- Hi there, learners.

Welcome back to "Read, Write, Roar!"

It's me again, Mrs.

Spear.

We've been doing a lot of learning about the daytime and the nighttime sky, and now we're going to switch our focus and learn a little bit more about the nighttime sky and start to think about space.

So today, we'll read a story about space.

We're going to do some more work on blends that can be at the end of words, and you'll learn some high-frequency words today.

So grab something to write with, something to write on, and come right back here so we can get started to "Read, Write, 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.

(paper crinkling) (bright music) (lion roaring) (bright music) (lion roaring) - Okay there, learners.

Today, I told you we'll be reading a story.

We are going to read this story today.

"It Came from Outer Space."

This story is by Henry Barker, and it's illustrated by Barry Gott.

We are really thankful, today, to Boyd, Mills, and Kane Press for letting us read this story today on "Read, Write, Roar!"

I wanna make sure you know some words before we start reading the story, though.

So let's think about some things.

We need to know what planet do we live on?

Do you know what planet we live on?

Yes, we live on the planet Earth.

Can you say, "Earth?"

Yeah, Earth is a planet.

And today, I brought this globe with me, so that you can at least get a chance to take a peak.

This is what planet Earth looks like.

And when we have a globe, it gives us a chance to be able to see where all the things on planet Earth are in relation to one another and learn a lot of other things about geography too.

So I want you to picture planet Earth.

Are you doing that?

Excellent.

Well, planet Earth is in something called a galaxy.

Can you say, "Galaxy?"

Here's what the word "galaxy" looks like.

A galaxy is a huge collection of gas and dust and billions of stars and their solar systems.

They're all held together by gravity.

That's a lot to think about for the word "galaxy."

Say, "Galaxy," again.

Great.

Well, we live in a galaxy called the Milky Way.

Can you say, "Milky Way?"

Yeah, so you might've heard of Milky Way as a candy bar, but the Milky Way is actually our galaxy that we live in.

I'm gonna show you some pictures today.

These come from NASA, and NASA studies all about space for us.

It's run by our government, and that's how we find out about space, because of all the work that happens at NASA.

So to help us think about what a galaxy is, NASA made this visual.

So it shows if you have a galaxy that looks like this, within a galaxy, there's a solar system.

And within the solar system, there are different planets.

So we live on the planet Earth, and planet Earth is in the Milky Way galaxy.

Hopefully, that helps you when you're thinking about that big idea of what a galaxy is.

So we've now thought about the word "galaxy," and another word I want you to know, that's gonna come up in our story, is the word "constellation."

Can you say, "Constellation?"

Great.

Con-stell-a-tion.

Constellation.

A constellation is a group of stars that looks like a particular object or shape.

And they're up in the sky and have been named.

I'm going to show you a picture of one constellation.

This is a picture of the Big Dipper.

Again, this comes from the NASA website, and here is the shape of the Big Dipper.

So the next time you're out looking at the sky, see if you can find...

The Big Dipper.

As we read together today, we're gonna be hearing the words "galaxy" and "constellation."

We'll also be hearing about NASA in our story today.

So let's get reading and find out what happens in the book "It Came from Outer Space."

And in this story, the characters, there's three of them... That's the who; the characters are the who.

Are going on a backyard adventure and having a slumber party together.

So the characters in our story today are going to be Albert, Marlon, and Steve.

And as I'm reading to you, be listening for some of the words we just talked about that might pop up in this story.

"It Came from Outer Space" by Henry Barker.

Illustrated by Barry Gott.

"Sleep tight, boys.

Don't let the tent bugs bite," called Marlon's father.

As soon as Marlon heard the back door slam, he unzipped his sleeping bag and crawled out of the tent.

His friends, Albert and Steve, followed him.

They were sleeping over.

Have you ever slept in a tent before?

I've actually never slept in a tent, but I hear it's a lot of fun.

"It's dark out here," whispered Steve.

A rustling noise came from the trees, and he yelped.

"What's that?"

"Probably a squirrel, said Marlon, flopping down on the grass.

Steve peered around nervously.

"Are you sure," he said.

"We can't be sure without investigating further," said Albert.

"I could get my flashlight; it's extremely powerful."

"We don't need a flashlight," said Marlon.

He pointed.

"We have the moon."

The moon gives us light at night, doesn't it?

"There's Orion, the hunter," said Albert.

"That's my favorite constellation."

Did you hear that word, "constellation?"

And Orion is a constellation that looks like a hunter.

That's why it has that name.

They were all looking at the stars when a blaze of light, big, round, and as bright as fireworks, appeared suddenly in the sky.

Goodness.

What do you think it could be?

I don't know; let's find out.

Albert's mouth fell open.

Marlon jumped to his feet, and Steve ducked.

The ball of light came closer, as if it were heading straight for them.

Oh man, this seems a little bit frightening, doesn't it?

For their backyard sleepover?

"It's attacking," yelled Steve, covering his head with his arms.

See him there?

"It's moving through our atmosphere at great speed," said Albert.

"It could be a meteor."

"It's crashing," said Marlon as the ball of light disappeared into the trees.

"What if it's a spaceship from another galaxy?"

He pulled on his shoes.

"Let's go find it," he said.

"It might need our help."

So again, we live in the Milky Way galaxy because we're on the planet Earth.

Now, one word that was on here was the word "atmosphere."

The atmosphere surrounds planet Earth.

It's kind of like a jacket covering planet Earth.

And they're saying that this is kind of, like, coming right through the atmosphere, and it's really fast.

Another big word on this page that came up was the word "meteor."

Can you say, "Meteor?"

Yeah, and it defines it here.

It says, "A meteor is a rock or a piece of metal that enters the Earth's atmosphere."

So it breaks through that jacket outside the Earth.

"When it does, it burns and heats the air around it, so that, from Earth, it looks like a flash of light."

Man, so these kids think they saw a meteor.

Wouldn't that be wild?

"No," protested Steve.

"We'll get lost; let's go tomorrow."

Albert shrugged.

"It probably burned up; most meteorites do.

If it did land, it will have a fusion crust, a black coating."

Oh, and over here it tells us that a meteorite is a meteor that actually survives the trip through the Earth's atmosphere and lands on Earth.

So first, we learned what a meteor is, breaks through the atmosphere.

If it survives and lands on Earth, then it's called a meteorite.

Can you say, "Meteorite?"

So these guys think that there's a meteorite some place that they can go find.

"So we'd never find it in the dark," Steve said quickly.

They wouldn't find it in the dark If it was all covered and became black, if it had a fusion coating, right?

"It would be hard, even with my flashlight," said Albert.

"I guess we can go in the morning," said Marlon.

That night, they all had vivid dreams with happy endings.

There's an alien dream that Marlon's having.

Albert's having a dream, and it says, "Invention of the year."

He must really like science.

And Steve's having a dream of being this knight and fighting a dragon.

When you have a vivid dream, it's, like, so clear it's almost like a movie.

So they had their vivid dreams.

And it says, "Steve always felt brave when he was asleep."

'Cause we've kind of heard that Steve can be a little bit worried about things, right?

Okay, let's see what happens the next day.

The next morning, the three boys wolfed down their pancakes.

Have you ever wolfed down something?

You eat it so, so fast.

"You're in a big hurry," said Marlon's mother.

"We wanna explore a little bit," Marlon said.

"Don't go past the creek," said Marlon's father.

"And be back by lunchtime," said his mother.

"Why don't you guys go without me," asked Steve when they got to the edge of the woods.

"It looks awfully spooky in there."

"I've been in these woods billions of times," said Marlon.

"They're totally safe."

"What if we find something from space," said Albert.

"You wanna be there, don't you?"

"I guess so," said Steve.

What do you think; would you be nervous to go?

Yeah, I feel like I'd be kind of, like, really excited and really nervous all at the same time, so I can understand my Steve's a little bit nervous to go and find something that maybe... That had crashed from outer space.

The friends walked and walked.

Albert found some interesting rocks, but they weren't meteorites.

Remember those meteorites?

It means it crashed to Earth, got through the atmosphere, and actually landed on Earth and survived the trip.

So I'm noticing the Albert brought along a magnet.

I wonder why.

Can you think about why, thinking about what you know about magnets?

Why might he bring a magnet with him?

Magnets stick to things that are a certain kind of metal.

It makes me wonder if there's something about a meteorite that would have metal.

Let's find out; there's a little box here.

It says, "Why did Albert bring a magnet along?

Meteorites can be hard to tell from regular rocks, but meteorites often have iron in them, and magnets are attracted to iron.

So if a magnet is pulled to something that looks like a rock, that rock might be a meteorite."

How crazy is that to think about?

It makes me wanna experiment with that.

Marlon spotted a deer and a fawn.

There's a deer and a fawn.

But no aliens.

Marlon really thinks there's some aliens here.

Steve thought he heard a gorilla, but it was only a chipmunk.

Steve has kind of a wild imagination, doesn't he?

Then, suddenly, there was a loud crack of thunder.

Steve jumped.

The sky turned dark, and rain began to fall.

We've talked about that before, right?

Watching the sky; that gives you a hint on the kind of weather that's coming.

"Follow me," said Marlon.

"There's a cave near the creek."

"Come on in," Marlon called.

"It's dry in here."

"It's dark in there," said Steve.

"Not with this," said Albert.

what do you think Albert's talking about?

Not with what?

Yeah, his flashlight, his extremely powerful flashlight, right?

He pulled his flashlight from Steve's backpack.

"Hope the batteries don't run out," Steve said.

Poor Steve is doing a lot of worrying.

"Wouldn't it be great if we really found aliens," said Marlon.

"It would be great if we found anything from outer space," said Albert.

"It would be great if the rain stopped," said Steve.

"I'm soaked, and I'm very prone to colds."

When you're prone to something, it means you're likely to have it happen.

Before long, the rain did stop.

"Don't we have to be back soon," asked Steve.

"I'm getting hungry."

Marlon nodded.

"We can take a different way home.

That way, we can look some more."

"Great," said Albert.

They started walking.

With every step, Marlon and Albert looked hopefully at the ground.

Steve was more interested in the sky.

It was turning dark again.

This part here was making me think about what we know, right?

Paying attention if it's a daytime or the nighttime sky.

Really paying attention to what the sky looks like 'cause it gives us a hint about weather that's coming.

So if it's dark, uh-oh, there might be some more bad weather.

Here's what Marlon's thinking.

"Aliens, where are you?"

So funny.

Albert's saying, "Meteorites, where are you?"

And Steve's thinking, "It's creepy here."

Suddenly, Marlon and Albert heard a shout from Steve.

Oh, remember we talked about "suddenly?"

That word tells us, like, something new is coming.

It's a transition.

"Look," he yelled.

He was pointing at a big tree.

"The branches are all twisted and broken and black."

Hmm, do you think that's going to give us a hint that something happened there?

That was some good observing that Steve did.

"Hmm," Albert focused his binoculars.

Ooh, let's see.

He was like, "Hmm."

Then, he focused them in and thought, "Ah."

And then he said, "Something's caught up there, but I can't tell what it is."

"Let's find out," Marlon said.

"Give me a boost."

Steve and Albert helped him up.

Let's pretend we're boosting him up.

Get ready to push.

We'll boost him up the tree.

He grabbed a branch and started climbing.

A minute later, he was halfway up the tree.

He must be a fast climber, huh?

Something came hurling down out of the branches.

"Yikes," Steve ducked as it landed at his feet.

"Look at the surface.

It's all coated and blackened," said Albert.

"It even smells burnt."

Remember we learned a little bit about that at the beginning of the book?

"Is that a fusion crust," asked Steve.

"Maybe," said Albert.

"But this is definitely not a meteorite."

Hmm, so he's saying it's definitely not a meteorite, so let's find out what it is.

"Well, it's not an alien either," said Marlon.

"Maybe it's a piece of space debris," said Albert.

Hmm, that's a really interesting word.

"Debris."

Huh.

So let's think of it.

Can you say the word "debris?"

Yeah, debris is like some leftover trash, and space debris is something that comes from space.

Like, it's like kinda leftover from outer space.

"Maybe it's a piece of space debris," said Albert.

"There's a lot floating around, but it usually burns up before it hits Earth.

We could call NASA."

Hey, we talked about NASA before.

And there's even a note in the book.

It says, "NASA is the part of the US government in charge of exploring space.

NASA sent the first human beings to the moon."

That's true, and we'll learn more about that another day.

"I know what it is, a nozzle from a rocket."

Marlon pointed to his t-shirt.

Look it, Marlon's wearing a t-shirt, and see this part?

He's saying this is called a nozzle, and that is the same shape.

It's a nozzle from a rocket.

How crazy is that?

"The firey gasses shoot right through here.

That's what makes the rocket go up."

"You mean it really did come from outer space," asked Steve.

Albert nodded.

"Cool," said Steve.

"Let's go home and call NASA," Marlon said.

Does that seem like a good idea, that they shouldn't, like, pick it up and touch it?

Did you notice they did not go near it and touch it?

I think it's a very good idea.

We have no idea what's on that.

It was coming from outer space.

There's a note in here that explains that.

It says, "Space debris, or space trash, is anything man-made that stays in space even though it's longer useful.

There's tons of debris up there, including an astronaut's glove from the very first spacewalk and a camera from the Gemini 10 mission.

If you find space debris, call NASA.

Do not touch it."

That seems like very good advice.

So they're gonna call NASA.

Can you imagine, how cool would that be?

To actually call NASA and tell them?

"I can't believe we really found this," said Marlon.

"It's awesome."

"It is awesome," said Steve.

"And you were right about something else, guys."

"What," asked Albert and Marlon.

Steve took another slice of pizza.

"I am glad I came along."

I bet he is; that would have been hard to miss out on.

I'm noticing now it's in the room, so what I'm assuming and thinking is they've already called NASA and gotten permission and told, "Okay, it's okay to touch that."

Goodness, that was quite an adventure that Marlon and Albert and Steve had, finding something from outer space.

So the next time you're out and looking out and about at the sky, can you even imagine that you can be thinking about beyond or out beyond our atmosphere that wraps planet Earth, there's space debris floating out and about?

That's pretty wild to think about.

Hopefully, it helped that we went over some of the big words that were in here to help you understand the story, like "galaxy" and "constellation."

So maybe try this.

Go out when it's dark out, look up at the stars, and see if you can find any constellations.

Or at least look at those stars twinkling at night.

I'll look forward to seeing you and learning more about space next time we come together on "Read, Write, Roar!"

(bright music) - Hello, learners.

This is Ms. Rogers, to talk about high frequency words.

We learn these words because they are going to show up a lot when we're reading and writing.

If we can understand how these words work and learn how to spell them, it will help us when we read and write them.

Here we go.

Now, our first word today is "or."

Let me hear you say, "Or."

Do you like hamburgers or hotdogs?

I like hamburgers.

Now, listen carefully.

"Or."

This word has two letters and one sound.

O-R spells "or."

Now, let's write that on our board.

O. R. These two letters make one sound.

This word is "or."

Our second word we have for you today is "when."

Let me hear you say, "When."

Very good.

When it is dark and clear, the sky shines brightly with stars.

"When."

Now, that word, "when," has three sounds and four letters.

Here's my word, "when."

Now, in order to know how this word works, we need to listen to the sounds that each of the letters make.

So I'm going to write our word.

W. H. E. N. The W and the H together makes the wh- sound.

Let me hear you say, "Wh-."

Good.

The E makes the eh, and the N makes the -n sound.

When we put these letters together, we blend them.

We have, wh-e-n, when.

Four letters, three sounds.

Now, it's really important that you remember this process.

To know this word, you have to think about how the letters and sounds work together.

So our two words that we learned today are "or" and "when."

Now, I want you to make sure that you have... You are on the lookout for these two words, "or" and "when," as you are reading.

(bright music) Now, let's work with some words.

We have been working with words that have two letters that make one sound, and they're called blends.

Now, our words that we're going to be working with have blends at the end of the words, and those words that we want to work on have the MP and NG ending.

MP makes the -mp sound.

If I say it a little faster, it's -mp.

Now, let me hear you.

Good.

NG makes -ng sound.

If I say it a little faster, -ng.

Let me hear you, ng.

Very good.

Now, we're going to be able to blend all of these letters, so that we can understand what the word is.

Each letter will make its own sound, and when we blend it together, we have a word.

So let's get started.

My first -mp blend is this word.

P-uh-mp.

Pump.

Let me hear you try it.

P-uh-mp.

Pump.

Good.

Our next word, st-a-mp.

Stamp.

Now, you try.

St-a-mp.

Stamp.

Now, the ST can make the st- sound.

So you kind of hear the S, and you kind of hear the T. When you blend it together, you have st-.

Okay, so let's try it one more time.

St-a-mp.

Stamp.

Now, this word right here is b-uh-mp.

Bump.

And it looks like I bumped my finger against this word because part of the P is missing.

That's okay, though.

Let me hear you try it.

B-uh-mp.

Bump.

So we have "pump," "stamp," and "bump."

Now, let's try our NG, or -ng, ending blends.

Ooh.

These three words have a long A sound.

Long A makes the -ay sound, just like the name of the letter, A.

So now let's try blending.

B-ay-ng.

Bang.

You try.

B-ay-ng.

Bang.

S-ay-ng.

Sang.

Your turn.

S-ay-ng.

Sang.

Next one.

R-ay-ng.

Rang.

You try.

R-ay-ng.

Rang.

Last one.

H-uh-ng.

Hung.

Your turn.

H-uh-ng.

Hung.

Now, let's read these words together.

"Bang," "sang," "rang," and "hung."

So we've just reviewed our MP and NG ending blends.

(bright music) It was so much fun reading and working with words with you today.

Thank you for joining me and Mrs.

Spear.

We look forward to seeing you next time on "Read, Write, 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.

(bright music) (bright chime)