- Hello, scholars.

Welcome to third grade on Read, Write, Roar.

Today, we focus on the big question: How do animals survive in their habitats?

We will make many words using a base word, more about that soon, finish our story about a muskrat, and write our own informational text about an animal.

Join us for 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.

(upbeat music) - Hello, word builders.

I'm Mrs. Mora.

Remember our sneaky sound in English called the, schwa sound?

Say that with me: schwa.

I always think that's so fun to say.

Remember, the schwa sound can be written with any of our vowels.

Except when we hear the schwa sound, the vowels aren't making the sound we expect them to say.

Instead, they're saying the schwa sound.

The schwa sound often sounds like this.

Uh.

Like the sound that you make when you're thinking really hard about something.

Uh.

Say that with me.

Uh.

We've also learned that the schwa sound can make the short vowel I sound, and say, eh.

Say that sound with me.

Eh.

Great job.

Today, we are going to make sure that we can read words using the schwa sound because we'll see the schwa sound all over the place, especially when we're reading words that are more than one syllable.

Our goal for today is to be able to read a base word and see how that word changes when we add word parts to the end of the base word.

We'll also be on the lookout for the schwa sound popping up in some of these words as we change the word ending to our base word.

Now you might be asking yourself, what is the base word?

I am so glad that you asked.

A base word is a word that is complete all by itself.

When you say it alone, it makes sense and it has meaning.

We can change base words by adding prefixes, a word part to the beginning of a word, or by adding suffixes, a word part to the end of the word.

We're going to be taking this base word and changing it and seeing if we can read these words and if we notice any schwa sounds.

Are you ready to get started?

Let's start by reading this word.

We're going to use our loop and swoop strategy.

Occupy.

Occupy.

This word is occupy.

Occupy means to live in a space.

For example, an animal would occupy the lake if they lived there.

Now, we're going to take the base word occupy, and we're going to change it.

One way that I know that we can change words is by taking an S and adding it to the end.

We can change a lot of words that way.

Occupy would become occupies.

Let me write that.

I know how that's spelled.

We write the base word, occupy.

Did you notice a change as I was writing the base word?

And then our ending.

Here we go.

Occupies.

Now, when we write occupies, and we add an ending of E S, did you see how the I changed from a Y?

You'll notice that in a lot of words when we're adding Ss to the end, especially if the word ends with a Y. Occupies is a verb.

It means it's an action word.

And this action word means to live in a space.

For example, muskrat occupies the lake because muskrat lives in the lake.

Let's see if we can make another word with our base word.

I'm going to start with the base word again, and I'm going to change that Y to an I.

And now I'm going to add a new ending, E D. Let's read this word.

Occupied.

Occupied.

Occupied is a word that means to live in a space.

Does that sound similar?

It comes from the base word, so its meaning is very similar.

Occupied is also a verb, but it's a verb that shows that an action has already happened.

It's a past tense verb.

For example, I could say, muskrat occupied the lake.

Now, occupied is a very interesting word where it can also so be an adjective.

An adjective describes something.

So I could describe the lake by saying, the lake is occupied by the animals.

I bet we can make another word using our base word, occupy.

Let's do this.

Occu, and then I'm going to stop right there, and going to add this ending, A N T. Let's read the word.

Occupant.

Occupant.

Does that sound like a real word to you?

That's not a word that I know.

Let me try it again.

I recognize something.

The A N T ending has an A, and I know that the A N T ending often it makes that a have the schwa sound if the word has more than one syllable.

So I'm going to read this using the schwa sound.

Occupant.

Occupant.

That sounds better, doesn't it?

Occupant.

Occupant is a noun, which means that it's a person place or thing.

In this example, occupant is usually talking about a person, or in our story, it could be talking about an animal.

I could say, muskrat is an occupant of the lake.

Someone who occupies the lake.

Let's see that schwa sound again.

Occupant.

It's so important to be able to read that schwa sound, isn't it?

Let's do one more word.

Let's write the base word.

Actually, let's add prefix to this word instead of a suffix.

Re and then the base word.

I wonder if you can read this with me.

Reoccupy.

Reoccupy.

Re means and again, so reoccupy means to occupy again.

So interesting how the prefix went at the beginning and change the word meaning.

This is also a verb because it tells an action.

I could say, the geese came back after the winter was over to reoccupy the lake, to occupy the lake again.

Today we have seen that we can take a base word and add different endings or even a prefix to change what the word means.

All of these words have very similar meanings to our base word, but they're a little bit different because these new parts change their meaning just a little bit.

We've also seen how the schwa sound sometimes pops up when we're adding prefixes or suffixes to our base words.

Until we meet again, be on the lookout for base words.

Can you find base words and see how we change them by adding prefixes and suffixes?

You should also be on the lookout for the schwa sound.

I'm sure that you will find so many base words and schwa sound words before we meet again.

(upbeat music) - Aanii.

Hello, third graders.

I'm so happy to be with you again today.

And look, I've got the book for us.

Muskrat will be Swimming, yes, and friends, yes.

We're going to be reading again about that story inside of the story.

But today, we're going to take it a little bit further and read more about that sweet little girl, Jeannie, that we, yes, got a little introduction to earlier.

So my friends, yes.

Remember today, we're going to be working on our five finger retell.

So get out those fingers, and let's use them to help ourselves remember all of the things that we're going to be thinking about while teacher Tan-A is reading for you today.

Number one, we're going to be thinking about characters.

Who are the people or the characters in my story?

Number two, the setting.

Where's my story taking place?

Well, little hint.

Your setting is probably going to be, that's right, on a lake where Jeannie and all of her family live, her aunties and uncles and her cousins.

Yes, my friends.

You're going to be thinking about the problem.

Hmm.

What problem could poor Jeannie have?

I've no idea.

We'll find out together, though, friends.

Events.

What's going to happen in this story?

Then we're going to have to see and read to find out what might the solution be.

Alright, my friends?

Alright.

We're not going to read the whole book today, so I'm going to take you on a little picture walk and give you some details about what's going on with Jeannie.

Alrighty.

Off we go.

So this is the little town that Jeannie lives in, and you can see that got these cute little houses, and it looks like it might be a rural, aha, town.

Just a little town.

We can also see, my friends, that we have Jeannie, that she is now here, yes, at a playground it looks like.

These friends of hers really aren't friends, and I'm going to tell you that they call her a lake rat.

They call her names, and she doesn't understand why, and she doesn't get it.

And as she starts to think about it, Grandpa comes up and he notices that Jeannie is really sad about these kids calling her these names.

And he kind of takes a moment to kind of connect with Jeannie and talk to her about this and about maybe one time in his life.

Grandpa tells Jeannie about when he was her age.

Yes.

About how all the kids called him a frog.

Yeah.

And grandpa didn't feel really bad though when the kids called him a frog, and do you want to know why?

Because he knew that there were really great things about frogs, right?

And that frogs have been amazing song.

We, the Anishinaabe, call them the peepers.

And that song is our first sign of spring, my friends.

That's right.

Well, Grandpa continues to chitty chat with our poor Jeannie, with cocoa, and they continue to talk.

Are you ready to hear the rest of Jeannie's story?

Okay.

Well, here we go.

I think about what he says, and I listen to the frogs.

Finally, I say, I wouldn't mind being a frog like you.

But grandpa, they call us lake rats.

I don't want to be a lake rat.

Well, what exactly is a lake rat, anyway, grandpa asks.

Wow.

I don't know, but it sure sounds bad.

Well, that's because you haven't thought about it.

Now, let's think about lake rats.

Those kids who call you lake rats don't know the lake the way you do.

What kind of animal could it be, a lake rat?

Well, I think with grandpa for a while, and I suddenly see in my mind the muskrat preening herself in the water, just as I'd seen her early one morning.

A muskrat, Grandpa, I say.

At my words, I see the muskrat turn and look into my eyes, then dive into the water with hardly a ripple.

That must be it, Grandpa says.

Now, muskrat is small, but important.

It was muskrat, remember, who brought earth up from the bottom of the water and put it on turtle's back.

As grandpa speaks, I remember him telling me stories around the woodstove while we drank hot cocoa and wrapped ourselves in warm quilts, and the snow piled up outside.

Oh, and remember friends, this is our story.

Sky woman coming down, about to land in that water that she could not survive, swans getting her, yes, and bringing her down, figuring out they were going to have to figure out a place for her, and then was able to put, that's right, earth on turtle's back.

We're going to start again right here now.

I do remember that story, Grandpa, I tell him.

We walk back home together, and I think about muskrat.

That night I dive into the water of my dream.

My body is covered with fur, and I dive down and down and down.

I feel as if my lungs will burst, and I keep on swimming.

Finally, my paws scraped the bottom, and I shoot through the water into the light.

The sunlight is shining through my window.

I get up and dressed and I go to find my grandpa.

Let's go to the lake, Grandpa, I say.

There's something I have to do.

Sounds pretty important, Grandpa says, and he walks with me down to the water.

Grandpa and I paddle, and I tell him about my dream.

Ooh, that's a good dream, he says.

Finally, we stop paddling, and we sit quietly listening and watching.

Then I decide what to do.

I take a deep breath.

No.

Is she?

Oh my goodness.

I think that's an event.

Watch me, Grandpa, I yell, and I dive over the side.

The water is cold, but I swim down and down just like in my dream.

It feels as if my lungs will burst, but I know I can do it.

I kick as hard as I can, and finally my hands scrape the bottom, and I close over the soft mud, and I turn, push off the bottom and swim back into the light.

Grandpa's watching me over the side of the canoe.

He reaches out to pull me in, and I put the earth into his hand.

He places the wet earth carefully on the seat and then helps me into the canoe.

Come on, muskrat, he says.

It's time for breakfast.

Wow.

Hey, grandpa-a-a.

I'm noticing that grandpa ends with that schwa sound, doesn't it?

Yeah.

Just like sky woman.

Yes.

Oh my goodness, you guys.

We find all of these schwa words all over the place.

Don't we?

We sure do.

Alright.

Let's keep going.

So I don't worry anymore when the kids call me lake rat.

I know who I am, and I know about the lake, that we're part of it, and it's a part of us.

Grandpa let the mud dry out, and he put it in a leather pouch for me so that I can always keep it.

Tonight everyone will come to our house, and I'll play cards with my cousins on the bunk beds, and the grownups will play cards around the kitchen table.

We'll eat stew or spaghetti and something made from blueberries that we picked on the island today.

Ooo probably like galette.

That's what we do.

Later my mother will play piano, one of my uncles will pick up the guitar, Grandpa will play on the drums, and we'll all sing together until the whole cellar hole is a rocking.

That sounds like fun.

Outside, the lake will lap, that's make a small ripple, against the shore while the moon looks down, and somewhere muskrat will be swimming.

Wow.

That's so awesome.

It's such a beautiful story.

Oh, my friends, characters.

Let's get our fingers ready.

Alright?

Okay.

So I'm going to go through my five finger retell, and you check yours.

Number one, characters.

Alright, well, we've got this awesome Jeannie of ours, don't we?

Absolutely.

And muskrat.

Wow.

Muskrat plays a really big role in Jeannie getting really to understand who she is.

Right?

And being okay with being a lake rat.

Number two, setting.

Well, it's not at the lake.

That's where Jeannie lives.

Problem.

She's got some very not nice people.

They might even be bullies.

Not sure, but people are calling her names, and she didn't like it at all to begin with.

Events.

Oh my goodness.

She jumped into that lake.

Oh, must've been so cold.

Can you feel it?

Oh, I'm freezing right now thinking about it.

Oh, and then of course the solution, my friends.

Grandpa helped her with that solution, didn't he?

Coming to realize that, exactly, she knows who she is.

Thank you for working so hard today, readers.

Oh my goodness.

You've done a fantastic job.

Now, I want you to take this five finger retell, and I want you to tell Jeannie's story to somebody that you know.

And don't forget, readers, every time you read a book, you can always use this five finger retell in your very own stories.

And of course, always tell somebody you love.

(upbeat music) Hi, writers.

I loved reading this story with you today, especially the part where Jeannie really got to know a little bit more about who she is and got to know herself in a way that she could really like herself and love herself no matter what, even when the kids were calling her names.

Right?

Like lake rat.

Oh, wow.

So my friends, the last time we were together, we used that main idea and our supporting details, of course with our graphic organizer, boxes and bullets.

And we came up with amazing details all about the muskrat.

And so today, my friends, we're going to take all of those amazing details, and we're going to start making, ah-ha, sentences.

And you can see, I kind of got started without you.

I hope you'll forgive me.

Okay, friends, check my sentence.

Do I have the main idea and the details?

Off we go.

Muskrats live on the land and close to water.

Muskrats, ah-ha.

On land, near water.

Okay, I have these details.

Okay, let's keep going, and we will do the rest.

Alright, friends.

Okay.

Muskrats are very good swimmers and can swim very deep.

Yeah.

Friends, did you see what I did?

I have to point this out to you.

I was thinking to myself, hmm.

How could I add another detail?

And I thought to myself, oh, this would be the perfect one to add about swimmers.

Right?

But then, they can swim very deep, so they're very good swimmers.

Okay?

And I already have the muskrat.

Detail.

Very good swimmers, and they can go swim down really far.

Yeah.

I just put it in different words.

They can swim very deep.

Alright.

So all done with those.

So here we go.

Now this is where I have to do my thinking because that's all I got done ahead of time.

So friends, you can see the details that I have left.

Webbed feet, like a beaver, brown fur, but smaller skinny tail.

I already have our main idea, so now I need to add our details in a sentence.

Muskrats, hmm.

Alright.

Muskrats look like beavers because they have brown fur, but they're smaller.

Okay.

So let's do this one and the brown fur and our smaller.

What do you think?

Okay.

So let's try that.

Muskrats, let me get my pen ready.

Whoops, wrong side.

Muskrats look like beavers.

Done with that one.

Because, alright, because.

Why?

Ah-ha, because they're, which one first?

Which one do you think?

Huh.

Uh-huh.

Okay.

Because they have brown fur.

Let's reread and see if it makes sense, and it fit sounds good to our ears.

Okay, friends?

Muskrats look like beavers because they have brown fur, and they are smaller.

Hmm.

Alright, let's do it.

How do you end sentence, author?

That's a right.

We're going to put a big period there.

Alright, friends.

Amazing jab.

So remember friends, that when we have our graphic organizer for help, we can use our main idea and put it together with our supporting details in order to make organized, complete sentences, our friends.

Absolutely.

Okay?

Alright.

I want to thank you for working so hard with us today.

Remember my friends, to use root words always to help you solve those unfamiliar words.

Use your five finger retell to tell, ah-ha, somebody you love a story you just read.

And then of course, use your boxes and bullets to write and organize those beautiful sentences into paragraphs.

Baamaapii gaawaabamin.

Can't wait to see you next time on 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.

(upbeat music)