- 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 segment syllables, or separate word parts, to find the schwa sound, read a story about a muskrat and plan our informational writing.

Join us for Read, Write, Roar.

(upbeat music) (lion roaring) - Hello, word builders.

I'm Mrs. Mora.

Remember our sneaky sound in English that we call the schwa sound?

Say this word with me, schwa.

That's fun to say, isn't it?

We have learned that the schwa sound often sounds like this in English, uh, like the short vowel U.

It's the sound that we make when we're thinking really hard about something, uh.

Say that with me, uh.

We have also learned the schwa sound can sound like the short vowel I and say ih.

Say that sound with me, ih.

In some words, the schwa sounds like ih.

We know that the schwa can be written using any of the vowels.

It is so important for us to be able to read and recognize the schwa sounds and words, because they pop up all over the place, especially in words that are more than one syllable.

Today, we are going to be separating word parts, or segmenting syllables, to read words using the schwa sound.

Are you ready to separate syllables?

Here we go.

These are the words that we're going to be reading today.

I haven't organized these words yet, because I was looking for patterns that might help me read these words correctly.

Take a minute and just look at these words and see if you notice any patterns in these words.

I'll look, too.

I noticed something that popped out to me right away.

As I was looking at these three words here, I noticed the beginning of these words are very different.

But when I looked at the end, I saw A-L, A-L and A-L, and then I realized there are other words too that have this pattern.

Let's see if we can find all of the words that have the A-L pattern, and we'll sort them over on this side of our chart.

This word ends with A-L.

I wonder what that says.

This word ends with A-L, and I'll just keep looking.

Nope, that one doesn't end with A-L. That's got a different ending.

Oh, this one has A-L, and so does this one, has A-L. That has a different, I just noticed a pattern.

That one has a different ending, but it matches some of the other words that we've already looked at.

There it is.

These are all of my A-L words.

Have you noticed the ending that these other words share?

A-N-T, A-N-T, and it happens again and again.

These words end with A-N-T. Let's move these to the other side of our chart, and we'll get the label up there in just a second.

A-N-T words will all go right over here.

Now we look for word patterns because when we know word patterns, they help us read new words.

Let's start on this side with our first word.

Remember I said that our goal today is to separate these words into syllables, to segment syllables, so that we can read these words.

Let's look at the first one here.

Now, when I look at this word, one of the first things that I notice is the P, followed by the E-R. E-R is a chunk that I know how to read, so I'm thinking that the first syllable will end right there.

I also know that when there are two consonants right next to each other, if they're not blending together to make a sound together, I often split the syllables right between the consonants, so I'm going to chunk my first syllable between the R and the S. I also see this pattern here, which is a pattern I've seen before and I've read before.

I'm thinking because of that that I probably chunked the word right after the end, which makes sense, because that leaves my A-L pattern all by itself.

A-L is actually a suffix, which remember, is a word part added to the end of a word to change what the word means.

Now, when we read this suffix A-L, we pronounce it with the schwa sound, so the A doesn't say aah and it doesn't say A.

Instead, it says uh.

Let's read this word, reading one syllable at a time with our loop and swoop routine.

Per-son-al, personal.

This word is personal.

I heard that here at the end we used the schwa to read personal, personal.

What about our other column here with the A-N-T words?

Let's look at this first word and segment it into syllables to read it together.

Well, in this word, the first thing I notice is the R-E spelling pattern, which I know is a prefix that's often added to the beginning of a word, so I'm thinking that I need to stop right after those first two letters.

That's something we often do when we have a consonant and a vowel and a consonant.

We'll stop right after that first vowel.

Now let's look at this next part.

Again, I see a pattern that I think I can read pretty easily, a consonant and vowel and a consonant, and then it's followed by another consonant.

Like just in personal, we split between those two consonants, I think I'm going to do that here too, between the C and the T. Then I think I can read the end of this word all by itself.

The trick that I'm going to remember is that when I see the A-N-T pattern and it's being used in a word that's more than one syllable, this is also going to use the schwa sound.

Instead of saying ant, it's going to say int.

Are you ready to read these syllables with me?

Let's loop it and swoop it.

Re-luc-tant, reluctant.

Reluctant is our word.

Now that we have read both of our words at the top of these columns, I think we can use what we've learned about the schwa sound to read the rest of these words.

We remember that this says ul, ul, using that schwa sound at the beginning, when we're using a word or reading a word that's more than one syllable, like in personal.

Let's use that, what we know about A-L, to read the rest of these words.

Are you ready?

Signal, signal, vital, hospital, general.

Read those words with me again, all the way from the top.

Personal, signal, vital, hospital, general.

Did you hear how the A-L makes the schwa sound in all of those words, ul.

Now let's look at our next column.

We remember from reluctant that the A-N-T sounds like int, so let's use that as we read these other words.

Occupant, defiant, hesitant, relevant.

Let's read all of these words again.

Reluctant, occupant, defiant, hesitant, relevant.

Great job.

We have seen that when we add suffixes to the end of the word, specifically the A-L and the A-N-T suffixes, and the word is more than one syllable, we have to use the schwa sound instead of using the sound that we would normally expect the A to make.

Let's practice reading some of these schwa words in sentences.

Be on the lookout for words that have the A-L or A-N-T ending where we hear the schwa sound.

Let's read.

When I broke my leg, I had to go to the hospital to get a cast.

Did you hear our word with our pattern from today?

It was this one, hospital.

instead of reading hospit-ale, we said hospit-ul, ul for the A-L ending.

Great job.

Let's read the next sentence.

The water was so cold, I was hesitant to jump in.

Did you hear a word that sounded wrong?

I did.

This word did not sound right to me.

I read hesitant.

I see, I forgot to use the schwa sound.

I need to make sure I say int for this spelling pattern because the A is making the schwa sound.

Let's try again.

The water was so cold, I was hesitant to jump in.

That sounded much better.

We have done so much work today using the schwa sound while reading and segmenting syllables.

As you are reading your favorite books, practice reading these longer words with more than one syllable, and be on the lookout for the schwa sound in some of those long words.

(upbeat music) - Hello friends, and welcome.

Teacher Tan-A here.

I am so excited to read this amazing book with you today.

It is called Muskrat Will Be Swimming.

Now, this is gonna be a little different from one of the books that we've read before.

It is unlike one of our books because it has a lot of words, but it is alike or similar to it because it has these amazing, beautiful illustrations.

So my friends, today we're gonna be doing a retell, and when we think about retell of stories, we're gonna be thinking about five important things.

Are you ready?

All right, let's go.

Let's think about character.

Remember characters?

Who's in our story?

Thinking about the setting, where is our story taking place?

We're gonna be thinking about a problem.

Hmm, what's the problem in the story?

We're gonna be thinking about events.

What are the things that just might be happening?

And then of course, a solution to our problem, my friends.

When we think about this, we can do what's called a five finger retell.

All right, so as I read the story for us today, that's your job, to be thinking across your fingers, what are some of the things that are going on in the story so that we can tell or retell one of our loved ones today?

Maybe a brother, maybe a sister, maybe even an auntie or an uncle.

All right?

All right.

Well, in order to do this work, you're gonna have to listen really well today my friends, all right?

This story is gonna be a story inside of a story.

But first, I want to show you Jeannie, and Jeannie is this beautiful little girl here.

Jeannie, she lives in the forest.

You can also see that there's a muskrat in this story, and this is where we're gonna focus today, my friends.

So, once again, here is the story inside of a story that we're gonna get started with.

So off we go.

A long, long time ago, the world was very different.

There was water as far as you could see in every direction.

Only fish and water animals could live in this world.

But way up in the sky, there was another world with people walking around.

There was a big tree in the middle of the sky world with four white roots growing in the four directions.

Wonderful flowers and fruits grew on the branches of that tree.

One day, the people pulled up the tree.

A big hole opened up the sky where the tree had been and a woman who was curious looked over the edge.

She could see something glittering far below, like the sun on the water.

She held onto the branch of the tree and leaned over to get a better look.

Suddenly, the branch broke and the woman fell down through the hole in the sky.

The animals looked up and saw the sky woman coming.

They saw that she didn't even look like them, that she couldn't live in the water.

She didn't even have webbed feet.

So two swans flew up and caught her on their wings and began to bring her gently down to the world below.

The animals remembered that at the bottom of the water there was something called earth.

If they could bring up some earth, the woman would have something to stand on.

So all the animals tried, the Duck, the Beaver with its strong legs, the Loon with its powerful wings, but none of them could swim all the way to the bottom.

Finally, a little voice said, I will swim down and get earth, or I will die trying.

It was Muskrat who said it, and Muskrat dove down into the water.

Down, down she swam into the dark, deep water.

It felt as if her lungs would burst, but she kept on swimming.

Finally, her tiny paws scraped the bottom, and she let herself float back to the surface.

All the animals were so excited to see that she had earth in her paw, but then they looked around at the surface of the water and said, but where will we put it?

That's when Turtle swam up and said, you can put earth on my back.

The swans brought sky woman down and she stepped onto Turtle's back.

She dropped seeds from the tree in the sky and they began to grow.

And so the woman from the sky came to live on this earth on Turtle's back, and that is where we all live now.

Wow, my friends.

What an amazing story inside of a story, isn't it?

Well, this is a Seneca creation story inside of this book.

How neat.

So let's do that five finger retell, let's go ahead.

Characters, oh, well we can scoot back.

Yes, it starts with sky woman, but I think the real hero of this story just might be Muskrat.

Yes, and the setting of course is this place called earth at the time that was just water, but is now right on Turtle's back.

Fantastic.

The problem?

Sky woman didn't have a place to be.

The animals knew that, guess what?

She couldn't live in the water like they could so they had to do something to help her, and so that's what they did, right?

There was the problem.

She couldn't live like they did in the water.

So what did Muskrat do?

I will get that earth, right?

Is that what Muskrat said?

Or I will die trying.

And what did Muskrat do?

That's right, Muskrat, oh my goodness.

Muskrat, she made it all the way down, and in her tiny paw came up with that earth.

Oh my friends, how fantastic.

How did they solve this problem?

Turtle.

Turtle said, you can go ahead and put that earth on my back, and this is where we all live now, my friends.

Oh, fantastic.

So, when I ask for a retell, we can think of using our hand to help us.

We can think about the characters, we can think about the settings, the problem, the events, and of course a solution to tell our loved ones what happened.

So you always want to think, give me five.

That's right, my friends.

Fantastic.

Now, do you know that the Anishinaabe in Michigan are three fires, the Ojibwe, the Odawa and the Podawatomi?

Do you know that they also have a beginning or after the flood story almost like this?

Absolutely.

You've worked so hard today, my fine, fine friends.

You have helped me retell a story inside of a story about a fantastic, friendly muskrat that have helped our sky woman.

We used our five finger retell.

And so next time, we're gonna read more about this muskrat.

(upbeat music) Hello writers, I loved reading this story with you, Muskrat Will Be Swimming.

It's a Seneca creation story, much like the Anitianaabe after the flood story.

Remember, Anitianaabe is the three fires here in Michigan, which are the Ojibwe, the Odawa and the Podawatomi, my friends, absolutely.

All right, friends.

Today we are going to be using our graphic organizer to help our writing be clear.

Now, we're gonna be thinking about our main idea, which is muskrat, wzashk, and we're gonna be thinking about our supporting details.

Now some of our supporting details, we're gonna be thinking and looking about the pictures in the book, and some we're gonna have to remember from the story.

Okay, so are you ready, friends?

Off we go.

What do you notice about Muskrat here?

I notice that Muskrat lives near the water, yes, and on land.

So that could be the start of our supporting details, friends.

We can put one here, on land.

And then of course we can come over here and put near water, all right?

Okay, let's keep going.

Well now my friends, when we think about Muskrat, we have to think about, what did we know about Muskrat and what did Muskrat do to help sky woman?

That's right, Muskrat dove deep, deep down, that's right, yeah, and we know that Muskrat must be a really good swimmer.

So my friends, should that be another detail?

Okay, let's go ahead and put it up there.

A really good swimmer.

Now, not only did we know that Muskrat, like I said, was a really good swimmer, but we knew that Muskrat could swim down really, really far in order to get that earth, didn't we?

Absolutely, it's another one of those details, and we're gonna kind of slip it in right now too, all right, my friends?

Okay, gives us more details about just how good of a swimmer Muskrat, wzashk, really is, friends.

Okay, all right.

Now let's take a look at the colors of Muskrat and some other features of this animal.

Do you notice, yes, Muskrat has this beautiful brown fur, and then I'm also noticing that Muskrat also, she also has partially webbed feet.

I wonder if that helps her with those awesome swimming abilities, my friend?

Are you ready?

All right, let's go ahead and put those details up next.

Brown fur, and the partially webbed feet.

That's right, okay.

And well, you know, I was thinking.

I think Muskrat reminds me of something else I know from another book I've read, and I thought, but there's one thing that might be different.

And then I thought, hmm, I know what that is.

That's right, Muskrat looks like a beaver, yes.

But then I started remembering, but Beaver doesn't have this kind of a skinny tail.

Beaver's got a big tail and a wide tail, and he makes slapping noises for the mud on his lodge.

And then I was also thinking, Beaver's a lot bigger.

I thought, oh, I should add this.

Yeah, because when we think about our main idea and our supporting details, we can add the things that we already know too, my friends.

So here we go.

Grab my tape, and yes, what else do I know?

That Muskrat is like a beaver but smaller and has a skinny tail, my friends.

Wow, oh my goodness.

I think I've just become a muskrat expert.

What do you think?

So many amazing things that we have learned today about wzashk.

Oh fantastic, my friends.

We know a lot of stuff and we have thought about the habitat, and we thought about how it's gonna survive.

So guess what, friends?

Your job is to become an animal expert.

Think about an animal that you already know a lot about or one that you want to know something about, my friends, and write your own boxes and bullets.

Use your own organizer.

Think about your animal, your main idea, and then you can also think about what you already know about the animal.

You can also read nonfiction text in order to add more things, that's right, more supporting details, about your main idea, my friends.

Oh, wow.

The next time we get together though, you better have that done, because we are going to write an amazing paragraph about Muskrat, okay?

Well, you'll write an amazing paragraph about your animal because we're gonna be experts.

Okay, friends?

Awesome.

Students, my scholars, you have been outstanding today, and I've had so much fun with you.

It's been fantastic.

You have segmented syllables with the schwa sound, like grandpa.

You've done that five finger retell.

You have also, my goodness, listened to the Seneca creation story with us, that story inside the story.

Wow, and we've started organizing our information for some writing later, next time.

Thank you for all of your hard work today, my friends.

Remember that, always be looking out for that sneaky schwa, and that you need to be thinking about your five finger retell when you read your own books.

Also my friends, that's right, you can always use your main idea and supporting details in order to organize your thoughts when you read books.

So, I can't wait to see you next time.

(speaking foreign language) on Read, Write, Roar.

- [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.

(upbeat music)