- Hello Readers, welcome to Read, Write, ROAR.

Today, we focus on the big question.

How do our actions affect the environment?

We're going to work with words that have closed syllables, read a text about climate challenges, and brainstorm ideas for our narrative or story writing.

You're going to need something to write on, a piece of scratch paper or even an envelope would work.

You'll also need something to write with like a pencil or crayon.

Come join us for Read, Write, ROAR.

- [Presenter] 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 music) - Welcome Readers, sometimes when I'm reading, even now that I'm grown up, I come across the challenging word that is hard for me to read.

Does that ever happen to you?

We have learned together that as readers, we can use the strategy of breaking words apart into syllables or word parts to read tricky words accurately or correctly.

Our goal today is to understand what a closed syllable is and to use closed syllables, to read words with more than one syllable.

Let's get started.

First, do you remember what a syllable and a closed syllable are?

A syllable is a word part with only one vowel sound.

What does that mean?

It means that when we hear a syllable spoken or we see it written, we will only hear and see one vowel sound.

The letters, a, e, i, o, u, and often the letter y usually make a vowel sound.

Now sometimes syllables are a little bit tricky and you'll see a syllable that has two vowels written together like, oa, these two vowels can be in the same syllable if they work together to make only one vowel sound.

The oa pattern often says, oa, the long o sound, which is only one vowel sound.

So these letters can be together in the same syllable, since they're making one sound.

Now a closed syllable is a special kind of syllable.

It's a syllable with one vowel followed by one or more consonants.

How is that different from other syllables?

Well, first, it has one written vowel.

You will not see the oa pattern written together in a closed syllable because the closed syllable can only have one of these vowels written in it.

This second part tells us that that one vowel is usually or always in a closed syllable, followed by one or more consonants.

So if you see one written vowel followed by consonants in a syllable, that means that you're looking at a closed syllable.

Why does it matter if a syllable is a closed syllable?

Well, knowing that a syllable is a closed syllable can help us as readers because the vowel in a closed syllable, usually, not always, but usually makes its short vowel sound like this, a, e, I, o, u, y.

Now that we understand what a closed syllable is, let's see if we can discover whether some words are closed syllables or not.

Here, we have a picture of a tree and our label says big tree.

Let's start by seeing if these syllables could be close syllables by having one vowel.

What vowel do you see in the word big?

I see the vowel i.

Do you see vowels in the word tree?

I see two vowels here.

I see an e and another e. That tells us something right away.

One of these words is a closed syllable.

One of these words is not a closed syllable.

Do you know which is which?

Well let's look at the word big first.

Does it have one written vowel?

It does, the letter i and no other vowel.

Is that vowel followed by one or more consonants?

Well, it's followed by the letter g which makes a consonant sound.

Now let's look at the word tree.

Does the word tree have one vowel?

It doesn't, it has two vowels.

And those vowels aren't even followed by consonants.

So we know right away that this word cannot be an example of a closed syllable, but the word big is an example of a closed syllable because it has one vowel followed by one or more consonants.

Now that we understand what a closed syllable is, let's use closed syllables to read words with more than one syllable.

As we start to divide words into syllables, to read tricky words, there are a couple of tricks that we can use and things that we should remember.

First, we have to remember that every syllable has one vowel or vowel team.

Another way to say that is that each syllable has one and only one vowel sound.

The way that we can make sure that the syllables we're finding only have one vowel sound is that we start by placing a dot under each vowel.

Let's do that with the word that I've had here.

Do you see any vowels in this word?

I do, I see o, and what else?

O, perfect.

We've put a dot under our vowels.

Now we underline any vowel teams.

Do you see any vowels that are working together?

Like ee, ie or oo to make one vowel sound, ee, ie, oo?

We don't in this word.

And you know why?

It's because we're working with closed syllables today, which only have one written vowel.

So we don't have any vowel teams in these closed syllables.

Then the trick that we're going to use is to divide syllables between two consonants.

Let's try that.

First, we know that the letter C is a consonant.

It can't be in a syllable by itself because each syllable needs a vowel sound.

So this first syllable will have the vowel sound that the o makes.

Now I see after our vowel, two consonants.

We have learned that we can divide between two consonants to bind the syllables in a word.

That means we're probably going to split this word between the m and the p. Let's see if that makes sense.

Let's check our second syllable.

Here, we see that we've got one vowel, which will make one vowel sound, and the other letters are consonants.

So this is perfect because this syllable has the vowel sound that it needs, and then the other letters are consonants.

Now that we've found this, let's check to see if these are closed syllables.

The first one, is that a closed syllable, com?

It is because it has one written vowel, the o, and it's followed by one consonant.

This is a closed syllable, So the o will probably say the short vowel sound a.

What about this one?

Is this a closed syllable too?

It is, because there's one vowel sound followed by one or more consonants.

And this one, the consonants s and t. So the o will probably make the short vowel sound.

Let's practice reading this word with the short vowel sounds a and a.

If it doesn't work, we'll try it again using different vowel sounds.

Read with me.

Com post, compost.

Now, compost might be a word that I just don't know, but I don't think so.

That doesn't sound like a word to me.

It's not a word that I'm familiar with.

We tried this word by reading, using the short vowel sounds because closed syllables usually have short vowel sounds, but I am thinking that this sounds like a word or the second syllable actually makes the long vowel o.

So let's try to read this word again, using the short vowel here, and then we'll make this, o, the long vowel o instead.

Read with me.

Com post, compost.

Now compost is a word that I know.

Do you know what compost is?

Compost is a plant food of fertilizer that's made out of old plants or pieces of fruits and vegetables that you mix together to make a really good plant food that you can add to the plants in your garden.

I could use a banana peel and a watermelon rind and some leftovers zucchini to make compost, and then this food does not end up in my trash, instead, it goes back into the garden and this will not end up in a landfill.

That's pretty cool, isn't it?

Great work, reading words with closed syllables and practicing how to change vowel sounds when that short vowel sound doesn't always work in a closed syllable.

Now that we've practiced reading words with closed syllables, let's read a text that is full of closed syllables.

As we read together, be on the lookout for closed syllables.

Read with me.

Imagine munching on a plastic bag as a snack.

There's an insect that can!

Wax moth caterpillar's have special stomachs that break down plastics.

Waxworms can't eat all our plastic trash, but we might learn from them.

Scientists would like to invent a tool that can break down plastics, just like waxworms.

Did you notice any closed syllables while we were reading?

Let's look at one word that does have closed syllables.

First, we're going to find the vowels in this word.

What do you see?

A and o.

Now these are not a vowel team because they're working separately to make their own sound.

So we know this word will have two syllables.

These letters cannot be in the same syllable because they make their own vowel sound.

And a syllable has only one vowel sound.

So we're going to have to split the syllable somewhere between the a and the o.

We have two consonants between the a and the o and our trick has been to split the word between the consonant.

So where should we split this word?

Between the x and the w, right there.

This works perfectly because now we have two syllables and each syllable has its own vowel sound.

I also noticed that these are closed syllables because we have a vowel followed by a consonant and vowel followed by several consonants.

So these vowels will probably say their short vowel sound, a, o, read this word with me, wax worms, waxworms.

That didn't sound quite right to me.

Did it sound right to you?

It sounds close to a word that sounds correct, but I think here we have an example of a closed syllable where the vowel does not make the short vowel sound.

The part wax sounded right to me, that's a word that I know, but when I read worms, that sounded wrong.

Here I see the or pattern.

Sometimes when we have a vowel followed by an r, the r changes the vowel sound.

In this word, the r changes the o, so that this together sounds like or, instead of or.

It says or, so let's read this again.

This time using the or sound instead of the short vowel o.

Read with me, wax worms, waxworms.

This word is waxworms.

Great work today, reading words with closed syllables.

Remember if you see a closed syllable, first, try reading that word with the short vowel sound.

And if it doesn't work, try a different vowel sound.

I'm sure you'll find so many examples of this while you're reading.

And it will help you read new and challenging words.

(upbeat music) (speaking in foreign language) - Hi Readers, today we're going to continue reading the book, The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge written by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen.

And of course, we have permission from Scholastic Press.

Are you ready?

Okay, let's go.

Friends, when we're reading today, we're going to continue to think about the sequence or the order of events.

We're also going to be using the stems, I think and I wonder, so we can ask questions to help us comprehend what we're reading friends.

All right, so let's get to it.

We left off where they were on a field trip and they had noticed a lot of changes happening around the world.

Here we go.

The Friz was going to show us how the atmosphere could make the earth get warmer.

She had flown up so that we could look down on the earth.

She gave us special microscopic goggles.

We could see the gas molecules in the air.

Now our teacher opened the bus door.

Catch a sunbeam, kids!

She said, cheerfully pushing us out.

We started sliding toward the earth on our own sunbeams.

Okay friends, so what just happened in the text?

That's right, they are writing some sunbeams down to earth.

So I wonder, or I think could be a good stem to start with.

You could use either.

I chose, I think.

I think that they are going to be gas molecules right now, right?

They're riding that sunbeam down to earth.

Okay, you're ready, let's continue on and keep reading to see what else happens.

Our sunbeams landed gently and warmed the soil.

As the heat started rising from the earth, we found ourselves going right along with it.

What an opportunity, shouted the Friz.

We're going to learn about the greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse gases trapped some of the heat.

The heat headed back to Earth again and raised the Earth's temperature even higher than before.

What am I noticing?

The text said that they rode down on the sunbeam and that some of they gases went back up, warmed up some more and came back down and came down back to earth and warmed up the earth more.

The text said, they go up and down.

So first they went, that's right, they're going up and down right now.

And then, hmm, I think, or I wonder you could use either.

I chose, I think, I think the gas is getting hotter.

That also lets me know that the earth is getting hotter and hotter.

Oh friends, I can't even imagine what's going to be next.

Do you want to find out, let's go.

As we went back to Earth, we looked down.

Carbon dioxide, CO2, was rising into the air.

"A lot of extra CO2 is made when people burn fossil fuels," said the Friz.

Hmm, so what's happening right here?

In the text it says that they see the CO2.

That's what's happening in the text.

So as we read, I want you to see if you can complete a thinking stem, I think, or I wonder.

I'm going to keep reading.

Wow, we had finally found out what was causing climate change.

It was mostly people including us.

We panicked, oh no, friends, they're panicking.

So what would be a thinking stem you would use?

I think, or I wonder?

I used, because of the text, they said, we panicked.

I think that they have an opinion about climate change and about all of the CO2 that they see in their community right now, friends.

Wow, we've learned so much about this book, Magic School Bus and the Climate Change.

And I know that we are nowhere near close to them, but you can check this book out at a library near you and finish it to see how it ends.

(upbeat music) Writers, today we have POW which is a vertical chart, that's going to help us with the next three episodes.

It's an acrostic.

My friends, today, we are going to pick apart the prompt and plan.

Today, we're going to start with an opinion writing.

What is opinion writing?

Well, we're going to take some of the books that we've read in the article, and we're going to think about all the stuff that we learned, and we're going to just write our opinion about it inside some evidence.

Let's take a look at our prompt.

Write your opinion on how you can care for the Great Lakes.

Use details from the text, support your point of view with a reason or two and add a conclusion.

So how are we going to do that?

Well, first, we need to make the Great Lakes so better place.

Hmm, okay, think about the stuff we don't like, and what can we change.

Think about some of the stuff we've learned in the books and in the articles that we read.

So I'm thinking to myself that I know that sometimes around my own community, we often see that the park is really dirty and I live in the Upper Peninsula.

So I live by the Great Lakes, like right on Lake Superior.

So my friends, when our parks are dirty, that means that that trash gets into the lake.

It makes the lake dirty.

We don't want that.

What could we do?

Oh, we'll be good, help clean up, right?

Maybe our families could pick a day and go clean up or in our community, our community in the Springtime has a special day where they all get together and clean up some of our amazing parks.

So we can get together and clean up.

What is another do, identify or tell, that would help us tell different ways that we could take care of the Great Lakes?

Oh, the article we read, right?

I remember it being from the perspective of a scientist and they needed help.

That's right, and in order to help those scientists, what we could do was become a, that's a right, Science Citizen, yeah!

We could join one of those science clubs or science organizations and help them collect data on the Great Lakes, or maybe even the rivers around we live, or even the air quality.

Remember they said that they were doing that down in Detroit.

How fun would that be?

That'd be a good way to help take care of the Great Lakes.

Okay, what is something else?

Oh, do you want to know what?

A lot of times I see pictures of those plastic bags that we get at the stores, they're everywhere.

So I wonder what would a solution be to help not have so many plastic bags around.

What can I do to help care for the Great Lakes?

I have an idea, do you?

We could bring our own friends.

What do you think about that?

And that way we wouldn't take any of those plastic bags from the shops.

So, too many plastic bags and one thing we can do to care for the Great Lakes, so those plastic bags don't end up in our Great Lakes is that we can bring our own plastic bag or any other kind of bag that you have.

I think we have some great ideas for our opinion piece about how we can care for the Great Lakes.

Now, the next time we are going to, O, organize.

So start thinking about some of the important information that we learned in the past books and article and think also about, remember those details.

So we can start putting them together in order to add our important information and details when it's time to write.

Friends, you've worked so hard today, keep your eyes out for those open and closed syllables.

Also remember to use those thinking stems, I think, and I wonder to help you with your comprehension while you're reading.

And of course, let's get ready to write this amazing opinion piece friends.

(speaking in foreign language) We'll see you next time on Read, Write, ROAR.

- [Presenter] 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 music)