(bright music) - Hello little learners.

Welcome back to our Pre-K and TK classroom.

My name is Ms. Lara, and I'm going to be your teacher today.

So I want you to tell me your name so I can try to guess your special letter.

Are you ready?

Okay.

Ooh, I heard some letters there.

Let's see if I get it this time.

I'm going to use a big line down, like this, and then a little line across, like this.

What letter have I made?

The letter L. L for Lara.

That's my special letter.

I tricked you!

Was it yours too?

Don't worry if it's not, I bring out more letters every week.

All right, so we have lots of fun things to do today.

Let me add a magnet to our board here because today is day four of the five days that we're going to be talking about apples.

So, let's see.

I have one, two, three on top, and one on the bottom, and three and one together make four.

We have one day left.

And today's an exciting day because we're gonna start preparing our apple pie that we're going to make together.

But first, I wanna sing our apple song.

Remember, we're learning the colors of different apples, and I'm teaching you how to say them in Spanish as well.

So let's see if you remember the song.

♪ Have you ever seen an apple, an apple, an apple ♪ ♪ Have you ever seen an apple that grows on a tree ♪ ♪ A red one ♪ Ooh!

Almost did the wrong one.

♪ Red one, a yellow one ♪ ♪ A pink one, a green one ♪ ♪ Have you ever seen an apple that grows on a tree ♪ Ready to do in Spanish?

Here we go.

Red is rojo, yellow is amarillo, pink is rosa, and green is verde.

I hope that you got to say those with me.

Now it's time I think for Miss Maria's letter.

I wonder what we're going to... (bell chimes) Read today.

Let's get our door out of the way.

Look at our letter.

It says, "Dear Miss Lara."

Do you remember our new song for tracking our words?

Okay.

Get your pointer out, it's the one right next to your thumb.

And it goes like this.

♪ Come along and track with me ♪ ♪ Track with me, track with me ♪ ♪ Come along and track with me ♪ ♪ That's how we'll read the words ♪ ♪ First you get your pointer out ♪ ♪ Pointer out, pointer out ♪ ♪ First you'll get your pointer out ♪ ♪ And follow along with me ♪ So put your pointer here and slide across.

And now when you get to the end, now you have to begin again.

So return, sweep and begin again.

Ready?

Let's try it.

"Dear Miss Lara, I did it!

I found a best friend."

Ooh, lucky you to have a best friend.

But I wonder who's writing to me.

"He is small," ooh, small best friend, that sounds fun.

"And green," green!

"And funny, and he lives inside of me."

What can be green and small and live inside something.

We're learning about apples this week, I wonder what it could be.

Do you have any ideas?

Hmm.

"One problem, none of my other friends like him."

Oh no!

So you have a best friend that's small and green and lives inside of you when none of your other best friends like him?

That sounds like a book I read.

I wonder if that's what Ms. Maria left.

Here we go.

The book was called "Bad Apple."

Come on book.

Doesn't wanna be read today.

"Bad Apple."

Yep, this is the book I was thinking.

A tale of friendship, and it says, "It takes a strong core to stand up to bullies."

I wonder what this book is going to be about.

Oh, there's a small green best friend.

And there's that word bullies.

Hmm!

That's when someone's not nice to you over and over again over a period of time.

The author is Edward Hemingway.

Let's read our book together.

"Bad Apple."

Look like they have such a lovely friendship the worm and the apple Mac was a good apple.

Look there he is saying hello, hello Mac, with his leaf on top of his head and his stem.

He shared his toys with the other apples, helped Granny Smith pick up after art class.

So there's Granny Smith picking up after art class.

Look, she has her stem as a nose.

"And loved to dive fearlessly into the watering hole."

When you do something fearlessly that means you're brave and you do it without thinking about how scared you are.

"On a sunny day, Mac could bob for hours."

Remember we learned that apples float.

So there he is floating on the river.

"On cloudy days, Mac would search for the perfect pillow of green grass and take a long nap."

(Ms. Lara yawns) He would sleep for hours.

"In his dreams it was always sunny.

But one day as Mac lay sleeping, it began to rain."

So there it is raining on him as he's sleeping on his green mound of grass.

"Soon all the little creatures in the earth around him poked their heads out to look for higher ground.

Some of them found safety under the large toad stools."

So look, here's a grasshopper, here's an ant.

So when it rains, all the creatures that live underground they have to find somewhere that's dry or they'll drown.

And look, this is a shadow of something that we're gonna meet later.

"When Mac woke up, he was covered in raindrops, and he wasn't alone.

"You won't believe the dream I just had, a funny little worm was tickling me right here," said Mac.

"And now I can't seem to get him..." "Out of your head?"

said the worm.

"It was you!"

And that's how Mac met will."

So there is Will, the worm.

"Will showed Mac how to fly a kite."

Here they are flying a leaf kite, fly himself, (Ms. Lara chuckles) and play in the dirt.

He loved making a mess."

That sounds like me.

Look at Mac, his little feet are poking in the air and Will's next to him.

You might have to be careful Mac or he'll become an apple tree, huh?

"Mac took his new friend to the watering hole to clean off.

He couldn't remember a better day."

So let's pause here, how do you think Mac and Will are feeling?

Do you think they're happy or angry?

I think they're happy too.

They really enjoy each other's company.

"Until he took Will to the orchard."

And remember, an orchard is a place with lots of apple trees.

"Look at Mac, he's got worms!"

said the other apples.

"Mac's a rotten apple!

"I'm not rotten," said Mac, "I'm..." "Quite sweet actually," said Will.

So they left.

Oh no, poor Mac!

His friends are not accepting of him and Will.

"Will cheered Mac up by reading a lot from some of his favorite novels.

He was a bit of a bookworm.

Mac liked the adventure stories the best.

He also liked it when Will finished his sentences for him.

"The most exciting part is when the pirates..." "Find treasure in the dirt, I know," said Will.

But the next day it happened again.

"Ha-ha!

It's the bad apple!"

"Ewww!

Worms!"

Look, they're even pointing at him.

I bet he's feeling really crummy right now.

And no one in the orchard will play with them, not even the crab apples.

"Bad apple," they would say.

Crab apples can be so mean.

That night, the two friends sat alone on the grass without saying a word.

In the morning, Will was nowhere to be found.

He left a little note that said, "You are a good apple, Will."

Oh, look at his expression.

He's very sad.

He enjoyed Will's company.

Mac went back to playing with his orchard friends, diving fearlessly into the watering hole and painting Granny Smith's class, but nothing was the same.

There was a hole in Mac that he couldn't fill.

How is Mac feeling?

Maybe a little lonely.

He wants Will to come back, doesn't he?

Not a big hole, just a teeny, tiny little, you know, a small hole, just big enough to fit... Hmm.

And nobody finished his sentences."

Aaw, look, when he's looking in his reflection, he even sees his worm friend.

"Mac had to find Will.

He searched low, he searched high, and in between, around the watering hole, and just when he had given up all hope... What do you think is gonna happen next?

He looked up into the sky.

Look, right here.

It's the kite that they made together.

I wonder if he's gonna use that as a clue to find Will.

There he is!

(Ms. Lara chuckles) He's flying a kite, and remember, they talked about how he was the bookworm.

It's Will!

"Mac knew he'd rather be a bad apple with Will than a sad apple without him.

"I was hoping I could..." "Help me turn the pages," said Will.

"How did you know?"

"Because you will always be a good apple in my book."

Good and happy and there's nothing bad about that.

The end.

So what did you think of the story of the bad apple?

Now, in the story, a lot of other apples were calling him, Mac, a bad apple, when really they were the ones that were not being very kind to making fun of him and Will.

Hmm, I hope that you give this book a read and if you do, talk to your family about how you feel if someone would be mean to you like the apples in the book to Mac, what would you do if someone did that to you?

So, check that book out and while you're waiting to check that out, we're gonna revisit that book.

Through our foundational skill, we're gonna be retelling the story.

Now here's the story of bad apple.

Now you remember, I like to draw pictures to help me remember what was in the story.

Now families, this is an activity that you can do together.

So you can actually sit down with your child and co-draw some of these pictures, and they can fill them in for you and just have that conversation with them.

So, in the beginning of the story, first, we met a character named Mac and he was very happy.

Do you remember?

He loved playing with all of his orchard friends, and then the rain came down, and what happened when it rained?

All the little critters that lived underground would come up and they visited and tried to find a place to hide.

And one little friend made his way inside Mac.

And that was Will the worm.

And Mac loved Will, didn't he?

They finish each other's sentences and they read books together, and they played, they had so much fun.

But when Mac tried to go to his orchard friends, what is his orchard friends do?

They were so mean.

They said, "Bad apple, you're so rotten!

You have worms."

They pointed at him and called him names.

And this made Mac very sad.

And he even grew sadder when Will decided to leave.

Remember he left him a little note that said, "You are a good apple, love Will."

Look at his very sad face.

And he thought that he could just go back to doing everything he did normally with his orchard friends, but he had a little hole inside him that only Will could fill.

So he decided to go hunting for Will.

And do you remember what clue he found?

That's right, it was a kite.

He found a kite and followed that to Will's location.

He found Will, and they played together in the end.

It's so nice to have a true friend, isn't it?

All right.

So I hope that you enjoyed that story.

Right now, in our project place, we're gonna start our recipe for apple pie.

I feel so bad.

Our main characters, Mac and... We're gonna be slicing and dicing, don't tell him, his orchard friends.

Okay.

Let's walk over this way.

Only the best good apples will do.

So for this activity and recipe, you're going to need a couple of things.

You're going to need seven to nine apples.

Now, a lot of people have a lot of opinions about the type of apples to use.

These are the apples that I found out my grocery store they're called Granny Smith apples, and they were actually a character in the book, weren't they?

They were an art teacher.

So we're gonna be cutting up some Granny Smith apples, but you might have an apple variety or a favorite that you use in your pie.

We're gonna need one tablespoon of lemon juice and it's fresh lemon juice right here, straight from my tree, and we're gonna need some brown sugar.

So this is what the brown sugar looks like.

It looks like regular sugar, but different color brown.

I believe it has molasses added to it.

We're gonna need some cinnamon.

And I finally got to go to the store and buy some cinnamon because they were all out at my regular store.

So I have some here to add to our pumpkin, our apple pie filling today.

We have some corn starch as well, that's gonna bind all the ingredients together so it's not a soupy mess.

That's happened to me before.

Still taste good, apple pie soup, still delicious.

And two tablespoons of butter.

So you're ready to make our pie together?

First thing we're gonna need to do is slice and peal our apples.

So this is one that I did and I can actually do them very quickly, but you might have to take your time with a grownup's help.

I have a special tool called a peeler and they have really fancy peelers at the store that you kind of connect and your churn and it'll kind of peel them for you, but I'm gonna do it the old fashion way.

So when you work with the peeler, you just kind of take it, and you kind of go across the apple until the skin comes off.

And some people like to leave the skins in, which is perfectly fine as well.

I don't like to have the skins because even when they're cooked, they still kind of leave a little crunch that I don't really like.

So you can see, I'm just peeling it off.

Now, this is an activity that four year olds, three year olds can do with a little help.

So you can have them help you in the kitchen even if you're not making apple pie and you need something peeled, bring it out, just give them a little spot so they can feel like they contribute.

Okay.

So that's two peeled, almost.

So you can see I do it pretty quickly but it might take you a little while.

So that's two.

Let's do a few more.

Now, remember I told you that some people like to only eat apple pies with certain kinds of apples, well I as a grownup went on the internet and there's so many people that get so mad if you use a certain kind of apple with your apple pie.

They are purists.

They love their apple pie a certain kind of way.

Not me, I just like it with lots of sugar and butter.

Green apples, red apples, yellow apples, doesn't matter.

There's actually a lady that I found online that she won a million dollars for baking the best apple pie.

Can you believe that?

She's rich!

Maybe you can be one of those people that develop some pie recipe that makes you rich.

I wonder maybe add extra caramel or sugar or butter, I think that's the secret to all things.

Adding extra butter and sugar.

Okay.

I think this is gonna be my last one I peel so I can show you the next steps.

And if we have time, we'll come back to it.

I was gonna try to do a trick on this one, where you make a snake with your peeler.

I can't seem to do it this time.

You go around and around and around and eventually make a long snake.

Maybe I'll try it with another apple.

I used to be so amazed when grownups did that snake where it looked like they just did the peel so perfectly off the apple, gotta get it all off.

There we go.

Long, little bit left.

Peeling apples, there we are.

And you can actually save your apple peels, and if you have like a compost bin or somewhere where you kind of add them to soil, they can help other things grow.

Other things like apple trees, who knows.

Okay, the next step is we have to slice our apples.

So I have four, I'm just kind of doing it as an example.

You can use a fancy slicing thing like this, that cores and slices the apples for you.

It's called an apple slicer but I think I'm just gonna use a regular knife, and a big reminder that this is an activity that you're gonna wanna do with adult help.

So let me slice my apples up.

You wanna leave the middle part off.

You wanna slice them kind of thinner, not too thin because then you'll get them soggy.

It'll be a big soggy mess.

Like I said, apple pie soup still delicious.

We're gonna try to make some apple pie filling, which is a little different.

Okay.

I'll slice another one so I can show you.

Cut that one into four pieces, and slicing it a little more.

Maybe I'll do all four of them so you can really see what the recipe looks like.

And you're gonna get a big pile of apples.

Now the most tempting thing is to eat them, isn't it?

It's like one for the pie, one for my mouth.

One for the pie, one for my mouth.

Can't do it this time.

'Cause you gotta add more delicious things like sugar and butter in there and you can eat it up.

I have one left.

Now when you're doing any knife activity, you're gonna wanna have an adult's help because knives are very sharp.

You do not want to play with knives ever, ever, ever.

You can really hurt yourself.

And I'm telling you from experience because I am not the best chef and I have cut myself many a time.

All right, let's put our sliced apples in the bowl, and then we'll get to the next ingredient.

Look at all of this.

I'll add the rest of the apples when we're done here so we can finish it off tomorrow.

So here's our apples.

Do you remember the next ingredient?

It is lemon juice.

So let me cut my lemon in half here and we need one tablespoon.

So these kind of non-traditional literacy activities are great for teaching kids about measurement and reactions.

I feel like we all know that as adults, but sometimes we get so in a hurry to finish things that we forget to include our children, even the youngest ones in cooking activities.

So, don't add the seeds.

The lemon actually help keep...

Excuse me, the apples from browning.

So you're gonna wanna mix that up.

And then we're gonna add our brown sugar.

I'm gonna need half a cup.

So let's add half a cup, which is two of these guys, just two quarter cups.

So there's one and there's two.

All right, we're gonna mix it again.

Mix it, mix it, mix it.

It's all in there.

We're gonna need two tablespoons of butter.

I happened to have two tablespoons right here that I'm gonna chop up.

I can't wait until you see the apple pies that we make tomorrow.

And I don't feel guilty about eating three of them 'cause there are many, so you can't make me feel bad.

(chuckles) What did you have for dessert?

Only three pies.

(laughs) All right, I'm gonna cut them into cubes and add them in, and then we're gonna add just a little bit of sugar.

So we're gonna add, let's see, we added the sugar, oh, we need our corn starch.

So we need two tablespoons of our corn starch.

That's actually our last ingredient.

So this is what a tablespoon measure looks like.

It's a little big, it looks like a regular spoon, and we need to put that in there.

One, and two.

Now we're gonna mix.

And then I promise that I will bake this off-camera so that we have filling for tomorrow's apple pie recipe, or I'm just gonna mix it all up.

Oh!

It looks so delicious, I just wanna eat it like this.

Tell me "No Ms. Lara, wait till it's baked."

And the good thing is when you bake this, your whole house smells amazing.

The butter in there.

Okay.

So I'm gonna cook it up on the stove while you're away here, and then tomorrow we'll make a delicious, fluffy, a beautiful crest to put our apple pie filling in.

So I hope that you'll join me then.

If you're following along, we're gonna need some flour, some butter, of course, lots of butter, some ice water.

We're going to need just a little bit of sugar, and then we'll mix it into create a beautiful crest and a cupcake tin, don't forget to bring that.

Okay.

Until then boys and girls, I hope that you try this apple recipe or any more of your apple favorites.

And I wanted to tell you, yesterday, I talked about a stem activity, and when my daughter tried the activity, she actually got the tower all the way up to eight apples.

So I'm curious to know how high yours was.

All right, until next time, Ms. Lara sends you up big squeeze and a big smooch, (lip smacks) reminds you to read and play and to use your imagination every single day.

Goodbye.

(upbeat music)