

If that sounds like a fun plan, then settle in and we'll get started because I think I hear, let's see, (doorbell ringing) is it the doorbell?

There it goes!

It took me a little while to hear that, but here it is and here is our letter!

So, it says, Dear Mrs. Lara.

Now remember, I started reading on the left.

That's right.

Then I slid over to the right, so let's do our song to help us remember.

♪ This is the left ♪ ♪ This is the right ♪ ♪ When we read ♪ ♪ We start at the left ♪ ♪ And slide to the right ♪ It says, what happens when you try and fail in front of others?

Oh no.

That's happened to me and that does not feel good.

So yesterday, we talked about when you try and fail, but what happens when people are there to see you?

Do you still keep trying?

What do you think?

How do you keep trying when you really want to give up?

Love, Gerald.

That is a great question, Gerald, and we're gonna meet Gerald in just a little bit, but right now, I think that Miss Maria left me a book that's gonna help us answer the question of how you keep going or find it within yourself to persevere.

So let's see what Miss Maria found.

Look at this fancy book!

It is called "Giraffes Can't Dance" and it is by Giles Andreae and it is illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees.

Now look at the front cover.

Do you notice something?

It's a giraffe, and what is the giraffe doing?

It's moving around like it's dancing, but wait, the title says giraffes can't dance.

I wonder what's gonna happen in the story.

Let's find out.

All these dancing giraffes inside of here.

If you have the book, can you count them and then tell me how many there were?

"Giraffes Can't Dance".

Gerald was a tall giraffe whose neck was long and slim, but his knees were awfully crooked and his legs were rather thin.

Do you know what that word means, crooked?

It means that they're not straight up and down.

They might even go in a zigzag.

He was very good at standing still and munching shoots off trees.

So there he is.

Now I wonder why he's good at that.

Shoots on trees are very tall.

Why would Gerald be good at munching shoots off trees?

That's right.

He has his long and slim neck.

But when he tried to run around, he buckled at the knees!

Oh no, Gerald!

Look at him!

He's trying so hard, but he's falling down!

And I don't know if you can see, there's a little turtle going, give it up, buddy.

It's not for you.

Now, every year in Africa, they hold a jungle dance where every single animal turns up to skip and prance.

So look right here.

It says "Jungle Dance" and there's zebras, and lions, and warthogs, and chimps.

And this year, when the day arrived, poor Gerald felt so sad because when it came to dancing, he was really, really bad.

On no.

Poor Gerald.

Everyone else is having fun.

How would you feel if you were somewhere and everyone else was good at something?

I would feel left out.

Do you remember Sonya the snail?

I bet she felt like that in her race, huh?

So at the dance, the warthogs started waltzing and the rhinos rock and rolled, the lions danced a tango that was elegant and bold!

So they're really good at dancing.

The chimps all did the cha-cha with a very Latin feel and eight baboons then teamed up for a splendid Scottish reel.

So there they are.

Looks like they're all having fun.

The chimps are very serious about their cha-cha.

So, I need you to do this part with me, okay?

We need to support our friend, Gerald.

It says, Gerald swallowed bravely.

Can you swallow bravely?

Ready?

Practice with me?

(Mrs. Lara gulping) And then he walked toward the floor, but the lions saw him coming and they soon began to roar.

"Hey, look at clumsy Gerald!"

the animals all sneered.

"Giraffes can't dance, you silly fool!

Oh Gerald, you're so weird!"

How do you think Gerald's feeling?

They're all pointing and laughing at him.

Oh no.

What did Gerald do?

Well, he simply froze up.

He was rooted to the spot.

"They're right," he thought.

"I'm useless.

Oh, I feel like such a klutz."

And sometimes that happens, huh?

People say something and it makes you feel the way people think you are.

I hope Gerald gets over it.

So he crept off from the dance floor and he started walking home.

He never felt so sad before, so sad and so alone.

And then, he found a little clearing and he looked up at the sky.

"The moon can be so beautiful," he said with a sigh.

"Excuse me," coughed a cricket, who'd seen Gerald earlier on, "But sometimes when you're different, you just need a different song."

I love that saying.

Gives me chill reading it.

I love that.

"Listen to the swaying grass and listen to the trees.

To me, the sweetest music is in those branches in the breeze.

So imagine that the lovely moon is playing just for you.

Everything makes music if you really want it to."

So there Gerald is with his eyes closed.

With that, the cricket smiled and picked up his violin.

Then Gerald felt his body do the most amazing thing!

His hooves, they started shuffling, making circles on the ground.

His neck was gently swaying and his tail was swooshing around!

Look, there he goes!

He threw his legs out sideways and he swung them everywhere.

Then he did a backwards somersault and lept right up in the air!

Gerald felt so wonderful.

His mouth was open wide.

"I'm dancing!

Yes, I'm dancing!

I'm dancing!"

Gerald cried.

Then, one by one, each animal who'd been there at the dance arrived while Gerald boogied along and watched him quite entranced.

Entranced is a word that means they were looking at him and all their attention was on Gerald.

They shouted, "It's a miracle!

We must be in a dream!

Gerald's the best dancer that we've ever, ever seen!"

"How did you learn to dance like that?

Please, Gerald, tell us how!"

But Gerald simply twirled around and finished with a bow.

There he goes.

Now they're throwing flowers at him.

What did they do earlier?

Remember, they were pointing and laughing at him.

Last page.

Then, he raised his head and looked up at the moon and stars above.

"We all can dance," he said, "when we find music that we love."

The end.

I hope that you enjoyed that story, boys and girls.

And I want you to think about how Gerald persevered since that's our word of the week.

Talk about it with your family.

What does that word mean to you?

Now right now, I wanna introduce you to a special friend.

Here he comes!

His name is Gerald!

He's from the story.

Say hi Gerald.

Gerald, I want you to dance with me.

I heard that you're a very good dancer.

Do you like to dance?

Show me your moves.

Whoa, whoa!

Okay.

He's doing modern moves.

I have some music.

Can we dance like the chimps in our story?

Do you remember what kind of music they played?

That's right, they did the cha-cha.

Let me put our cha-cha music on.

You can dance with us too, boys and girls.

(upbeat Latin music) Here we go.

Let's stand up, Gerald!

Here we go!

We do the cha-cha!

Gerald, let's do this.

(upbeat Latin music) Just like the chimps.

(Mrs. Lara giggling) I love that cha-cha, Gerald!

That was really, really fun.

Let's see.

What other kind of music can we do?

There was some other characters.

The lions.

Do you remember what kind of music the lions did?

They danced to the tango.

Well that's a very serious dance, isn't it?

Are you ready to tango with me?

Let's put the tango on.

Here we go.

Serious face on.

Do it with me at home.

(upbeat tango music) One quick spin.

I love it.

There was one more.

I'm trying to think.

Do you remember what it was?

That's right, the warthogs did the waltz.

Now I'm nervous.

I've never done a waltz before.

Let me see if I can find a waltz here.

I think I can.

Let's listen to it and see what it sounds like and see what our body wants to do to the music.

(romantic orchestra music) I'm already swaying.

I think I know how I wanna dance to this guy.

Let's stand up.

This makes me feel like a ballerina on my tippy toes!

(romantic orchestra music) Gerald, you really are the best dancer there is.

I'm so glad that he got to join us today.

I hope that you tried to dance to some of the other music that was mentioned in the book, like a Scottish reel, or rock and roll.

That would be a lot of fun.

All right Gerald, I'm gonna put your down here and we're gonna go over to do some shared writing before we move on to our project.

So let's walk on over there.

Here we go.

So here is our word of the week.

It is perseverance.

And you see here, there's a little girl climbing the mountain and even though it's hard, she's going to keep going.

Now let's review.

What did we learn about perseverance this week?

If you remember, we started our week off by learning about a little engine, and what did that little engine say?

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

So, let's draw our little engine here and then we'll write the words I think I can, and you can follow along at home.

So let's see.

A little engine has a little caboose like this, kind of goes up, and then has a little spot here, and a little back part, too.

Now don't worry if you can't write the words like I do.

I've been in school a long time and you're just learning to, but pictures are communication too, so you can practice with that.

I'm going to write the words I think I can, so let's do that.

First, I need an I. I start at the top, of course, I, I leave a space, think.

Now let me think about that ending sound.

Think-cuh-cuh.

That's a K. Think I can.

Cuh-an.

I think I can.

What else did we learn about perseverance?

Well, we just learned about Gerald and his dancing, so maybe we'll draw a giraffe here.

Let's see.

Giraffe's faces are kind of like this.

They have ears and they have these funny things called ossicones.

Do not call them antlers.

No, no, no.

Not what they are.

Snouts and little eyes like this.

So there's Gerald and he loves to dance, right?

He kept going.

So I'm gonna write the words keep going right there.

So I'm gonna write cuh-eep going.

Going.

G at the end.

Keep going.

Find your music.

You'll find it.

Don't worry.

Last one, we'll put up here before we move on to our Project Place.

How about the magical, what was that called?

Yet, that's right.

"The Magical Yet" and "The SPOT of Perseverance".

We read those books as well.

Maybe I can draw a magical yet and a little spot here.

They were so happy.

I'll put yet.

Can you help me sound that out?

Yuh-yuh.

That's a Y, yuh-eh-tuh.

Yet.

Remember the power of yet and your spot of perseverance that grows and grows as you get older.

Feel free to add to our writing if you're doing this at home, but what we learned is to keep going, find your own music, remember that you always can, and say that in your head, I think I can, and the power of yet.

All adds up to perseverance.

Now we're gonna quickly move onto our Project Place, which is way over there.

How many steps do you think it's gonna take me to get there?

I'm predicting 10.

Let's see.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Was that more or less than 10?

What do you think?

So, we're going to make Gerald the giraffe into a musical instrument.

Listen.

(instrument rattling) Do you hear him?

You can jam out in your own house.

So the materials that you'll need for this project are a paper towel roll or a toilet paper roll, which is what I used here, I just taped two together, and then some paper, or you can paint directly on the roll, I found that I liked the paper a little bit better, so I'm using yellow paper and brown paper, I'm going to need some tape.

Now, a little bit thicker tape, not this really thin kind like this.

You're gonna want thicker tape so you can close up the sides.

I happen to have some googly eyes.

You can make eyes out of paper as well, but I like the way that they move when you shake them, so if you have these, you can get them at the place where everything's a dollar.

You can kind of glue them on there.

And then, you're going to need something to put inside your giraffe.

Now, you can use food.

Normally we don't play with food, but if you happen to have extra that you're gonna toss anyway, like for me, I have these coffee beans that have been sitting in my pantry for a good while and I thought those would make good music, but you can use anything that you feel would make noise.

Experiment with different things.

So our first step is going to be to take our paper towel roll and we're actually going to cut that out like this.

We're gonna roll it up and then cut all the extra off 'cause we don't need that much.

Now, we're going to take our glue and then glue it down like this.

So here comes our glue.

I'm gonna try to squeeze this one out.

It's okay glue, come on!

It's coming out so slowly.

I'm making little swirls with it.

There it goes.

I think it was asleep.

It was still on summer break.

Then we're gonna roll it up like this.

This is gonna be Gerald's really long neck.

Then we're gonna need Gerald's head.

Now, you'll notice here that he has kind of an oval-shaped head like that.

We're going to make his oval-shaped head out of some yellow paper.

So I'm just going to do it just by sight, but if you wanted, you can actually draw an oval shape right on here.

Here's the oval shape.

And you're gonna glue some ears on there, so I'm gonna make some ears with some scrap paper as well.

Let's put that on there.

And then, do you remember those things on the top of their head?

Not antlers, they're ossicones.

You can learn more about giraffes if you visit our zoo or if you visit our local library.

You can figure out why they have ossicones and what's really cool about their tongue.

I'm just gonna put some ossicones on here and then I'll show you the next step here.

I'm cutting them out.

You can always look at the book like "Giraffes Can't Dance" and see what Gerald's ossicones look like and then cut them out to look like that.

I'm stacking two pieces of paper on top of each other and cutting them out.

More glue, more glue.

Here we go.

Then, I'm going to glue on my googly eyes.

Gotta have the googly eyes.

(Mrs. Lara giggling) Last step is going to be the glue, for the giraffe part, is going to be to glue the head on.

Here.

There we are.

Swirl, swirl, swirl.

Now this glue takes a little bit longer to dry, so just hold it down for a little bit.

What'll happen sometimes is the goggly eyes will fall and then he'll start getting one droopy eye.

So once you get to this part, the next step is you're going to take your beans and you're going to wanna fill it up, but first, you have to tape down the bottom because otherwise, they'll just fall out.

Make sure the bottom's nice and taped up like this.

That's why you need that thicker tape.

You're gonna wanna pour your beans inside.

So let's see.

We'll pour them quickly inside.

Like I said, you can use lots of different things.

In fact, I was thinking I might use the screws from our Humpty experiment a little earlier.

Let's see what kind of noise that makes.

My giraffe smells like coffee.

Now that's a sentence I never thought I would say.

More tape and you're gonna seal it up right on the top.

See?

You're going to wanna seal up both of these holes and then to make it extra fun, you can actually paint a little bit of brown spots on your giraffe and you'll end up with something that looks like this.

Then you can shake, shake, shake all around your house until your parents hide it because they can't stand the noise anymore.

(Mrs. Lara giggling) So I hope that you try this activity at home, boys and girls.

Looks like we have just enough time to sing our goodbye song and end for the week.

Let's sing it.

And if I don't get to finish, you just continue on where you are.

♪ 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 ♪ ♪ 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 everything around ♪ ♪ And H is for hopeful there's more good to be found ♪ ♪ I is for imagine all the fun things you can do ♪ ♪ J is for joyful ♪ ♪ How I feel when I'm with you ♪ ♪ K is for kind to people and animals, too ♪ ♪ L is for love ♪ ♪ Put it in all that you do ♪ ♪ M is for mindful ♪ ♪ Be present everyday ♪ ♪ 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 the greatness that you've got ♪ ♪ S is for strong body and mind ♪ ♪ And 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 is for worthy and wonderful, too ♪ ♪ X, don't X out those mistakes ♪ ♪ They're what make you, you ♪ ♪ Y is for yes ♪ ♪ We're almost at the end of this rhyme ♪ ♪ And that's the alphabet ♪ ♪ I'll Z you next time ♪ All right, boys and girls.

On next week, I believe Mrs. Reedwright is going to join us for an art lesson.

We'll see you next time.

Bye-bye.

(upbeat guitar music)