- Hi Skylars, welcome to the second grade on Read, Write, Roar.

Today our big question is, how can our surroundings help inspire us to write?

Oh, we are going to learn about reading words with vowel team syllables.

And then we are going to take a walk through the forest, so that we can help Mrs. Ziegler write a poem.

So go ahead, get your paper and pencil 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.

(upbeat music) - Hi, Skylars, I'm Mrs. Z-K. We start reading longer words with more than one syllable, it's important for us to look for patterns in those words.

These patterns are gonna help us know how to read these words.

Knowing about syllables will help us find these patterns.

Before we look at a strategy that we can use to break a word into parts of syllables.

Let's first remind ourselves of these vowels and consonants.

Vowels are the letters a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes Y. Consonants are all the other letters in the alphabet.

If it's not a vowel, then we know it's a consonant.

Yeah.

Today we will work with words that have open, closed, R-controlled and vowel team syllables.

A vowel team is when we have two vowels together in a word.

Like this A and I.

They are together, but they're only making one sound.

That means they're working as a team to make that one sound.

So this word is gonna have the long A sound.

Which means there's one vowel sound.

So there's one syllable in this word.

So our word is M-A-IN, what word?

Main.

Yeah, like a main idea of a story.

(upbeat music) Today, we're also going to learn how a W can act as a vowel.

What?

Yes, a W. When it is paired up with another vowel, like A, W, or E, W, or O, W, it is working as a vowel team.

So when we see these letters together, we're going to know that... We're gonna put that under the W as well.

And know that those two letters are going to work together to make one sound.

And W becomes a vowel.

Interesting.

All right, well, let's work through a word.

Let's use OW.

OW, is a vowel team.

So we would put that under each vowel, and we're going to underline it.

It's going to say OW.

So we have a word here says CL-OW-N, what word?

Clown.

Yeah.

No silly guy.

(laughs) (upbeat music) Let's try A, W, it's going to make the sound AW.

I'm going to give you a good blend here at the beginning.

We're gonna put dots under our A and W, because when it's next to that vowel, remember it's a vowel, working as a team, and vowel teams get underlined.

So remember, it's gonna make AW then we have STR, AW.

What word?

Straw.

Yeah, you put your straw in your cup and you can drink.

(chuckles) Let's make a word with E, W. Oh, oh, Mrs. Z-K got tricky on you.

Let's identify those vowels by putting dots underneath them.

EW is gonna make that sound EW.

So we're going to underline that because that's working as a vowel team.

So that means that we're going to split this word between two vowels.

Yeah.

So now, ooh, remember in a two or more syllable word, the Y is going to make the long E sound.

And this word has two syllables.

So we have CH-EW-Y, what word?

Chewy.

Oh, why do you like to eat that's chewy?

(chuckles) (upbeat music) Alright Skylars, let's take a closer look at our strategy.

Dividing syllables.

Every syllable is only going to have one vowel sound.

It's important for us to remember that that vowel sound can be made by just one vowel, or by a vowel team.

So help us identify that we're going to put dots under every vowel that we see in the word, whether it's a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y, sometimes W. If we find out that the vowels are working together, like a vowel team we'll underline them.

This will help us identify any patterns or see how we should split our word.

We're going to divide the word into syllables, and then sound it out.

If it sounds like a real word, then we did it right.

If it doesn't, we'll just try again.

Yeah, we know we can divide between two consonants, two vowels, or a consonant and a vowel.

I hope you have your paper and pencil ready.

We're going to get started now.

(upbeat music) Alright, our first word, let's write it down together, we have C, L, A, W, I, N, G. Nice, once you write that word down, go ahead and identify those vowels by putting dots underneath them.

I have three vowels together.

(laughing) We know that AW is going to work together like a vowel team.

It's going to say aw, right?

Yeah, so we know that those two will stay together and this will be all one syllable.

Which means we can split our word between the W and the I.

Go ahead and draw a line between your W and the I, which means we're splitting our word in between two vowels.

Let's figure out our word.

We got a blend here, CL-AW.

Claw-ing, what word?

Clawing, yeah.

Like a cat might do to your couch.

Oh.

(laughing) All right, next word Skylars, let's write it down.

J, U, N, G, L, E. As soon as you write your word down, go ahead and put your dots underneath the vowels.

You found two?

Me too.

(chuckles) Alright, but I also found a pattern.

I found a consonant LE pattern.

And I know we'll split our word right before the consonant.

So let's divide the word in between the N and the G. All right, that makes our first syllable a close syllable because the consonant follows the vowel.

So are you makes the short use them?

So again, J-UN.

Jun-gle.

What word?

Jungle.

Oh, what a fun habitat.

Would you like to visit the jungle?

All right, next word Skylars write it down.

We have T, E, R, M, I, T, E, and S. What do we do now after we write our word?

You're right, put dots underneath the vowels.

Alright, Skylars, I'm noticing a pattern.

Yes, I noticed that I consonant E. That's where the E is silent, or the magic E, where it doesn't say a sound but it does make the I, say it's long sound.

So that means they're gonna work together because there's only gonna be one vowel sound.

So in between this vowel sound and this vowel sound, there are two consonants.

So let's go ahead and split our word, like we usually would between two consonants.

So in between the R and the M draw your line.

I noticed another pattern.

ER, is that R-control vowel or that bossy R?

Yeah, ER is gonna make that sound er.

You remember that?

Nice.

Alright, so we have T-ER.

M-ITE-S. TER-MITES.

What word?

Termites.

Oh, those little critters, little but (mumble).

(upbeat music) Alright, last word Skylars let's write it down.

A, N, T, E, A, T, E, R. Okay, let's identify those vowels by putting dots underneath them.

Remember, vowels are a e, i, o, u, sometimes y.

And now sometimes W. Alright, Skylars, how many vowels did you find?

Four?

Me too.

(chuckles) I noticed a vowel team.

I see two vowels together and I know they make one sound.

The e and the a, let's underline them.

When they're together, they're going to make the long e sound.

I also noticed we have ER at the end.

That's usually a suffix we can add to a base word.

So let's keep ER, er by itself.

And let's split between the T and the E. And then, I even noticed that with this E, eat is a word.

Another one ant is a word too.

Finding words inside of other words can help us figure words out too.

So let's figure this one out.

We have ants, eat, er, what word?

Anteater.

Nice job, Skylars, you did an amazing job.

(upbeat music) Alright, Skyler, let's go ahead and try to read this sentence.

But as you notice, there are some blanks here.

We're going to fill in these blanks with the words we just worked with.

Let's reread these words.

We have termites, clawing, jungle, and anteater.

All right, here we go.

In the blank.

In the... Where could we be?

Which one is a place?

Oh, in the jungle, nice habitat.

In the jungle, the blank feeds on blank.

So something is eating something else.

What up here could be eating something else?

What do you think?

The anteater?

I mean, it's written its name, isn't it?

The anteater eat.

(chuckle) The anteater feeds on what?

Oh, yeah, on termites.

Woof.

Alright, let's start from the beginning.

In the jungle, the anteater feeds on termites by blank into rotting wood.

There's only one left it has to be clawing.

That makes sense, he could claw into the wood.

Yeah, so open it up.

Alright, let's read our sentences Skylars.

In the jungle the anteater feeds on termites by clawing into rotting wood.

(upbeat music) Well, Skylars, I hope you had as much fun working with words today as I did.

We read words with more than one syllable and more than one syllable type.

That's exciting.

I hope you're using all the strategies that we use today when you're reading at home.

So go ahead and find a good book and give it a try.

(upbeat music) - Hi, Skylars, welcome to the woods in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I'm so glad you're here.

Let's get ready to read a poem that I wrote myself, and then go on a walk through the woods, to get us inspired to write our own.

So grab your paper and your pencil, and maybe some bug spray.

And let's get ready for an adventure in the outdoors.

Have you ever been to the Upper Peninsula before?

It's a beautiful place surrounded by the Great Lakes and plenty of plants and animals.

I wrote this poem here, while I was sitting outside, listening to all the bird sounds that filled the air, because there were so many.

They got me inspired to write a poem.

Let's take a second to listen to see if we can hear any right now.

(birds singing) What did you hear?

Great listening.

Now, here's how we're going to read the poem.

First, I'm gonna read it all the way through.

I want you to listen for the rhythm, how it moves, like this and listen for any rhyming words.

Not all poems have to rhyme but it makes it fun to listen to.

The second time through, you're gonna read along with me.

And the third time through, you're gonna read it by yourself.

Are you ready?

Here we go.

"Spring Hope" By me.

The grouse drums his feathers.

The turkey gobbles out strong.

The bluejay makes himself known.

All morning and afternoon long.

The robin sings her happy song.

The crows carry on, carry on.

The woodpecker pecks the day away Until all the daylight is gone.

That eagles soars in the sky.

The owl calls out in the night.

The hawk sits patiently Amidst the silver moon light.

The sandhill crane keeps her head held high.

The geese still fly in a V, The loon dives to find her food.

And I left the last line blank to see if you could help me finish it.

I'm looking for a line that has to rhyme with V so think of any words that end with the E sound that we could end our poem with as you join me this time.

Are you ready?

Alright, readers, here we go.

"Spring Hope."

By, that's me, Chandra Ziegler.

The grouse drums his feathers.

The turkey gobbles out strong.

The bluejay makes himself known.

All morning and afternoon long.

The robin sings her happy song.

The crows carry on, carry on.

The woodpecker pecks the day away Until all the daylight is gone.

The eagles soars in the sky.

The owl calls out in the night.

The hawk sits patiently Amidst the silver moon light.

The sandhill crane keeps her head held high.

The geese still fly in a V, The loon dives to find her food.

Great job.

Did you think of anything to add to the end?

Those are great ideas.

I'm thinking because it has the word hope in the title, maybe we could say, what do you hope to hear and see?

Try it with me.

What do you hope to hear and see?

I like that.

Okay, now it's your turn to read it by yourself.

Do your nice fluent reading and keep that rhythm going, like this.

I'll use my turkey feather as the pointer as you read.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

Wonderful job.

Even the turkeys are gobbling and cheering for you.

I can hear them far away in the distance.

They're waking up right now.

Well, now, I'd like you to come on a little hike in the woods with me to get inspired to write your own poem.

While we're out there, I want you to use all your senses.

What do you see?

What do you imagine that you could smell or touch?

What can you hear?

Think about all those things, because your surrounding... (bird singing) All of your surroundings can give you ideas for things to write.

And we'll be really quiet on our hike.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

(upbeat music) Wasn't that fun?

Thanks for coming on the hike with me.

There was sure a lot to see and hear.

And things that we could imagine maybe that were hiding behind those trees.

Did you get an idea for a poem?

Me too.

Now remember, writers, not all poems have to rhyme like this one here.

But it sure does make it interesting to read.

So keep that in mind when you go to write yours.

Now, here's a simple poem that you could do, and it's called a shape poem.

So you're gonna take something that you saw in the woods, like the tall trees, for example, and you're gonna draw the shape of them.

And then, you're gonna fill in side the shape and on the outside around the shape to make it look like the thing that you're writing about, you're going to fill it up with words to describe it.

For example, if I wanted to write about the tall trees that I saw, I might just start simply by drawing these tall trees like that.

And adding some branches criss-crossing to make it look like it's kind of 3D in the woods.

Yeah.

So I kind of have my shape going.

And now I'm gonna fill it up with words.

What words could you use to describe tall trees?

We could just write tall tree is and fill it down the trunk like that, maybe we could say stretch to the sky.

Branches criss-cross.

Think about the colors.

Think about what it might feel like.

All those things add to a great poem and make it sound like you too.

(upbeat music) Thank you so much for joining me today in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I call home.

You did a wonderful job of reading and writing your own poetry.

Keep listening all around you, you never know where you might get a great idea for writing.

I'll see you on the next 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)