- Hello, amazing learners.

Welcome back to "Read, Write, Roar!".

My name is Ms. Rodgers and today we will be learning and writing about the habitats of frogs and tadpoles.

Habitat means where animals live and what their home is like.

We will also learn about different letter patterns that make the long a vowel sound, and read a silly story about a little frog who doesn't want to be a frog.

Are you ready to get started?

Let's get ready to learn!

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by Michigan Department of Education, the state of Michigan, and The Kresge Foundation.

Additional support for educational programming provided by, and by viewers like you.

(energetic music) (roaring) (moves to mellow music) - Hello again, we're going to be learning about the a sound, the long a and the short a.

You may be wondering what's the difference between a long vowel sound and a short vowel sound.

Well, we're going to discuss that, but I just wanted to let you know that a short vowel sound, for instance, is the length of time you say that sound.

So it could be really short, just like that.

A long vowel sound says its name, but it's also the length of time that you say that sounds.

So you say it little longer, okay?

So now let's look at our letter a.

A is a vowel.

It has two sounds, the short a sound, like in cat, and the long a sound, like in rain.

The long vowel sound is when a vowel says its name.

So I have two columns here.

I have short a and long a. I'm going to look at this first word, cat, ca, ah, ta, cat.

That has the short a sound.

The next one is fan.

Ff, an, fan.

And finally I have dad.

Du, ah, dd, dad.

Now my long a is going to say its name.

And what is its name?

A!

So the first word I have is rain, ru, ay, na.

So this A-I is saying the a sound, the long a sound.

Now the next word I have is snake, sa, na, ka, snake.

This pattern is a little different because it has the a, constant, e pattern.

It still makes the long a sound.

And finally I have day, du, ay, day.

And the long a sound in this word would be the A and the Y put together.

(gentle music) Hello again, we're going to be talking about the long a sound, and we're going to do that by sorting our letter sounds.

We have A-I, a, consonant, e, and also A-Y.

All three of these make that long a sound.

We have rain, ra, ain, snake, sn, ake, snake, and also day, du, ay.

So we're going to do our letter sort.

I have the word tail.

A dog likes to wag its tail.

Where would I put this?

Yes, it has the A-I sound so I'm going to put it right there.

A-I, ta, ail, tail.

My next one is play.

I like to play outside.

Where would this one go?

Yes, it has the long a sound with the A-Y, so I'm going to put it right there, right under day.

The next one I have is game.

He likes to play a video game, game.

Where should I put this?

Yes, a, consonant, e. So that would go right here in the middle.

My next word is say.

I like to say hi to my friends.

Say, where would that go?

Right under A-Y.

You're getting pretty good at this!

Next one I have is face.

The clown makes a silly face.

Face, yes, a, consonant, e. And if you notice, I put the consonants in black and the vowels in red just so that it'll be a little helpful for us to see where they should go.

Bait, we needed bait to go fishing.

Buh, ate, bait.

Yes, A-I, that goes right underneath tail.

Now this word rhymes with tail, mail.

The letter came in the mail.

Ma, ail, mail.

Yes, that goes with our A-I, right under bait.

Our final two, ate.

I ate an apple for my snack.

Ate, ate.

Yes, it's that a, consonant, e. That goes right in the middle.

And my last one, delay.

The bus was late because of a delay.

You guessed it, A-Y, delay!

That goes right under my A-Y.

So now that we have our words sorted, let's read them together.

A-I, rain, tail, bait, mail, very good.

Now let's read our a, consonant, e words.

Snake, game, face, ate.

And finally, let's read our a-y words.

Day, play, say, delay.

So we have found out how to sort our letters and our words for our long a sound.

And we know that there are three different ways for us to make the a sound.

So I look forward to seeing you again!

(gentle music) Hello, amazing learners.

Welcome back to "Read, Write, Roar!".

Today I'm going to read a story to you entitled, "I Don't Want To Be A Frog".

The book is written by Dev Petty and illustrated by Mike Boldt.

There is something very cool about this book.

Look at the picture on the front.

The frog is talking.

This is a talking bubble Inside the talking bubble are the words that the character is saying and the talking bubble points to who, which character, is talking.

The frog is saying, "I don't want to be a frog."

Let's read and find out why.

- [Little Frog] I want to be a cat!

- [Mr. Frog] You can't be a cat.

- [Little Frog] Why not?

- [Mr. Frog] Because you're a frog.

- [Little Frog] I don't like being a frog.

It's too wet.

- [Mr. Frog] Well, you can't be a cat.

- [Little Frog] I want to be a rabbit.

- [Mr. Frog] You can't be a rabbit.

- [Little Frog] Why not?

Look, I can hop.

- [Mr. Frog] Sure, but where are your long ears?

Besides, what's wrong with being a frog?

- [Little Frog] I don't like being a frog.

It's too slimy.

- [Mr. Frog] That may be, but you can't be a rabbit.

- [Little Frog] I want to be a pig.

- [Mr. Frog] You can't be a pig.

- [Little Frog] Why not?

- [Mr. Frog] Most of all, because you're a frog, but also because you don't have a curly tail or eat garbage.

- [Little Frog] I can eat garbage.

- [Mr. Frog] Everyone says that until they eat garbage.

Sorry, you can't be a pig.

- [Little Frog] I want to be an owl.

- [Mr. Frog] Of course you want to be an owl.

Being an owl is the greatest thing ever.

Boy, would you love being an owl!

- [Little Frog] So can I be an owl, then?

- [Mr. Frog] No, of course not!

- [Little Frog] Why not?

- [Mr. Frog] You don't have wings, you don't look wise, you can't turn your head all the way around.

You are a frog.

What's wrong with being a frog anyway?

- [Little Frog] Too much bug eating.

- [Mr. Frog] I see, but still, no being an owl for you.

- [Wolf] Why so glum?

- [Little Frog] I don't want to be a frog.

- [Wolf] What do you want to be then?

- [Little Frog] Not a frog.

I want to be a cat, or a rabbit, or a pig, or an owl, something cute and warm.

- [Wolf] I'm going to let you in on a little secret.

I love eating cats.

I love eating rabbits, and pigs, and owls too.

And I am pretty hungry.

I might just go gobble some up right now.

- [Little Frog] That's terrible!

- [Wolf] It's who I am.

But guess the one thing I never eat.

- [Little Frog] Badgers.

- [Ms. Rodgers] Badgers are small animals.

- [Wolf] No, I eat badgers, lots of badgers.

- Frogs?

- Bingo!

- [Ms. Rodgers] Bingo means correct.

- [Little Frog] Why don't you eat frogs?

- [Wolf] Because they are too wet and slimy and full of bugs.

- [Little Frog] Oh, so it's good to be a frog?

- [Wolf] Yup.

- [Little Frog] I guess you can't fight nature.

We are what we are.

You are a fierce hunter.

- [Ms. Rodgers] Fierce means powerful.

- [Wolf] And you are a wet, slimy, bug-eating, very lucky frog.

You should just be happy you're not a fly.

- [Little Frog] What's wrong with being a fly?

- "I Don't Want To Be A Frog", written by Dev Petty and illustrated by Mike Boldt.

Would you want to be a frog?

There was a problem in the story.

The little frog said that he didn't want to be a frog and he gave several reasons.

He said that frogs are too wet, they're too slimy, they eat too many bugs, et cetera.

He wants to be something cute and warm.

Frogs can only be frogs.

Now the good news for Little Frog, we have to figure out what was that good news at the end?

Hmm, yes, wolves don't like to eat frogs.

If the little frog was a cat, or a pig, or an owl, then he might've been gobbled up the wolf.

(mellow music) Let's try something fun.

You read the talking bubbles for the little frog.

I will whisper the words and you read them out loud.

And then I will read the talking bubbles for Mr. Frog.

When we read the book it will sound like we're talking.

This is called dialogue, when two people are talking.

Okay, so first we're gonna start with Little Frog's talking bubble, ready?

- [Little Frog] I want to be a cat.

- [Mr. Frog] You can't be a cat.

- [Little Frog] Why not?

- [Mr. Frog] Because you're a frog.

- [Little Frog] I don't like being a frog.

It's too wet.

- [Mr. Frog] Well, you can't be a cat.

- [Little Frog] I want to be an owl.

- [Mr. Frog] Of course you want to be an owl.

Being an owl is the greatest thing ever.

Boy, would you love being an owl.

- [Little Frog] So can I be an owl, then?

- [Mr. Frog] No, of course not!

- [Little Frog] Why not?

- [Mr. Frog] You don't have wings, you don't look wise, you can't turn your head all the way around.

You are a frog.

What's wrong with being a frog anyway?

- [Little Frog] Too much bug eating.

- [Mr. Frog] I see, but still, no being an owl for you.

- That was fun!

Great job readers.

So today we learned that dialogue means talking.

And when we can show that in a story, it's called a talking bubble.

One more thing before we go.

Was this story fiction, which is make-believe, or was it nonfiction, based on facts?

You guessed it.

Our story was fiction, it was make-believe.

But how do we know?

Right, frogs can't really talk, or eat sandwiches, or wear glasses.

So the next time you think that you don't want to be a frog, you're right.

I need you to be you, very special you.

See you next time on "Read, Write, Roar!"

(mellow music) - Hello there, learners.

I'm really excited to be back here with you today.

I'm Mrs.

Spear.

Today, we are going to be continuing to learn all about plants and animals, and be thinking about how they change and how they're able to grow.

Really, with all the work that we've been doing, the different books we've been reading, and our learning, we're trying to answer two big questions.

The first question that we want to answer is this one, what are some ways plants and animals meet their needs so they can survive and grow.

Can you say this word, survive?

Great, survive means that you can continue to live.

So we know that plants and animals need to know how to do that.

But our job is that we're going to discover what that looks like.

What do they need to survive so they can grow?

The second question that we're going to discover is how are animal parents, or adults, and their babies, offspring, similar and different.

So similar means how are they the same.

And I think you know that different means how they are not the same, and things that differ between the two of them.

So we'll be doing this work together over the next few weeks.

And one of the things that's really fun to do as a researcher, when we're thinking about these things, is read great books.

They give us information.

They're called informational texts.

When we researched something, we read about it and explore it, always trying to find an answer to something.

And I've been thinking about frogs because I live near water and there are a lot of frogs right near my house.

And I thought I'd like to know more about frogs.

(gentle music) Okay, so now we are going to get started.

If you'd like, you can grab a piece of paper and a pencil at home so that you can start to jot down some ideas at home while I'm showing you how I'm going to do some writing and research here.

Okay, grab some materials.

I'll see you in a moment.

(mellow music) We are going to be trying to find out a few different things in our work together.

The first thing is when we're doing research, you need to know what you're researching.

So we're gonna pick a topic.

My topic that I chose is frogs.

We're gonna find out about this word, habitat.

Can you say habitat?

Great, the habitat is the where.

Where does this animal live?

I'll be thinking about that for frogs.

Body, the body, or something called physical characteristics.

That's a lot to say, physical characteristics.

Can you try that?

The physical characteristics, or what make one animal different from another animal, which is really important to how it grows and survives.

So we'll be focusing on the body of our animal.

Mine will be about frogs.

Communication, can you say that?

Great, animals need to communicate.

It's how they talk to one another.

And that's also important for how they survive.

Diet, the diet is what they eat.

That's their food.

Movement, the movement, how animals move is also really important to how they survive and grow.

Protection, animals need to be able to protect themselves so that they can survive.

We'll also be thinking about that when we study, with my project about frogs, and then you can do that for your animal that you're thinking about.

Babies, or offspring, you've learned about that word.

We want to learn about how babies grow and what's different about babies than adults.

Remember that question we talked about earlier?

So here's that word, adults.

And then as we do that, we'll think about similarities, how they're the same, and differences.

(upbeat music) Let's think about the first thing that we're going to be studying.

Do you remember that wording habitat that we talked about?

Can you say it one more time?

Habitat.

The habitat talks about where an animal lives.

I wanted to show you this picture.

This is a picture that I got as a gift.

And this is a picture of the lake near my house where I see all these frogs.

So what I did is I thought about that when I was reading my books because I had observed a lot of frogs there.

And guess what?

When I was reading in my books, I found in this book by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, it said you might see frogs near a pond.

It also in this book mentioned the pond again and talked about how frogs like to stay where it's wet.

In this book about the little girl who ends up finding some tadpoles, she's on an adventure with her family, taking a walk and ends up by a pond.

Again, telling me that frogs must be near water.

Then, when I was reading this book here there was a page where it really explained this well.

And I'm gonna read this page to you.

It says frogs and toads belong to a group of animals called amphibians.

Can you say amphibians?

Great.

An amphibian is an animal that can live on land and in the water.

So, amphibians can live on land and in water, which tells me why I always see frogs near water, okay.

So what we're going to be thinking about is how do we put this into words to write about this?

We've seen that frogs are near water.

So sometimes when I'm writing I can get right into the story and write the words.

And sometimes it helps me if I kind of sketch a picture first.

Do you ever do that?

So if you're thinking about your animal, or you could do this with the animal that I'm working on, frogs, we're going to just do a little sketch to help us get our brain going.

Okay, so there's my frog in a space that looks like a frog's habitat because it's by water, and then there's plans on either side of it.

Now I want to put some words to that.

Hmm, so we've learned some things.

We know that frogs live near water.

We also learned that frogs are, do you remember the word that describes what kind of animal they are?

Amphibians, right, they can live on land and water.

So, I think a way to start this might be frogs live near water.

Does that seem like a good starting sentence?

Okay, let's do that.

Frogs, that has an F-R at the beginning.

Frogs, frogs, more than one, so I add an s, live near, n and then the word ear is in near.

E-A-R, N-E-A-R, frogs live near water.

(marker squeaking) I'm gonna put a period at the end of my sentence.

I started with an uppercase, and I put a period so my readers know where to stop.

Frogs live near water.

So we know that frogs can live in different types of water.

There's a particular part in this book, at the end of this book, it, like I said, it's narrative, but at the end it gives all facts about frogs.

And it talks about how frogs can live in streams and ponds, and even sometimes near irrigation ditches, like along the side of the road.

So I'm gonna say frogs live in streams, ponds, and lakes.

That seem okay with you?

Okay, I'm gonna write that.

I know frogs, 'cause that's up here.

Starting at the left side of the paper, frogs.

I'll say can, the word we'd been working on, live by ponds, streams and lakes.

And we learned that frogs are amphibians.

They are, hmm, I don't know if I'm gonna fit amphibians on this line.

When I'm not sure, it's okay to go to the next line.

Amphibians, frogs are amphibians, so they can live in water and on land.

But what we know is even if they can be on the land, they need to be right by the water, 'cause they have to be able to get wet in order to survive.

Oh, let's read about our frog's habitat.

Frogs live near water.

Frogs can live by ponds, streams and lakes.

They are amphibians so they can live in water and on land.

And here is a picture.

Now later I can add some more trees and things to my picture.

But I've started my story with our first thing we're learning about, which is about the habitat.

I'm gonna invite you to think about an animal that you want to continue to read about and learn about.

And it could be something you have books on.

It could just be an animal that you see outside and out and about.

Could be a bird that you've been noticing out and about, and building a nest.

Could be a neighbor's dog that you see and notice how it's able to survive, and change and grow over time.

So you just keep thinking about that.

You've done so much great learning today.

You learned about the sounds of letter a that it can make, two of the sounds it can make, ah and a.

You also read a book where you learned about dialogue, when characters talk to each other.

And now you've started a project where we're reading and writing our own informational text.

Great work today!

I can't wait 'till next time!

Have a great day.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by Michigan Department of Education, the state of Michigan, and The Kresge Foundation.

Additional support for educational programming provided by, and by viewers like you.

(energetic music) (gentle chimes)