(cheerful music plays) - Hi, friends!

Welcome to Room 9, our region's largest classroom.

My name is Mr. Cotton, and I teach kindergarten at Bermuda Elementary School in the Ferguson Florissant district, which is in North County here in St. Louis.

Today, I will be teaching science for first graders, but as we all know, we can all learn and grow together.

That includes you adults as well.

So, are you ready to learn and grow with me?

Great!

So, I'm going to give a fist bump, a high five, and a virtual hug to all of you for joining me today.

How are we feeling?

Well, if you're feeling a little nervous or a little shy, feel free to bring a stuffed animal friend or a favorite doll to learn and grow with you.

Because when we start reading and learning about science, we can turn and talk to our friends about what we learned.

That's what scientists do.

I'm so excited to turn and talk with Mr. Bear.

How about you?

Well, go make sure you get your favorite stuffed animal.

I'll wait.

And friends as you're getting your favorite stuffed animal or friend to learn and grow with, let's go over what we're going to learn in today's episode!

Today, all of you and Mr. Cotton are going to be able to describe how sunlight changes throughout the day.

Well, we are going to be noticing and wondering about that when you come with Mr. Cotton outside in my neighborhood or wherever.

It might be a surprise.

And when we notice and wonder, we're going to be thinking like scientists.

We are going to use our eyes to see things.

We are going to use our ears to listen for clues, and we are going to use our hands to touch things that are related to our objective.

And finally, we're gonna come back into Mr. Cotton's classroom, and we're going to have a read aloud where we're going to learn and talk about the earth and the sun.

And in Mr. Cotton's class, we are going to be focusing on real books.

Learning about real scientists.

So, I can't wait to get started.

Are you all ready to join me on our notice and wonder walk?

Come on.

Let's go.

I'll see you soon.

Hi friends.

It's Mr. Cotton again, and we are here on our notice and wonder walk for today's lesson.

So, now our objective today is all about how sunlight changes throughout the day.

What's wrong with this picture, friends?

I'm noticing that there's no sun today.

What are we going to do?

Well, I bet we can still think like scientists on why that is.

So, remember in our notice and wonder walk we are using our senses.

We are using our eyes, our nose, our hands, our ears, maybe sometimes our tongues and mouths if we want to taste something, but I don't know if I'm going to be eating anything out here in the park.

So, let's go back to what I've noticed and what you've noticed.

There is no sun in the sky.

I'm wondering that because there's no sun and the clouds are covering the sun, that's why I had to put on my winter coat because it feels kind of cold out today.

I wonder if the sun has anything to do with that by making us warm.

What do you think?

What's that you say?

When it's sunny out, you like to play?

Yeah, I do too.

When it's sunny out, you don't wear a winter coat sometimes?

That's true.

I think of a hot summer day with the sun shining bright, and I might be at the pool swimming.

How about you?

Yeah, that's not happening now, but let's keep walking.

I'm also noticing behind me that some of the trees (gasps) don't have any leaves on them.

Do you think the sun or the no sun had anything to do with that?

I wonder if we are coming up on the season winter?

How do I know that?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

I'm wondering and noticing that below me the grass isn't as green anymore.

Do you see that?

Look with your eyes.

I see brown and kind of white grass and yellow.

I think maybe when the air gets colder and when the sun's not out as much, maybe the grass turns brown because it's not getting the sunlight that it needs.

What do you think?

Let's keep looking.

Now I don't know if you can hear this, but as Mr. Cotton walks, I'm hearing the ground crunch below me, and I also hear squishiness.

I wonder why the ground is so mushy.

I'm wondering if because there's no sun that maybe the ground is cold, and maybe that's why it gets wet.

Or the sun hasn't been out long enough to dry it out.

And that's why I hear the squishiness.

But I also remember that it did rain the other day.

So, maybe the water is still in the ground because the sun hasn't been out.

What are your thoughts on that?

Go ahead and tell your friend.

Did you tell them that you remembered that it rained the other day?

Did you also tell them that sometimes when you splash in puddles after it rains, it makes that sound too?

Yeah, it's squishy, isn't it?

And it doesn't feel good when it gets into your shoes.

Yeah, I don't like that feeling either.

Well, let's see one more thing.

We talked about no sun keeping it cold.

We talked about no sun after it rains to dry out the grass.

Well, I'm noticing that when I go to the ground some of the leaves are different colors.

Come look with me.

Oh, this leaf, friends, is brown color.

But I noticed it's kind of a light brown, isn't it?

But then I'm going to see another leaf that is kind of like the same color.

I wonder why these leaves are brown when I know that most leaves and the grass are green.

What happened?

Did the sun not come out have anything to do with that?

I don't know, but let's take a look at another leaf.

This leaf is brown as well.

And this one is green, and it looks like it's broken off.

Well, kids, I might have to take these back to our classroom, so we can talk about what happened and why these leaves are different colors.

Are you ready to come back to class with me and learn and grow together?

All right, let's go.

Thanks for joining me on this notice and wonder walk.

You're thinking like scientists.

Great job.

Hi, friends.

Welcome back.

I hope you had so much fun on our notice and wonder walk.

So right now let's take a look at Mr. Cotton's chart and talk about what we saw, what we noticed and wondered.

So, I have some post-it notes here of things that we talked about when we were out in nature and exploring.

So, our first thing that we knew, when we go back to our question about how we can describe how sunlight changes throughout the day, well, today on our notice and wonder walk the sun was hiding.

And what did that lead us to wonder?

Can you tell me?

That's right.

The sun was hiding and it felt cold, didn't it?

It felt cold.

Mr. Cotton had his winter coat on.

Winter coat on.

The sun was hiding, so it made us think that we don't really know the answer to how sunlight changes throughout the day from our notice and wonder walk.

So, maybe if the sun is hiding, then the heat or light is gone in a way because we can't feel it on our bodies.

Great thinking.

Let's go back to our next notice and wonder.

And I'm gonna talk with Mr. Bear.

Do you have your stuffed animal friend with you?

Who remembers when Mr. Cotton, we used our ears and we heard the ground was squishy?

Mr. Bear, what does that make you think of?

You think?

Friends, Mr. Bear told me that he thinks that the ground was squishy because the sun's been gone and can't dry the ground.

Did you think that?

Did your animal friend say that?

So Mr. Bear said it rained and the sun didn't dry the ground.

Great thinking, Mr. Bear.

I have to give him a high five.

What do you think?

Thanks, Mr. Bear.

All right, let's see if he's gonna listen to your thoughts.

Anybody else have any other thoughts about why the ground was squishy?

It rained and the sun didn't dry the ground.

Ground was squishy.

I guess maybe if the sun is out, then we have dry land.

Yeah, so during the night maybe, during nighttime, during night too cold to dry the land.

Let's go to our next bullet point.

Who remembers when we looked at the trees and there were no leaves?

The trees were bare.

What did we wonder about that?

Oh, that we are in fall.

Who said that?

Oh, you're so smart.

Kiss your brains.

That we are in fall.

Yeah, we know our season.

So, that means our sunlight might not be out as much as it would be in summer or spring time.

Very good thinking.

So, trees were bare, that we are in fall, close to winter.

Some of us know that winter is coming up too, because why?

Because Mr. Cotton had his winter coat on, didn't he?

Yep, and it felt cold because I had my hat on, but I didn't in my notice and wonder walk.

And then, students, I didn't think about this, but I didn't say this.

When the sun was gone I couldn't see my shadow.

I was looking all over for it when I walked to my car, when we were walking in the grass.

Well, I know that when I've taught shadows with my kindergartners in regular school, we talked about that we had to have sunlight and our bodies or a tree or something to block the light so we can see our shadow.

Did we have that, students?

No, we didn't.

So, I challenge you sometime on the next sunny day if you can get outside and chase your shadows.

You could do that in your driveway.

You could do that on the sidewalk.

You could do that in your backyard and find your shadow and see if your shadow is chasing you or if you are chasing your shadow because that depends on where the sun is during the day.

All right, so where is my shadow?

Well, I guess we can wonder that the sun needs to be out.

Doesn't it?

The sun needs to be out in order to see your shadow.

Now I also want to challenge you, and Mr. Bear can help me with this too, but if you have a flashlight at home, you could be like a scientist and study shadows in your own house.

All you'll need is a flashlight and maybe your wall, or if you were standing by a window or you could do it with one of your toys, all right?

So think like a scientist.

You can explore the shadows and the different ways sun can change throughout the day by using your flashlight and moving it back and forth and doing shadow puppets with your hands and see if the shadow is behind your hands or in front of or maybe your shadow gets bigger as the light gets closer or it gets shorter.

Why don't you explore that?

Maybe we can do that sometime soon, too.

All right, well, thank you, students and friends for helping me with all my wondering and all of your wondering on our notice and wonder walk.

So, we are going to do that every single episode, okay?

You'll come to my neighborhood and my area, and we'll explore together, all right?

Great job again.

Kiss your brains because you're so smart, and thank you for telling and turning and talking to your animal friend too.

Well, we have been sitting and thinking and learning and using our brain so much.

So, it's time to get some movement going on.

So let's do Mr. Cotton Says.

If you know how to play Simon Says, you can come along and you can play along with us.

All right, so again, during Mr. Cotton Says, you have to listen with your ears and hear the clue word, you have to hear "Mr. Cotton says," and then you do the movement.

All right, who's ready?

I don't hear you.

Who's ready?

That's what I thought.

All right, you ready?

Mr. Cotton says jump three times.

Mr. Cotton says jump four times.

Is your animal friend doing it with you?

Is your grownup doing it with you?

Come on, grownups, you can play along too.

Mr. Cotton says touch your nose.

Mr. Cotton says touch your ears.

Mr. Cotton says pat your head.

Mr. Cotton says keep patting your head and touch your shoulders.

Ooh, can you do that?

That's a little hard, but I think I can do it.

Mr. Cotton says stop doing that.

Mr. Cotton says sit still.

Mr. Cotton says blow a bubble.

Mr. Cotton says jump three times again.

Mr. Cotton says spin two times.

Oh, don't go too fast.

You don't want to be too dizzy.

All right, Mr. Cotton says you may sit back down.

Stand up!

Oh, did I trick you?

Oh, I hope not.

You're so smart.

Well, thanks for playing with me.

Now before we finish our lesson today, let's take a big rainbow breath in and let it out.

Let's do one more and let's make it a sunflower because we didn't get to see the sun today in our lesson, in our notice and wonder walk.

Sunflower in, make it round and breathe out.

All right, now our bodies are ready for our reading, and Mr. Bear is ready for our reading too.

He is so excited.

All right, so, friends, today we are going to learn real facts about the earth and the sun.

And "Earth and the Sun" is actually by Bobbie Kalman and Kelley MacAuley.

And the book was published by the Crab Tree Publishing Company.

How do I know that?

Well, students, in every book there is an author who writes the words and there's an illustrator that does the pictures.

Now this is a real book.

So, that means people have taken pictures with their phones or with cameras and put them in the book.

I don't think we'll see any drawings in here, but we might.

And I'll try to do some closeups.

Now, friends, our objective today is that we can describe how sunlight changes throughout the day.

Well, this book is all about the earth and the sun.

So, this book has chapters because we're getting super, super, duper smart, and we know our words.

So, what that means is that when you look inside this book, it has a table of contents.

And it lets me know if I want to find out certain information, I can go and look for that number so I can find it in the book.

Wow.

Not all books have that.

Story books usually don't have chapters unless they are fiction, and they are big for big readers and grown up readers and teenage readers too.

You'll get there someday.

Don't worry.

All right, so friends, if I want to answer these questions and talk about what we were wondering, I don't need to read every single page.

So, we're gonna jump around, all right?

So, describe how sunlight changes throughout the day.

Well, how about we go to "what is the sun?"

Because we need to know about it.

Well, let's go to that page, shall we?

This says, "what is the sun?

"The sun is a star.

"A star is a huge hot ball of gas that glows "and gives off heat.

"The sun is the closest star to Earth.

"It is still very far away though.

"The sun is much, much bigger than the earth, "but it looks small because it's so far away."

Now this book also has diagrams.

Diagrams are pictures that have words on them, so you can learn more about the story.

So as you can see, here we are and the sun looks kind of small, but in real life, it's really, really, really big.

So, that chapter told us that the sun is our closest star and it gives off heat.

So, that lets me know that if the sun is hiding we don't get the heat and it feels colder.

We learned something new.

All right, now I'm going to go back to the table of contents so I can see more about what we can learn.

"Day and night."

Ooh, because we went on our nature walk during the day.

I wonder what happens at night time.

All right, let's see.

I bet we're gonna find out some answers on this.

"Now as earth travels around the sun "it slowly turns in circles.

"It takes one day for Earth to turn in a full circle."

That's a long time to turn in a circle.

"For about half of the day, "the part of Earth where you live faces the sun.

"When Earth faces the sun, it's daylight, "it's daytime in your part of the world.

"But for the other half of the day, "the part of earth where you live faces away from the sun."

So, it's kind of like how it's got its back to the sun.

"When Earth faces away from sun, "it is nighttime in your part of the world."

Well, if you're watching this look out the window.

Do you think we're in daytime or nighttime?

Yes, we're in daytime.

We're not sleeping, are we?

No.

All right, let's read on to this page.

It says "Night, day, night, day."

Oh, I think there's going to be a pattern.

"So, each day has a nighttime and a daytime.

"Night follows day and day follows night."

It's kind of like a cycle.

"When something repeats, there is a pattern."

Oh, there's that science word, pattern.

How do I know it's a science word?

Because it's bold.

It's darker.

That means it's very important.

"How many times does the night and day pattern repeat "in a week?"

Well, here, I'm gonna I read some of the captions by the pictures.

It says, "During the day you can see the sun in the sky.

"At night you can see the moon in the sky above."

So, during the day there's a lot of light shining on our houses.

And at night the sun does not like the earth.

You have to turn on lights in your house or outside of your house, so you can see.

So again, friends, I can describe how sunlight changes throughout the day.

Well, we just heard that when the sun is not out, it could be nighttime or it could be colder and not as warm.

So, that's part of our cycle.

Let's see if we can find out more about answering our questions.

"Hot and cold.

"A tilted planet.

"What are shadows?"

Wow, there's so many things.

How about colors of sunlight?

Let's go there.

Chapter that says "colors of sunlight" because we want to describe how the sunlight changes throughout the day.

"Colors of sunlight."

Oh, I know you know what this is.

Tell your friends, what is that?

Did you say a rainbow?

We just took our rainbow breath.

How cool!

"Sunlight gives us colors.

"You can see the colors of the sun in rainbows.

"Rainbows are curves of colored light in the sky.

"Rainbows form when sunlight shines "through the tiny drops of water in the air.

"You can see rainbows in the sky over water, "and you can also see rainbows over land after it rains."

What other colors do you see when you see the sun in the sky?

Yeah, yellow, orange, maybe pink.

Well, hint, hint, that part of the day is called a sunrise or a sunset.

I wonder if this book has anything about that?

Let me take a look at my table of contents.

"Less Sunshine."

Maybe that will be something.

Oh, friends, I think we're gonna answer our question about the trees were bare and all those different colored leaves.

"When there's less sunshine, plants look different "including the leaves in different seasons.

"Trees have bright green leaves in the spring and summer, "but in autumn and fall, "the leaves of trees are red, orange and yellow."

Why do they change color?

Look, I got my red leaf.

This was a green one, but it fell off.

And now all our leaves are brown on our notice and wonder walk.

And then they die because we're not in summer or spring, are we?

Take a look.

Some of us have seen our trees like that in our yards, haven't you?

Yup, I have.

And we have full proof from our notice and wonder walk.

We see red.

We see brown.

We see leaves that are crumpled up and dead.

Oh no.

So, that's why they are losing their color because the sunlight has been changing.

Yeah.

So, our last part is all about being hot and cold.

Some of us have talked about this and what we see when the sun rises or sun sets near the horizon.

And it changes colors in the sky.

That's where we're gonna stop today because we might find out more on our next episode.

So friends, I had so much fun talking to Mr. Bear and you and learning and growing with you.

So remember, friends, in order for you to describe how sunlight changes throughout the day, we learned that the sun is in different spots throughout the day.

Yep.

So, during sunrise it comes up.

During sunset it goes down, and then it's nighttime, and then it's cold and dark.

Well, friends, I challenge you to go chase your shadows.

All right?

Go do that when it's sunny out.

All right, I had so much fun with you.

'Til next time in Room 9.

This is Mr. Cotton.

Have fun!

(cheerful 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.