(upbeat ambient music) - Hi learners.

Welcome back to Read, Write, Roar.

Today, we are going to do some reading and find out some more about what community helpers do and who community helpers are.

Then we're gonna learn about the difference between a fact and an opinion.

You'll use that to work with Ms. Rogers and start writing an opinion piece.

So if you don't have something to write with or something to write on yet, go grab that now and meet us right back here.

So we can start reading, writing, and roaring together.

(upbeat ambient music) - This program is made possible in part by the Michigan Department of Education, the state of Michigan and the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation.

Additional support by and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat ambient music) (animated roar) - Hi there learners.

I'm so happy to see you back.

Today we are going to continue to talk about community helpers.

We've been looking a little bit at this book, "Community Helpers Then and Now" by Bobbie Kalman.

And we'll be looking at this book some more today and review what we learned about government.

Do you remember we talked about the word government?

Can you say that for me?

Nice job.

And we learned that a government is a group of people that run a country or province, state or community.

As we think about government, there are some helpers that are in our community that the government helps to pay for.

So what we're going to do is learn about a few of those.

As I introduce one of the community helpers in our talking today, you're gonna be thinking about what community helper you think it is and where you think you'd find that community helper.

We are thankful that Crabtree allowed us to read this book today by Bobbie Kalman to help us with our learning.

The first community helper group we're gonna talk about today are medical helpers, medical helpers.

Can you say that?

Medical helpers, nice job.

I'd like you to think of these two things.

What kind of medical helpers do you think of in your head?

Hmm.

Are you thinking of some?

All right, hang on to that idea, and now, where would you find that medical helper that you just thought of?

Let's read and find out what kinds of medical helpers there can be.

Medical helpers.

Medical helpers are nurses, dentists and many kinds of doctors who treat different body parts such as eyes or teeth.

The pharmacist at your drug store is another important helper because he or she gives you the medicine you need to get well.

I'm gonna put something on here for a moment.

Yeah, I put on my glasses.

This is showing a medical worker.

This is an optometrist.

An optometrist checks your eyes and tells you if you need glasses, he or she then makes the glasses you need.

Can you say optometrist?

Nice.

It says how often do you visit your dentist?

For your age, probably maybe go a couple times a year, right?

I'm noticing this dentist has a mask and is wearing gloves.

Why do you think that might be happening?

Yeah, to keep the person safe.

Okay, the next group of helpers we'll learn about today are first responders.

Can you say first responders?

Well done.

First responders can be lots of different people, but one group that they can be are paramedics.

Can you say paramedics?

Paramedics.

It has that word 'medic' inside of it.

Medic, and we just talked about medical helpers.

Paramedics work like a medical helper but they're not doctors or nurses, they help people who need help right away and get them to doctors and nurses so they can get more help.

Before we read some more about first responders, I'd like you to do some thinking and think about what you think first responders could be.

So what kind of first responders are you thinking of and where would you find these people?

Think about those community helpers, what kinds of first responders would there be?

And where would they be?

First responders are emergency workers who are the first to respond or act.

So if something's helping and people respond, they jump right in and help out.

An emergency is a dangerous situation that happens suddenly, so, (gasps) out of the blue, it happens suddenly.

First responders include police officers, ambulance drivers, paramedics, and firefighters.

In emergencies, 911 operators receive calls from people who need help.

They sent emergency workers to where they're needed.

It says in olden times, there were no telephones or emergency numbers to call.

There were no first responders either.

Can you imagine how difficult that would be?

When there was emergency, people helped one another.

And that's really nice, right?

In big cities, there were hospitals but their ambulances were pulled by horses.

And it said, people could not get to a hospital quickly in a horse drawn ambulance.

Without paramedics, they could not get the help they needed right away.

So a question for you, we read about first responders, we know that there can be paramedics and in a minute, we're gonna read about firefighters, but let's say there's an emergency, something that happens suddenly.

What could you do to help if you need someone to help you,?

Great job, you can call 911.

That's what you do to get help from a first responder.

Could you do that if someone else was hurt and they needed a first responder?

Absolutely.

Call 911 if you need help, or if someone around you is in trouble and they need help from our first responder.

Great thinking and helping.

That's you being a community helper.

Okay, so now we're going to read about another community helper, firefighters.

Can you say firefighters?

Nice job.

This is actually a compound word.

We have fire and fighters put together as one word to be firefighters.

Now let's think about firefighters, what is it that they do?

There's our what?

And where might you find them?

Think about that?

What do they do?

Where might you find them?

Hmm.

Let's read about firefighters and find out some more.

As I'm reading about firefighters, I'd like you to think about if what you said in your head about what firefighters do and where you might find them, if you can confirm that and hear me read the same things you were thinking and if you do, you can go, (snaps fingers) I got it, I thought that too.

Firefighters.

Fires can start quickly.

Firefighters help fight fires and rescue people and animals.

They put out fires that start in buildings, they also fight fires in forests and they fight bush fires.

Firefighters today, now today, drive big trucks and use water from fire hydrants to put out fires.

Fire hydrants can be found in many places around towns and cities.

Here's a nice label that says "Fire hydrant".

This says this firefighter is climbing up a ladder to rescue a person was trapped inside a burning building.

How scary, thank goodness we have community helpers like firefighters to help in that kind of a situation.

This picture here is showing a different kind of fire, a forest or a bush fire.

These happen all the time.

It says firefighters use helicopters to drop buckets of water on burning trees and bushes.

Let's turn back to long ago in the past about fires in the past.

It says, "Many fires.

Long ago, people used candles for light and fireplaces for cooking and heating homes.

Open flames made accidental fires very common.

In those days, there were no firetrucks or firefighters.

So buckets of water were passed along lines of people to put out the flames of a fire.

After cars were invented, firefighters drove fire trucks with pumps which sprayed water on fire.

So this would be a truck that had a pump.

And here we go, this is showing these firefighters are putting on a fire with a hose filled with water that they carried in their trucks."

And check this out, it says back when they're a weren't these cars and when they didn't have fire hydrants, it says people used buckets of water to put out fires.

How are buckets still used by firefighters today?

What do you think about that?

How are buckets used by firefighters today?

There could be lots of ways, right?

That they're still holding water in buckets today to put out buyers, right, or to clean things, right?

Maybe they use buckets with water today to keep all their equipment clean.

But I like here, how it's showing these people are passing buckets along the line.

What an excellent example of teamwork, so that you can solve a problem.

Now we're gonna think about another community helper, called the police officer.

They're another kind of first responder.

Can you say police officer?

Nice.

You might notice that here that I have some equipment that a police officer might use.

This is a special vest.

It has what's called Kevlar in it to keep a police officer safe.

There's some handcuffs and there's spots where you can put your badges.

So that way you can let people know that you're a police officer.

We've read a little bit about this police officer part before, right?

And we met officer Max.

He's a canine officer.

If you are a police officer that has a dog that helps you, you have these special labels that say "Canine Unit".

It lets people know that you have a dog with you.

We know that police officers can do lots of different things.

And we've read about this a little bit before.

Let's just do a quick review and show a picture.

Here's a modern day police officer, and here's what we used to do in the past if someone had to go to jail.

They might go into a little wagon like this.

We know that police officers help our communities if someone is breaking a law and they need to go and help them.

We've learned a lot about community helpers today, we've learned about what they do and where they might be.

We know about medical helpers and then first responders which can be paramedics, firefighters, and police officers.

Can you think of a job something you can do that would help a firefighter so that you help keep things safe where you are?

Good thinking.

How about with the police officer?

Can you think of things you can do to help keep things safe where you are?

Great job.

These people have jobs to be community helpers but you're a community helper as well.

Let's keep doing some more thinking and try and see if we can learn something new and apply what we just learned in our reading today.

(upbeat ambient music) - Hello, amazing learners, let's review some ideas from our book.

"Be an Active Citizen in Your Community" by Helen Mason, read with permission from Crabtree Publishing.

"What is an active citizen?

Active citizens help make their communities great places to live.

Some active citizens work with people who are new to the community.

They welcome new people and help them learn about the community.

Other active citizens work to keep rivers and lakes clean.

They help fish and other animals stay healthy.

They make sure the water is safe to drink.

These active citizens are planting trees to help keep their community beautiful.

What do active citizens do?

Every community has written and unwritten rules, active citizens follow both types of rules.

Written rules are called laws.

Laws are rules made by the government and enforced by police officers.

Laws are made to keep everyone safe such as how fast someone can drive a car.

Unwritten rules are rules everyone knows are the best way to behave with each other.

So such as being polite to your neighbor.

All active citizens follow three important unwritten rules, number one, show respect.

Number two, play fair.

And number three, help others.

These active citizens pick up garbage, what unwritten rules are they following?

So I need your help in writing an opinion.

Let me hear you say opinion.

Now an opinion is a person or group's thoughts, feelings or beliefs about something.

So I'm going to tell you a short story or scenario and I want you to think about it and I'm going to ask you your opinion after I share mine and we're going to do this using an opinion sandwich.

An opinion sandwich is not something that you eat, it's a way to organize your thoughts.

And I have my opinion sandwich right here.

So the tough part is the bread.

The middle apart is my peanut butter.

And I also have this purple stuff, which would be jelly.

(chuckles) And then finally I have another slice of bread at the bottom.

So here we go, listen carefully.

I heard there's going to be a community trash pickup on Earth Day in my community park.

I told my friends that I wanted them to help.

And I asked them to join me.

My friend said, "No, that's not my problem.

I didn't put the garbage there.

Why should I help pick up trash that isn't mine?"

Well, what do you think?

What is your opinion?

Well, I think that being a good citizen, one should probably help clean up the community.

So what I'm going do is look at my opinion sandwich.

And I think that if I share my opinion, I would probably use the words I think, I feel or I believe so here I wrote, "I think."

So after reading this book, I think that it's really important for us to clean up our community.

So what could I say that would convince my friends to help me to clean up on Earth Day?

Hmm.

I know in the book people shared responsibilities.

So how about I write, I think that it is everyone's responsibility to pick up trash.

I think that might work.

So let's go ahead and write that.

I think that it is everyone's, everyone's responsibility Re-spon-si-bi-li-ty.

to pick up trash.

To pick up trash.

Okay, so let's read that.

I think that it is everyone's responsibility to pick up trash.

Okay, so that's my opinion but now I need to figure out some reasons for my opinion.

Hmm.

Maybe if I read a little more, it will help.

So let's go to another page.

(gasps) If I go to this page, "What is an active citizen?"

I see that there are people picking up trash, and this caption right here says, "These active citizens are planting trees to help keep their community beautiful."

So I'm thinking that picking up trash will not only help make our community beautiful, safe, it can also keep our community clean.

So how about I write for my first first sentence to convince them, picking up trash will keep our community beautiful.

Let's write that.

Picking, pick-ing, it's i-n-g, up trash, sh, will keep, kee, double e, keep our community beautiful.

Com-mu-ni-ty.

Beautiful.

Full of beauty.

So let's read that entire sentence.

Picking up trash will keep our community beautiful.

Now, remember we talked about the wildlife, so perhaps it will not only keep our community beautiful, but it can keep our community safe and clean.

Should I add that to our sentence?

Yes, I think that will be a good idea to add that sentence here, because it goes with this one and it's also a way to convince them to do this.

So let's go ahead and write that, picking up trash.

And we know we don't use our bare hands, we can use gloves or other tools to help us.

Picking up trash keeps our community, whoa, (chuckles) our community safe and clean.

So we will step on things, it'll be nice and clear for everyone to see and for the animals to be around.

That's really important.

Safe, and clean.

So let's go ahead and read our sentence.

Picking up trash keeps our community safe and clean.

So I shared my opinion.

I shared my two reasons, my peanut butter and jelly.

Now I have to figure out a way to close my ideas.

I have to have my final statement to convince or remind them of what we're doing.

So I have, this is why I think that, so that's my sentence starter.

Now all I have to do is refer back up here to my original statement.

I think that it is everyone's responsibility to pick up trash.

So here I can say this is why I think that it is everyone's responsibility to pick up trash.

Let's write that, this is why I think that it is everyone's responsibility.

Ooh, that's a long word.

It's an important word.

Respon-si-bi-li-ty to pick up trash.

To pick up trash.

And I think I'm going to use a exclamation mark or exclamation point at the end to say emphasis or to make it sound exciting.

So let's read it that way.

This is why I think that it is everyone's responsibility to pick up trash.

Now I'm going to read this one more time all the way through, and maybe it will convince my friends.

So here we go.

I think that it is everyone's responsibility to pick up trash.

Now for my reasons, picking up trash will keep our community beautiful.

Picking up trash, keeps our community safe and clean.

Now my final statement to convince them and to reinforce or readdres what I initially said, this is why I think that it is everyone's responsibility to pick up trash.

Hmm, I think this just might work.

Thank you for helping me to fill out this organizer about my opinion.

This really helped me to think about my opinion and how I might share it with my friends to convince them how to be an active citizen.

Now you go ahead and get your work done, and I think I'm going to make myself a real peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Today, Mrs.

Spear introduced us to all kinds of community helpers who provide services.

Remember to be on the lookout for those helpers in your community.

We also learned the difference between facts and opinion and how to state our opinion.

When we think about reasons that supports our opinion, it will help us as we try to communicate our ideas with others.

There really is a lot to learn about being a citizen in our community.

I look forward to seeing you next time (upbeat ambient music) on Read, Write and Roar.

- [Narrator] This program is made possible in part by the Michigan Department of Education, the State of Michigan, and the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation.

Additional support by and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat ambient music)