(upbeat music) - Hello, little learners.

Welcome back to our TK Learning Space.

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

Hello!

I'm so glad that you joined me here.

Now, today is a very special day, because we're gonna continue our garden theme.

We've been learning all about critters and things that grow in the garden.

So I hope that you'll stick around.

But first I want you to introduce yourself!

How can I forget that part?

Okay, when I put my hand to my ear, tell me as loud as you can what your name is or what your special letter is, and I'll try to catch it here on my magnet board.

Are you ready?

Here we go.

Ooh, I heard so many of you!

Let's see.

I have a special letter here that I think you'll like.

It's a big line down.

A little line across.

This is T. We already did that one, so I have another little line here.

That's gonna go across.

Do you recognize this letter?

It's the letter I.

And the I makes a special sound, it says I.

♪ The I says I ♪ ♪ The I says I ♪ ♪ Every letter makes a sound ♪ ♪ The I says I ♪ So like I said, we're going to be learning all about gardens.

And actually today is the last day of that theme or study.

So I'm gonna add one more magnet to our 10 frame here.

Should I put it at the top or the bottom?

Let's see.

Bottom, okay.

So I have one, two magnets on top, and one, two, three magnets on the bottom.

And two and three together make five.

And that's how many days I was with you this week.

Five days.

Now we have a fun story to share, of course we do, but we always start off with a song.

So this week's song is a movement song where you get to pretend to be a seed.

So wherever you are, make a nice big space.

And when I say curl up like a seed, curl up like this, and then when you start to grow, start to get up.

And then when you're a flower, raise your arms up.

Are you ready?

Okay, get your singing voice on, here we go.

It's to the tune of "Muffin Man" Do you know, that one.

♪ Curl up like a tiny seed ♪ ♪ A tiny seed, a tiny seed ♪ ♪ Curl up like a tiny seed ♪ ♪ Warm sun is what you need ♪ You ready to start growing?

♪ Now you can start growing ♪ ♪ Start growing, start growing ♪ ♪ Now you can start growing ♪ ♪ Drink the rain and start to rise ♪ The last part is you're sprout, now you're gonna become a flower.

♪ Stretch up tall, arms open wide ♪ ♪ Arms open wide, arms open wide ♪ ♪ Stretch up tall, arms open right ♪ ♪ Now a flower's starting to bloom ♪ And you, you're my big, beautiful flower now!

And I think that the book that we're going to read has something to do with growing, too.

We're gonna have to check out our vocabulary words and see if it gives us any clues about what the book is about.

So they're behind this door right here.

Let's take a look.

Oh, I'm good, sorry.

All right, so "The Gigantic Turnip" is our book, and we have have three words that we need.

So the first one is sow.

Now you may have heard this word before, but it's not like sewing.

It's not like when you use a needle and a thread.

Sow means to plant the seeds.

So when the book, when you hear the word sow, you know they're planting the seeds.

The second word that we're going to use is special letter G for gigantic, and it means really, really, really, really, really big!

Gigantic!

Like I wish I ate at gigantic lollipop.

No, then I'd end up like "The Hungry Caterpillar."

Sick, sick, sick!

Maybe better make it an apple, huh?

The third word is an interesting word, it's called heaved.

Special letter H, heaved.

It means to lift a heavy thing with lots of effort.

When you heave you're gonna, eh, lifting something big, eh, heave.

Okay, those three words are in our book today.

And like I said, it's called "The Gigantic Turnip."

And the characters in this story are a little old man and a little old woman and they are gardeners.

So let's read the story of "The Gigantic Turnip."

So you'll notice at the front of cover of the book, there's a turnip there.

And there's an old woman and an old man.

That turnip looks too big for them to eat.

Oh, there's a cow.

I wonder if he's gonna be a character in the story.

Let's read.

Long ago, an old man and an old woman lived together in a crooked old cottage with a large, overgrown garden.

So there's their cottage, and there's their garden.

Now, if you can see their faces, they're smiling.

So it looks like they're happy there.

The old man and the old woman kept six yellow canaries.

So there they are, let's count them.

One, two, three, four, five... Oh, I must have missed one.

If you see the sixth one, let me know.

Oh, I found it!

Look, it's the old woman's hand.

It was camouflaged, that means I couldn't see it.

They kept five white geese.

One, two, three, four, five.

Four speckled hens, one, two three, four.

Three black cats, two pot-bellied pigs, and one big, brown cow.

Do you remember the word that means really, really, really, really big?

That's right, gigantic!

On a fine March morning, the old woman sat in bed, sniffed the sweet spring air and said, "It's time for us to sow the vegetables!"

Do you remember sow?

That means put them in the ground as seeds.

So the old man and the old woman went out into the garden.

So there they are sowing the vegetables.

They sow peas, and carrots, and potatoes, and beans.

Last of all, they sowed turnips.

Have you ever eaten a turnip before?

It's not a vegetable that all of us eat all the time.

It's rare that we eat one.

That night, rain fell, pitter, patter, pitter, patter, pitter patter, on the garden of the crooked old cottage.

The old man and the old woman smiled as they slept.

Oh, there they are sleeping inside, and there's all the rain.

Now we learned that, remember from our song, seeds need rain and sun to grow.

So what do you think's going to happen to these seeds?

That's right, they're gonna grow.

The rain would help the seeds swell and produce fine, juicy vegetables.

Spring passed, and the summer sun ripened the vegetables.

The old man and the old woman harvested their carrots, and potatoes, and peas, and beans, and turnips.

And at the end of the row, there was just one turnip left.

Very big.

In fact, it looked gigantic!

Look at that huge turnip under the ground compared to the man.

So if you were standing next to it, would be even taller than you are.

On a fine September morning, the old man sat up in bed, sniffed the cool late summer air and said "It's time for us to pull up that turnip!"

And out he went, look at that, he's yawning.

Oh, let's go.

And the old woman's like, nope, your turn.

I'm not pulling out turnips.

The old man pulled and heaved, remember that's to lift heavy things, and tugged and yanked, but the turnip would not move!

The old man went to find the old woman.

Oh, this is not moving, I'm gonna go find the old woman.

The old woman wrapped her arms around the old man's waist.

Both of them pulled.

Can you do that at home?

Pull, and heaved, and tugged, and yanked, but still the turnip would not move.

So the old woman went to fetch the big brown cow.

You're gonna have to help me with sound effects.

What does a cow say?

Moo!

The old man, the old woman, and the big brown cow pulled, and heaved, and tugged, and yanked, but still the turnip would not move.

Who are they going to call next?

Look, there's a clue.

Whose feet are those?

So the old man, he mopped his brow, and went to fetch the two pot-bellied pigs.

Will they be successful or will that turn a rot in the ground?

The old man, the old woman, the big brown cow, and the two pot-bellied pigs pulled, and heaved, and tucked, and yanked.

(Lara straining) Still, the turnip would not move.

So the old woman rolled up her sleeves and went to fetch the three black cat cats.

So there's the old man, the old woman, the cow, moo, the pigs, oink, oink, oink, and the cats, meow!

All trying to get this big, giant turnip.

The old man, the old woman, the big brown cow, the two pot-bellied pigs, and three black cats pulled and heaved, and tugged, and yanked.

Still the turnip would not move.

So one of the cats twitched her tail and said, "Let's fetch the four hens."

So there's the cat twitching its tail.

And look one, two, three, four.

I don't know, do you think that the hens are strong enough to pull out that big turnip?

The old man, the old woman, the big brown cow, the two pot-bellied pigs, the three black cats, and the floor speckled hens pulled, and heaved, and tugged, and yanked.

Still the turnip would not move.

So one of the hens shook her feathers and went to fetch the five white geese.

Now they're running out of things to help them, so I hope that the geese are able to help them get it out.

But sure enough, they were not able to get it out.

Look, the geese even flew!

So one of the geese craned her neck and went to fetch the six yellow canaries.

Now canaries are small birds.

The old man, the old woman, the big brown cow, moo, the two pot-bellied pigs, oink, oink, oink, oink.

The, let's see, three black cats, meow!

The four speckled hens, cluck, cluck, cluck, the five white geese, and the six yellow canaries pulled, and heaved, and tugged, and yanked, and still the turnip would not move!

They must really like turnips.

I don't think I would work that hard to get a turnip out, would you?

The old man scratched his head.

The animals and birds lay on the ground gasping.

To gasp is to (exhales) try to find your air.

The old woman had an idea.

"Ooh, I know what to do!"

The old woman went into the kitchen and put a piece of cheese by the mouse hole.

Soon, a hungry little mouse popped it head out of the hole.

The old woman caught the mouse and carried it outside.

A mouse?

The old man, the old woman, the big brown cow, the two pot-bellied pigs, the three black cats, the four speckled hens, the five white geese, the six yellow canaries, and the hungry little mouse pulled, and heaved, and tugged, and yanked!

(Lara straining) Look it, they're all going.

And look, can you read this word for me?

Pop, pop!

That's right!

The gigantic turnip came flying out of the ground and everyone fell over!

The canaries fell in the mouse, the geese fell on the canaries, the hens fell on the geese, the cats fell on the hens, the pigs fell in the cats, the cow fell on the pigs!

The old woman fell on the cow, and the old man?

Well, he fell on the old woman.

And all of them lay on the ground and laughed!

That night, the old man and the old woman made a huge bowl of turnip stew.

Everyone ate as much as they could.

And do you know what?

The hungry little mouse ate the most of all.

So I hope that you enjoyed the story of "The Gigantic Turnip."

There's lots of different versions of the story, with potatoes and all kinds of other things.

So I hope that you check them out as well.

Right now, we're gonna go over to our Writing Space and we're gonna try to think of three characters that were in this story.

So get them in your head so you can help me write them down.

Let's head over there.

I wonder what color marker I'm going to use.

Let's see.

Oh, I picked black, kind of plain.

But we need to think of three characters from the book.

Okay, ready?

Tell me one.

A pig, that's right!

A pot-bellied pig.

Let's see if I can draw one.

So if you're drawing at home with me, follow along.

So maybe I'll put him right here.

I'm gonna draw a head, and maybe some ears.

And then eyes.

And then do pigs have a nose?

No, they have a snout.

I'm gonna put a little snout here, and maybe a body.

They have curly, and curly tails, don't they?

Okay, there is my pig.

Now we have to write the words that say the same thing as this picture.

So think of that beginning sound, puh, puh.

That's right, it's a P. I'm gonna use all uppercase letters, because that is what my preschool students use when they're starting to learn how to write.

But if you're in TK or kindergarten, you can use lowercase if you're ready.

So that's a P. Little sound, eh, eh.

I, that's right.

And the last sound, pig, guh.

G, curve, little line, line across.

A pig was one of our characters.

What was another character that you remember?

That's right, there was an old man.

So let's draw him right here.

An old man.

I'm gonna start off with a circle, and then I might do some eyes.

And sometimes when you get old, you can't see very well.

So I'm gonna add some glasses for my old man.

And then ears.

And then what do we use to smell?

That's right, our nose.

Add a nose and maybe a mouth, and maybe some wrinkles because he's an old man.

And then should we add some hair or should we bald?

One or two hairs?

(Lara laughs) Some more wrinkles.

There he is, our old man.

Can you help me write the word, man?

Let's think of that beginning sound, mm.

That's right, it's an M. Big line, big line, big line.

That middle sound, mm, aah.

Catch the sound, aah.

What letter makes that sound?

An A, so mah.

And the last sound, nn, nn.

Man, one more character.

We have a pig and a man.

What was left?

Hmm, try to think.

What was left?

A cow?

Okay, we'll draw a cow.

Let's see, a cow has a body and four feet just like that.

And maybe a tail.

It has ears, and eyes, and maybe it also has maybe a little nose or a little snout as well.

All right, there is my cow.

And then we're gonna write the word cow.

Well, maybe some spots on my cow, that'll make it look more like a cow.

There we go.

Let's see, beginning sound, kh, kh.

That's a C. So let me write it right here.

C, and that middle sound, oh, cow.

Now I know that two letters together make the ow sound.

It's O and W, cow.

Remember, there were lots of other characters in this story.

So if you wanna continue this activity, draw yourself a turnip and you can write all the characters, more than I did.

Now we're gonna go over to the Project Place and we're gonna finish off the week with a little art project you can try at home to make your own garden.

So how many steps is it gonna take?

I think seven, let's try.

One, two, three, four.

Oh, only four.

I took gigantic steps, that's why.

Now for this activity you are going to need some paints, and I'll show you the colors that I used, but you can use any colors you'd like.

You're gonna need some scrap paper, paint brushes, and if you wanna make it a little extra fun, you can use shaving cream, glue, and of course, one piece of white paper.

So let me show you what my finished art project looks like.

So what I did is I made my own garden, and I used a variety of techniques.

That means I did it in different ways.

So at the bottom I used some dirt, and then I made my plants with some shaving cream paint, and then used torn paper to add all of my vegetables.

I thought it'd be a good way to finish out the week.

So we're going to start by making some mud paint by getting a little bit of dirt and some water and then mixing it all together.

And that's gonna be at the bottom of our painting.

Make sure you mix it.

This is also gonna add texture to our art, because the little granules, or little bits of dirt, are gonna stay and dry on there, so it looks like a real garden.

I don't know about you, but anytime I can play with dirt and get messy, my favorite.

So there is our garden bottom.

Now, some of the projects that I show you are projects that might take you a couple of days because things have to dry.

And sometimes I show you ones that we can do together all in the same day.

My goal here is to give you an idea for some things you might try.

So the next thing you wanna do is make a sky.

So I took a little bit of water and some blue paint and I mixed them together.

Now why didn't just use blue paint is because I want my sky to be a little muted.

That means you can't see it as much.

I wanted my ground to stand out.

So I'm gonna add my sky here.

You can see it's barely blue.

You might not even be able to see it at home, but it's on there, barely blue.

So this is a layered artwork.

That means that I put the first layer down and that's my background of my sky and my dirt.

And then I add my top layer, which is gonna be my plants.

Now, if you're trying this at home, you can let it dry, but I've also been able to move onto the next step when I've done this.

And guess what our garden needs, some plants.

So I actually thought it'd be really, really fun to use some shaving cream paint.

So how you make this paint is you take whatever color paint you'd like to use, you mix just a little bit of shaving cream in there and then the same amount of glue.

And what it does is it dries really thick and shiny so that our plants really stand out.

I've done this step already because I had a hunch we might run out of time.

But again, my goal here is to inspire you to create your own art in any way that you'd like with materials that you have at home.

You can also look up a recipe for this shaving cream paint online.

So I'm gonna make my sprouts with some leaves right over here.

There we go.

Kind of looks like seaweed in an ocean.

And then I'm not gonna forget that plants have roots.

Now, we haven't talked too much about stems, and roots, and all of that, but I want you to go, as your homework, to look that up in the library if you can.

Look how shiny and pretty that green is.

Now, what is our garden missing?

If it's a vegetable garden, it is missing some...

Vegetables, that's right!

So I thought we would use a technique called torn paper art, where we just kinda tear the paper.

So the first vegetable I'm gonna make is probably an eggplant.

Have you ever seen one of those in the grocery store maybe?

They look like big, purple cucumbers and they're delicious.

So what you wanna do is you wanna tear your shape, no scissors allowed.

And then you take your glue, which I have here, and then you're just gonna glue it onto your plant.

And I like to add a little bit of a green stem on top there, like the leaf where it came from.

Now making these shapes with just your fingers can be really hard.

So don't get frustrated if it doesn't look like what you meant for it to look like.

Just try, and try, and try again like Mrs. Lara does every day.

Should we make some tomatoes?

All right, let's make our tomatoes with our red paper.

So take your paper and kind of tear it, and then make some circles around, because tomatoes are circles.

They're kind of like ovals, which means they're kind of not the same size all the way around, one side's larger.

Do you like to eat tomatoes?

I do.

I'm gonna put some tomatoes all around here.

The last thing that we'll make together is some carrots.

Now, if you know about carrots, they do not grow on trees.

They actually grow underground.

So we're gonna put our carrots underground.

Carrots are a triangle shape, so kind of like this.

So I'm gonna glue my carrot on.

Maybe add a little bit of green on top, and then I'll show you the finished product.

Again, I win kind of fast, but hopefully you can take this idea and do with it whatever you'd like.

Here is my garden art.

You can add as any details as you'd like.

I even, on this one, added some worms.

Look, there they are.

Okay, so I hope you try this.

It was so much fun learning about gardens with you.

I can't wait to see you next week.

Bye, boys and girls!

Have a wonderful day, bye.

(upbeat music)