(upbeat music plays) - Hi friends and welcome to Room 9, the St. Louis region's largest classroom.

And as always I'm Mr. Cotton, and I teach kindergarten at Bermuda Elementary School in the Ferguson-Florissant School District which is here in North County in the St. Louis region.

So, if you are new to this channel or new to the classroom, welcome!

And if you're not and you know who I am, I'm so glad to see you again!

Now, I think you've noticed something.

Scientists, have you used your eyes?

Do you see something different about Mr. Cotton's classroom?

Yep.

Well, the school district that I teach in, we're going to be going back to school, and I bet some of you have already been in your classroom, and some of you have still stayed home on your computer but still are learning and growing together.

So, Mr. Cotton had to take down a lot of his things because I had to move it back into my regular classroom.

So, I apologize that it's a little boring behind Mr. Cotton.

You won't see the how do you feel today.

You don't see the calendar.

I do have my number lines still up.

I have to take that down but all in time.

Also friends, I forgot my stuffed animal.

Do you have your stuffed animal?

Mr. Bear's at school.

Uh oh, what am I going to do?

Well, you know what?

I'm still feeling happy because I have you to turn and talk to.

Now I can imagine that I have a friend with me.

That's okay.

And if you don't have your favorite stuffed animal or doll or action figure, it's okay too.

You can talk to your grownup or you can talk to me as we learn and grow together.

So with that being said, I am so, so happy that you're here.

So, let's do our regular routine of our fist bump, high five, and hug.

Here we go.

Are you ready?

All right.

One, two, three.

Here's your fist bump.

Thanks for joining me.

Here's your high five.

I hope you're feeling good.

And here's your virtual hug if you're feeling a little scared or shy.

I hope that you all feel really excited by the end of our lesson today, our episode.

So let's figure out what we're going to learn today.

All right, students and families, after today's episode, we all, even Mr. Cotton, will be able to describe how baby animals and plants look similar and different to their parents.

So today students, well actually last episode if you were with Mr. Cotton, we went out in a park and we were in the woods, but we didn't see any animals because what was on the ground?

That's right, snow!

I bet you remember all that snow on the ground.

Well, to tell you the truth today on our notice and wonder walk, we won't be going outside because we are still in the season of winter and winter we might not see a lot of our baby animals yet.

Okay, we have to wait for spring and that's coming up soon.

So, I'm really hoping that I can try to get you some live animals and their babies so we can talk about them.

But today we are gonna do our notice and wonder walk with a picture gallery walk.

That's something new that I haven't taught you yet.

So wait and see, stick around, and we'll do our picture gallery walk for our notice and wonder walk.

And then we'll come back, we'll discuss what we saw, what we learned.

And then finally, we'll finish with reading about baby animals and plants in rivers, in the river environment.

So, are you ready to join me on our picture gallery walk for notice and wondering?

All right, well, I can't wait to see you.

See you soon.

Hi, and welcome back.

All right, so we are going to be doing something different today.

We are not gonna be outside in Mr. Cotton's neighborhood because as I said, we aren't in an environment or a time where there's a lot of parents and their baby animals.

Some are still migrating and hibernating and getting ready for the warmer weather.

So, hopefully soon we'll see some live animals.

So, I'll work real hard to do that.

But in the meantime, we have some pictures and photographs that we can use our eyes, we can use our brains to think and notice about the similarities and differences between the parents and the babies.

So before we start looking at our gallery walk, our photo gallery walk, I want to ask you, and you can turn to your grownup, you can turn to your friend, what do you notice and wonder about what's the same with you and your parents?

Go ahead and tell your friend.

What's that you say?

I agree.

Your parents are bigger, aren't they?

Or you might've said taller.

Yeah because you are still growing, aren't you?

You're still growing with me Mr. Cotton too.

Unfortunately, I'm an adult, so I'm probably not gonna grow anymore.

That's already happened.

Right.

So maybe in our photo gallery walk, we will use what we know about our humans, ourselves and our parents, and see if that translates to animals and plants.

Now, I also want to say that at the end of our photo gallery walk, we will come back and talk about plants because I don't have any plant books right now, but we can wonder about what we see when we do see plants in our garden or in a park or all around our neighborhood.

All right so friends, I wanted to start with some things, some animals that you might see by a pond.

Look very closely.

We have the parent duck and we have the ducklings.

What do you notice?

Well, I'm wondering why the ducklings are fuzzy but the parent is not.

That's something that's different.

What else are you noticing that's the same or different, friends?

Tell your friend or tell me.

What is it?

That's right!

They both have feathers because they're in the bird family.

Feathers, yeah, and they're growing their feathers.

What'd you say?

Oh, they both have beaks.

Yeah, that looks the same.

So, the beaks might help them.

Great thinking.

So we used our eyes, we used our brain, to notice that ducks and ducklings are similar because they have the beaks for them to eat with.

And they're different because the ducklings look kind of fuzzy and they're growing into their feathers like their parents.

Well, let's keep looking.

What about these foxes?

I feel like they look pretty the same.

What do you think?

Yeah, they have the same colors.

Did you tell your friend that or your grownup?

I see the same feathers.

Oh, it looks like they each have the same pointy ears.

Yes.

So these animals, babies and their parents, look similar, the same.

Well, let's keep thinking.

Oh, now I know several of you have seen these in your yard maybe.

What are they?

Yeah!

Some of you might see deer in your neighborhood.

Thumbs up if you have.

Yeah.

I don't see any deer in my neighborhood 'cause remember how you've traveled with me?

It's kind of too city-like.

Yeah, there's lots of traffic.

Deer need the quiet and the woods.

I don't have any of that.

So, what's the same?

I feel like they have the same color, like the foxes.

And the same skinny legs and the same ears.

Now, can you tell me what's different when deer grow up?

I bet some of you know.

Tell me.

Louder, I didn't hear you!

That's right!

Some of the deer grow antlers and that's different because usually male deers, the male deers have the antlers.

Female deers might have little ones, but they don't have the big ones.

So that's kinda different too.

And the babies they don't have them either.

Well, let's keep looking.

So, we've already talked about how the color, the color of their feathers or the color of their skin or their fur can be the same.

We talked about how we can be where the babies are smaller and the adults are bigger.

Well, let's take a look at these big cats.

Whoa!

So, here they're different in size, but what's the same?

Yeah, that's right.

They have the striped pattern on them.

If we take a look at these other big cats, whoa, mama!

Mama lion is huge!

Baby lions are not.

Baby cubs.

But they have the same color, don't they?

And they're both, they're all licking from the water.

So, that means they're doing the same thing to help survive.

Okay, let's keep going.

I think we have one more that we want to take a look at.

Oh yes.

So, remember the duck and the ducklings?

Well, who remembers what these birds are called?

Yeah, they're kind of annoying, and they make a lot of noise.

These are geese.

Now what's different about them?

That's right.

Just like the ducks, the parents have kind of those longer feathers and the goslings, not ducklings, goslings have the fuzzy fur.

I know it's kind of hard to see.

But then, ooh, look at these pretty birds.

Yes.

Maybe I'll be able to go to a park and maybe we can see some of these birds hopefully on our next episode.

Oh yeah, these are swans.

What's different?

I noticed pretty white, uh oh.

But the swan babies they're kind of gray, aren't they?

Yeah.

So they might have, just like the ducks and the geese, they might have to grow into these pretty white feathers.

All right so, friends in our notice and wonder walk today or our photo gallery walk I should say, we were using our eyes and our brain to figure out what was the same.

So, let's go back.

All right, and let's talk about some post-its and some patterns that we saw in all of our photo gallery walk.

Are you ready?

All right, I'll see you soon.

And then we'll be ready for Mr. Cotton says.

All right.

All right, let's keep learning and growing.

I love all the good attitude and you're working hard.

Thank you.

Hi friends, welcome back.

So, I know that we didn't go outside, but we did our photo gallery walk through some books, and I wanted to kind of go back to our discussion and let you be my guide in what I write on our post-it notes.

So, something that we mentioned on something that's different about plants and animals with their babies and their parents was their size.

So, who can help me and tell me some words that I need to say about size?

What is size?

Yeah.

So the babies in almost all of the pictures seemed small.

And the adults were big, even in the smaller animals, right?

Adults were big.

Why is that?

Tell your grownup.

Why is that?

That's right.

Because the babies still have to grow.

They still have to develop just like us, just like you.

So, we know that in size babies are small, right?

Even us babies humans are small, and then we keep growing and growing because we have to eat the right food.

We have to exercise, we have to stay active.

And then we keep growing.

Very nice.

We also saw that, yeah, so we also saw color, different colors, So something that was the same, what animals have the same colors?

Yeah, the lions, the tigers, the foxes.

Yeah, they all had kind of the same color.

They had the same pattern or they had the same fur or what were some animals that were different?

Do you remember?

Tell me, shout it out.

Yeah, the ducks, mostly the birds in all our gallery walk.

Ducks, the swans.

Swans.

The geese.

Yeah, it seemed like the birds, the babies we talked about how they were kind of fuzzy and then they had to grow into the feathers and the other colors.

Like the swan, they were kind of gray and then they would go into the beautiful white feathers.

Very nice.

Well, let's talk about some patterns that you saw.

What were some patterns?

When we think of patterns, what did we see that was similar in the babies and the grownups and maybe what wasn't?

Yeah.

Well, my friend told me back here, there were stripes, there was fur.

Some groups of animals, both the parents and the babies had the fur patterns, striped coats.

We didn't see some of these babies, but what about some other animals like dogs or cats?

We might see stripes.

We might see, ooh, yeah like leopards.

We might see dots, right?

Some of those kinds of patterns.

We might see patterns where we see dots, we see stripes.

What else?

Yeah, zig-zags are kind of like stripes too.

You're right.

Well, and then finally, let's talk about body parts that either are the same or different.

I knew you were gonna say that.

So the first thing I remember that's different from the adults and the babies was the feathers versus the, what do we wanna say, fuzzy?

The fuzz.

So, maybe as the babies grow in size then the fuzz goes away and the feathers come out.

Maybe we'll learn that in our story with our baby animals in the rivers.

So yeah, the feathers were different colors.

The feathers were different from the parents and the babies.

Great thinking.

You're so smart.

Kiss your brains.

All right, what other body parts seemed either the same or different?

Yeah, going back to the ducks and the swans and the geese, they all had those beaks to eat, to gather food with.

The beaks, yeah.

And it seemed like the fox had the pointy ears.

Maybe that, the pointy ears, helps with their listening, their sense of hearing for when it's time to hunt or gather food.

Very nice.

Well, I wanted to finish our notice and wonder discussion with plants because we didn't really see plants.

We saw them in the pictures, but I wanted us to talk and let you think and guide my discussion on notice and wondering about plants.

What's the same about baby plants versus adult plants or what's different?

True.

All plants have to start somewhere.

They all have to start with some like a seed.

So the seeds are kind of similar.

But then as they grow with the water and the sunlight, it's the same with size, right?

So we could add something with plants like seeds, so baby seeds into trunks like trees like trunks and branches.

So yeah.

So in plants, plants have to start with being a seed, a tiny little seed and it needs to grow out and hatch from the shell.

Very nice.

What's the same about plants?

Maybe the same color, maybe the plants when they grow even as adult will have stems.

Yeah, using those science vocabulary.

Stems is what we call them.

They grow from the stem.

Well, you are super smart.

And I'm so excited to find out more about baby animals and their parents.

But before we do that, let's get up and move.

All right.

So, let's get up in a kind of a space where you're safe, where you are not hitting anybody around you 'cause that would hurt.

Yeah, we don't want to do that.

And let's play a game of Mr. Cotton Says, are you ready?

Okay now, if those of you who are new to our channel or new to this episode or new to me and new to our episodes, remember I'm gonna try to trick you, but you have to use your brains and be super smart like a scientist, okay?

All right, listen for "Mr. Cotton says."

All right, Mr. Cotton says jump up four times.

Mr. Cotton says spin two times.

Mr. Cotton says say and shout hurray three times.

Mr. Cotton says, you can sit back down.

Mr. Cotton says, you can pat your head.

Mr. Cotton says, you can stop patting your head, it might hurt.

Mr. Cotton says, you can say hello three times.

Did you make a funny voice?

Yeah, I always like doing that.

Mr. Cotton says, pat your tummy.

Mr. Cotton says, touch your toes.

Mr. Cotton says, touch your nose.

Mr. Cotton says, touch your ears.

Mr. Cotton says, pat your lap.

Your lap is right here.

It's like a beat, isn't it?

Mr. Cotton says, clap your hands.

Mr. Cotton says, snap your fingers if you can.

Mr. Cotton says, you can stop snapping.

Stand up!

I said, stand up!

Oh, you didn't hear me say, "Mr. Cotton says," did you?

I can't trick you.

You guys are always so smart, and I'm so proud of you.

Thank you so much for playing that game with me.

Now let's get back into our calm down space.

And since we're talking about plants and animals I figured let's give ourselves a big sunflower breath or sunflower breath.

Are you ready?

All right, breathe in.

(Mr. Cotton breathes in) Bring your arms to a circle and breathe out.

(Mr. Cotton breathes out) We are calm back down.

Now we are ready to read "Baby Animals in Rivers."

And this book is by Bobbie Kalman.

She did all the words.

And this is a real non-fiction book because it has real photographs.

It is also a Craft Tree Publishing Company book.

So, they gave me permission to read it to you.

Are you ready?

Well, like always in other books that we've read, this book has a table of contents.

So we're not going to read every single page, but we want to look for things about the baby animals and the plants in their environment and their adults.

So, let's start with River Babies.

That's one of our chapters.

So let's go to (laughs) I know all of you will love this.

So let's read.

Oh, you guys have so much you can look at.

Well, river babies.

It says, "Some animals spend all their time in water.

"Others spend time both in the water and on the land."

Can you find which ones do that?

I bet you can.

"These pages show a few of the baby animals that live in "or beside the rivers."

So we've got alligators and crocodiles, baby swans, we saw those in our pictures, and a gosling, a baby goose.

I'm noticing that this baby goose is kind of yellowish, but in the other picture they look kind of gray.

So it goes back to our different colors, doesn't it?

Oh, and then we've got hippos and baby otters and bears.

Oh yes.

And there's the otter and oh, even a tiger.

What?

Did you know that?

I guess in some areas, tigers are by the rivers too.

They must like to drink from the water and everything.

All right, so that was some river babies that we got to see.

What about something else?

Oh, how about baby reptiles like those alligators.

Let's find out about them.

And then we'll go into the birds.

Ooh, baby reptiles.

Says, "Reptiles are animals whose bodies are covered "in scales."

That's another thing, body part, I guess we could write, right?

Oh, let's write it.

So, feathers and then body parts there's scales.

So, those reptiles all have those scales.

Oh, I wanted to add that to the list.

They're covered in scales.

"Scales are hard bony plates that protect a reptile's body."

So alligators, crocodiles, and caimans are reptiles.

Caiman's like a small alligator, crocodile family.

"They live in rivers and in wetlands "at the edge of the rivers.

"Wetlands are areas that are covered "with water for all parts of the year."

So these animals might not hibernate or migrate because they have to be by the water.

All right so, we see alligators here.

They look a little different than the crocodiles.

Looks like the crocodile has more scales or maybe harder.

And alligators are a little not as hard.

And then caimans are the smaller.

Well, let's go to another chapter.

Let's go to Baby Birds.

Let's find out how they're different or the same.

Yeah, we see by the photos they're not.

I showed you this before.

So it says, "Baby Birds.

"Birds are animals with wings and feathers."

Hey, we wrote that, didn't we?

Beaks and feathers.

"They lay eggs from which baby birds hatch.

"Like mammal mothers, "most bird mothers take care of their babies.

"Many bird fathers also help build nests for the babies "and bring them food "after they hatch."

Oh, and this page talks about what we did last episode.

Where do they go?

"Well, birds that live in places with cold winters, "they migrate or travel to warmer places in the fall.

"They return in the spring to lay their eggs "and raise their babies.

"Some make nests on the banks of rivers "and raise their babies both in the water and on land," like these geese and their goslings.

So here they are flying.

I beat some of you've, yeah I challenged seeing you.

I bet some of you see this when you're in the car or when you're walking in your neighborhood or just outside, you might see geese flying up ahead.

They're very popular.

Even in the city areas too.

Great thinking.

Well, you know, we talked a lot about babies, but let's talk about moms and the parents.

You ready?

Well, this chapter's all about mammal mothers.

It says, "Most reptile moms do not take care of their babies."

What?

Would that be nice if your mom just left you or your grandma or TT or dad?

Well, it happens, "But mammal mothers do.

"Mammals are animals with hair or fur."

Dun, dun, dun.

Fur, we talked about that with the foxes and the lions and tigers.

"Most mammal mothers feed their babies, "keep them safe and teach them how to survive."

Very important.

"The babies drink milk made "inside the bodies of their moms."

Just like some of you did.

"Drinking mother's milk is called nursing."

And some of you did that.

So humans are like some of these animals like the hippos and the lions and the tigers and the otter.

Oh, I think they found some fish.

Yeah, those river animals have to find all the fish.

All right so, we talked about river babies.

We talked about reptile babies.

We talked about bird babies.

We talked about mammal moms.

Well, what could we talk about next?

Well, I wanted to talk about something specific to last episode about habitats and the environment.

Remember last episode, we talked about how animals can change to their environments.

And we just learned about how birds can migrate.

So, right now we're kind of in the end of winter time, getting close to spring where the animals will be coming back and traveling back.

So, let's talk about what is a habitat and that environment.

Well, "A habitat is a natural place where plants grow "and animals live."

Oh, now we're gonna talk about a little bit about plants.

"Now, some habitats are on the land and some are in water.

"So oceans, lakes, ponds, "and rivers are some water habitats.

"Oceans are made up of saltwater though, "which is water that contains a lot of salt," like where this turtle is.

"But lakes, ponds, and rivers contain fresh water "which does not contain much salt."

So the fish, those otters, all of them, they're kind of in the freshwater, but then the turtles and the whales and sharks are all in the salt water.

"Living things need water.

"Plants, animals, and people are living things.

"So we grow change and make new living things.

"The air, sunlight, rocks, soil are non-living things.

"So water is also a non-living thing, "but living things need water to be healthy "and to grow big and strong.

"Plants, animals, and people cannot live without water."

So they show the bears around the water and the grass.

Well friends, thank you so much for joining me today.

I'm sorry that we didn't see any live animals, but some things are beyond our control.

So, what I want you to do at home is try to find pictures or go on Google or find some videos on YouTube or wherever, and have fun searching and learning and researching about animals, animal parents, and their babies.

All right, until next time I'm Mr. Cotton.

I'll see you soon.

Bye!

(upbeat music plays) - [Woman] Teaching in Room 9 is made possible with support of Bank of America, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Emerson, and viewers like you.