- Hello, scholars.

Welcome to second grade on "Read, Write, ROAR!"

Today we're going to focus on our big question: How is sunlight connected to all life on Earth?

We're also going to work with words that have open syllables and listen to a story to learn the important cause and effect relationship between the sun, plants, and all life on Earth.

So go ahead and get your paper, something to write with, and let's get ready to read, write, roar!

- [Narrator] 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.

(happy music) (lion roaring) - Hello, word builders!

I'm Mrs. Z-K. And today we are going to work on a reading strategy.

A strategy that maybe when you come to a word and you don't know what it is, this strategy might be able to help you out.

Mm-hmm.

So when we start reading longer words with more than one syllable, it's important for us to look for patterns in words.

These patterns will help us know how to read these words.

Knowing about syllables will help us find these patterns.

So when we're looking at a word, we're going to be able to divide the syllables.

Really quick, before we go into that strategy, let's remind ourselves about what a vowel and a consonant are.

Vowels are the letters A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.

All the other letters in the alphabet that are not vowels are known as consonants.

Can you say that word: consonants?

It's a pretty long word, I know.

(chuckles) (gentle music) Now let's take a look at a strategy we can use to break a word into syllables or into parts.

One thing that's super important for us to know is that every syllable is only going to have one vowel sound.

That one vowel sound can be made by one vowel or one vowel team.

Mm-hmm.

So what we're going to do is we're going to put a dot under every vowel that we see in the word.

This is going to help us recognize how many syllables are in a word.

Remember, the vowels are A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.

If we notice that there are two vowels together, and we decide that those two vowels are working together as a team, they're known as a vowel team and they only make one vowel sound.

If we notice that this happens, we're going to underline them.

Vowel teams are things like A-I or E-A, or of course, double vows like E-E or O-O.

Mm-hmm.

And that's when we can divide the word into syllables.

Right.

One way to divide a word into syllables is to divide it between a consonant and vowel.

Another way is in between two consonants.

Yeah, so we're going to practice that today.

I want us to look at these one syllable words really quick.

This word has one vowel so I'm going to put one dot under the vowel.

I noticed that this vowel does not have a consonant that follows it, making that an open syllable.

(door creaks) Do you see my open door?

The door lets us know that there's nothing blocking the doorway, and that vowel is going to say its long sound.

Do you know what the long E sound is?

Ee, you're right.

So our word would be wuh, ee.

What word?

We.

Nice work.

Here's another word.

Again, it only has one vowel, so we know that it only has one syllable.

There's not a consonant that follows or that closes this syllable, so we know it is an open syllable.

So we know this is going to make its long sound.

What's that long E sound again?

Ee.

(laughs) Oh, and I know S-H makes the shh sound.

So we have shh, ee.

What word?

She.

(laughs) That was a great warmup.

We're going to go ahead and try and look at some words that have more than one syllable.

I would like for you to be able to write these words with me.

So get your paper and pencil ready.

Once we write down the words, we're going to put a dot under every vowel that we see in the word.

Are you ready?

All right.

(bright music) (lion roars) All right, scholars, let's write our first word.

F-R-I-D-A-Y.

Once you have that word written, go ahead and put a dot under each vowel.

A, E, I, O, U, or Y.

Are you seeing three vowels like I am?

I see a I, a A, and a Y. Hmm, I see that these two vowels are together.

Let's decide if they're working together as a team to see if we need to underline it.

I know A-Y can make its own sound: ay!

Yeah, it makes a long ay sound.

So I know these two can be a team, so we can go ahead and underline those two.

Yep.

Now let's look at this vowel.

This vowel is by itself.

There is a consonant in between this vowel and this vowel team.

We need to decide whether this consonant is going to go with the first syllable or if it needs to go with the second syllable.

I noticed the word right here.

This word is day.

(laughs) So I think I'm going to try to divide it in between the I and the D. All right, so if I do that, if we divide between the I and the D, we're going to have an open syllable.

This I does not have a consonant that comes after it in this syllable, making that I say its long I sound.

What's the long I sound?

Ai, yeah.

(laugh) So let's try this out.

We got for fr, ai, frai, day.

What word?

Friday, yes.

And did you notice that we drew a capital letter at the beginning of Friday?

Yeah, because it's the name of a day of the week.

Let's try another word, scholars.

We're going to write B-E-G-A-N. Once you have that down, go ahead and put a dot under each vowel.

I see two vowels.

A E and an A. I also noticed that those vowels are not together.

They're separated.

So they're each going to make their own sound.

So if there are two vowel sounds, there are going to be two syllables.

There is a consonant in between these two vowels.

We need to decide does this consonant need to go with the first syllable or does it need to go with the second syllable?

Well, let's try it out.

Let's think out loud.

If the G goes with the first syllable, our E will make the short E sound 'cause it will be closed.

So we will have a buh-egg, beg, and then we will have add ah-nn, an.

Beg-an.

Beg-an.

Hmm, let's try it the other way.

Let's put the G with a second syllable.

That makes the first syllable be open.

Yeah, because there won't be a consonant right here after the E, so the E will make the long E sound.

So we will have buh-ee, guh-an, began.

That sounds like a word I know.

I think we'll divide it right there.

So we'll have the word began.

What word?

Began.

Nice work.

All right, scholars, let's write another word.

All right.

As soon as you write the word down, go ahead and start putting your dots under the vowels.

Remember those vowels are A, E, I, O, U, sometimes Y.

Did you draw two dots?

I see two vowels, a E and a U. I also see one consonant in between those two vowels again.

Oh.

So since those two vowels are separated, they're each gonna make their own sound.

We have two vowel sounds.

We have two syllables.

We need to decide whether the N needs to go with the first syllable or does it need to go with the second syllable?

I do notice that this last vowel does not have a consonant after it.

This last vowel will make the long U sound.

Should the N go with the first syllable and make this syllable closed?

Let's try that out.

Mm, eh, nn, yoo.

Men, yoo.

Menu!

I know that word!

That's when you wanna order something at the restaurant and you get a menu.

So I'm going to divide that right there.

So we have men, yoo.

What word?

Menu.

Nice.

All right, scholars, we have one more word.

Here's our last word.

S-A-V-I-N-G.

Remember once you're done writing, go ahead and put your dots under the vowels.

I see two vowels too.

A and I. I see that those two vowels are separated.

That means they're each going to make their own sound.

Having two vowel sounds mean that we have two syllables.

I also see that we have one consonant in between the two vowels again.

We need to decide, is that consonant going to go with the first syllable or should it go with the second syllable?

Let's try to put it with the first and see what happens.

If we put the V with the first syllable, our A will make the short A sound.

Hmm, so we would have ss, ah, vuh, sav, ing.

Sav-ing?

Let's try it the other way.

Let's put the V with the second syllable, making our first syllable an open syllable.

Because it won't have a consonant behind it, the A will have the long A sound.

What is the long A sound again?

Ay!

Let's try it this way.

We'll have ss, ay, ving.

What word?

Saving!

Nice, that's a word we know.

You can be saving money by putting money in your piggy bank.

(gentle music) Scholars, I hope you learned something new today.

A new strategy.

I hope you had fun working with words as much as I did.

Paying attention to syllables or parts of words can help you read and spell words.

How many syllables are in the name of your school?

Are any of those syllables open?

(soft music) - Hi, scholars.

I'm Mrs. Ziegler.

Let's get ready to read the book "Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life" by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm.

While we read, we'll be paying attention to the important cause and effect relationships between the sun, plants, and all life on Earth.

While we do that, we will organize our thinking into a cause and effect chart.

We will also practice paying attention to our own breath.

So I invite you to take a deep breath in, (inhales) let it out, (exhales) and let's get settled in for our story.

(bright music) (lion roars) "Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life" by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm.

"Listen to me.

Do this one thing: Lay your hand over your heart, and feel.

Feel your heart pump, pump, and pump.

Feel how warm you are.

That is my light, alive inside of you."

My light.

That must mean the sunlight.

I wonder.

"I am your sun, your golden star.

I burn.

My light energy explodes in all directions.

Most fades into endless space.

But some tiny, tiny part of my light falls on your small planet Earth."

I warm your land and seas, melt your glaciers, create your winds.

I do all this.

But I do far, far more.

My light becomes the energy for all life on Earth.

All living things, including you, pulse with my light and keep it circling round and round on Earth.

How do living things do this?

What is your secret?"

What do you think?

Those are great ideas.

"Your secret starts in plants, green plants.

Plants suck up water, or H20, from the Earth.

In daylight, green plants catch my energy with their chlorophyll.

Then kazap!

Plants use my energy to break apart the water, break the H2O into H and O2, hydrogen and oxygen.

But as plants break apart the water, they trap my energy as little packets."

Remember the sun is talking.

So they trap that sunlight energy.

Did you hear something we could add to our cause and effect chart?

Me too.

Let's go add to that right now.

All right, the first box over here, we're going to write our cause.

We're gonna write why something happened and then the effect, what happened afterwards.

So, we're gonna write "Plants suck up water, or H2O."

What happened after the plants (slurps) suck up that water?

What do they do with it?

That's right, they break it apart into H, which was hydrogen, and O2, which was oxygen.

That's the effect!

Great job.

Let's go back and listen for some more.

"Meanwhile, plants are breathing."

Yes, take a look at this page.

All these specks are representing what is happening.

So, plants breathe in (inhales) carbon dioxide or CO2 from the air, and then they breathe out (exhales) oxygen.

And meanwhile, this is showing that they're using that energy from the sun to do something pretty special.

There is that little packets of energy they talked about on the page before.

Wow, and this page is just bursting with life!

That special thing that the plants make was sugar.

That process is called photosynthesis.

That's a big word.

Can you say it with me?

Photosynthesis.

Yes, look at all the living things.

That sugar helps create all the different parts of the plant.

What a gift that is.

All from that sunlight and from the air.

"But wait!

You are not green!

You have no leaves, no chlorophyll.

You cannot catch my light, and neither can your parents or your friends, your teachers, or any reptile, insect, fish, bird, or mammal in the whole wide world.

So, how do you get my energy?

Do you know?"

Those are great ideas.

"Yes, you eat plants.

When you eat their leaves and stems and juices, when you eat their seed and fruit and flowers, you eat my energy, my living light."

Look at all of these living things eating the delicious fruits and plants on the Earth.

I think we need to add something to our cause and effect chart.

Go ahead and do that with me.

"Because we eat plants," we're gonna write that here.

"We eat plants."

The effect, what happens?

What is the effect of that?

That's right, we get energy.

"We get energy from the sun."

So that's why it's important to eat my spinach and all those vegetables.

(chuckles) "And plants do even more than give you food.

Remember how, in photosynthesis, the green plants breathe out oxygen?

What happens to that oxygen?

It fills the air.

All the oxygen you living creatures breathe comes from green plants."

Wow.

"Breathe in.

(inhales) Feel the oxygen flow into your nose, your mouth, all through your body.

Oxygen is a gift from plants to you.

Your body uses oxygen together with the sugars from the plants.

Your body burns them slowly to make the energy you use to move and grow and live.

Without plants, you would have no oxygen.

Without plants, you would have no food.

Without plants, you could not live.

Without plants, there would be no life on Earth."

Wow, that's a lot to think about.

Could you think of something else from those two pages to add to the cause and effect chart?

Go ahead and write them down.

(gentle music) "Now, breathe out.

(exhales) It is not oxygen that you exhale.

When you use the sugars from the plants for energy, the sugars break apart inside your body, changing back into water and carbon dioxide.

So now you breathe out carbon dioxide and the plants all breathe it in.

They will use it to build more sugar, food for themselves and other living things."

Now, I invite you to place one hand over your heart and the other hand over the top.

You can keep your eyes open or gaze down or close your eyes, whatever feels natural or safe for you.

(inhales) Take a few moments to connect to your heart beating.

(inhales) And notice the breath flowing in through your nose (inhales) and out through your mouth.

(exhales) (inhales) That oxygen filling your lungs and your body.

(exhales) All possible because of the plants on our beautiful Earth.

All possible because of our living sunlight.

And when you're ready, you can open your eyes if they're closed.

(Mrs. Ziegler exhales) Notice how that made you feel.

(bright music) (lion roars) "So you see?

Life keeps circling round and round on your planet Earth, through photosynthesis and through yourselves.

You share life with everything alive."

So says the sun.

"Lay your hand over your heart and feel.

Feel my light inside of you.

You hold my light and make it live.

You are living sunlight."

You are living sunlight, I am living sunlight.

All humans are living sunlight.

We must remember that and honor that light in all of us, and learn to respect all living things on Earth.

Wasn't that a great story of how plants and the sunlight bring Earth to life?

Yes, I just love how the author used repetition and rhythm to make that story even more lively, and how the illustrator used really special drawings and lots of color to make it even more extraordinary.

They took a topic of photosynthesis and turned it from ordinary into pretty extraordinary I think.

You did a great job of using all that information, the words and the images, to help you better understand those important cause and effect relationships, to better understand how it all works.

How that living sunlight and plants bring the Earth to life.

So, keep reading, keep breathing, keep respecting the Earth.

And thanks for joining me.

I'll see you again on the next "Read, Write, ROAR!"

- [Narrator] The 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.

(upbeat music) (gentle piano music)