♪ 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) (playful music) - Good morning, little learners.

Welcome back to our learning space.

My name is Miss Lara.

Can you tell me your name?

I'm so grateful that you made it back today.

I'm gonna have my friend Gerald help us sing our good morning song.

Are you ready?

Goes like this.

♪ Good morning, good morning ♪ ♪ It's a sunshine kind of day ♪ ♪ Come join Miss Lara ♪ ♪ For some learning and some play ♪ ♪ Will we sing a song ♪ Of course we will!

♪ Make our brains strong ♪ Like super strong!

♪ So come along ♪ Yes, come on, friends!

♪ For some learning and some play ♪ Gerald, you're such a good singer!

Can I put you down so that we can go through our visual schedule?

Okay, let me put you down.

Now, remember, Gerald is a special character from the book "Giraffes Can't Dance."

I hope that you get hooked on that book and check it out.

So here's our schedule for the day.

We're gonna do our feelings song to the tune "Wheels on the Bus," we're gonna do our weekly investigation around the enormous turnip, and today, we're gonna focus on beginning sounds, and lastly, we're gonna sing our goodbye song, I'm gonna give you a goodbye wave depending on time.

Are you ready to sing our feelings song?

Okay, it's gonna go like this.

♪ The wheels on the bus go round and round ♪ Okay, it goes like this.

♪ The feelings in my body change all the time ♪ ♪ All the time, all the time ♪ ♪ The feelings in my body change all the time ♪ ♪ How am I feeling now ♪ So I want you to imagine that your mother, father, grandma, grandpa, aunt and uncle said, "Today is pajama day!"

We're gonna go to the grocery store in pajamas, and even school, if you're allowed to, in pajamas too.

How do you think that would make you feel?

Yes, silly!

I love feeling silly.

So let's finish the first song like this.

♪ Today I'm feeling super silly ♪ ♪ Super silly, super silly ♪ ♪ Today I'm feeling super silly ♪ ♪ I want to smile and play ♪ I love to smile and play and be silly.

Okay, we're gonna watch a quick video, but I'm going to use a letter to introduce the video's topic.

Are you ready to see what letter it is?

We're going to need a big curve like this.

♪ Doo doo doo ♪ Letter C. C is for card.

Ms. Southern is gonna walk us through how to make a flower card.

Let's watch together.

- Hi, friends, it's me, Ms. Southern.

Can you say "Hi, Ms. Southern"?

I'm so glad I get to see you again.

Since we're talking about springtime and flowers, we're gonna make a card.

Who wants to do a quick card art with me?

Oh, perfect!

Before we get started, let's put on our thinking caps, lock 'em in, and type in art time.

So this is what we're gonna do.

All you need is a piece of paper and some markers.

Okay, here we go.

(fingers snapping) First, we're going to take a piece of paper, any kind, and we're gonna fold it like a sandwich.

Ooh.

I love sandwiches.

Or like a book.

Then you're gonna take your three colors.

The first color we're gonna use is green.

Watch me draw grass.

Zing, zang, zing, zang, zing, zang, zing, zang, zing, zang, zing.

Perfect, now we're gonna take the same green marker and draw a stem, zoop!

And then we're going to draw a green leaf.

Ready?

Zoop!

This is perfect.

It's already starting to look like a flower.

Next, I'm gonna take any color I want, and I'm gonna draw a shape for the center.

I'm gonna use orange.

What shape do you think I need?

(upbeat music) If you said circle, you were correct.

Wow, friend, you're so smart.

I'm just gonna color the center, and then I'm gonna grab my last color.

I'm gonna use red.

Ready?

Here we go, for the petals.

Bumpity, bumpity, bumpity, bumpity, bumpity, bumpity.

Wow!

This card is coming out really great.

Now you can draw on the inside or color it in, make a nice note for your teacher or a parent or grandma or grandpa, or a friend.

Well, friends, that was really fun and quick and simple!

You can give that card to anybody you want, whether it's a grandma or grandpa, a friend, mom or dad, auntie or aunt, or even a cousin.

All right, friends, before we leave, let's do our affirmation.

Say "I'm brave, I'm smart!

No one can tell me different!

When you look at me, you see the future."

Until next time, bye!

- Thank you, Ms. Southern.

I hope that you try to make a flower card, and Ms. Southern mentioned doing some writing.

So in order to start writing, you need to know what beginning sounds are.

So a beginning sound is the first letter sound you hear in a word.

We usually talk about our special letters, which is the first letter of our name.

So for me, it's L for Lara.

That's my special letter.

I wonder what's the beginning sound of flower, flower.

What's the first sound you hear?

That's right, an F. F for flower.

And then cat, which was a character in our story.

Cuh, at.

Hmm, C, yes, C. Next we have a turnip.

Now think about that first sound you hear.

Tuh, urnip, tuh, urmip.

what letter makes that sound?

It's a T, that's right!

And our last one is rain, rain.

Urr, ain.

That's right, it's R!

I wonder what your special letter is.

Now, to help you practice beginning sounds at home, we're gonna do a quick letter garden activity.

For this you'll need a cereal box, scissors, wooden craft sticks, and of course, optional materials like paper, foam letters, and paint.

This is what the finished product is gonna look like.

Doesn't that look like a garden?

So I'm gonna tell you, it's just a popcorn box that I turned into a garden.

So the first thing you're gonna do is take your paper, and you're going to cover your box.

Now, this is optional, just to make it look more like a garden.

It doesn't change how it functions or how we use it.

So I was gonna show you how I did that.

So the first thing I did was I put my box down, and then I used a marker to kind of go around and trace it out.

Now, parents, this can be a really great activity for estimation.

The children can figure out how to measure and estimate how big something is without actually putting the box on.

They can use non-standard measurements like paperclips or beans, or anything you have in your house.

So now that I have my shape, which is a rectangle, two long sides and two short sides, I'm gonna glue it on.

I'm gonna use this glue that's a little bit messier and takes longer to dry, but it helps kind of stick it on right now.

You can also use a glue stick.

You could even use tape if that's all you have.

Gonna put it there.

There's our side of the garden.

Kind of pat it down like that.

Okay, and you can see I added some brown on top to make some dirt.

Now, to make the little flowers that are gonna go inside, you're going to need some popsicle sticks.

Now, what I like to do is save some popsicle sticks when my daughter eats her ice cream, you could do that.

Or you can buy the sticks, the things at the store where everything costs a dollar.

So you're gonna take your stick, and you can either use paper and trace out a flower, or I happen to have these little cupcake liners at home.

So don't they look like a flower?

If you have these at home, you can use these too.

Then of course, you're gonna take your glue and stick it on like this.

Again, if you don't have these cupcake things, you can just use paper, or you can just write the letter right on the stick.

Now I went to a place where everything's a dollar and found these foam letters.

See right here?

They came in a pack of six.

Now, this is just to make it fancy.

You can write the letter right on the cupcake liner in the middle.

But since I had these foam ones and they're sticky, I thought I'd use those.

So I'm gonna put the letter right in the middle there, and now I've made my flower with the letter S, see?

Okay, so that can get added onto my garden.

Now, you might be wondering, "Miss Lara, how are those sticks staying in there?"

I'm making a tiny hole like this.

Now, what I use to make the hole is just my scissor, and I take it, and you might have to have a grownup help you with this, and I stab the box, just like that.

Make a tiny hole, also called an incision if you're getting fancy.

Put it on there.

Now you have your letter garden.

Now, how I might use this activity is I could use it a couple of different ways.

I can say, "Can you garden for the letter S?"

And then I'd pull out the letter S. I might also go like this.

Hmm, I'm going to pick a flower with the letter, letter P. Can you do a scavenger hunt all around your house and look for something that starts with the letter P?

I might also go like this.

Hmm, I'm picking the letter R. Can you name three things that start with the letter R?

So it has lots of different uses.

Okay, my friends, it's time to say goodbye.

I just wanted to remind you, if you make this activity or enjoy our lesson today, don't forget to write me here at the station, send a picture here at the address below, and if you include your address, you actually get one of these fun activity books provided by our friends here at PBS.

All right, looks like we have time to sing our goodbye song today.

You remember what it is?

It goes like this.

♪ A, B, see ya later ♪ ♪ D, E, F, gee, I'm gonna miss ya ♪ ♪ H, I have to go now ♪ ♪ J, 'kay, bye-bye now ♪ ♪ L, M, N, oh, I had a good time ♪ ♪ P, Q, are you gonna miss me ♪ ♪ S, T, you are my best friend ♪ ♪ V, W, X, Y, Z ♪ And you are, you're my best friend, and I love doing this with you and doing different activities.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow.

We're gonna be working on rhyming words, and we're actually gonna be gardening for some rhyming words too.

Until then, Miss Lara sends you a big squeeze and a big smooch, and reminds you to read and to play and to use your imagination every single day.

All right, my friends, we'll see you later.

Bye, have a great day!

I'll see you later!.

(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 ♪ (upbeat music)