(cheerful theme 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.

Hello!

Now I'd love for you to introduce yourself too, wherever you are, as loud as you can, tell me your name when I put my hand to my ear.

Are you ready?

Here we go.

Oh, I heard so many names!

Let's see if I can guess our special letter today.

Let's see, I have today with me a big line.

Those of you with curves, don't be nervous because here comes a little curve.

And what letter have I made?

The letter P. Now you'll remember the P says "pa", the P says "pa", the P says "pa".

Every letter makes a sound, the P says "pa".

Now P is your special letter if that's the letter your name starts with, and if it's not, don't worry.

I bring out more letters throughout the week.

Now today is day one of the five days that we're going to be together this week.

So let me bring out my 10 frame.

See it has 10 boxes and add one magnet right in the middle.

Now we're going to be learning about a special holiday this week called Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving is associated with turkeys.

That means when people think about Thanksgiving, they think about turkeys, and I have a special turkey song that's going to get us started with our learning today.

It's called the Turkey Pokey.

Now, have you heard of the Hokey Pokey?

Well, it's like that, but there's different turkey parts that we're going to put in and out from our body.

So we're going to need to stand up, so stand up and do it with me wherever you are.

It's good exercise.

So here I am, make sure you're in a nice clear spot and get your turkey parts ready.

I'll tell you what we're gonna need.

We're gonna need our turkey wings, these are our turkey wings, we're going to need our turkey legs, called drumsticks, right here.

We're going to need our stuffing, which is our tummy.

And we're going to need our wattle, which is our head.

All right, are you ready?

It goes like this.

♪ You put your right wing in ♪ ♪ You put your right wing out ♪ ♪ You put your right wing ♪ ♪ And you shake your right wing out ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about (claps) ♪ Next, we're going to do our drumsticks, which is our legs.

Ready?

♪ We put our legs in ♪ ♪ We put our leg out ♪ ♪ We put our drumsticks in ♪ ♪ And we shake our drumsticks out ♪ ♪ We do the turkey pokey, and we turn ourselves around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about (claps) ♪ All right, next, we have our stuffing.

And when it's Thanksgiving, there's nothing more stuffed than your tummy.

So we're going to put our tummy in.

Ready?

♪ Put our tummy in ♪ ♪ Put our tummy out ♪ ♪ Put our stuffing in ♪ ♪ And we shake our stuffing out ♪ ♪ We do the turkey pokey and we turn ourselves around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about (claps) ♪ Last one.

We're going to do our wattle, which is our head.

♪ We put our wattle in ♪ ♪ We put our wattle out ♪ ♪ We put our wattle in ♪ ♪ And we shake our wattle out ♪ ♪ We do the turkey pokey and we turn ourselves around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about (claps) ♪ Oh, you were such good turkeys!

You can practice that because we're going to do it all week together.

Right now, I think it's time for Miss Maria's delivery.

Let's see what she's brought us today.

(doorbell rings) Here is our letter.

It says, "Dear Ms. Lara," let's read it together.

"I keep hearing about Thanksgiving Day."

That's right, me too.

And that's because it's the month of November and that's a special holiday in November.

"Can you tell me more about it?"

I can.

So Thanksgiving is a time when you gather together with your family and give thanks for all that you have.

There's a lot of food involved and sometimes there's turkey and pie and mashed potatoes, depending on what your traditions are.

Someone told me that I have to eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

Do I?

Not everybody eats turkey on Thanksgiving.

Different cultures or groups of people do different things.

You can ask your family what your traditions are.

But right now, Miss Maria left us a book that's going to talk about something very important in Thanksgiving and that's togetherness.

So no matter what you eat, if you eat Turkey or not, or however you celebrate, the most important part of Thanksgiving is being with family.

So this book is called Our Table by Peter Reynolds.

Now you'll recognize this author as the person who wrote The Dot and the Sky Color.

He has a lot of books about emotions that I recommend you check out.

But in this book there's a little girl and she wants to get together with her family, but she finds that the more her family is on their devices, like their phones or computers or playing video games, the less time they spend together.

So she comes up with a plan and she thinks, "What can I do to bring back our time together?"

And I won't spoil the book because we have a video story that we'll watch together, but very intelligent little girl comes up with the way to build something that brings everyone together.

So I want you to take a look at our video story from our book, Our Table.

Let's watch together.

(magical twinkling) It's story time.

(cheerful music) Our table, by Peter H. Reynolds, retold by Ms. Lara.

♪ The more we get together the happier we'll be ♪ Violet fondly remembered the table.

She remembered gathering food, preparing the table, cooking meals, and lighting candles.

So many stories, laughter singing, sharing, celebrating, making memories together.

Recently though, Violet found herself alone at the table.

Her family had become busy, very busy.

They had found new places to be.

(sighs) Violet found her father in his favorite chair in front of a big screen, (man speaking on TV) bigger than Violet.

She found her mother on the staircase, chatting silently on her phone.

And she found her brother in his room, playing games with friends she could not see.

(video game sound effects) Feeling quite alone, Violet dreamed of the time when family and friends would gather at the table.

Walking by the room where the quiet table stood, Violet did a double-take.

Huh?

She noticed something had changed.

The table was smaller!

Oh no!

The next day it had become even smaller.

By the end of the week, the table had shrunk so much that it fit easily into the palm of her hand.

Violet blinked, the table vanished.

Violet knew exactly what she had to do.

"I'll do it myself!"

She asked her father to watch a show about carpentry together and they did.

(hammers banging on TV) Violet asked her mother to write a message and post it, to see who knew how to build a table.

And they did.

(typing on cellphone) She asked her brother to use his computer to help draw out a plan together.

And they did.

Violet was ready.

She asked her family to build a table together.

(hammer pounding) (dog barking) And they did (drill buzzing) When they were done, Violet paused to marvel at their creation.

Wow.

A place to come together to share stories once again, a table to make memories (upbeat music) A table stronger and more beautiful than ever!

And it was.

The end.

(cheerful music) So what did you think of the book, Our Table?

Doesn't it have a good message?

Maybe sometimes we need to put our devices away and remember to sit and eat with our family.

And Thanksgiving is a great time to remind yourself to do that.

So, I'm going to put our book down because of course I love reading books to you, but I want you to be able to read books to me.

So we have a rhyming turkey activity, but no!

Look at the turkey.

He's missing his feathers.

Oh, turkey, I can barely see you without feathers.

You look so empty.

So we got to put his feathers back on, but in order to put his feathers back on, we need to find things that rhyme with what he ate and what did I our rhyming turkey eat?

He ate pie.

Ooh, lucky Turkey!

So we're going to find words that rhyme with pie and add them to give him some feathers.

Let's see if you can think of some words that rhyme with pie.

Do you have one in your head?

I wonder if it's this one, I'll give you a clue.

It's something you use to see with.

You have two on your head.

It's an eye!

Eye and pie sound the same at the end.

They're rhyming words.

Okay, let's get you a feather on.

Whew.

He looks so empty and bare without feathers.

Okay.

Here's your next one.

Try to guess.

Rhymes with pie.

It's something that we see every day, but sometimes don't notice.

It has clouds.

What do you think it is?

It's sky.

Sky and pie both say "I" at the end.

Okay.

Let's get them another turkey feather.

We have sky and eye rhyme with pie.

Here's another one.

See if you can guess.

Ooh, these guys are pesky.

Sometimes when you're out in a picnic or eating outside, they buzz right next to you.

They go (imitates buzzing).

Rhymes with pie.

What do you think it is?

A fly!

Fly and pie sound the same at the end.

All right.

Let's put a turkey feather up here.

Let's see the next one.

Here we go.

It's...Oh, this one.

I don't know if you're going to guess it.

It's mysterious.

When you have a mystery, you might hire someone to come and find out what's going on.

They might use a magnifying glass and look for clues.

Do you recognize this picture?

It's a spy!

Spies are pretty cool.

Aren't they?

Sometimes they're not seen at all.

Spy and pie rhyme.

Okay.

Next one.

I have a few more.

How are you doing?

Guessing some of them?

Well, you might guess this one.

If you have a baby brother or sister, they do this all the time.

I'll make the sound it's (imitates crying).

It's cry!

Oh, I'm only gonna cry if I don't get some pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, like the Turkey.

I'm so jealous.

All right, here's the next one.

Oh, this is a good one.

Sometimes I have to do this to my hair when it's wet and sometimes in the desert this way.

It is dry!

So you have a blow dryer on there.

A little hard to see, but you dry your hair with a blow dryer, dry and pie, both say "I", they rhyme.

Okay.

I have a few more we'll get through.

Let's see if you can get them.

Oh, this one, if you like to shoot arrows, or if you have a toy, you might recognize this.

A bullseye!

That's right.

People use them for target practice.

Bullseye and pie all rhyme.

Two more to go.

How are you doing?

Are you getting them all?

I'm gonna need to be more sneaky with my clues.

I have a feeling I'm too easy on you.

Okay, this one is hard.

Sometimes people wear them around their neck if they're going to a very fancy event, and they're long and have a knot on top, do you know what this is?

A tie!

That's right.

Do you ever have to wear a tie?

Oh, I'm lucky, I've never had to wear a tie.

They seem like they would kind of choke your neck.

Last one.

See if you can get them all.

Oh, if you don't recognize this one, I know you boys and girls know what this is.

I've seen you out eating this.

It is something salty and it comes from potato and you might get it with a special meal.

It's french fry!

Fry rhymes with pie.

All right.

Let's take a look at our turkey.

Look at all the words that rhyme with pie, french fry, dry, sky, eye, spy, cry, fly, bullseye, and tie all rhyme with pie.

Now, can you think of any other words that I missed?

I bet you can.

Now, right now, we're going to switch gears and go over to our project place because we're going to be making a turkey, not a rhyming turkey, but one using materials that we're going to find outdoors.

So let's go over to our project place and I'll let you know what we're going to be doing.

So here we go.

So today at our project place, we're going to be making a turkey.

And actually all this week, we're going to be using different methods to make a turkey because at the end of the week I have a special rhyme where you're going to need five little turkeys.

So we're going to make one a day.

This one is very special because it's using natural materials.

Can you guess what I used to make our turkey?

That's right.

Leaves.

And around this time, the leaves are changing to beautiful colors.

So I see some orange and some green, some brown.

So the supplies you'll need are some leaves of different shapes and sizes, a piece of paper, color of your choice, and I use some of these googly eyes that you buy at the place where everything's a dollar, but you can also, you know, just cut some out of paper with some black pen and make them there.

All right.

So let's start our turkey.

You'll notice, on this one, we made its feathers first.

So we're going to make its feathers first.

We need glue and scissors as well.

Forgot to mention that.

So I'm going to make some feathers over here.

Get my glue out and I'm going to use this beautiful leaf I found outside of my house.

Look, it has red on the tips and green.

All right, here we go.

I'm going to put some glue on it.

Feels strange to put glue on leaves.

I don't know.

Then I'm gonna push it down a little bit like this.

And I have a little tip for you, because leaves can be sometimes crunchy this time of year, when you put your leaves down and you get them all settled, you can actually put this on top, put something heavy on top, and it'll keep the leaves from kind of pulling up again.

So here's my first leaf.

What other leaf shall I use?

Ooh, I have this gorgeous leaf too.

I'll put that in there and make feathers.

So, I wonder if you would like to do some homework for me.

I want to learn about turkeys.

Why do we eat turkeys this time of year?

Why not fish?

Why not chicken?

Why turkeys?

And did you know that there's a famous turkey every year that does not get eaten?

It's pardoned by the president.

So if you get a chance, investigate with your family, I think that would be a good home project.

All right, I'm going to continue to add some feathers.

This is what I mean by a crunchy leaf, I'll see if you can hear it.

(leaf crunches) Hear that?

It's kind of crunchy.

So a little bit harder to glue.

I'm going to put some glue down like this.

You're going to have to use quite a bit and just keep layering.

Keep stacking it on top.

This one I kind of have to press down.

You'll see what I mean in just a moment when I show you how it wants to lift up.

See how it wants to kind of lift up off the paper?

Just press it down as much as you're able.

And then you use another leaf, okay?

And you keep layering and making the feathers of the turkey and then I'll show you how to make the body of the turkey.

So here we go, making the feathers.

Now I debated, I said, Miss Lara, should we use construction paper to make the body of the turkey?

And I thought and thought, and I said, no.

Let's make it all natural materials.

Because the beauty of natural materials is of course that you can discuss why leaves are changing color, why they're different shapes and sizes, and go on a walk with your family to gather them.

Can't do that with the construction paper, can you?

Not really.

Oh, I found this beautiful fan leaf, let's add that.

And now you'll notice again, my leaves are kind of pulling up, that happens.

You're just going to want to put something heavy on top like this, and it will dry kind of down.

That's what happened with these leaves.

I'm going to add one more, and then we'll move on to the body, before I show you my recommended books and I have good ones.

I have a lift and flap book or a flap-lift book where it kind of pops up at you.

I love those.

Okay.

Here is what my background is looking like.

Do you see?

Kind of looks like this.

Next, we're going to add a body.

Now I used a big leaf for my body but we're actually going to add and cut one of these crunchy leaves to add the body.

I'm going to cut it into like a circle.

And I may add a small circle for the head and then a larger circle for the body.

You do whatever the leaf tells you.

Part of art is, you know, seeing what materials you have and working with that.

So for me, I have some leaves here that are kind of shiny and brown.

So I'm going to make those my body.

All right.

See I'm gonna make a circle because of course you can cut leaves into any shape.

This is going to be my turkey body here.

I'm gonna add a wattle, right here.

After, I add my eyes.

I picked the biggest eyes I could find, because I thought that would make my turkey extra interesting.

Okay, there's my eyes.

And here, I'll add a wattle.

Then I need a beak, of course.

Okay, let's add a wattle and a beak.

Here we go.

Gluing it down.

Now, does yours have to look like mine?

Goodness no!

The fun thing about art is making it your own.

Okay.

Here's the beak.

I just cut a rectangle shape and I'll show you what it looks like and go onto my recommended books 'cause I definitely don't want you to miss out on the Pete the Cat book that I want to share.

Now it's not fully dry, but this is what it's looking like so far.

What do you think?

Do you like our nature turkey?

Now I have two of them to share.

Now, as you complete each activity, make sure that you save your turkeys, because at the end of the week, we're going to use all five of them that we made to sing our turkey song.

So if you need to slow this video down and go back to it and get inspired to go on a leaf hunt and create.

just like I did here.

Okay, looks like I have just enough time to go through my recommended story and show you it's a lift the flap book.

Okay?

So this is Pete the Cat's First Thanksgiving book.

Look how cool, there's Pete the cat in the very front.

And what I like about this book is watch, check it out.

You can lift some of the flaps and it reveals different pictures.

I know when I was your age, I used to love these kinds of books because I never knew what was behind the flap.

What do you think is behind here?

Let's take a look.

Ooh, a different season.

So I hope that you check out this book at your local library, or if you see it on sale, grab it because it's a good one.

Look, it even talks about what they're thankful for.

Let's see what Pete the cat's thankful for.

Ooh, looks like the Mayflower or a boat of some sort.

I would have to read the book to tell you, I hope that you do.

All right, boys and girls, look like it's almost time for us to go.

So thinking about tomorrow, the materials that you're going to need are some magazine clippings.

So if you have some old magazines that you're throwing away, bring those out, 'cause we're going to make a turkey collage using a magazine.

You're going to need glue, scissors, and paper.

And that's all, just three things to make your art.

So I hope that you join me tomorrow.

Remember, I'm so thankful for you and I can't wait to see you again.

Goodbye!

(cheerful music)