(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Hello, little learners!

Welcome back to our learning space.

I am your teacher today, I'm miss Laura, hello.

Can you introduce yourself, please?

Tell me your name as loud as you can wherever you are.

Ready?

Here you go.

Well, hello, I heard some of you.

I'm so excited to be here.

I'm gonna try to catch one of your special letters.

Now a special letter is the first letter of your name.

Let's see if I pick yours today.

I remember, I have a big line going down.

So if your name starts with a C, not yours today.

But just wait, I might do yours tomorrow.

And then I have a big curve.

Ooh, what letter have I made?

Do you recognize it?

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

And the D has a sound, the D says duh.

♪ The D says duh ♪ ♪ The D says duh ♪ ♪ Every letter makes a sound ♪ ♪ The D says duh ♪ So I wonder if that's your special letter.

Now all this week, we're learning about gardening.

And today I even have some special, squirmy friends that I'm gonna share with you that I found in my garden.

So today is day two of the five days that we're going to be together.

See one on top, one on the bottom and one and one makes two.

And today I have another book for you.

Before we read the book and review our vocabulary, what do we always do first?

Sing a song!

And I've been telling you what I've been doing in my garden all week.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, I didn't get to Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

So that's what I'm gonna share with you today.

You'll remember that on Monday ♪ I dug up the ground ♪ And on Tuesday I raked the soil fine.

On Wednesday ♪ I watered the ground ♪ And then on Thursday, Friday and Saturday I'm gonna do things with some friends that found their way in my garden.

Are you ready to sing with me?

Get your singing voice on, here it goes.

♪ I went to the garden and scared off the birds ♪ ♪ Scared off the birds, scared off the birds ♪ ♪ I went to my garden and scared off the birds ♪ ♪ On Wednesday morning ♪ That was Wednesday now here's Thursday.

♪ I went to the garden and chased off the cats ♪ Meow!

♪ Chased off the cats ♪ Meow!

♪ Chased off the cats.

♪ Meow!

♪ I went to my garden and chased off the cats ♪ Meow!

♪ On Thursday morning ♪ And then we have one more day.

I'm gonna share with you.

I must wake up early 'cause I'm always so busy in the mornings.

♪ I went to my garden and picked up the worms ♪ Ew!

♪ Picked up the worms.

♪ Ew!

♪ Picked up the worms.

♪ Ew!

♪ I went to my garden and picked up the worms ♪ ♪ On Friday morning ♪ So I had a very busy week and actually, I picked up those worms and I brought them here.

Those are the squirmy friends I was telling you about.

Now, before we get to our worms, there's actually a book I wanna share with you about a worm.

And it is called Diary of a Worm.

So behind door number one.

(vocalizing) Is three words that we're going to need to stick in our brains so that we know what they mean when we read our story.

The first one is diary special letter D and that's the letter we made today, isn't it.

It's a book for writing down your thoughts.

And actually, I brought my super secret diary.

Miss Laura's diary, let's see what it says.

On Monday, Hmm.

My super secret crush is.

No, I'm not gonna tell you, those are my thoughts.

Don't try to look.

So diary, special book where you write down your thoughts.

Keep that definition right in your brain.

Word number two, soaked.

Very, very wet.

To soak something means you put it in water.

So I have an example for you.

I have a little bowl with some water and I have a sock.

Now look at this sock.

It is full of water.

It is the opposite of dry.

It is very, very wet or soaked.

The last word that we're going to need to know before we read our book is manners.

Special letter M for manners.

Now you might have heard a grown up say, mind your manners!

Make sure that you use your manners.

Have you ever wondered, what does that mean?

Well, manners are ways of behaving toward people that show you respect them.

So saying please and thank you.

Maybe opening the door for someone who can't open it for themselves.

Now I wonder where we're gonna see these three in our book.

So let's open up our book and find out.

Here it is, Diary of a Worm.

It is by Doreen Cronin and the pictures are by Harry Bliss.

Now I want you to take a look at the front cover, in the front cover you see a worm and he's holding a pencil, and he's writing on his diary on top of a mushroom.

Now, does this happen in real life?

No.

So this is a work of fiction.

That means it's not a true story.

It's make believe.

So let's see what kind of make believe tale Doreen Cronin tells today.

Okay, March 20th, Mom says there are three things I should always remember.

Number one, the earth gives us everything we need.

So there's the earth and that's where we live.

We live in a globe like this in a country called the United States of America.

[Miss Laura] Look, there's our warm friend.

He says me, I'm right there.

When we dig tunnels, we help take care of the earth.

Must make tunnel, help earth breathe.

There he's stretching, Ugh, going through the dirt.

[Miss Laura] And that's exactly what worms do in gardens.

They help dirt breathe so that the flowers bloom and grow.

Number three, never, ever, ever bother Daddy when he's eating the newspaper, chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp.

There he is eating his newspaper.

March 29th.

[Miss Laura] So here's another diary entry.

Today I tried to teach Spider how to dig.

So there's Spider.

It's an arachnid, and there's our worm friend.

And Spider's like, huh, I don't think I can dig.

[Miss Laura] First of all, his legs got stuck.

I think I've twisted one of my ankles, says Spider.

There he is trying to dig.

Then he swallowed a bunch of dirt.

(mouth smacking) Gross.

I give up, says worm.

Tomorrow he's gonna teach me how to walk upside down.

[Miss Laura] So we know now that worms eat dirt, but do spiders eat dirt?

No.

March 30th, worms cannot walk upside down.

[Miss Laura] So look, there's our worm and there's Spider.

And the worm was trying to walk upside down, and Spider had to save him before he fell.

Ah!

Good thing Spider was there.

April 4th, fishing season started today.

We all dug deeper.

[Miss Laura] You recognize this gardening tool?

It's a shovel.

And look, this bucket says the word bait because when people go fishing they use worms as bait to catch fish.

That means the fish eat the worms and they get trapped on the hook.

So of course, they're digging deeper into the land.

[Miss Laura] Look, there's grandpa, grandpa worm.

Did you guys hear something, says Papa worm.

They're really deep in the dirt.

April 10th.

It rained all night and the ground was soaked.

[Miss Laura] Oh, there's our word we learned.

That means it was very, very wet.

We spent the entire day on the sidewalk.

Hopscotch is a very, very dangerous game.

Look there they are on the sidewalk.

And the little girls saying 1, 2, 3, and there's the worms.

Ah!

They're about to be stepped on!

[Miss Laura] April 15th.

I forgot my lunch today.

I got so hungry that I ate my homework.

So there he is, eat all of your trash, love Mom.

And look, there's the teacher with their sunglasses.

My teacher made me write I will not eat my homework 10 times.

And when I was finished, I ate that too.

[Miss Laura] April 20th I snuck up on some kids in the park today.

They didn't hear me coming.

I wiggled right up between them and they screamed, ah!

A worm!

I love when they do that.

So there's our worm friend and there's our friends running away.

No don't catch me, worm!

[Miss Laura] May 1st.

Grandpa taught us that good manners are very important.

Remember manners.

That's treating someone respectfully.

So today I said, good morning to the first ant I saw.

Good morning.

Then I looked and there were 600 of them in the line.

They he is saying good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

[Miss Laura] I stood there all day long.

Oh, look, I'm scared.

There's the bird.

And I know one thing about birds, is they love to eat worms.

And this bird's claws are about to get the worm.

What's gonna happen?

Let's see.

[Miss Laura] Had the worst nightmare last night, May 8th.

Oh good, it's a nightmare.

It's a dream, that means it wasn't real.

Giant birds were playing hopscotch.

Mom says I have to stop eating so much garbage right before I go to bed.

[Miss Laura] May 15th.

I got into a fight with Spider today.

He told me you need legs to be cool.

Then he ran and I couldn't keep up.

Maybe he's right.

Oh, that wasn't very nice of Spider.

[Miss Laura] I made Spider laugh so hard on May 16th, that he fell right out of his tree.

Who needs legs?

Look, he has a special, silly hat and there goes Spider, thud!

[Miss Laura] May 20th.

Last night I went into the school dance and this is the song like the hokey pokey.

♪ You put your head in ♪ ♪ You put your head out ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey ♪ ♪ And you turn yourself about ♪ ♪ That's all that we could do ♪ Hey!

June 5th, today we made macaroni necklaces in art class.

I brought mine home and we ate it for dinner.

[Miss Laura] Ooh, you're very talented, Dad said.

June 15th.

My older sister thinks she's so pretty.

I told her that no matter how much time she spends looking in the mirror her face will always look just like her rear end.

Oh, that's not very nice.

Spider thought.

That was really funny.

Mom did not.

Worm, you stop making fun of your sister, she said.

[Miss Laura] July 4th.

When I grow up, I wanna be a secret service agent.

Spider says I will have to be very careful because the President might step on me by mistake.

It's a dangerous job.

I told him, but someone's got to do it.

There he is as a secret agent.

He's even wearing a jacket and glasses.

[Miss Laura] July 28th, three things I don't like about being a worm.

I can't chew gum.

I can't have a dog.

And all that homework.

July 29th, three good things about being a worm.

I never ever have to go to the Dentist.

No cavities, says the Dentist.

Well, no teeth either.

I never get in trouble for tracking through the house.

And I never ever have to take a bath.

Ooh, where's my grubby little boy, Mom says.

[Miss Laura] August first.

It's not always easy being a worm.

We're very small.

And sometimes people forget that we're even here.

But like Mom always says, the earth never forgets we're here.

The end.

What do you think of the book, Diary of a Worm?

You know, the worm character in this story is right.

The earth never forgets that we need worms to make the earth rich, so that we can plant things and they can bloom.

So I'm gonna put our book away.

I love reading stories to you, but I want you to grow up and be big, strong readers like I am.

So I have an activity for us that involves syllables.

Do you remember what a syllable is?

It's a part of a word.

So I have some pictures here.

Where are you, pictures?

Are you hiding from me?

They're down here.

Let me grab them.

And there are pictures of things that we might find in a garden.

Things that I wish I could grow.

All right.

Let's see.

The first thing here is a lemon.

We're gonna break them up into syllables.

So here it is.

Lemon.

How many parts of that word do you hear?

Lemon?

Can you clap it out?

Let me put it on here and we'll clap it out together.

Ready?

Le mon, two syllables.

Do you recognize this gardening tool?

It's hard to see, but it's a rake.

And you use a rake to garden, and to make the soil soft, so you can plant things, and to move things out of the way.

So let's try to clap the syllables rake.

Rake.

How many syllables?

One, that's right!

Rake.

One part of the word.

Ooh.

Do you recognize these?

These are rain boots, but you can also wear them in the garden because it gets wet in gardens.

Doesn't it?

Boots.

How many syllables or parts of that word do you hear?

Boots.

Sounds like one to me.

You better investigate, boots.

All right.

Let's see other things that we might find in a garden.

Ooh, what's this?

A lady bug.

Now we read a story about a grouchy lady bug.

Didn't we?

La dy bug.

How many parts?

Let me say it slower.

La dy bug.

All right, let's clap it out.

I think I know.

La dy bug.

Three parts, three syllables.

Here goes the next one.

Nest.

Now you might find these in trees, but right now, when things are blossoming and the weather's nice.

You'll find birds outside in trees and a nest.

So how many parts of that word do you hear?

Nest.

Nest.

Just one.

Let's do a few more.

And then I'll take you over to the project place.

Hmm.

Ooh, this is a good one.

This is a color.

Now around this time and in gardens, you might see this color everywhere.

What color is it?

Green.

Gr een.

Green.

How many parts of that word do you hear?

Is it one or two?

Hmm.

Green.

Let's see.

How about this?

It is a Rose.

Rose.

Roses smell beautiful, don't they?

Rose.

How many parts do you hear?

Rose.

Let's clap it to find out.

Ready?

Rose.

Just one syllable.

Now, finding syllables and words, and being able to take apart their sounds, will help make you a very strong reader because it'll help you sound out words.

As you track the words on pages.

Now, I love to explore with you and I love to connect the things we read with real life things, like worms.

And I promised you I had some visiting us today.

So let's go over to our project place and I'll show you our squirmy friends.

Let's walk together.

Let's see.

So here are some worms that I found in my garden.

And yes they're alive.

And no, I'm not scared to touch them.

That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

So the first thing I'm gonna do when we explore our worms is I'm gonna make sure I have nice clean hands.

Because like we learned in our book worms are so important to the earth.

They help make our soil rich so we can plant things.

Now I want you to look at the worms that I have here and make an observation, like a scientist.

Remember scientists use their sense of touch, and hear, and smell, and all their five senses to find out about the world around them.

[Miss Laura] So let's pick up a really long worm.

Do you see them?

They're kind of sleeping right now, but this guy wants to come up.

What do you notice about it?

Does it have any legs?

Oh, there he goes.

[Miss Laura] No, he doesn't have any legs.

So have you wondered, how do they get around?

Hmm.

Now, remember in our story the brother worm was making fun of the sister worm saying that their rear end looks just like her face?

Well, if you look closely at a worm, it's true.

Both ends look the same.

So I have a very long, jumbo worm.

I can show you, whew, look at the size of that guy.

He's, oh, he's moving around.

I'm gonna try not to be scared.

So if you see these in the earth, remember, you can look at them and pick them up with clean hands.

But remember, you're going to wanna put 'em back.

Look how he's moving.

I don't know if you can see, he's kind of constricting his body.

That means he's making it big and small.

And I have some other smaller ones we can dig up.

The best time to dig up worms, if you really wanna look for them, is right after it rains.

Oh, there's quite a few of them here.

I'm going to be brave.

Tell me be brave, Miss Laura, pick up that worm.

Okay, I will.

Look at this smaller guy.

I don't think they like to be picked up.

(laughs) I think he wants to go back to his home.

So they don't have any legs.

Do they have any eyes?

I wonder, what do they eat?

Ooh.

I wonder where they live.

Do they live in one place for the whole of their lives?

Or do they travel around?

Now, I picked these up at a shop that sells bait.

Remember, you like to use worms for fishing?

So really, I feel like I'm a hero because I saved these worms lives.

[Miss Laura] And after I'm done exploring them I'm gonna go put them back in my garden where they were and belong.

Just wanted to show them to you.

Look at this.

Ooh.

Okay.

Enough worms to brave, only just enough.

[Miss Laura] I'm gonna wash my hands and then I have a little, there you go, moving around.

(laughs) [Miss Laura] They didn't like that I touched them.

I have a little activity to show you so you can play with the little worm at home.

And we're gonna try to do this very quickly, but you need very, very little supplies to do this.

It's a little warm puppet.

Look it, there he goes.

So you can play with it at home.

The first thing you're going to need is some paper, scissors, googly eyes, glue, and sticks and tape.

So hopefully, you have those things around your house.

So the first thing I'm gonna do to make my puppet is I'm gonna cut out a large strip of paper.

Just like this, and I decided to make it realistic.

So I used brown instead of purple.

Next you're gonna curve the edges.

[Miss Laura] You're gonna go around like this and curve the edges like that.

And then the other side.

Just like that.

Do you see, I have a shape that looks like this.

Okay, the next step can be kind of tricky.

[Miss Laura] It's so funny.

Both of the things I've shown you this week have involved folding.

And that's exactly what we're going to do.

We're gonna fold our warm.

Do you see how it moves back and forth?

Okay, we're gonna fold it, so you fold it once.

Then you flip it over and fold it back.

This is called an accordion fold.

Flip it over, fold it back, flip it over, fold it back and so on, and so on.

All right, until you get to the very end and you're gonna wanna leave a little bit of space because what you're gonna do is pick what side is the head.

[Miss Laura] So you get to decide.

For me, I want to add eyes just so we kind of know, and it looks like our character.

So I've decided this is the end.

And I'm gonna add some googly eyes, but you can make them with a marker as well.

They don't have to be fancy like mine.

[Miss Laura] I'm so fancy, huh?

Next, you're gonna turn your worm around, and you see the two ends?

You're actually gonna tape your sticks to those ends like this.

And what I found is you wanna tape 'em just like this, going up like this.

And if your tape's a little long, you can cut it.

I never make things perfect.

The first time always have to do them over, and over, and over again, until I get it just right.

So if that's you do not be discouraged.

Okay, there's the tape.

And let's see if we've made our worm.

Sometimes you have to fold it again.

See, you can go back and forth.

Back and forth, back and forth.

[Miss Laura] So you can pretend to be a wiggly worm.

Maybe go over and try to scare someone with it.

Just like in our book.

Ugh.

That was the scary part, wasn't it?

So I hope that you try that activity at home.

And we have just a little bit of time for me to share my recommended stories with you.

I wish I could read to you all day long about gardening and spring.

But we can't, five books only for the week.

So here are some that I'm not going to read to you, that I hope that you check out at your local library.

This one's called Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt.

So if we open it up you can see that it's all about gardening.

And it has beautiful pictures.

There's a mom and a little girl and they're digging in the dirt.

So you can make lots of art projects and talk about the critters that you see.

And then of course go outside and explore.

That's the best part.

I have one more book for you that I'll quickly share.

And this one is a non-fiction book.

That means it's real, What's Inside of a Flower.

So it really goes through of how, the different parts of a flower and what they do to keep the flower alive.

So I hope that you check those out in the library or on the Sora app.

Until we see each other again, tomorrow.

Miss Laura sends you a big squeeze and a big smooch.

And I hope that you read, read, read.

We'll see you boys and girls.

Goodbye.

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