(bright music) - Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to our Pre-K and TK learning space.

My name is Ms. Lara.

Can you tell me your name?

Hello.

Welcome to day five of five of our week together.

We have spent a whole week talking about culture and food.

I hope that you've had good conversations with your family about some of your traditions, or things that you like to do together.

So, we have a lots more to do today to finish up our week.

So, let's start our morning off with a song with Ms. Maria.

Here we go.

♪ Good morning, good morning ♪ ♪ It's a sunshine kind of day.

♪ ♪ Come join Ms. 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, Ms. Maria, I'm gonna put you down.

Now, I have a letter here that's gonna give us clues about our mystery book.

I have a feeling it's going to involve food, like all the other books this week, but from where?

We've already been to Canada, traveled to Syria, Pakistan, Mexico, Cuba.

Wow.

That's a long list to go.

I wonder where we're going today.

So, let's see.

Our doorbell rings here, and we'll open up our letter, there it goes.

Now, if you have something that you can read around you, make sure you use your pointer finger, which is the one right next to your thumb, and you can track with me as I read.

Now, when we start to read, we start on the left, which is this side, and we need to slide over to the right.

So, we'll do our song one last time this week.

♪ This is the left.

♪ (snaps fingers) ♪ This is the right.

♪ (snaps fingers) ♪ When we read, we start at the left ♪ ♪ And slide to the right.

♪ (snaps fingers) Our letter starts, "Dear, Mrs. Lara, My name is my Bilal.

My name rhymes with my favorite food, daal."

So, you'll remember rhyming words are words that sound the same.

Bilal and daal, they both say, -al.

They sound the same.

I wonder what my name would be if I rhymed with my favorite food, which is cake.

Whoa, I don't know.

Cake, let's see, Jake?

Well, that wouldn't fit me.

(laughs) "My story is about my friends eating daal for the first time.

I hope they like it."

Now, daal is a food that's Middle Eastern, and we'll get to learn more about it in our story.

So, we know there's gonna be cooking, they're gonna make daal, and there's gonna be some friends around.

Let's see what other clues I brought that are gonna help us understand the story.

So, I brought a watch.

Now, some of you might not know what this is, actually.

I don't see many people wearing watches anymore, but you use your watch to keep time.

A lot of people just use their phones.

So, I wonder what time.

They're gonna have to wait for something to be done?

Perhaps.

Let's put that here.

And then there's a lemon.

I wonder if what they're making is gonna be sour.

Does daal have a lemon?

Then there's a pot.

So, I definitely know that they're cooking something.

Let's figure out the next one.

There's a plate here.

Oh, look at how beautiful this plate is.

Are they're gonna plate it up?

And then there's an apron.

So, Ooh, it looks like a grown-up-sized apron.

So, maybe a grownup is gonna do the cooking.

We have a watch, lemon, pot, plate, and an apron.

So, that'll give us some clues about our story.

So, let's read it and find out what that's about.

(hums) "Bilal Cooks Daal."

That's our story today by Aisha Saeed.

That's the author.

Aisha wrote the words.

And it's illustrated by Anoosha Syed, so that's the illustrator who drew the pictures.

Now, if you'll notice the front cover, there's three children, one, two, three.

One is putting green things into a pot, one is holding that pot, and one is holding some salt.

So, I wonder if the children are gonna do the cooking, or the adults will.

Let's read to find out.

Oh, Here we go.

"Bilal is biking outside with his friends when his father steps out of the house says, 'Bilal, it's time to begin cooking dinner.'

His father's name is Abu.

Bilal's friend asks why they would need to start cooking so early."

So, look around in the pictures.

You can see the sky is bright outside, they're able to go outside and play, so it's pretty early in the day.

"'This dish takes patience,' Abu says.

'This dish takes time.

It's the best meal of all,' says Bilal.

'It's daal.'

'What's daal like?'

Say's the little girl.

'Does it taste really good?'

'Hmm.

Daal is nutty, and creamy, and warm like soup.

There are all different kinds.

Come see.

You can help us pick which one.'

They take off their shoes, they wash their hands, and Bilal grabs his favorite stool."

Now, notice here they have their shoes.

In some cultures, you don't come into somebody's house with shoes on, and in some, you do.

What's it like in your family?

"They study the colors.

There's yellow."

Look at all these yellows.

"Orange and green, and of course, brown.

'Let's see yellow,' Elias says, 'because yellow is sunflowers, rubber ducks, and the sun.'

'And chana daal is my favorite,' Bilal says."

Chana.

"When Abu scoops out a cup of the bright yellow daal, it clutters in the bowl.

They're small-like pebbles, but shaped like pancakes, and they slip through Bilal's fingers like sand.

They line up the spices.

Bilal breathes in the scent of turmeric, chili, cumin.

Morgan sprinkle salt.

Elias tries to help, and Bilal combines the spices.

Abu pulls out a pot, the biggest they have."

So, look at his face here.

They're also excited, but he's like, no, not that spice, different one.

(laughs) "'It looks funny,' Morgan frowns.

'It smells funny,' says Elias.

'Do you think it's gonna taste okay?'

And suddenly Bilal is just a little tiny bit worried that maybe, just maybe, his friends won't like daal after all."

So, look at his face.

I can tell he's worried because look, he has a frown on his eyes or to the side.

"'Is it ready?'

Asks Elias.

'Can we taste?'

Asks Morgan.

'No.'

Abu explains, 'Daal takes time.

We have to wait the flavors mix together slowly.

You kids go play and have fun while it cooks.'"

So, look at Bilal's dad, Abu, has a watch, and he's saying, "'Hey, daal is gonna take a while.

Put your shoes on and get outside.'"

There are some hidden fruit in this picture too, and I only just found it yesterday.

I don't know if you can see it, but way down here, there's some strawberries.

"They run outside to play hopscotch.

Elias numbers the sidewalk, and he makes it one through 20.

'Let's make it longer to 100,' he says, 'It'll definitely be done by then.'

So, they hop, skip, and jump to the end.

Caleb and Emma join too.

'Let's check if it's ready.

Let's go take a bite.'

Hmm.

They have to keep waiting, because Bilal says, 'Not yet.

Daal takes time.

We have to wait.'

They put on swimsuits, slip down the slide, and cannon ball into Morgan's pool.

Elias floats, Morgan dives.

Some more neighborhood kids join them, and they all play Marco Polo.

They're having so much fun."

Do you know the game of Marco Polo?

It's when you're in the pool and someone says, "Marco," another person says, "Polo."

The person saying, Marco, has their eyes closed, and tries to find the, Polo, person, see, like they're playing here.

"'Is the daal done?'

Asks Morgan.

'It's got to be ready by now.'

Bilal squints at the sun.

It's not as high in the sky.

'Almost,' he tells them.

'Daal takes time.

We have to wait.'

They hike through the forest, and skip pebbles in the stream.

The sun starts to set.

As they watch fireflies glow, they hear Abu call out."

So look, it's nighttime.

The sky has changed.

"And they're saying, 'Bilal, it's almost done.'

They march up the cobblestone steps, they knock on the yellow door, knock, knock, knock, and as loud as they can, they ask , 'Is it done?'

'Come see.'

Abu smiles and opens the door wider.

The kids rush inside.

'What do you think?

Do you think that it's done?'

They've waited all the way from the morning until night.

Bilal lifts up the lid, he peaks in the pot, then Abu says, 'Ready for the final steps?'

They dice up the onion, chop the ginger, press garlic, squeeze lemons, and top it off with fresh cilantro.

Bilal puts out the plates, Abu sets up the naan, which is a special kind of bread.

The kids pull up every chair in the house."

Remember, Bilal was nervous to see if his friends were going to like it.

So let's read.

"Bilal watches his friends take a spoonful of daal.

'It's steamy,' says Morgan.

'Like soup,' says Elias.

'It tastes garlicky and salty and sweet.'

'I like the onions.'

'I like the lemon.'

'And the way it's so creamy, and melts in your mouth.'

'Daal takes time.

We had to wait, but Bilal you were right.

Daal tastes great.'

Bilal looks at his dad and smiles.

Abu winks.

'Tasty, isn't it?'

He says.

'Like my Ammi once made.

My friends and I helped her once, like you.'

Daal is tiny, daal is tough, but with a little time, and a lot of patience, it becomes the softest, tastiest, best thing in the whole wide world.

And the best part is sharing it with friends.

That's why Bilal loves daal so much."

And look, if you get this book from the library, you will find a recipe at the end.

Now, a recipe has a list of ingredients and directions for how to make a special dish.

This one says, Chana Daal.

And it also says, "Please ask a grownup for help."

So, I hope that you check it out.

Now, that was our last book for the week, studying food and culture, and we'll continue to do that for next week as well, but I wanted to end with a little shared writing.

We can kind of review all the books we've read this week.

So, let's walk over to our writing place here, and we'll do some writing together.

Here we go.

I grab my pen, food and culture.

So, you'll remember the very first book that we read had some things spicy in it, a jalapeno.

It's jalapeno bagels.

I think it was the story of a little boy who was from two different cultures.

His father was Jewish-American, and his mother was Mexican-American.

So, they loved to blend things together, like in a bagel, jalapeno bagels.

So, food and culture, let me draw a bagel.

You can draw along with me if you're at home.

Draw a circle and it has a hole in the middle, and I have to add the jalapenos for spice.

Maybe I'll draw one here.

Well, let's see it a little spicy, and then I'll put it in the bagel too.

Oh, there's the jalapeno bagel.

So, their food and culture, was a mix of two things.

So, we're gonna put mix of two.

So, there's an M for a mix.

Then I'm gonna leave a space, and we're gonna write, of, and the next one, mix of two, mix of two.

That our food and culture can be a blend of different things.

Now, let's see, you'll remember, we also read, A Song of Frutas, about a Cuban-American grandfather, and a little girl who just longed to visit him , because he sold fruit.

So, let's draw, maybe we'll draw grapes this time, because there was a tradition in their culture, and remember, to eat 12 grapes at new year's.

So, we're gonna to draw some grapes and maybe a banana to represent their culture and him selling the fruit.

So, we know food and culture is about tradition, or the things that you and your family do over and over.

So, let's write that really big word.

Start off with tradition.

There we go.

Let's do a couple more up here.

We still have room.

We also read a book about a Syrian chef.

Do you remember?

Her name was Salma, and she wanted to make her mom happy.

So, food and culture can be about making people happy.

So, I'm gonna draw a big, happy face here.

When I draw a happy face, it goes up like that.

Maybe a little nose, maybe some ears just to be silly.

I'm gonna write the word happy.

Let's sound it out.

H-A-P-P-Y.

That's right.

Then our last one, do you remember?

We read, Leila in Saffron, and they had dinner together with their family.

And around the dinner and they made a wonderful, delicious dish of curry.

I'm gonna draw the curry here.

And here we are.

And she felt a strong sense of belonging when she made the dish with her families.

We're gonna write that word, and it'll be our last one.

Belong.

B-E-L-O-N-G.

Belong.

So, food and culture can bring you happiness, a sense of belonging, can be a mix or a blend of different things, and it's all about traditions.

Now remember, you can write many more things, or draw them at home with your family.

Those are just the ones we came up with today.

So, let's finish up our project so we can end our week.

Let me walk over there.

How many steps?

I think five.

One, two, three, four, smaller five.

I'm Right, of course.

So, we have our different things that we're gonna use to make our fruit basket.

And, of course, we said that this represents something.

Just like a community brings people together, so does our basket.

It holds everything in place, and makes us really different in who we are.

So, here we have fruits.

They represent the different diversity, or the differences in our community.

And we're gonna make those and put them on our background.

Now, for our background today, you can do two things.

You can color, and you can do some watercolors.

But I thought the oil pastels are a little like coloring.

So, I think I'm gonna a water color a background.

So, the first thing you have to do is come up with an idea.

So, for my background, I kind of want my basket of my fruit to feel like it's hanging in the sky, something like a dream, bringing people together and filling a sense of belonging.

So, I'm gonna paint a blue sky up top.

I have some water here and some water colors, but again, you can go ahead and do whatever it is you'd like.

Oh, look at that.

I have a little tiny paintbrush here, and I'm using it to kind of paint all the way around.

Here we go.

Here we are.

All right.

So, maybe up the sky I want to add, ooh, maybe some plants or hearts.

That would be nice to add some hearts in our background.

This will kind of representing community and bringing people together through our food and culture.

So, let's see.

All right.

So, there's some more sky.

I'm going to try to fill it up a little bit more here, and dip in my paintbrush like this, and go around.

Just like that, I love painting because it is very relaxing.

Do you like to paint, boys and girls?

When you're in school, they should have an art area for you.

Wouldn't that be fun?

You get to paint, and color, and cut things.

I always loved going to the art area when I was in school.

Or maybe you have a fun art teacher, like Mrs. Lee Leigh.

She can teach you all about art.

Okay.

There's our sky.

And maybe I'll do a little bit of hearts over here before we glue on our painting.

Yeah, I'll do something a little like that.

Now remember, you can make your background into anything you'd like.

This is just what I'm choosing to do.

Maybe you wanna draw people in your background, admiring your fruit basket.

All right.

I'll draw a little more sky around my heart.

Here we go.

And maybe I will do a cloud.

I'm gonna make mine kind of like a blacker cloud up here.

Oh, it turned out blue.

I thought I was dipping into the black, and it was a deep purple.

That's okay.

We can make a purple cloud.

All right, here we go.

And last, I'm going to just add a little something to the bottom here so that when we put our fruit basket, it looks very colorful.

Maybe I'll do an orange.

Again, you can make your art look like whatever you'd like.

All my colors are tricking me.

I thought that was an orange, and it's like a bright yellow.

That's okay.

You got to work with what you get sometimes.

Make some beautiful art out of it.

And that's what I've been feeling lately.

It's gonna make it work, and it turns into something more beautiful than you thought.

Okay, here we go.

Now, you might wanna spend a bit more time using your colors to really think through what your design should look like, your composition.

I'm going to kind of rush ahead.

I hope this is orange.

I'm, did you guys see, I'm dipping in the orange.

Oh, it is.

Yay.

I'm just gonna paint a little orange here on the edges, and then I'll move on to the next thing we're gonna do.

Let's see.

I'm hoping that we get to sing our alphabet song today.

Ms. Lara has to remember all the words.

Okay, here's the part.

You might wanna fill it all up.

And because of time, I'm just gonna go ahead and glue this down right now, but you might wanna wait until it dries.

So, I didn't get to all of it, but I do know that my fruit and my basket is gonna be right in the middle, so it's gonna cover up a lot of it.

So, let's get to that.

I have to decide where I want it.

I think right here, right there.

Okay.

Then grab my glue, and put it down.

Now, this would be a wonderful project to put in your refrigerator, and you can talk to your family about all the wonderful things you learned about different cultures this week.

and how the fruit basket is a symbol of that, 'cause we have a lot of things in common, but we are all still our own kind of people in differences, just like the fruit here.

All right.

Let's see.

I think that looks pretty good.

What do you think?

Yeah.

Okay.

Let's glue it down.

All right.

Now, I'm hoping for next week, when we cover more cultures, that I'm able to kind of cover the one that represents you.

But just know that if I don't get to your culture, you can always write in and tell me.

And please, if I mispronounce or misrepresent anything, have your mom, or dad, or grandma, or grandpa, aunt, and uncle tell me because I really wanna learn all about the things that make us different.

Okay.

So, here is what I ended up with.

What do you think?

I still need to kind of fill in some blanks here, huh?

Let me do that very quickly before we move on.

So, that's the beauty of it, is you can kind of fill in the blanks, and fill in some more blues and greens.

What a week, boys and girls.

Where I live it's very smoky.

So, that's making a lot of people feel like they're sick and tired, it makes me so sad.

A painting project like this will be so much fun to do with your family.

I feel like everyone could use a little cheering up lately.

All right.

Here we go.

My final piece.

What do you think?

(laughs) I think it's pretty cool.

I can't wait to see yours.

All right.

Looks like we're coming to an end of our time together.

We might have just enough time to get through our ABC song, but the short one, (laughs) not the long one.

I know my friend here loves the long one.

Ms. Gina, she helps us with the camera.

Thank you so much for that.

So, here are our letters.

Let's go.

♪ A, B, C you later ♪ ♪ D, E, F, G, I'm gonna miss you ♪ ♪ 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.

That means I'll Z you next week, where we're gonna continue talking about food and culture.

We're gonna cover a book about pancit, We're gonna cover a book about native American culture.

It should be a lot of fun.

Now, be safe this weekend, boys and girls.

It's a long one.

We'll have a wonderful time.

Ms. Lara sends you a big squeeze and a big smooch, and reminds you to read, play, and to use your imagination every day.

Goodbye, boys and girls.

See you next time.

(bright music)