♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games to play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun.

♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪ (upbeat music) - Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to our learning space.

My name is Mrs. Lara, can you tell me your name?

I'm so excited that you made it back this morning.

Let's sing our greeting song with our insect friend.

Ready?

♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ It's a sunshine kind of day ♪ ♪ Come join, Mrs. Lara ♪ ♪ For some learning and some play ♪ ♪ Where we sing a song ♪ ♪ Like lots of songs ♪ ♪ Make our brains strong ♪ ♪ Super, super strong ♪ ♪ So come along ♪ ♪ Yes, come on friends ♪ ♪ For some learning and some play ♪ Let me put my insect away and we'll talk about our day.

So let's see.

We're gonna do our emotional check-in.

So this week we've been singing a song and you've been guessing how I feel using my facial expressions, but checking in on your emotions is something that you want to do throughout the day because they change all the time, don't they?

We're gonna continue on with our weekly investigation.

We're learning all about "The Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.

Are you wearing your hat?

I hope you are.

We're gonna do some science today, which is always fun.

And then we'll end our day with a goodbye song or a goodbye wave.

Does that sound like a good plan?

Okay.

Let's play our feelings guessing game.

Here goes our song.

It goes like this.

♪ I have a little feeling inside of me ♪ ♪ Once I name it you will see ♪ ♪ I have a little feeling inside of me ♪ ♪ Ooh, it's ♪ Silly!

That's right!

I love to be silly with you.

Hey, let's do another one.

♪ I have a little feeling inside of me ♪ ♪ Once I name it you will see ♪ ♪ I have a little feeling inside of me ♪ ♪ Ooh, it's ♪ Yes, grumpy.

That's a strong feeling, isn't it?

We need to take our belly breaths to calm down when we have those strong feelings.

Okay let's do our last one, and you know I like to end it on a nice note.

So here we go.

♪ I have a little feeling inside of me ♪ ♪ Once I name it, you will see ♪ ♪ I have a little feeling inside of me ♪ ♪ Ooh, it's ♪ Happy, yes!

I'm so happy today to be here with you.

Okay.

So I have something to share with you on my board.

I wonder what it could be?

Let's do our letter clues so we can find out.

So I'm gonna stand up here.

And learning letters is a great way to begin to learn how to read.

The first place we usually start is by learning our special letter, which is the first letter of our name.

So let's see, I wonder if this is anybody's special letter.

I start at the top and make a big line down and then I'm gonna use another little line down here.

What letter is it?

It's the letter L, that's right.

That's my special letter, L for Lara.

But L is also for learn.

And I'm gonna show you a special way to learn today.

So I mentioned that we're going to be doing some science today.

Now remember, when we do science, I talk about how scientists see the world.

So scientists use their five senses to see the world.

They touch things, smell things, hear things, taste things, and see things, of course.

Now you have five senses too that you can use to see the world.

To think like a scientist, they have a sequence or cycle that they used too that we can use today.

So the first thing we have to do is ask a question.

So look at the world around you and say I'm curious, like Curious George.

I want to know something more about that.

That's the first place to start.

Then we're going to make a hypothesis.

A hypothesis is another one of those grownup fancy words that means take a guess.

Why do you think that is the way that it is?

Then we're gonna experiment, which is my favorite part.

So you get to try things out, observe with your eyes, and then answer the question based on what you observe with your five senses, not just your eyes.

Are you ready to do some science?

Okay.

Here are the materials that you'll need.

You'll need a balloon, a plastic bottle, marker, vinegar, which is very smelly, and baking soda.

So let's start off with looking at what's gonna happen when I put some vinegar, which is here, and baking soda together.

Ooh, safety first.

I have to put on my glasses.

Vinegar can be an irritant to eyes.

So make sure you put on glasses or take special precautions.

So I'm gonna pour my vinegar in here and I want you to think, remember we ask a question.

What is going to happen when I put baking soda in there?

Let's see.

Here goes the first one.

Ooh, are you seeing that?

It's fizzing up, isn't it?

It expanded and made bubbles.

And if you can hear the sound, it sounds like lots of bubbles fizzing.

I wonder why that happened.

Hmm.

Now we're going to take a two liter bottle filled with some vinegar and I'm going to put a balloon on it.

Now my balloon has something special on it.

It has a caterpillar.

So if you wanted to do the same, you draw a caterpillar on there.

And then, the other side has something special.

I'm gonna put my balloon on here.

Oops.

First the baking powder, baking soda, Mrs. Lara.

A little funnel to put it in.

If you wanted to try this at home, a funnel really does help.

Okay, we're gonna put some baking soda in.

It's gonna start reacting and then put our balloon and see what happens.

Is it going?

(laughs) And turn it around.

Can you see that there?

It is a, hard to see, but a butterfly!

So it was a caterpillar, now it's a butterfly.

But how did the balloon get so big?

I wonder if the baking soda and vinegar has something to do with it.

Okay, while Mrs. Lara cleans this up, I'm gonna invite you to do a mindful minute with Mrs. McCarthy.

So let's watch the video together to end our week.

♪ I need to slow things down ♪ - [Mrs. Lara] Let's slow down and follow along as Mrs. McCarthy leads us in a mindful minute.

♪ I need to slow things down ♪ - Hi boys and girls.

Welcome to Mrs. McCarthy's Mindful Minute.

I'm so glad you could join me today.

Today, we're gonna start off with some mindful stretching.

Since spring is upon us, we are going to start out as a seed and stretch up into a plant.

Everybody get down on your knees.

Put your hips back onto your heels.

Put your head forward, down on the ground.

And lean over like a small seed.

Now rise up slow, like a plant, with your arms in, slowly stand up, and stretch up high as you can, up onto your tippy toes like a plant that's stretching really tall.

Oh, that feels so wonderful.

Very good, boys and girls.

That was some good stretching.

Now I'd like you to sit on the ground.

I'm going to sit crisscross, but you can sit anyway you like.

I'm going to show you how to do some bubble breathing.

You're gonna watch me first and then we're gonna practice together.

I'm going to first hold my bubble container and my bubble wand.

I'm going to dip my bubble wand into the bubbles and then I'm going to pull it out and blow a great big bubble.

I'm going to inhale through my nose and exhale out through my lips.

I'm pretending that I'm blowing a great, big bubble.

Try this with me.

Hold your bubbles.

Hold your bubble wand.

Dip into your bubbles.

Bring it out.

Inhale slowly through your nose and exhale slowly through your mouth.

Two more times.

Dip your bubble wand in.

Take it out.

Breathe in, breathe out.

That was very good, boys and girls.

Remember when you're feeling upset, it's good to remember some of the breathing techniques that we do together.

Thank you for coming today.

I'll see you next time.

♪ Take a big deep breath ♪ ♪ I need to slow things down ♪ - It is always so nice to slow things down with Mrs. McCarthy, isn't it?

Now remember boys and girls that these videos are available online at Valley PBS's website and now on YouTube.

So if you try any of the activities also, or Mrs. McCarthy's Mindful Minute, make sure to send in a letter or picture to the address below.

And if you send in your address, you actually get sent one of these activity books.

So I always loved getting mail when I was younger.

It didn't happen often, so it was always a surprise.

It looks like our week is done.

Where did the time go?

Let's review all that we did this week and I'll give you a little sneak peek as to what we're gonna do next week when we come back for Mrs. Lara's Learning.

Let's see, this week, we made our hats.

Hopefully you're wearing them now.

We did a science experiment with baking soda and vinegar, and we saw that it inflated a balloon.

Ooh, I wonder why that happened?

We also made a butterfly lifecycle mobile.

Remember we talked about the metamorphosis of a butterfly?

Where it starts off as an egg and then it goes to a caterpillar, a chrysalis, and then a butterfly again.

We made symmetrical butterflies that you can even put on your wrist to play with.

We had so much fun.

We sang songs.

And next week we're gonna continue to have fun also.

We might even have a special visitor.

Hmm, I wonder what I could be talking about?

Okay, it looks like we have just enough time for our song very quickly.

If we don't finish it, I'll just whisper it out.

Here we go.

♪ A, B, C you later ♪ ♪ D, E, F, G I'm gonna miss ya ♪ ♪ 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, Z ♪ And you are, you're a friend that I look forward to seeing every day.

My friends, have a great weekend.

Remember to play and to use your imagination every single day.

And don't forget to send in a letter or a picture so you can get one of these fun activity books.

Okay, I'll see you next week where we're gonna continue with Eric Carle's book, "The Tiny Seed," and we might have a special visitor.

We'll see what that is.

Okay.

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

Goodbye!

(upbeat music) ♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games to play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪