(upbeat music) - Hi friends and welcome to Room Nine, St. Louis's largest classroom.

Yep, you're in it.

It's pretty exciting, isn't it?

Well as always I'm Mr. Cotton and I teach kindergarten at Bermuda elementary school in the Ferguson fluorescent school district which is in North County here in St. Louis.

Yup, I know some of you and I'm so glad you're joining me.

And for those of you who are new to our program or new to seeing Mr. Cotton, well welcome.

I'm so glad you're here.

So let's start by making sure that we give each other our virtual fist bumps, high fives and hugs, you're ready?

All right, here comes the fist bump, right back at you, here comes the high five and here comes my virtual hug to you.

Thank you so much for joining me and for joining Mr. Bear on our learning and exploring science today, and remember even if I'm teaching a first grade science lesson, we all know that we can learn and explore and grow together.

Yes, you adults too.

You grown ups, yep.

Kids do you have your grownups with you?

All right, well I hope they get to learn as much as you do today too.

Now remember as always, if you're feeling kind of sad today maybe it's really cold outside which Mr. Cotton is gonna get a little cold because when we go on our Notice and Wonder walk today I'm gonna be bundled up, I might have to put on a hat this time 'cause it's really cold.

Remember though, we can always learn and grow together with our favorite stuffed animal friend or a favorite doll that we have or maybe a figurine, an action figure or a superhero.

Do you have yours?

I know some of you remember that Mr. Cotton always wants you to get one.

All right so friends, I'm gonna give you this amount of time to get your stuffed animal friend or doll, I can't wait to see what you get this time.

Maybe it's a bear, maybe it's a lion, maybe it's Iron man or Spider-Man or Disney princess doll.

All right, well I hope you have your stuffed animal brand, Mr. Bear is gonna sit right here because he wants to listen and find out what we're gonna learn today.

All right so friends, the past few episodes that you've seen Mr. Cotton teaching you and what we've been learning about is all about sounds all right?

And where sounds come from and how sounds can be high pitched and low pitch and loud or soft.

Well today we're going to not listen with our ears, we are going to explore with our eyes.

Yes, because today or after today's episode, all of us will be able to describe how light travels through objects so that they can be seen.

So you guessed it, what do we need outside if we're going on our Notice and Wonder walk?

Light, yes so I hope it's...

I hope the sun is out today and it's not gonna be night time like one of the episodes, it's gonna be daytime.

All right we'll talk about that when we Notice and Wonder.

So again remember we always go on a Notice and Wonder walk and we might do a scavenger hunt.

We might explore Mr. Cotton's neighborhood, we'll find out.

And then we're gonna come back into the classroom and we are going to find out about light waves and how light can be seen through objects and through other things.

All right, well friends are you ready to go exploring with me?

Let's go find out some things that have light going through them or bouncing off of them.

We'll talk about that, you're ready to join me?

All right let's go.

I'll see you soon.

Hi friends and welcome to our Notice and Wonder walks.

So we are outside of Mr. Cotton's neighborhood and what do you see behind me?

Yes something that we need to figure out where the light comes from and the energy comes from, it's right behind me, do you see it?

We finally have the sun, now remember in other episodes that Mr. Cotton has done and you've traveled along me, we've had so many clouds and it's been dark, right?

But now we have the sun.

So remember scientists, we are going to be using our sense of sight today because we are on a mission to find objects that we can see light through.

So we need the sun, right?

We need the sun behind us in order to figure out where the light comes from or where the light can go through.

So I'm just going to turn around here and I'm noticing as you walk with me that we have an apartment behind us that has windows.

Now have you ever wondered how when we... How does that light come through?

Well we do need the sun, like we already said right behind me.

Yeah, we always need that first light source, right?

The sun.

But have you ever wondered that when it's dark in your house or in your apartment, wherever you live that when you have maybe curtains or blinds down, it's kind of dark and the sun doesn't come in.

So what do you do scientists?

Tell your friend.

What can you do to let light in to your apartment or your house?

Think, say it.

I heard some friends say that we have to open the curtains, we have to pull them open, we have to use force like we did with sound in order to let light in, very good thinking.

Well let's keep looking.

So we talked about windows and we talked, oh wait, I'm wondering or I'm noticing that our windows when we look at them from our house or from our apartments or wherever we're at in a building, in school, right?

In school too, our windows, how can we see through them?

What are they made of?

So light can go through material that we can see through, right?

Yes, so mostly the glass or so mostly the windows are made of glass, is that what you're thinking?

Yeah, so that glass is clear, so I wonder if the sun or a light bulb, right up here is a light behind Mr. Cotton has to have some type of material that we can see through, good thinking.

You're so smart.

Yeah so maybe that glass is something that we have to have in order for light to travel through.

Well I'm noticing that as I keep walking behind me, I'm noticing that there are cars.

Now we talked about windows in our homes, we talked about windows in our school buildings but what about our cars too?

Who in their car or their grownups car has had to put on sunglasses because the sun is so bright?

I know I have, yes or we pull down a visor, what's called a visor in the car to block the sun, yeah because the visor or the sunglasses are tinted and not as clear so they protect our eyes.

Great thinking.

So as we are finishing up our Notice and Wonder walk outside, I wanted to pay close attention to, yes, what's behind me way up tall.

How many of you have seen those in your neighborhood?

Well if you don't, I challenge you on the next car ride with your grownups or grandma or grandpa or whoever tsetse or mom and dad, I want you to look for some things in your car or I want you on a sunny day to see if you have to put on sunglasses or if you have to cover your eyes because the sun our light source is so bright.

Well look above Mr. Cotton, what are those?

Tell your friend, tell your grown-up even, streetlights yes and they are tall.

I wonder why they're so tall.

Maybe the street lights have to give light to a big area and not just like our lamps or lights in our houses 'cause those are a short area, right?

Or a little area to light up so we can see.

These streetlights outside, they must cast a light that we can see so we can drive or we can walk or we can see where we're going, right?

So that must mean that's why they're tall maybe.

Yeah so if I'm looking behind Mr. Cotton, yeah I see another light that comes down off of a building, so it's kind of cool how light sources have to be clear, bright so we can see the light through it, the beams shining through it and they could also have kind of a different design but still the light bulb inside, I'm gonna kind of zoom in, the light bulb inside still is kind of clear, isn't it?

Yeah, all right friends.

Well thank you so much for coming out and as you see, Mr. Cotton is getting a little cold, all right?

But I've got my hat on, I've got my winter coat on so I'll see you back in the classroom.

Great job exploring where light comes from and what material we need in order to see light coming through.

All right let's find out more from our Read Aloud today and figure out what light waves are and can we see them?

I don't know.

All right I'll see you back in the classroom, see you soon.

All right everybody welcome back into the classroom, I hope you had so much fun walking in Mr. Cotton's neighborhood to find sources of light.

Yeah, all right well friends, let's go ahead and go over what we saw, what we noticed with our eyes, what we wondered in our minds, what we told our friends or what we told our grownups, Mr. Bear will help us out too.

I bet you have some answers, right?

Yeah he's got some answers too.

So I've written down a few post-it notes about what we talked about or some main ideas and I need you to help me fill out the details.

So we're gonna start with post-it number one which says in order for us to describe how light travels through objects so that they can be seen, we need to know what kind of sources of light we have out there.

So who can tell Mr. Cotton what we saw when we first were out in the neighborhood, what was the source or where was the light coming from where we could be seen or where you could see Mr. Cotton in the video?

Shout it out louder can't hear you?

Oh yes you're totally super smart, the sun.

And we've spent a few episodes talking about the sun and how it affects light and it affects what we can see and it affects how we feel and how warm we feel.

Great thinking.

So yes, the sun was kind of our main source of light but I'm trying to think there were some other things that we saw, maybe they weren't on but we know that they're there, what are those?

Yes you got it, streetlights.

Remember those tall polls that we usually see the power lines on.

Some of them have street lights on them.

So we saw street lights which can cover maybe a longer or a bigger area, right?

Because they were tall up in the sky so they could shine bright all over the place, very good.

Now we also talked about some things that were, oh you already rushed and beat me to it.

Yes you were thinking and I think Mr. Bear was thinking the same thing, I heard him whispering back here, but you know I was trying to listen to you.

Yes we heard light, we gotta think of the light bulbs, remember in that, the light fixture that was hanging down above the cars, the light bulb was in it so when we have light bulbs we see them in our houses, we see them in our lamps, we see them up on our lights, maybe even in our classrooms and school where we look up above and you can see the light fluorescent long light bulbs, some of you have that kind of light.

Very good, well let's move on to the next part of how light travels through objects.

Well we need the source but then those light waves like from our book, which we'll find out more about those light waves need energy and we've talked about how when we make sound, we need energy, we need force, we need to push buttons, we need to push things or pull things open to make the sound or to hear the sound or we need to buzz with our lips to make the trumpet sound right?

The air go through.

So what kind of energy is happening?

Where's the light coming from?

Yep, right the sun, the sun is giving off that energy because the sun is so big even though it's so far away, it's so big that it causes us to put sunglasses on or hats on to protect it or sunscreen on to protect our skin because of that energy is so high.

So I'm gonna say it's super, super duper, super duper.

I think that's super duper why?

I think that's a show on PBS, right?

Yeah super why, to spell.

So that's super duper energy there, isn't it?

Yeah so that energy comes from the sun and we need that all right?

And then we need some energy of maybe like the wires in the light bulb or the wiring of like those power lines, that electricity.

So the wires might provide electricity that travels through the wires to get that energy for that light to come on.

Very good thinking.

Well now we, if I remember correctly we were talking know about when we were looking behind Mr. Cotton at the apartment, in the cars, what did they have on them?

Mr. Bear, can you tell me what did the cars and what did the apartment have that we see light through?

Friends listen to Mr. Bear, the pair of glass.

Wait, what?

Did you say the same thing?

He said something, well thank you Mr. Bear for letting us know.

Yes the material that the light comes through has to be see-through.

So material that we saw was glass, all right?

From windows, right?

And the cars?

Yes, oh and light bulbs out like there's Mr. Cotton's light bulb, the light bulb and yes this is perfect because in my drawing I have the wires, right?

That provides the energy and electricity and then it's clear so we can see the yellow light coming out.

Man we're just super smart, everything's like clicking together, isn't it?

Well friends, I'll also wanna talk about the other material that we could see, we talked about blinds, we talked about curtains, blinds, curtains, we talked about how those materials, the material that blinds are made up the plastic or curtains that cloth can be dark and we can't see through, we talked about the visors coming down in the car, sunglasses, yeah.

All of that material is tinted or it's dark and it's thicker where we can't see the light through it.

And finally, we have a post-it note that says reflecting, light reflects, light reflects.

Well, I think we're gonna find more about that in our book.

All right well we've been, so we're gonna come back to that though.

Well we've been sitting for a little while and you've been you know sitting, walking with me trying to find light so let's get up and move.

Let's play a game Mr. Cotton says I'm so excited, I really want to try to trick you but you know you're always super smart and you can beat the game, okay?

Because you listen with your ears so well.

All right, so are you in a comfortable space?

All right well if you're not, make sure you don't hit your grownup if we're jumping and kicking, all right?

Or hit your baby brother or sister or your older brother or sister, all right?

All right friends are you ready to play Mr. Cotton says remember the clue words is always listening for Mr. Cotton.

All right here we go friends, Mr. Cotton says pat your belly five times?

Now Mr. Cotton says to jump up and down three times?

Mr. Cotton says spin around five times?

One, two, three, four, five hope you're not dizzy.

Mr. Cotton says you can sit back down.

Mr. Cotton says, let's take a rainbow breath together.

(inhales air) Mr. Cotton says let's take a sunflower breath together, big circle and bring it out.

Mr. Cotton says, stand up, Mr. Cotton says sit down, Mr. Cotton says stand up we got to move.

Mr. Cotton says skip around your grown-up, skip around him.

Mr. Cotton says, jump two times this time, one, two.

Mr. Cotton says, say hooray, hooray.

Mr. Cotton says, say hi to Mr. Bear?

Oh he's so happy, he's got his hats, he loves that.

Mr. Cotton says, you can sit back down.

Mr. Cotton says, pat your head four times.

Mr. Cotton says give a big smile to those around you.

I'm giving them to you because I see you.

Mr. Cotton says, you can stop smiling.

Mr. Cotton says, give a frown face.

Mr. Cotton says, raise your eyebrows.

Mr. Cotton says, touch your ears, touch your elbow.

I said touch your elbow?

Oh, you did not get, no you did not get fibbed or tricked, did you?

All right well friends, let's try to find out the answers to our reflecting on what this word reflects mean to figure out how we see the light go through objects.

All right so today we are going to read a book called "What Are Light Waves?"

And it is a crab tree book.

So that means they gave the permission for us to read that to you.

And the author, the person who wrote all the words is Robin Johnson.

So she wrote all the words super smart.

Now what did you notice about this book?

It's real, I see real pictures.

Last episode we had a story book.

Yeah and it was about a real person but it wasn't real pictures that we took with a camera.

All right well I don't know about you but I'm noticing that these bubbles have something going on with them, they're different colors.

I thought about well bubbles are clear, you can see through them.

So friends remember that in our Read Alouds when we have real books, we have a table of contents and they give the chapters.

So today we're not gonna read every single chapter because we wanna find out how light goes through objects and how we can describe that.

So first I guess we need to know what is light, so let's go to page four, up here we go.

What is light?

Oh, we talked about this today, didn't we?

Up there, that is sun.

Light is the brightness that lets you see the world around you.

It shines down from the sun when you ride your bike, light glows from your campfire when you are roasting marshmallows while camping.

It shines from a lamp when you're reading a bedtime story.

Yeah right now I've got the light bulb shining down for us so you can see me reading the story to you.

Light is everywhere.

Some lights are very bright.

The sun is our brightest light, others are dim which means we can't see very well.

Dim means not bright.

A nightlight gives off only a little light, some lights flash or blink on and off like a traffic light, yeah like when it blinks red, yellow, green there are all kinds of lights so look around you.

What lights do you see?

And how do they look?

Go ahead, look around you.

Tell your grownup or tell your friend well Mr. Bear I see light bulbs, I see my lamp over by my bed, it's not on though.

Oh and I see a bright light shining down so the kids can see me.

What do you see?

Oh that's right you see the sun coming through the window, oh great job.

All right friends let's read on.

So we need to find sources of light so I see something about the sun, light is energy, that word energy.

Let's go to that page, page 10 light is energy, oop here we go, oh some of you have been to the St. Louis aquarium and seen the jellyfish.

Light is a form of energy.

Energy is the power to do work.

So when we have energy with sound, we need to blow the air through, we need to push something to make the sound go just like light needs energy.

There are many forms of energy.

We use some forms of energy to heat our homes, we use other forms of energy to fuel our bodies.

We eat the food to make when we exercise to get energy.

So over a hundred years ago people used candles to light their homes, today we use electricity instead.

There's that word electricity, we were right in our Notice and Wonder walk.

Electricity allows us to light up any room with the flip of a switch which is that force to make the sound very good.

All right well, we haven't found anything about reflecting yet but let's see, oh light waves, Oh it says light travels through objects so that they can be seen, let's talk about these light waves 'cause that's the title of our book, page 14, light waves yeah, I wonder if we can see them with our eyes?

I don't know.

Oh, Ooh I see this, you know what that is.

Well light wave say that the sun like bulbs and all other sources of light make light waves.

Light waves are rays or beams of energy.

You can see with your eyes.

Your eyes sees different light waves as different colors.

It says, this is what the light waves of the different colors of the rainbow look like, so they're wavy.

So what we're seeing with our eyes or even if we have sunglasses on, we're seeing the light, the energy from the light coming through the material so that way we can see it better.

So there are long and short light waves so maybe that means those streetlights were way tall might need longer waves so they can light up the road and light up the sidewalk.

Light waves are different lengths, some light wave are long, other light waves are short.

Different sidelight waves make different colors.

Now what's your favorite color?

Tell your friend, Mr. Bear what's your favorite color?

What, his favorite color is blue.

He likes blue, who else likes blue?

Yeah I like red, I like blue.

Now.

Mr. Bear and I think the same way.

Now when sunlight hits the rain drops in just the right way we can see all of the lights colors in the form of the rainbow.

So remember when we find rainbows or when we see rainbows it's usually after a thunderstorm or there's dark clouds in the background and then the sun is coming out.

So the sun energy light reacts with the water and it causes those colors.

That's why these bubbles have the different rainbow colors, see because the light or the sun wherever she's at outside is hitting the clear material and that's why it has those colors.

All right well finally, let's go and find out about reflection and how light reflects.

I found it it's page 16, it says a light matter or a source of light or where the light comes from.

So friends it says light waves travel from their source in straight lines.

The waves are straight until they meet up with matter.

Matter is anything that takes up space and that you can see or touch.

Everything is made up of matter.

Your toys are made of matter, this book is made of matter, you are made of matter too.

What is the matter?

Find the matter in this picture.

Oh yeah the people, oh the screen, oh the flowers, the puzzle pieces.

Let's find out what happens when the light shines on those matter or the objects of matter.

They bounce around it says when light waves meet an object, the objects matter reflects the light ding, ding, ding, there's our word, reflects light.

To reflect means to bounce off something.

The light waves change direction and keep going.

So they keep moving and bouncing off other objects in their path.

So this ball has a shadow because the light is shining on it and then it's gonna create a shadow.

So what do you think?

Think of this lamp as the sun and the ball as the moon, is the sun or the moon the source of the light?

Yeah the sun.

Why does the moon look to us like it's glowing?

Because the sun is shining on it.

Very good okay well let's go to our post-it note, reflecting, what did we find out?

Tell me?

Reflect means to bounce off, okay to bounce, so the light or whatever the light source is to bounce off matter and then when that light does that, it creates shadows, right?

Or creates a glow so we can see those objects in the dark or at nighttime or wherever.

And then the shadows, the light is passing through our bodies and that's why we see our shadows behind us or the other way, if the sun is behind us on a sunny day on the sidewalk you see your shadow in front of you because we are the source or the matter, right?

We are the source of the matter that the book was talking about like the ball and the shadow appears behind us.

We probably don't really glow in the light, do we?

No, we don't, we're not plastic, oh sorry we're not glass, are we?

Well friends I'm so glad you joined us today, until next time this is Mr. Cotton in Room Nine.

I challenge you to go find those light sources to check the shadows.

All right, bye I'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Teaching in Room Nine is made possible with support of Bank of America, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Emerson and viewers like you.

(upbeat music)