- Hello, readers.

Welcome to "Read, Write, Roar!"

Today, we're going to learn all about the letter I.

We're going to learn two new high frequency words, and learn about tornadoes.

Today, we're going to read to answer a big question.

What can we do to stay safe during a tornado?

For today's lesson you're going to need something to write on, like a piece of paper, and something to write with, like a pencil.

So go get your things and we can get started.

- [Spokeswoman] 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) - Hi, I'm Mrs. Skelley and today you're going to be a letter hero.

You'll be learning the name, sound, and how to write the letter I.

Learning how to read and write this letter is going to help you read and write many words.

Let's first practice naming the letter I.

This is the letter I.

This is the uppercase I, can you say that?

Uppercase I.

This is the lowercase I, can you say that?

Lowercase I, good.

Okay, now let's practice naming the letter I, are you ready?

What letter is it?

Uppercase I, good.

What letter is it?

Lowercase I, good.

Okay, I might mix it up a little bit.

What letter is it?

Lowercase I, good.

And what letter is it?

Uppercase I, nice work.

The letter I is super special because it can make two sounds, how cool is that?

It can make the short sound, which sounds like this, eh, like in the word iguana, listen to the beginning sound of that word, eh, iguana.

Let's practice making this sound.

To make this sound you're going to open your mouth a little bit and show your teeth, you're going to put your tongue behind your bottom teeth and say eh.

Can you practice with me?

Eh, eh.

Good, that's the short sound.

Now the other sound that the letter I can make is the long sound.

It can say its own name.

It can say I, like in the word iron.

Can you hear the I sound at the beginning of the word iron?

That's the long I sound.

Now let's practicing making this sound together.

To make the long I sound, you're going to drop your chin down and make your mouth round and say I.

Can you try that with me?

I, I.

Great work.

Okay, now let's practice making the sound for the letter I.

Are you ready?

Let's start with the short sound, eh, ready?

Eh, eh, you try, eh.

Eh, good.

Okay, now let's practice the long sound, remember, that's when I says its own name.

You ready?

I, I, you try.

I, I, great work.

Okay, now that we've learned the name and the sound for the letter I, we're going to practice finding I in a sentence.

Now today we're gonna be reading a book all about tornadoes, I'm so excited to read about tornadoes.

So what I did was I looked in the book and I found a sentence that tells us what a tornado is.

So our sentence says, "A tornado is a huge, "spinning tower of wind."

Now your job is to look out for the letter I in that sentence, are you ready?

I know you can do it.

I'm gonna get out my magnifying glass and we're gonna look at each word and see if we can find the letter I.

The first word is a, do you see the letter I in that word?

Nope.

The next word is tornado, do you see an I in that word?

Not the word tornado.

The next word is is, do you see an I in the word is?

Point to it.

There it is.

There's an I, let's highlight it together.

This is a lowercase I.

Now listen to the beginning sound in is.

Is, we hear a short I sound at the beginning of that word.

The next word is a, no I there.

Huge is our next word, do you see an I?

Not in that word.

Our next word is spinning, let's look for this and see if we can find an I.

Spinning, do you see any Is in that word?

Yes, there are two Is in that word.

Can you take your finger and point to them?

Here's the first one.

Spinning, listen to the middle sound, eh, eh, we hear a short I in spinning.

And there's another I at the end.

Those are both lowercase Is.

All right, let's keep reading our sentence.

The next word is tower.

Do you see an I there?

Nope.

Of, no I.

And the last word is wind.

Do you see an I in the word wind?

Can you point to it?

There it is.

Very good.

That's another lowercase I.

Listen to the middle sound in the word wind.

Wind, we hear a short I sound in that word.

Nice work finding the letter I in our sentence about tornadoes.

I can't wait to read about tornadoes later.

All right, now that we've practiced naming the sounds, we've learned the letter, and we found it in a sentence, we're going to practice writing the letter I.

So we're gonna start with our uppercase letter I, so you're going to need something to write with and write on, so you can write along with us.

Let me show you how to write uppercase I first.

And then we're going to practice and then we'll write it.

For this one we're gonna start at the top, go down, back up, across, and across.

All right, now before we write it down with something, a pencil or a marker, we're gonna put our finger in the air and air trace it.

So put your finger out and let's trace the uppercase I together.

Here we go.

Start at the top, go down, back up, across, across.

Do it again.

Start at the top, go down, back up, across, across.

One more time.

Start at the time, go down, back up, across, across.

Nice work.

All right, get out something to write with and let's practice writing the uppercase I together.

Start at the top, go down, back up, across, across.

Do it again.

Start at the top, go down, back up, across, across.

One last time.

Start at the top, go down, back up, across, and across.

Nice work.

All right, what letter is this?

Yes, uppercase I.

All right, now I'm gonna show you how to write lowercase I, watch me.

This time we're gonna start in the middle.

We're gonna go down, back up, and make a dot.

Put out your finger, let's air trace the lowercase I, here we go.

Start in the middle, go down, back up, and make a dot.

Start in the middle, go down, back up, and make a dot.

One last time.

Start in the middle, go down, back up, and make a dot.

Good job.

All right, get out something to write with and let's write it together.

Here we go.

Start in the middle, go down, back up, and make a dot.

Keep going.

Start in the middle, go down, back up, and make a dot.

One last time.

Start in the middle, go down, back up, and make a dot.

Great work.

What letter did we just write?

Yes, lowercase I.

Nice work today learning all about the letter I.

Now remember, the letter I is so special because it can make two sounds, it can make the short sound, eh, like in the word iguana, or it can make the long sound, I, like in the word iron.

Nice work.

Now today, letter heroes, and look around your home and see if you find anything with the letter I.

We're going to learn two new words today.

We call these high frequency words, because they pop up often when we're reading.

The first word is the word what.

Can you say that word?

We can use the word what when we're asking a question, like this, what do you know about tornadoes?

What.

Listen to the sound in the word what.

Wuh, uh, T. There are three sounds in the word what.

Watch me write the letters in the word what.

W-H-A-T, W-H-A-T, there are four letters in the word what.

Now let me show you how this word works.

The first two letters are W-H, and they work together to make the wuh sound in this word.

The next letter is an A.

And in this word it says uh, that's the part we're gonna have to remember.

The last letter is a T and it says T. The word what is spelled W-H-A-T. Now stand up with me and let's practice spelling the word what together.

Let me show you what to do.

You're gonna put your arm out and we're gonna tap out the letters to spell the word what.

Ready, like this, W-H-A-T, what.

Try it with me.

W-H-A-T, what.

One more time, W-H-A-T, what.

Nice work.

Another thing I like to do to help me remember how to spell and write the words is to finger trace them, so put your finger in the air and let's trace the word what together.

Start in the middle and we're gonna spell it together, ready?

W-H-A-T, what.

Spell it and trace it with me.

W-H-A-T, what.

Let's do it one more time, you're doing great.

W-H-A-T, what.

Nice work.

What word is this?

Yes, it's the word what.

Okay, our next high frequency word is the word do.

Can you say that word?

You can use the word do if you're asking somebody if they like something.

Like, do you like to learn about severe weather?

A tornado is a type of severe weather and I can't wait to learn about it later.

Do.

Listen to the sounds in the word do.

Duh, ew.

There are two sounds in the word do.

Watch me write the letters.

D-O.

D-O, there are two letters in the word do.

Let me show you how this word works.

The first letter's a D and it says duh, the next letter's an O and it in this word it makes the ew sound, that's the part we'll have to remember.

The word do is spelled D-O.

Stand up with me again, put out your arm and let's tap out to help us remember to spell the word D-O.

Let's do it together, D-O, do.

Do it again, D-O, do.

One last time, D-O, do.

Nice work.

Now put your finger in the air, let's practice tracing and spelling the word do.

Here we go, D-O, do.

Do it again.

D-O, do.

One last time.

D-O, do.

Nice!

What word is this?

Yes, it's the word do.

Well, we learned two high frequency words today, what and do.

Now we're gonna practice looking for them in a question.

Now this is our big question for today.

And we're gonna answer this question later by reading a book.

Our question is, what can we do to stay safe during a tornado?

Okay, I'm gonna have you first look for this high frequency word.

What word is it?

Do, yes.

Can you look out for that word in our question?

Take your finger and see if you can find the word do.

Did you find it?

There it is, do.

Can you spell it with me?

D-O, do, yes, good job.

All right, our next high frequency word is the word... What, yes.

Can you be on the look out for the word what in our question?

Take your finger and point to it.

Did you find it?

Here it is, what.

Now in this word, it's the beginning of a sentence.

The beginning of a question, it starts with a capital W, but it's still the same word, what.

Can you spell it with me?

W-H-A-T, what.

Nice work today finding our two new high frequency words, what and do.

Next time someone's reading you a book, see if you can find these words.

Earlier today we read a question, what can we do to stay safe during a tornado?

Now even though tornadoes don't happen very often in Michigan, it's really important to be prepared for this type of severe weather.

This says severe weather.

A tornado is a type of severe weather.

It's a type of dangerous weather that can cause damage and hurt people and animals.

So today we're going to read parts of a book called "What is a Tornado?"

And as we're reading, we're going to look for some answers to our question, what can we do to stay safe during a tornado.

Now this book is written by Robin Johnson, she's the author, she's the one that wrote the words.

This book is a non-fiction book, which teaches us information about things.

Today we're going to be learning about tornadoes.

This book is read aloud with permission from Crabtree Publishing.

So when I looked at this book, I looked at the table of contents, and I picked out some parts that I thought would help us answer our question.

So let's go ahead and turn to the first part that I thought would help us answer our question.

I wanna know a little bit more about tornadoes and how they form first, before we can know how we stay safe.

This says, "Thunderstorms."

That's the heading, that's what it's going to be telling us about.

"Some storms have strong winds, "heavy rain, bright lightning, and booming thunder.

"Lightning is a flash of electricity in the sky.

"Thunder is the sound that lightning makes "when it moves through the air.

"Storms with lightning and thunder "are called thunderstorms."

Now let's check out this picture.

There's a caption by this picture that tells us what the picture's about.

"Tornadoes form from funnel clouds.

"A funnel cloud is a cone-shaped tunnel of spinning wind."

Now if you look at this picture it's labeling a funnel cloud right here, and you can see that's a spinning tower of wind.

This next topic is tornadoes.

"Big thunderstorms can make tornadoes.

"A tornado is a huge, spinning tower of wind "that stretches from a storm cloud down to the ground.

"It forms when warm wet air meets cool dry air.

"The warm and cool air press against each other "and start to spin.

"This spinning air forms a funnel cloud.

"The cloud keeps turning and growing downward.

"When it touches the ground, it becomes a tornado."

Now this is a diagram and it shows us how a tornado works.

It shows us the arrows that tell us about the cool, dry air and the warm, wet air pushed together and the wind is spinning, and then the funnel cloud touches the ground and that's what makes it a tornado.

All right, let's keep reading on to the next part I thought would help us answer our question.

What can we do to stay safe during a tornado?

Because that sounds pretty dangerous, doesn't it?

This is called storm trackers, that's the heading.

That's what it's gonna be about.

"Meteorologists watch tornadoes and other storms "as they form.

"Meteorologists are scientists who study weather.

"They measure wind, temperature, "and other parts of tornadoes.

"They use this information to try to predict "where and when tornadoes will form, "as well as what path they will follow.

"They warn us about tornadoes as early as possible "so that we have time to get to safe places "before the storm reaches us."

All right, let's learn about watches and warnings.

"Meteorologists report information about tornadoes "on television, on the radio, and online.

"A tornado watch means there's a chance "that tornadoes might form in the area.

"People are told to get ready for the storm "and check for updates.

"A tornado warning means a tornado "has been seen in the area.

"People are told to hurry to get to safe places right away."

All right, so our question is what can we do to stay safe during a tornado?

So we learned that meteorologists gives us weather reports on either television or on our phones or on the radio.

So it's really important to listen to the weather reports to make sure a tornado isn't near us.

And if it is, we need to get to a safe place.

Which is what our next section's about.

It's called safe places.

That's the heading, that tells us what this section's gonna be about.

"If there's a tornado warning where you live, "hurry to your basement or storm shelter.

"A storm shelter is a room built underground "away from buildings.

"If you do not have a basement or storm shelter, "go to the lowest floor of your home.

"Keep away from windows, "because strong winds could break the glass."

All right, another way to stay safe is to seek shelter.

So if you have a basement, that's the best place to go.

If not, you can go to other areas that are safe away from windows.

Now right here is a picture and it says, checklist.

It says, "Make a plan with your family "so you all know where to go in a tornado.

"Make sure your safe places always have supplies."

So the checklist right here says, "Bottled water, canned food, can opener, "flashlights, extra batteries, "candles, cell phone, extra blankets, "and a radio that runs on batteries."

So another thing we can do to stay safe during a tornado is to make a plan with our families and make sure that we have supplies ready just in case of an emergency.

Something that you can do with an adult is talk to them to make a plan just in case there's a tornado.

Make sure you have supplies ready to go.

This next section is called take cover.

"Take cover inside a bathroom, closet, hallway, "or under a stairway in the middle of your home.

"Stay away from the building's outside walls.

"They could be damaged by trees and other large objects.

"Climb inside an empty bathtub "or crawl under a heavy table or desk.

"They will help protect you from falling or flying debris.

"Crouch down and cover your head with your heads."

Can you practice that, crouch down and cover your head with your hands, so your head will be protected.

Let's read a little bit more about how to stay safe during a tornado.

This says, "Go inside, most tornadoes happen "without much warning.

"If you are outside when a tornado siren sounds, "you can still stay safe.

"Go inside your house, school, "or other strong building nearby.

"Buildings made of brick or concrete "are stronger and safer than those made of wood."

All right, today we did such a nice job reading a book and answering our question, what can we do to stay safe during a tornado?

Remember, we can listen to a weather report, we can seek shelter if there's a tornado nearby, and we can make sure to have a plan ahead of time and supplies ready.

Great job answering our big question today.

Okay, letter heroes and tornado experts, I need your help.

Do you remember the question we had earlier?

What can we do to stay safe during a tornado?

Part of my question got all mixed up and I need your help finding the rest of the words to make our question, will you help me?

Oh, thank you.

All right, well so far, here are the words that I have in the right order.

What can we do.

Now our next word we need to find is the word to.

Can you find the word to down here?

Let's listen for the beginning sound.

T, T, it starts with the letter T. I see two words that start with a T. Let's slide our finger underneath them and see if we can find the word to.

Tor... Nope, that word is too long.

To, that's the word to.

Great work.

We're gonna put it down here, 'cause we ran out of room, so we need to go to the beginning of the next line.

Let's read our question and see what we have so far.

What can we do to, stay is our next word.

Stay, can you say that word?

Listen to the beginning sound, stay, st, hmm, let's see.

I have two words that have a S sound at the beginning.

Let's stretch them out.

Safe, not that word.

Stay, that's the word stay.

Let's put it up here with a space in between our words.

Take your finger and let's read what we have so far.

What can we do to stay safe... Can you take your finger and point to the word safe?

Safe.

Yes, we read that one earlier, safe, good work.

Let's put a space in between our words.

All right, take your finger, let's read what we have so far.

What can we do to stay safe, during is our next word.

Can you say that word, during?

Yes, what sound do you hear at the beginning of the word during?

Can you take your finger and point to the word during?

Right here, during.

There we go, it starts with a D. Great work.

All right, let's read what we have so far, we're almost there.

What can we do to stay safe during, a is our next word.

Can you point to the word a?

There it is, just a plain A, but it makes the uh sound in this word.

All right, let's read what we have so far.

Read along with me.

What can we do to stay safe during a... What's our last word?

Tornado.

What do you hear at the beginning of the word tornado?

T, T, T. Good, this is the word tornado.

And there's a question mark at the end and that tells us it's the end of our question.

Nice work, letter heroes and tornado experts.

Let's take our finger and read our question one more time.

What can we do to stay safe during a tornado?

Great work.

Today, we learned about the letter I.

We also learned two new high frequency words, and answered a big question about staying safe during a tornado.

Great work today, readers and writers.

Thank you so much for learning with me.

I'll see you next time on "Read, Write, Roar!"

- [Spokeswoman] 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)