[birds chirping] [doorbell ringing] (children) ♪Hello!

Hello!♪ ♪Won't you be my friend?♪ ♪Hello!

Hello!♪ ♪Let's say it again.♪ ♪Hello!

Hello!♪ ♪Won't you be my friend?♪ ♪Hello!

Hello!♪ ♪Now you are my friend.♪ ♪♪♪ ♪H-E-L-L-O♪ ♪That's a word we all should know.♪ ♪H-E-L-L-O♪ ♪You can say it.♪ ♪Just say hello.♪ ♪♪♪ Hey!

There's Mr. Chuck!

Well, hello, friend!

Hello, Mr. Chuck!

♪♪♪ ♪It could be anywhere.♪ ♪Oh look up in the air.♪ ♪A square has four equal sides.♪ ♪I know that it's round.♪ ♪Oh look what I found.♪ ♪A big blue circle sitting on the ground.♪ ♪A circle goes all the way around.♪ ♪A triangle has three sides.♪ ♪Where could it hide?♪ ♪Oh, look over there sitting on a chair.♪ ♪A triangle has three sides.♪ Hello, friends!

It's shaping up into a wonderful day and we're going to spend it talking about shapes.

You guessed it.

Squares, circles and triangles are three different shapes but there are many more shapes to be found around us every day.

Shapes like rectangles... octagons.

What did you say?

I said octagon.

You see them every day.

In fact you may see an octagon every time you stop at a stop sign because stop signs are octagons.

How many sides does this stop sign have?

That's right.

An octagon has eight sides.

But these aren't the only kinds of shapes.

Oh, no.

We can recognize many different things by looking at their shape.

Can you tell me what this is?

It's a horse.

That's right.

Hey, what is this?

It's a telephone.

How about this?

It's a hand.

Very good.

I'd like to give you a big hand for recognizing all these shapes.

[clapping] (female #1) Can you see a triangle in this picture?

[drum roll] [ding] (Mr. Chuck) Triangle!

♪♪♪ (female #1) Is there a square here?

[vroom] [drum roll] [ding] (Mr. Chuck) Square!

♪♪♪ (female #1) How about a circle?

[drum roll] [ding] (Mr. Chuck) Circle!

♪♪♪ [horn honking] (female #1) What is this shape?

[ding] (female #1) And this one?

[ding] (female #1) One more.

[ding] [horn honking] There are shapes all around you if you just look for them.

And you can make shapes, too.

You could cut shapes out of paper and use them to make pictures like this.

See?

I used rectangles, squares and circles.

Or you could make shapes in other ways like this.

What shape are bubbles?

They're round.

That's right.

I like watching bubbles, don't you?

Can you think of ways to make shapes with your body?

How about your hands?

Could you make a triangle using your hands and fingers?

Try this.

Now you try it.

Can you do it?

Good.

Now how about a circle?

Can you make a circle with your hands?

How about like this.

Try that.

Good.

Can you make a circle with your arms?

Try it.

Like this.

That's very good.

Can you think of other ways you can move your body to make shapes?

I'll bet you can.

Triangle.

Square.

Circle.

Circle cause it's round.

Triangle because it's got three sides.

Square cause it's got four equal sides.

[applause] Friends have you ever made a painting with shapes?

No?

Well let me show you how easy it is.

All you need is paint, paper and a sponge that can be cut into shapes, like this, or whatever shape you want.

And please, you let an adult cut the sponge for you, will you?

Then you decide what you want to make.

I think I'll try making a cat's head and I'll start at the top.

What shape are a cat's ears?

They kind of look like triangles do n't they?

♪♪♪ I don't want to get too much paint on the paper so I'll blot some of it off on the newspaper.

Now I'll put a triangle here... an d here.

There you go.

Two ears.

Now how about the head?

How about a round shape?

I've got a couple of sizes of each shape and I'm looking for a large round shape.

Which one is the largest?

This one or this one?

We'll choose this one, the large round shape.

♪♪♪ There.

But I think something's missing.

What do you think?

Oh, I know.

My cat needs a face.

What's on a cat's face?

♪♪♪ How is it like your face and my fa ce?

♪♪♪ Well, there are two eyes, a nose, a mouth.

You've got all of those things, too.

I think I'll use a smaller round shape for the eyes.

♪♪♪ There.

That's one eye.

How many should it have?

Two?

That's right.

Let's see if we can get number two right here.

♪♪♪ How about a nose?

What do you think?

How about another triangle.

♪♪♪ A smaller triangle right about here.

Well there are two eyes and a nose.

Now I think I'll use a marker to put on the mouth.

♪♪♪ Seems like there's something missing.

Hmmm.

I know.

Whiskers.

A cat has whiskers.

♪♪♪ What do you think?

Does it look like a cat?

See what you can do with shapes?

Try it sometime.

♪♪♪ I want to be a policewoman.

I want to be a daddy.

I want to be a teacher.

I want to be a doctor.

Hello.

My name is Jarvis.

I'm a bus driver.

♪♪♪ My job is to take people from on e place to another in my bus.

A bus can't go all over town picking up people and taking them wherever they want to go, so each bus has a route.

That means each bus only goes on ce rtain streets.

When I reach the end of the route, I turn the bus around and go back the other way.

The sign on the front of the bus le ts people know where it's going.

♪♪♪ The bus only stops where you see a bus stop sign.

People get on and off the bus there.

The people who ride the bus are pa ssengers.

They get onto the bus and put money into the slot or show me a bus pass.

Then they can sit back and enjoy th e ride.

♪♪♪ I have to drive carefully and obey all the traffic rules because my passengers depend on me to get them where they are going safely.

When passengers want to get off th e bus they push this to let me know to stop at the next bus stop.

Everyone should wait until the bus comes to a complete stop before they stand up and get off.

If they're standing up they might fall down when the bus comes to a stop.

Sometimes if all the seats are taken, passengers have to stand up but there are hand rails to hold onto so they won't fall.

I am a bus driver.

I like my job, and I hope to see yo u riding my bus some day soon.

♪♪♪ You know when you look up at the clouds and use your imagination you can see all kinds of shapes.

Look.

What does this cloud remind you of ?

I think it looks like a duck.

What do you think?

Oh, look over there.

That one looks sort of like...a ca r. Oh, there's another one.

It kind of looks like the letter "Y " turned on its side.

♪♪♪ And the really fun thing about clouds is that as you watch them drift by, they change shape as the wind blows them.

Ah!

I tell you, I could sit and do this all day.

♪♪♪ My name is Allison.

That's my drawing.

This is my family.

I'm three years old.

My name is Bailey Carson Sanders.

This is my house and this is my gr andma.

This is the sun.

My name is Emily Ferguson.

This is my dad.

This is my mommy and this is my sw ing set and this is our house.

This is me.

Me right there.

We all want our children to succeed in life, and it's clear that the road to success depends heavily on a good education.

Reading, math and science are a few of the basics.

And believe it or not many of these basic concepts can be introduced to children while they are still toddlers, even infants.

Today we've been talking about shapes, which is a good example of introducing math and science to young children.

As long as children ask why, how does it work or where does it come from, you've got a good opportunity to introduce science to them.

Today on Parent's Corner we'd like to welcome Miss Bonnie Jamerson who is a preschool and first grade teacher.

Welcome.

I'm glad to be here.

Bonnie what areas of science are easiest for young children to grasp?

Basic areas of science are easiest for preschoolers to grasp would be colors and shapes They are aware of nature, things around them, the plant world.

They have a knowledge of their body concepts, the weather, the changing of the seasons, even space.

That's something that children are aware of and that they have an interest in.

And how can parents turn ordinary daily events into fun science lessons?

I think there is many wonderful opportunities as we go about our daily experiences to be able to incorporate science in.

I think these are things that many times parents have not really thought about.

The meal time is an especially important time when children are eating their foods to be able to say what shape is that carrot or what about the cookie that you're eating?

Can you tell me what shape that is?

Or during their bath times when they are normally playing with toys to be able to identify the colors and the shapes of the toys that they're playing with.

And also when they're driving around, their experiences driving from home to school, to be able to say what shape is that stop sign?

What color is that?

Also there's wonderful opportunities when you're just in the kitchen to be able to say, baking cookies.

Children like to be involved in baking cookies or helping parents in their baking to be able to say, what do you smell?

How does it smell to you and to be able to broaden their experiences in knowing that all of our senses are involved in the smelling and the shapes and just other things that we don't oftentimes really pay attention to.

Those are teaching moments.

Tell us, can you suggest some simple science experiments that parents and children can do at home?

There are many things that parents and children can do at home with the things that you have available around the house without spending any money to do those things.

Children love experimenting with colors using food coloring, several cups of water could be placed before the child and using red and yellow and blending those colors together and having the children answer or probing the child into finding out what color do you think this might become if I add this to this color.

I think we could also do a lot with the measuring things that we have to be able to take - fill up a cup and ask the child if they know how many cups it would take to fill up this container.

Or a bowl perhaps or maybe even a gallon jar and to be able to teach the concept of cups and gallons and cups to quarts or whatever.

So those are teaching moments that a parent could use with just simple everyday things that they have at home on hand and available to them.

And what are the benefits to introducing preschoolers to science?

And how is that going to help when a child enters first grade?

I think the child will then come to us with the concept of what science is really about.

From the time that they've been a preschooler their thoughts about science has been one of something that's magic, something that's unpredictable, and I think it will help them to make the transition between the magical world and the real adult world of study, observation and fact and information and I think that they will have a stronger background as it has to do with the subject of science.

It will be much easier for the teacher to be able to explain those things that they often have questions about at home.

And that strengthens as they go on through school.

It does.

It's a building process.

Bonnie, thank you for taking your time to be with us on Parent's Corner and helping us to understand the importance of preschool science.

Thank you for allowing me to be here.

I've enjoyed it.

We've enjoyed her, too, and the important information that we as parents can use in helping our children prepare for first grade.

Bonnie Jamerson, preschool teacher and first grade teacher here on Parent's Corner.

♪♪♪ You know, there are shapes all around you so why not turn off the TV and go look for shapes where you are.

Well, that's all the time we have for today, so goodbye for now.

See you around.

♪♪♪