(theme music) - Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to our PK and TK classroom.

My name is Mrs. Lara, and I'm gonna be your teacher today.

Hello, I'm so grateful that you're here with me.

You remember when we're together, we learn all about reading.

We read a book, we practice some foundational skills and we end our time together with a project that you can practice all the skills we learn at home with.

All right, so let's start our day by you telling me your name, and I'm gonna try to catch your special letter and write it down on my board, are you ready?

When I put my hand to my ear, you let me know as loud as you can what your name is, here we go.

I found a name.

I think I caught a special letter, let's see.

I'm gonna use a little line, big line and little line.

Is this your special letter?

"Z", it's not?

If it is, congratulations to you.

If it's not, don't worry, I catch letters all the time and I'm sure I'm gonna catch yours.

Do you remember what sound the "Z" makes?

That's right, it makes a zzz like a bee almost, let's sing it together.

♪ The Z says the zzz, ♪ ♪ The Z says zzz ♪ ♪ every letter makes a sound, the Z says zzz.

♪ Learning letters has been so much fun with you because knowing your letter sounds, it's what helps you put them in together to make words, which make sentences, which you read in books, which is what we're trying to accomplish here.

Now this week we're learning all about kindergarten and we're getting ready to go to school in a kindergarten classroom.

So today is day one of our learning around kindergarten.

Have you heard that word before?

Maybe you're a little bit scared to go.

I know I am when I was a teacher.

I have to start kindergarten today, and I was the teacher so imagine if you're the student learning.

I know that if you're scared, you can stay with me and remember my words.

You're gonna be okay.

So let's start off with a song and then we'll read our story about kindergarten.

Now today's song is bread and butter, marmalade and jam, and it's a hello song and it involves clapping and tapping.

So can you get a rhythm going like this?

Here we go.

♪ Bread and butter, marmalade and jam.

♪ ♪ Let's say hello as quiet as we can, ready?

♪ Hello, I barely heard you.

Let's do it another way.

♪ Bread and butter, marmalade and jam ♪ ♪ let's say hello as loud as we can.

♪ Hello, one more.

♪ Bread and butter, marmalade and jam ♪ ♪ let's say hello as slow as we can.

♪ I'm gonna stretch it really slow.

Hellooooo.

♪ Bread and butter, marmalade and jam.

♪ ♪ Let's say hello as fast as we can.

♪ Hello, that was pretty fast, did you even hear it?

It was like ninja speed, hello.

♪ Bread and butter, marmalade and jam.

♪ ♪ Let's say hello as high as we can.

♪ Hellooo.

Now comes low and that's our last one.

♪ Bread and butter, marmalade and jam.

♪ ♪ Let's say hello as low as we can, helloo.

♪ I'm sounding like very low and monster voice, hello?

I hope that you love that song and give it a try.

Right now we're gonna learn some words that we're gonna need to understand our story about kindergarten.

So let's unveil the words.

I have three for you today and they're really fun ones.

The first one is droopy.

You can make a hand movement like this.

This means droopy, you see how my hand is falling over?

Droopy means to hang down, to sag like this droopy, give it a try.

The next word is oozy, you stay with me, oozy OOzy means full of slime.

When that slime or materials leaking out slowly, oozy.

That's just really fun to say.

The last word is a person that works in a school that you might meet when you go to kindergarten.

That's a custodian.

Special letter "C" custodian.

It's the person responsible for cleaning a school building.

If you see a custodian, you say, hello, thank you for all that you do.

Now we're gonna meet a teacher and some students that are in a very wild kindergarten class.

A kindergarten class that I would wanna be a part of, here's my book.

Mrs. Kindergarten has a wild day in kindergarten.

Now I don't want you to think that all kindergarten is like this, but it is a lot of fun, like in the book.

It was written by Joseph Slate, that's the author and illustrated by Ashley Wolf, she drew the pictures.

So let's read Mrs. Kindergarten's wild day in kindergarten together.

All right, there she is.

Look, if she has a flat tire already starting off badly.

I want you to notice before we read this book that it's an A through Z book, so if you remember that alphabet, it starts with "A" and ends with "Z" and all the things that are described in the book follow that same pattern.

So see, first one is A, A for Adam.

Adam throws his hat too high.

So there's Adam throwing his hat way up high and it lands up here.

Now this is a kindergarten classroom, do you see?

There's lots of friends that are there learning, and lots of toys and things to play with.

Brenda bursts in late.

There's Brenda going, hello I'm late.

Christopher says he has to go, he really cannot wait.

There's Christopher.

Danny tends his droopy beans, remember droopy?

Means to sag or fall down.

Now in kindergarten, when you go, you might get to plant things, to learn about their life cycle just like Danny.

Emily spies some aunts.

Oh no, there they go up the building blocks.

Franny lifts her dress and shouts, "I love my fancy pants."

There she is.

Well, you wear fancy pants in kindergarten.

Miss Bindergarten has a wild day in kindergarten.

Now, which one do you think miss Bindergarten is?

Do you think it's her or do you think it's the cat?

Yeah, I think it's her.

I think this is Miss Bindergarten.

I can tell she's the adult in the room because she's taller than everyone and she's holding some papers very seriously.

Gwen falls off the steps stool, Henry just won't share and Ian sadly tells Ms. B, we didn't mean to tear.

So there they are tearing.

Miss Bindergarten and the librarian have a wild day in kindergarten.

There's a lot happening.

This is the librarian.

When you go to kindergarten, you're gonna get to go visit a library.

That's a place full of books that you can read.

Jesse drops the bug jar crush.

Zzz, all the lady bugs come flying out.

Kiki cuts her thumb and Lenny says, "Ms. B, we need the nurse to calm.

Mrs. Bindergarten and the nurse have a wild day in kindergarten.

Look at the elephant franchise, bandits all over.

Matty checks a chrysalis, Noah drops his rock of failures oozy painting is sticking to her smock.

Remember we talked about oozy as leaking everywhere, kind of slime like so her painting is very oozy.

Patricia trips and flips her tray, Quintin overloads, Raffie Max soaks Sarah when his apple juice explodes.

That is a wild day in kindergarten.

Now I wanted to stop here and show you that all of your friends are eating together.

So when you get to kindergarten, you get to go to a cafeteria and have lunch and maybe breakfast with all your friends together.

Mrs. Bindergarten, and the cafeteria helper have a wild day in kindergarten.

Look at all of that, lots going on.

Tommy dumps in too much dirt, Ursula's seed pack rips, Vicki pours in way too much in the cardboard carton drips.

Now Miss Bindergarten and the custodian have a wild day in kindergarten.

Remember the custodian is somebody who cleans up the school.

That's their responsibility, and look at his face.

He is seeing all this mess, some water, paint everywhere, stuff on the walls of burn.

Oh no, Wanda whacks the principal.

So a principal is someone in the school that's in charge of the whole school.

They are a safe person you can talk to when you have problems.

And look, Wanda was playing ball and he whacks the principle.

Oh no, Xavier skins is knee.

Yolanda says, come look miss B Zach set the butterflies free.

Mrs. Bindergarten and everyone enjoy the wildest day in kindergarten.

So there they are.

Do they look upset?

No.

When things go wrong, they just go with the flow.

"Sometimes even a wild day," says Miss B turns up something wonderful to see.

And there is a butterfly landing on her hand.

So look, life cycle of a butterfly, life cycle of a plant.

And at the very back, if you get this book, you get to see the names of all the students in Mrs. Bindergarten's kindergarten class.

So I hope that you check out this book at your local library.

Now, I thought it'd be really fun to play a game with you because like I said, this is an A through Z book where all the students in the class, all start with the special letter, A through Z.

So I thought we would play and review.

Guess the letter, and I have Mrs. Bindergarten here.

Do you see her?

She's gonna hide in one of the letters and I'm gonna give you clues as to which letter it is.

Are you ready?

Okay.

No peeking, close your eyes straight away.

Close them, close them.

Are you peeking?

No.

Okay, let me put it away.

Close them, okay.

Mrs. Bindergarten is hidden in one of the letters, I'll give you a clue, which one it is?

This letter makes a vvvv sound.

It has two big lines and when the big lines come together, they make and look like this.

What letter is it?

What letter makes the vvv sound?

V, that's right, let's check the V. Mrs. Bindergarten, are you in there?

Here she is.

Mrs. Bindergarten was behind the letter V. Okay, close your eyes again, close them, close them.

Let's see, don't look.

Let's see if we can get behind here, "whoopy idea", all right, are you ready?

Mrs. Bindergarten is behind the letter that makes the hhh sound.

Like it's hhh hot, right?

Has two big lines and a little line in the middle connecting it.

What letter makes the hhh Sound?

It's an H you're so good at this game, let's see.

Are you behind the letter?

There's Mrs. Bindergarten.

Okay, let's try another one.

Okay, here we go, no peeking.

This letter makes the kkk sound.

And it has a big curve.

Do you know what letter makes a kk sound?

Yes, it's the letter C, let me find the C, doo-doo, here it is, and there is Mrs.Bindergarten.

So far you're doing so well.

Let me try to hide her again, okay?

Close your eyes, last one.

Close them, close them.

Okay, here we go.

I hid Mrs. Bindergarten.

Now she's behind the letter that makes the fff sound.

And it has a big line and two little lines up top.

Do you know what letter makes the fff sound?

The letter F, yes.

Let's see if Mrs. Bindergarten is behind the letter F, which is right here.

There she is.

You're so good at this game.

Now I wanted to tell you that you can play this game all year round for review.

And eventually teachers, students can play this game during independent exploration.

They can practice tricking their friends by hiding different things behind the letters, would be much better if done on a pocket chart, then you don't have to make these little pockets yourself.

So give it a try.

All right, right now we're gonna move over to the project place where we have a fun sensory activity that you can use to practice letters during school or during the summer when you have your break.

So let's walk over to the project place and I'll tell you the materials that we're going to need.

Here we go, walking over, going to sit down.

All right, here are the materials that you're going to need for this activity.

And it's called fizzing letters.

You're going to need some vinegar, so I bought this at the place where everything's a dollar isn't that amazing.

Look how much vinegar I got for this activity.

You're going to need some baking soda and the baking soda and the vinegar together make a reaction that causes things to fizz up.

To make it extra fun, I'm gonna use some food coloring.

You're gonna need some cups and then I'm using these eyedroppers.

Now these I found at the store, but sometimes you can use them if they come with medicine that you're no longer using.

Make sure you check with an adult, rinse it out and then you can use it for activities like this.

So the very first thing you're gonna do is put your baking soda in something that's like a container and it helps if it's dark.

Cause then you can really see the letters.

So I'm gonna pour my baking soda in there.

Mrs. Lara, what are you doing today?

I'm always doing the silliest things, aren't I?

So there's my baking soda and I'm just gonna smash down the really big parts like this and that's part of the fun.

Next, I'm going to make some letters.

Now you can do this two ways, you can make letters by using some flashcards, which is the only way I like to use flashcards is to help learn how to write letters.

Or you can just kind of write your name in your own special letters in here, it's up to you.

So I'm gonna write my name, my special letter L I'm gonna do it right up top.

So I'm using a little paintbrush, but you can use your fingers too.

So L right here, you can see if it's dark on the bottom, you can really see the letter, there it is.

And then, then maybe I'll write a letter Z, cause that's my favorite to write.

It's a zig zag which also starts with Z, z there we go.

Next, maybe I'll write an O, there we are.

And one more letter and I'll show you.

There we go, go around and around.

So you can see how for children, this is much more engaging than it is to just write paper and pencil letters.

They're gonna practice letter recognition a couple of ways.

First by writing them in the material and then by using fizzy a solution to kind of go over them.

The last letter I'm gonna write is P, P. Now, if I was a classroom teacher, I would use this activity for those kiddos that are just learning letters, but also those that are struggling with the common ones like G and J, letter sounds, okay!

Now that I have my letters, we can move on to our solution.

This is the fun part.

We get to mix some colors.

I'm gonna add in this one, two droplets of yellow, and then maybe I'll do some red.

Do you remember what red and yellow make together?

No, let's see if we find out here.

I'm gonna use my eyedropper to mix it up, here's my yellow and my red and it makes orange, like a dark orange.

Let's get some fizzy in there.

So to use the eyedropper we just kind of squeeze it, let it go up, see?

And then I'm going to make my letter L orange.

So I'm gonna go around, It's hard for you to see the camera, but every time I pour it fizzes up.

So I'm gonna go around and trace my letter L, look how fun that is.

And I can guarantee you that your kiddos are gonna love writing If you start off with activities like this.

Letter L, okay, that was fun.

Now, what color should I make?

Maybe I'll mix a blue and a red together.

So let's do two drops of blue.

One, two, and let's do two drops of red.

So four drops all together.

What color am I going to get?

Let's mix it up and find out.

It is purple, just like my dress I'm wearing.

So let's make our letter Z purple.

Okay, here we go.

Squeezing all the purple up, there it goes.

And I'm gonna trace my letter Z drop by drop busy, there it goes.

And it makes this sound like when you first open a soda.

It makes that sound.

Now I love this activity because of course you can bring in math.

You can bring in the color mixing.

You can also bring in science.

Why does the fizz happen?

That's something else you can investigate.

Now let's do blue and yellow, we have a little time, we'll mix one more after this.

So how about three drops of blue and four drops of yellow and we'll have to see what we get.

Maybe five drops two, three, four.

I think I did too many drops, but that's okay.

You goes this one, let's mix it up and we get green.

All right, let's add our green to our letter O.

Now an O is two big curves put together, it looks like a shape.

What shape does it look like?

A zero, that's right.

Now there it's fizzing and bubbling and making it sound.

I see if you can hear it.

Last one, last one before we sing our goodbye alphabet song and I give you my book recommendation, let's do a green and a yellow.

Let's see what color that makes.

What do you think?

What color do you think it's gonna make?

I think it's gonna make a lighter green let's mix mix mix.

Ooh, I was right.

It's kind of like a very soft green, not like this deep dark green that I made here or maybe the same, let's see.

We're gonna do our P with this, there it goes.

Your trace big line and little curve letter P. So I hope that you try this busy letter activity with just some simple materials, some food coloring, and I guarantee your children will have so much fun doing this.

Now, Mrs. Bindergarten was a fun book, it was really silly and we didn't get to see all the pictures, but I hope that you check it out at your local library because there's a lot of pictures in that story that have just a lot of funny characters.

Now I thought this one would be a good compliment to it, meaning it would be a good friend book to read.

A book that's the same, but a little different, it's called Silly Sally.

And what I love about this book it's a rhyming book and kids love to read about Silly Sally's adventures.

So look, she's walking down and on the way she met a dog, they played leap frog, isn't that silly?

So if you need help reviewing the rhymes and your child happens to love Miss Bindergarten's book, I would recommend checking this one out.

And I hope that you come back with me tomorrow, because guess what?

We're learning all about kindergarten this week.

And I can tell you that the grownups in your life have already gone to kindergarten.

So ask them say, "Hey, what's kindergarten like, "because Mrs. Lara's learning all about kindergarten "with us."

I think they're gonna say that they loved it.

All right, boys and girls, we have just a little bit more time.

So I think I'm gonna say my ABC all the way up to letter D and then I'll give you a big smooch, are you ready?

Say it with me.

♪ A is for amazing, that's what you are.

♪ ♪ B is for brave, that'll carry you far.

♪ ♪ C is for caring and community.

♪ ♪ This one's our last one, ♪ ♪ and D is for determined to be the best I can be.

♪ That's right.

I hope that you stay whoever you are, Mrs. Lara gives you a big squeeze and a big smooch, no baking soda in the mouth this time.

Reminds you to read and play and to use your imagination and five senses every single day.

We'll see you next time boys and girls, goodbye.

Have a wonderful, wonderful day.

Goodbye.

(theme music)