- Hello, readers and writers.

Welcome to "Read, Write, ROAR!"

Today, we're going to learn all about the letter D. We're also going to learn two new high-frequency words, and read a book to learn about how weather changes, across the seasons.

For today's lesson, you're going to need something to write on, like a piece of paper, and something to write with, like a pencil.

So go get your things, and we can start learning.

- [Announcer] 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.

(cheerful music) (lion roaring) (lion roaring) - Hi, I'm Mrs. Skelley.

And today, you're going to be, a letter hero.

You'll be learning the name, sound and how to write the letter D. Learning how to read and write this letter is going to help you read and write many words.

Let's get started.

Let's practice naming the letter D, so this is the letter D, this is the uppercase D, can you say that?

Uppercase D. This is the lowercase d. Can you say that?

Lowercase d, good.

Okay, let's practice naming this letter together.

What letter is it?

uppercase D, good.

What letter is it?

lowercase d. Okay, I might mix it up a little bit.

What letter is it?

lowercase d good.

And what letter is it?

Yes, uppercase D, good.

The letter D represents the sound d, like in the word, dinosaur.

Can you say that word?

Dinosaur?

Listen to the beginning sound.

D-d-dinosaur.

We hear the D sound at the beginning.

And also in the word dice.

Can you say that word?

Dice.

Listen to the beginning sound, d-d-dice.

Good.

The sound that the letter D makes can be a little bit tricky to make, so watch me.

You're going to put your tongue behind your top front teeth and open your mouth a little bit.

When you make the sound for the letter D you're going to feel a little puff of air come out of your mouth so you can hold up your hand and see if you can feel the air come out of your mouth.

Try it with me like this: D, D, D. Can you try it?

D D D, good.

Okay, let's practice making the sound for the letter D. Okay, Ready?

D, D. D,D.

Great work.

Okay now, I'm going to show you a question.

And this question is about what we're learning today.

How weather changes across the seasons.

Our question today is what patterns do you see on a weather calendar?

Now we're going to be learning, about what a weather calendar is a little bit later.

But your job right now is to be on the lookout for the letter D, so I'm going to get out my handy-dandy magnifying glass, and we're going to look for the letter D. All right let's get started.

Our first word is the word what, do you see a D in that word?

Nope.

Not in that word.

Our next word is patterns.

Do you see a D in there?

Not in there.

Our next word is the word do, do you see a D?

You do?

Point to it.

There it is.

It's a lowercase d. I'm going to highlight that D, now listen to the sound at the beginning of the word do, d-d-do, we hear it at the beginning of the word?

Good, let's look at the next word.

Our next word is you.

Do you see a D?

Nope.

See is our next word.

No d in there.

On, no d. A, do you see a D?

No.

Weather?

No D in that word either.

And our last word is calendar.

Do you see a D in that word?

You do?

Can you point to it?

There it is, another lowercase d. Now let's listen to the middle sound of the word calendar.

Ready?

ca-len-dar .

Do you hear it in the middle of that word?

Ca-len-dar.

Yes, very good, looking for the letter D and our big question for today.

All right, now, you're going to learn how to write the letter D so for this activity, you're going to need something to write with and something to write on.

But first, let me show you how to write the uppercase letter D, watch me.

We're going to start at the top of our paper.

Go down, back up, and around.

Okay now, before we write it down, we're going to air write it.

So put your finger in the air, and we're going to trace it together.

Like this, start at the top, go down, back up and around.

Try it with me.

Start at the top, go down, back up and around.

Let's do it one more time.

Start at the top, go down, back up and around.

Now that we've practiced, we're ready to write, so get something to write with and right along with me.

Here we go.

Let's start at the top, go down, back up and around.

Do it again.

Start at the top, go down, back up and around, one last time.

Start at the top go down, back up and around.

Great work.

What letter did we just write?

Yes, uppercase D. Okay now, we're going to learn how to write lowercase d. Watch me.

For this one, we're going to start in the middle this time.

Start in the middle, we're going to make the letter C, we're going to go straight up and straight down again.

All right put your finger in the air and let's practice tracing it before we write it down.

Here we go.

Start in the middle, make a C go up and down.

Do it with me.

Start in the middle, make a C go up and down, one last time.

Start in the middle, make a C, go up and down.

Great work, now get something to write with and let's write a lowercase d together.

Start in the middle, make a C, go up and down.

Do it again.

Start in the middle, make a C, go up and down.

One last time.

Start in the middle, make a C, go up and down.

Great work.

What letter did we just write?

Yes, lowercase d. You did such a nice job today learning all about the letter?

D. Yes, now remember the letter D represents the sound d, like in the word dinosaur and in the word dice.

Next time someone's reading to you, see if you can find the letter D in the book.

(relaxed music) We're going to learn two new words today.

We call these high-frequency words because they pop up often when we're reading.

The first word is the word for, can you say that word?

We can use this word when we're making something that's for someone, like I made this card for my mom.

For.

Listen to the sounds in the word for, f, or, there are two sounds in this word.

Watch me write the letters in this word.

F, O, R. F, O, R. There are three letters in the word for.

Let me show you how this word works.

The first letter is an F and it makes the ff sound.

The next letter is an O and in this word, it makes the long O sound, it says oh.

And the last letter is an R and it says rrr.

The word for is spelled F, O, R. Let's practice spelling the word for.

Stand up with me, and we're going to tap out the spelling on our arm to help us remember how to spell this word.

Watch me.

Like this.

F, O, R, for.

Try it with me, F, O, R, for.

Do it one more time.

F, O, R, for.

Great work.

Another thing I like to do to help me remember how to spell, and write the word for, is to put my finger in the air, and air trace it.

Will you put your finger in the air and trace the word for with us?

All right, we're going to start at the top and we can trace it and spell it together.

F, O, R, for.

Do it again.

F, O, R, for.

One last time.

F, O, R, for, yes.

What word is this?

It's the word for, great work.

Our next high-frequency word is the word a.

Can you say that word?

You can use the word a, when you're talking about just one thing, like I saw a zebra at the zoo, I just saw one zebra, a zebra.

Listen to the sounds in the word a.

A, there's just one sound.

Watch me write the word a.

It's spelled with just a plain a, an a all by itself.

A spells the word a, there's just one letter in this word.

Now in this word, the word a is spelled with an a, but instead of making an a sound, it makes the uh sound.

That's the part we're going to have to remember in this word.

All right, now we're going to stand up again, put out our finger and trace the word a, and spell it together.

All right, put your finger in the middle, and we're going to trace it.

We're going to say a spells a.

Do it again.

A spells a, one last time.

A spells a, nice work.

What word is this?

Yes, it's the word a.

Today we learned two new high-frequency words, a and for.

Next time you're reading, see if you can find these in a book.

(relaxed music) I'm going to read a poem called Seasons.

It's about a tree that changes with each season.

After we're done reading, we're going to find the words of each season to label our picture of our tree as it changes.

All right, when I read the poem the first time, your job is to be on the lookout for our two new high-frequency words.

The word a and the word for.

That's right, I'm going to put them up here, to remind you to look for those two words as I'm reading.

Seasons.

Green, green, leaves blow in the breeze.

Orange, red, a tree gets ready for bed.

White, brown, the snow falls down.

Melting snow, the buds are ready to grow.

All right.

As I was reading the poem about seasons, did you find our two new high-frequency words?

All right, well, we're first going to look for the word a.

Can you spell that word with me?

A spells the word a.

Very good.

All right, take your finger and see if you can find the word, a, in our poem today.

Did you find it?

Look, there it is.

Just a plain a all by itself.

A, can you spell it with me?

A spells a.

Now in this part of the poem, the word a is a capital a, that's because it's the beginning of the line of the poem.

So it gets a capital, but it's still the same word, it's still spells a, good.

Okay, now we're going to look for our next high-frequency word, the word for, can you spell the word for with me?

F, O, R, for.

Good.

Okay, take your finger and see if you can find the word for and point to it.

Did you find it?

Look there it is, very good, can you spell it with me?

F, O, R, for.

I'm going to circle it.

Great work today finding our two new high-frequency words.

Can you say them with me?

A and for.

Okay now, did you notice, as we were reading the poem that the tree changes with each season?

Have you ever looked out your window and noticed, that trees sometimes change with the seasons?

Very good.

Well, seasons happen in the same order every single year, and each season has their own type of weather, and temperature.

Now we're going to label the seasons that match the part in the poem and the picture.

Our four seasons are winter, fall, spring and summer.

These seasons are out of order.

So we've got to put them back in the right order, and match them to their picture, to give our picture a label.

All right, let's read the first part of our poem.

It says green, green, leaves blow in the breeze.

Take a look at that tree.

Which season do you think, that picture in the poem is talking about?

Winter, fall, spring or summer?

That's right, this is summer.

In the summer the leaves are green on the trees in Michigan.

Let's see if we can find the word summer.

Can you say that word?

S-s-summer.

Can you find a word that begins with that sound?

Look, I see two words that begin with a s sound.

Let's take our finger and stretch out the word and see which one matches the word summer.

S-pr-ing, not that word.

S-umm-er, that's the word summer, great job.

Let's add a label to our picture, summer.

All right, now I'm going to read the next part of the poem and we're going to see which season this one's talking about.

Orange, red, a tree gets ready for bed.

Hmm?

Which season has colorful leaves in Michigan?

Winter, fall or spring?

That's right, it's the fall.

In the fall the leaves change colors, and then they fall down at the end of the season.

Can you say the word fall?

F-f-fall.

Can you point to the word that matches the beginning sound, fall?

Did you point to this one?

It has f at the beginning.

Let's slide our finger underneath the word and stretch it out to make sure it matches the word fall.

F-all, that's right it matches, great work.

Let's add a label to our picture of the tree in the fall.

All right, let's read the next part of our poem, to figure out which season matches.

White, brown, the snow falls down.

Take a look at this street.

There are no leaves on this tree, and there's snow on the ground.

which season matches that picture?

Winter or spring?

That's right, the winter.

In Michigan, we have a lot of snow in the winter, don't we?

Can you say that word winter?

W-w-winter.

Can you point to the label, that matches the beginning sound of the word w-w-winter?

Did you point to this one?

Let's slide our finger underneath the word, and make sure the sounds match the word w-in-ter.

That's right, it's the word winter.

Good job, let's add our label to our picture.

Okay, let's read the part of the poem for our last season.

Mounting snow, the buds are ready to grow.

Do you know which season, the snow melts at the beginning of the season, and then there's buds on the trees?

They're ready to grow new flowers and leaves.

Which season is that?

Yes, it's the spring.

Our last label we have must say the spring, but let's take our finger and slide it and check to make sure those letters match the word spring.

Spr-ing Oh, good job.

Let's add that label to our picture.

Wow.

Nice job labeling our seasons.

Summer, fall, winter and spring (relaxed music) Today, I'm outside in beautiful Michigan.

We're going to make some observations today, to help us figure out which season I'm in.

Observations are when you look closely at something to get information.

So let's first look closely at the world around me.

What do you see?

I see lots of green leaves and plants and the sun is shining today.

Let's listen carefully.

What do you hear?

I hear bugs buzzing today.

Okay.

Now let's feel the air around us.

What do you feel?

where I am, the air is very warm.

So which season do you think I'm in?

Yes, that's right, I'm in summer.

That's the season that I'm in right now.

Great job making observations.

Next time you're on a walk around your neighborhood, see if you can make some observations about the world around you.

(relaxed music) Today, we're going to be like meteorologists, or scientists that study the weather.

Meteorologists look at patterns, or things that repeat over time, to predict the weather before it even happens.

For example, in Michigan, our summers are usually very hot and sunny.

Meteorologists look at this pattern to determine that the season summer is usually hot and sunny every year.

That usually happens every single year, doesn't it?

Now meteorologists also make observations.

Can you say that word?

That's a big word, observations.

Good.

Now observations are when you pay close attention to something to get information.

So they make observations about the weather in each state to figure out what the pattern is going to be for each season.

Now, do you remember our big question from earlier?

What patterns do you see on a weather calendar?

One way we can make observations, and track the weather to figure out the patterns for each season is to make a weather calendar.

I got this idea when I was reading this book called, What is weather?

This book is written by Robin Johnson, she's the author, she's the one that wrote the book.

This book is read aloud with permission from Crabtree Publishing.

Now we're just going to read part of the book to learn how to make up our own weather calendars.

So let's turn to that part.

The heading of this section is called, Make a weather calendar.

And it tells us what materials we need.

A large sheet of paper or calendar, crayons or colored pencils and a ruler.

Follow these steps to make a weather calendar.

A weather calendar is a chart that shows the days in a month and what the weather is like each day.

What to do.

Step one.

Print off the calendar from the internet, or use your crayons and ruler to draw a calendar on a blank piece of paper.

Be sure to include the name of the month, days of the week and number of days.

Step two.

Once you have your calendar ready, watch the weather at the same time each day, is it raining or snowing?

Is it windy or calm?

Draw a small picture in each square of the calendar to show what weather was like on that day.

By doing this, you're collecting weather data or information.

And you can take a look at this picture right here, here's an example of what a weather calendar could look like.

Step four, Use your calendar to keep track of the weather for a month or even a whole year.

Look and learn.

Use your calendar to learn about the weather.

Look at the pictures on your calendar at the end of each month.

What do you see?

Did the weather change over time?

Are there patterns in the weather?

A pattern is something that repeats.

So you can ask an adult at home to help you create your own weather calendar, and you can make observations so you can see what patterns that you observe from the weather.

(relaxed music) I've been tracking the weather for a while now.

And I was hoping that you could help me look for weather patterns.

Will you help me?

Great.

Remember our big question today is what patterns do you see on a weather calendar?

So let's take a look at my weather calendars and figure out which season matches the pattern.

Let's look at our first page.

There are a lot of sunny days, a couple cloudy days and a few rainy days.

which season matches that weather pattern?

Fall, summer, winter, or spring?

Yes!

Summer.

Summer matches that pattern.

(clicks fingers) You need to be ready for hot weather in the summer.

(clicks fingers) Let's look at our next calendar page.

This one's a tricky one.

We've got a few cloudy days, a few rainy days, some sunny days and towards the end of the month, some snowy days.

Which season matches this weather pattern?

Fall, winter or spring?

Yes, it's fall.

Towards the end of fall, it starts getting cold and sometimes even snowy.

(clicks fingers) In fall, the weather is cool and you need a jacket.

(clicks fingers) Okay, let's look at our next calendar and figure out which pattern matches this weather.

There are a lot of sun, of snowy days, a couple of sunny days and a couple cloudy days.

Which season matches this pattern?

Winter or spring?

Yes, winter matches this pattern.

(clicks fingers) Michigan winters are chilly and you'll need to bundle up.

(clicks fingers) Okay, let's look at our last weather calendar page and figure out which season matches the pattern.

We've got a lot of rainy days and a few sunny days.

Hmm.

Which season do you think matches that pattern?

Yes, it's spring.

Spring matches that pattern.

(clicks fingers) You might need an umbrella in the spring.

(clicks fingers) Great job helping me answer our big question, what patterns do you see on a weather calendar?

Today we learned all about the letter D, we learned two new high-frequency words and we read a book to learn about how weather changes across the seasons.

Great work today, readers and writers.

Thank you so much for learning with me.

I'll see you next time on Read, Write, ROAR!

- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by, the Michigan department of education, the state of Michigan and the WK Kellogg foundation.

Additional support by And by viewers like you.

Thank you.