♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games you play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪ (soft music) - Hello little learners.

Welcome back to our learning space.

My name is Mrs. Lara, can you tell me your name?

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

Let's start our day off with a song.

Are you ready?

♪ Hello, how are you?

♪ ♪ Hello, how are you?

♪ ♪ Hello, how are you?

♪ ♪ Let's meet someone new now ♪ My new friend this week is a grasshopper.

Her name is Gertrude.

Look she's green.

Grasshopper.

Hello Gertrude.

Can you wave?

There you go.

How are you doing today?

I'm feeling hoppy.

Did you say hoppy or happy?

Both.

I'm a grasshopper, love to hop, and I'm also feeling happy.

How are you Mrs. Lara?

Wow, funny you should ask that Gertrude.

This morning something happened to me, I took a picture of it.

I was going to go on my morning walk, and I looked outside the window, and look what I saw.

It was cloudy and it was rainy.

You know how it feels outside is called weather.

And we're going to learn a little bit about weather later on today.

Now, I didn't get to go on my morning walk.

How do you think that made me feel?

Do you think that made me feel silly or sad?

That's right, it made me feel sad.

And when I feel sad, which is a strong feeling, I like to calm down by using one of the things in my calm down basket.

Now I'm going to use this sphere today to help me with my breathing.

So I'm going to take a big belly breath, and then let it out like this.

Ready?

Let's do it two times.

And then letting all the air in, and blowing it out like the big bad wolf in "The Three Little Pigs," ready?

Let's do one more time.

I feel much calmer already.

Now I always like to check in on how you're feeling, and you always help me pick out my letter mirror.

So let's see what letter we're going to use today.

I have a big line, I'm going to put right by the happy face, and I usually give it a tickle and that's why it's smiling.

Then I'm going to use my little line right here, put it right across the top, and in the middle, another little line.

What letter have I made?

That's right, the letter F. F, let me grab my letter F mirror, and we'll check in on how we're doing.

All right, I think I know how I'm feeling.

Now let's sing a song together so you can show me how you're feeling.

- [Woman] Get ready to sing along with me.

And shy bunny.

Shy bunny doesn't like to sing, but maybe if we sing with him, he'll sing along too.

♪ If you're happy and you know it clap your hands ♪ ♪ If you're happy and you know it clap your hands ♪ ♪ If you're happy and you know, ♪ ♪ Then your face will surely show it, ♪ ♪ If you're happy and you know it clap your hands ♪ Whoo, that was fast.

♪ If you're surprised and you know it stomp your feet ♪ ♪ If you're surprised and you know it stomp your feet ♪ ♪ If you're surprised and you know it ♪ ♪ Then your face will surely show it ♪ ♪ If you're surprised and you know it stomp your feet ♪ ♪ If you're silly and you know it jump around ♪ ♪ If you're silly and you know it jump around ♪ ♪ If you're silly and you know it ♪ ♪ Then your face will surely show with it ♪ ♪ If your silly and you know it jump around ♪ (children cheering) Our feelings are so important.

Thank you shy bunny.

- That makes us feel good, doesn't it?

Let's check in on one of our friends.

This is Ryan.

See special letter R for Ryan.

Let me say hi to Ryan.

Hi Ryan!

Now if you notice, Ryan is outside sitting on a blanket, but Ryan had to be woken up early from his nap.

How do you think Ryan is feeling?

How can we find out?

That's right, we look at his face for clues.

Now look at Ryan's eyes, they're kind of down-turned.

Is he smiling?

No, his lips are pointing down in a frown.

So if you think that Ryan is feeling sad and grumpy, make a sad and grumpy face like this.

If you think that Ryan is feeling surprised, make a surprise face like this.

Let me check.

Ooh, I see a lot of sad and grumpy faces.

Maybe even grouchy like our lady bug.

Now boys and girls, remember, I'd love for you to come and share your stories, send in pictures.

Send them here to this address, and as a special bonus, if you send them to that address, you get one of our fun activity books made possible by our friends here at PBS.

We have a Curious George one, and a Super Y activity book.

Some of them even have stickers.

So I look forward to seeing your picture.

Okay, let's ring our bell, and we'll check our schedule.

Hey, what do we have going on today?

We did our emotional check-in.

We're doing our weekly investigation.

Now we've been working with the book, "A Grouchy Ladybug," but today is a special day, it's Groundhog Day.

So we're going to learn about groundhogs.

And then it's time to sing our goodbye song.

So let's do a quick movement before we move on to our intentional message.

Let's see what letter is going to appear.

Ready?

Do-do-do-doo, letter F. F for flutter.

Flutter like a lady bug.

Maybe as I walk to our intentional message I'll flutter my hands like this.

Ready?

Flutter with me.

So, this is a story of groundhogs.

It says, hi, all about groundhogs.

Groundhogs are rodents.

They are the largest animal in the squirrel family.

Have you ever seen a squirrel kind of running around the park or up a tree?

They hibernate, meaning they spend the winter sleeping.

Hibernate is a fancy word for sleeping for a long time.

Sleeping like this.

Groundhogs are omnivores.

Can we clap that word?

Om-ni-vore.

You might be an omnivore too if you eat plants and you eat meat.

They mostly like to eat plants though.

Look at that, groundhog has a big carrot in its hands.

Groundhogs live in burrows that can be anywhere from eight to 66 feet long.

A burrow is a hole underground, and that's where they live.

It's nice and warm for them there.

And some people believe that groundhogs can predict the weather.

They say that if a groundhog sees a shadow, that there'll be six more weeks of cold winter weather.

But if he doesn't see his shadow, there will be an early spring, and there's a very famous groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil that lives in Pennsylvania.

And we celebrate today, February 2nd as Groundhog Day, or the day where the groundhog comes out, and we'll see if it sees its shadow or not.

So we have a special science video from Ms. Sarah.

STEM with Ms. Sarah around groundhogs.

Let's watch together.

- [Ms. Sarah] Hi friends, it's time for STEM.

That's right, it's time for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

So come with me, and explore new ideas and learn new things.

I got the idea for today's STEM activity when I was thinking about Groundhog Day.

Groundhog Day's a tradition here in the United States.

It's a day when people look to the groundhog, the cute furry rodent, to predict the weather for the next six weeks.

The tradition says that if the sun is shining when the groundhog comes out of his burrow, and he sees a shadow, then the groundhog will go back into his burrow, and we will have winter for six more weeks.

The largest Groundhog Day celebration takes place in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where the famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil has predicted the weather each year since 1886, telling us whether the winter will be short or long.

The tradition got me thinking, why would it matter if groundhog could or could not see his shadow?

And what are shadows?

So for today's STEM activity, we're going to learn about and play with shadows.

The materials you will need are, a flashlight, three different color construction paper, a marker, scissors, tape, and a stick.

The first thing I did was draw the groundhog.

I'm not an artist, but I did my best, and I think it looks cute.

Then I cut him out and taped him to my stick.

I found my stick with my craft supplies, but you can use any stick, even one you find outside.

Next, I set up a background.

I have a black piece of construction paper, and the yellow one.

I want to see which is better for seeing the shadows.

You can choose any color paper as long as you have two different ones to compare the differences.

First, I tried the black paper.

I put the groundhog in front of the paper and shun the flashlight on him.

Look at that.

We can see the shadow of our groundhog on the construction paper very well.

Now let's try the yellow.

Hey, that worked great too.

Look at that shadow.

I thought the shadow showed up better on the yellow paper, but they were both good.

What did you think?

So what's the science behind the shadows?

Shadows are made when light hits an object which prevents the light beams from passing through.

When an object, like a groundhog cutout, blocks the light path, then darkness appears on the other side.

That darkness is called a shadow.

The sun is a source of light, and when it hits objects, it causes shadows.

Next time you're outside, look for shadows around you, and see if you notice anything different about that.

What did we learn today?

We learned that Groundhog Day is a tradition that has been around for a long time to predict if winter is going to be long or short.

We learned that shadows are made when a solid object blocks the light, like our groundhog blocked the light for the flashlight.

We learned super-duper vocabulary words.

Groundhog, a small rodent that lives in a burrow in the ground.

Shadow, a dark area or shape made by something blocking light.

Thanks for joining me today, and see you next time on STEM with Ms. Sarah.

- Thank you Ms. Sarah for that great video.

And because it's Groundhog Day, I have a very special song to sing with you.

It goes like this.

♪ I'm a little groundhog, in my hole ♪ ♪ In February 2nd, you will know ♪ ♪ If I see my shadow, it will be ♪ ♪ Six more weeks of winter, for you and me ♪ Don't forget to check to see if the groundhog sees its shadow.

Now our visual schedule says it's time for our goodbye song.

So let's sing that together.

Are you ready to sing with me?

Let me stand up.

Here we go.

It goes like this.

♪ A, B, C you later.

♪ ♪ D, E, F, G I'm gonna miss ya.

♪ ♪ H, I have to go now.

♪ ♪ J, K bye bye now.

♪ ♪ L, M, N, O I had a good time.

♪ ♪ P, Q, R you gonna miss me?

♪ ♪ S, T, U are my best friend.

♪ ♪ V, W, X, Y, Z.

♪ And I am going to miss you.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow and we'll continue our work around "The Grouchy Ladybug."

A big squeeze, a big smooch, and a reminder to learn, to play, and to enjoy the rest of your day.

Goodbye!

♪ 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 ♪