- Hello, amazing learners.

Welcome to Read, Write, Roar!

Today, we'll be learning some new words, reading a story, and continue to think about writing your very own story about an experience you had observing day and night sky.

- [Narrator] 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.

(soft music begins) - Today, we're going to read a special book, entitled Genius Gia and the Solar Fountain, written by Julia Lindsey, illustrated by Meghan Shea.

This book is about a girl named Gia, and her brother Liam, and they make some very special discoveries in their neighborhood.

They also noticed the power of the sun, and what it can do.

But before we get started with the story, we're going to talk about some words.

We've been talking a lot about day and night sky, and how it changes.

In order to do that, we need to observe.

Observe means to take a closer look at something, and scientists do this all of the time.

They observe, or take a closer look at something over a period of time to notice how it changes.

Well, we're going to do that with the day and night sky, and we will also notice that Gia and Liam do the same thing in their neighborhood.

Now, if we look at the title, Genius Gia and the Solar Fountain, we notice the word solar.

You may have heard that word before, so let's just say it.

Say it after me, solar, solar, good job.

Well, solar means that something gets its power from the sun.

It's like a battery, right?

So here are some images of some things that are solar-powered.

A house powered by the sun.

Field of solar panels, using the sun to create energy.

Solar energy can be used in cities too.

Solar panels.

Solar panels on an RV.

So now let's take a look inside of our book.

Genius Gia and the Solar Fountain.

"Good morning, it's me, Genius Gia.

This morning, I saw something new next door.

Mr. Sanchez put something on his stoop."

A stoop is small platform, or something like a porch at the entrance, right by the door.

"It looks like a big gray bowl.

My big brother, Liam, and I run over to see the something close.

Mr. Sanchez, says, Liam, what is this big bowl?

Mr. Sanchez says, hola, Gia.

Hola, Liam.

It is a fountain.

It will shoot water into the sky.

I want to see that, I say.

Well, Gia, this fountain is solar powered, says Mr.

Sanchez."

Solar.

Remember we talked about that word solar?

So that means it's powered by the sun.

Yeah, okay.

"Cool, I want to find out how solar power works, I say.

Mr. Sanchez says, it gets power from the sun.

When a little sun beam shines on the fountain, it will start to bubble.

When many sun beams shine on the fountain, the water will shoot up.

Oh, I see, I say.

The sunshine is blocked by the buildings now.

I think at noon, the sun will not be blocked.

Then the sunshine will hit the fountain.

Liam and I walk back to our stoop.

We sit, we wait.

When will the sun beams hit the fountain?

We have been sitting for too long, says Liam.

Yes, but I want to see the fountain shoot into the sky.

We will wait a little bit, I say.

The sun comes over the buildings.

The sun shines onto Mr. Sanchez's stoop.

Liam and I run to Mr. Sanchez's stoop to watch the fountain.

It grunts.

It spits, it bubbles.

Mr. Sanchez, yells Liam, come see the fountain go.

Mr. Sanchez, Liam, and I watch as the fountain shoots water up into the sky.

It splashes back on the side of the bowl, and shoots up again.

Wow, the sun is powerful.

It can make the water dance, I say.

I wonder what else the sun could do."

Hm, what observations did Liam and Gia make?

Yes, they observed how the sun beams went over the buildings, and it landed on to the fountain, and it made the fountain water move, and bubble, and gurgle, and all kinds of things, right?

Excellent.

Now I want you to think about the day and night sky.

What observations will you make?

(soft music continues) - Hello there, learners.

It's Mrs.

Spear again.

And we're here to talk about high frequency words.

Let's be word builders.

Today, we are going to learn a new word together.

Remember, high-frequency words are important, because you're gonna see them a lot when you're reading, or when you're writing.

So it's important to know how you spell them.

The word for today that we're going to learn is the word gray, it's a color word.

The sky looked gray before it rained.

Can you say gray?

Nice job.

You've been working on learning some blends, and gray has the gr blend in it.

Let's stretch that apart to figure out how the word gray works.

The first sound I hear in gray is G. Do you hear it?

Yeah, that's made with what letter?

Yes, letter G. G, R. Yes, letter R is the next sound in the word gray.

The last sound that we hear in gray, G, R, ay, is the A sound, but guess what?

That's spelled with two letters.

A, Y.

So gray has three sounds, G, R, A, but there are four letters.

One, two, three, four.

G, R, A, Y spells gray.

Now let's write it.

You can sky write it.

Or you could also just write it with some scrap paper, and a crayon, or whatever you have.

Let's do it.

I'll draw a line, and we're gonna spell it together.

Gray, say gray, excellent.

Let's spell it.

G, R, A, Y, gray.

Wonderful job spelling the word gray.

Now we're going to practice recognizing, what's this word?

Gray.

With some other words that we learned the other day, the words try and great.

Do you remember these words?

Try and great.

Okay, let's read them.

Gray, try, great.

And we're going to play a little game where you're going to have to point to the word that I say, and then spell it.

Are you ready?

Let's do it.

Okay, here are the three words that we have for today.

Gray, try, and great.

I'll say one, and then I'll say point, and you'll point to it on your screen, and then I'll say spell.

Here we go.

Great, point to it.

Hold on, now spell it.

G, R, E, A, T, great.

Nice job.

Try, point to it.

You got it, spell it.

T, R, Y, try.

Excellent.

How 'bout gray?

Point to it.

Spell it, G, R, A, Y, gray.

Try, point.

Spell, T, R, Y, try.

Excellent.

Gray, point, now spell it, G, R, A, Y.

Excellent, great, point.

Yes, spell it.

G, R, E, A, T, great.

You did a great job today working on our words gray, try, and great.

When you're out today, out and about, or reading, or writing, try to see if you can find the words great, try, and gray.

(soft music continues) Hey, learners, we're going to shake it out.

Go ahead and stand up.

And I'm going to introduce a word to you.

The word is half.

Can you say half?

When I say half, I mean breaking something apart, so that it's the same on both sides.

So when I think of half, like in the moon, I think we see a full moon when we can see all of the moon, but sometimes we only see half of the moon.

A half moon is exactly half of the moon.

It's like you slice it in half.

We're gonna shake it out with some numbers right now, and break them in half.

We're gonna start with the number 16.

Can you say 16?

And here's what we'll do.

We'll shake out our right hand 16 times, our left hand 16 times, our right foot, 16 times, and our left foot 16 times, and then we're gonna break it down.

16 will go into eight.

Eight will go into four.

Four will go into two, and two will then to one.

So we're gonna shake it out, starting with our right hand 16 times, and then our left.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

Right leg.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

Left leg.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

Now eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Now four, one, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Two.

One, two, one, two.

One, two, one, two.

Now one, one, one, one, one.

Woo, good job shaking it out!

Are you ready for more learning now?

Let's go.

(soft music continues) Hi there, writers.

Welcome back to Read, Write, Roar!

It's Mrs.

Spear again, joining you today.

The last time that we were here, we started talking about writing a story, a narrative story, talking about an experience related to a specific topic.

That's what we're writing about.

Here's what we want to think about.

Our topic needs to be about a time when the daytime or nighttime sky is an important part of a story in your life.

Did you think about some things since the last time we were together?

If not, that's okay.

I'm gonna be walking you through the process of how you pick the story you want to write about.

And as I'm doing that, you keep thinking about what you might want to write about.

Since the last time we met, I had to do some good thinking as a writer, and decide what's going to be really important for me to write about that's really going to be connected well to the story.

So what I'm gonna do right now is read down my list with you of all the things I thought I could write about, and then we're going to cross some out if they don't make sense.

So the first one I had was downpour in Mt.

Pleasant.

My second idea was mother son blizzard story.

The third idea, sunrise at the cabin, loved thinking and watching, as I just watch sunrises, I think about so many things.

Cows laying in a field, mean rain, was another one I thought could be connected.

Lightning strike on vacation.

That was a story I thought could be really fun to write about.

Pedal boat disaster on Otsego Lake, up here in Gaylord, Michigan.

Late bedtime in June in Michigan, really stays light out quite late.

And the last brainstorm idea was Otsego Lake State Park day.

So here's the questions I need to ask myself.

I put together a little list.

The first thing I need to do is say, do I know the story well?

Do I know who?

That's my characters.

Do I know the characters that are gonna be in my story?

Do I know what?

Can I really tell you what was happening in that?

Do I know how I felt when that was happening?

Okay, so that's something I needed to really think about.

And as I was doing that, I thought, hm, I really can't say that I have a specific story that would work well enough about cows laying in a field, meaning rain.

And I'm not really sure it's gonna be well connected enough.

So I'm gonna just X this out.

I might write about this another time, but for today, that's not going to be the one that I write about.

Then I had to think, is this really connected to the important question?

Question number two, is it connected to the important question, a time related to the daytime and nighttime sky?

Very important to the story.

So when I thought about that, I was thinking, I don't think that the downpour in Mt.

Pleasant is best related to that.

The sky got dark, and it's a really good story, but I don't think that one's gonna be best either to write about, even though that was a really fun time.

As I was thinking some more, another question I thought about is, will it help me share the importance of the daytime or nighttime sky, and share a personal story?

So as I'm sharing a personal story with you, I have to know it well.

I have to have it really connected to this story.

And it's really gonna have to help me teach about the daytime and the nighttime sky.

So when I thought about that, I was thinking, I have a lot to say about the lightning strike on vacation.

I could tell you who, what, how I felt, but I just don't think it's going to be the right story to help me fit what I need to do.

I also started thinking about that with this one, pedal boat disaster on Otsego Lake.

That's a great story for me to write about.

I know where I was, I know how it felt, who was with me, but really, the daytime and nighttime sky, and the time of year isn't like really going to be that important in this story.

So that one, is just not going to work this time either.

I kept on thinking, and I thought this late bedtime in June, that is something important about the time of year.

The thing is I couldn't really think of a really good story, a really good time that could help me communicate with you, and show through my story, both my experience about a late bedtime in June, and then also be able to relay that really well to the daytime and nighttime sky being really important at the time.

So I also decided that one's not quite right.

So this is leaving me with a few more ideas here.

The mother son blizzard, sunrise at the cabin, and Otsego Lake State Park day.

Now sunrise at the cabin, I watch sunrises at the cabin all the time, and it's definitely an important part of the day, where the sun is rising, but I don't have a specific enough story.

Remember, I need to be able to know a specific story well enough to say who and what, and how I felt, who was there, the characters, what was happening, and then how I felt.

So that one is gonna be crossed out too.

Okay, everybody, this leaves me with two ideas.

The story about the time I went to a mother, son dance with my son, and there was a blizzard when we got out of that.

And another story about Otsego Lake State Park day.

I was thinking about both of these.

I know this story really well, being at this place with my son.

And I could tell you who was there, what it was really like, and how I felt.

But then I started to think more about this day, Otsego Lake State Park day, and on this day, my whole family was there.

I can describe it well.

I can almost feel being there right now.

And what happened was really, and the important part that we're trying to talk about, a daytime at nighttime sky, and when that's happening during the year, is really important to this story.

So I'm gonna save this story for another time.

And I am checking this story.

The time that I was at Otsego Lake State Park in Gaylord, Michigan, with my family.

So, writers, what we've done today is we looked at our list of things we brainstormed.

And then we really thought about what's important.

We as writers have a job to do, to communicate a story that we are excited to write about.

It's gonna keep us motivated to keep writing, that we know really well, and that's gonna help us teach about a time when the daytime and nighttime sky in the year is really important.

So now it's your job to start thinking about that.

Take a moment to think about this.

And I'm going to review the questions that you're going to need to answer to be able to write your own story where you are.

Let's do that now.

Okay, writers, now it's your turn.

Take a look at that list that you wrote down, you wrote down topics.

Those were the things that you thought you could write about that had to do with our story that we're going to do on when the daytime or nighttime sky is important.

Here's the first question that you want to think about.

Number one, which topics really have important parts related to the daytime or nighttime sky?

So if they're a fun story, but they're not really about something with the daytime or nighttime sky, kind of like me with cows laying in a field, cross it off, you don't want to use that one.

The second question, when you look at your list, which topics are related to the sky, and why it was that way during that time of the year.

I remember talking with you about the downpour, for instance, in Mt.

Pleasant.

That was a great story.

I could remember who, and what, and where, and exactly how I felt, but when I thought about it, really, it wasn't important for that specific time of year.

So I didn't want to use that one.

Okay, number three, which topics do I remember well enough to write a story about?

You really have to know it well.

Do I remember who, it's your characters, who was there, how I felt, and what it looked like?

So what it looked like, can you picture it in your mind, so that you'll be able to write about it?

You also need to know the where, of course, right?

Like what's your setting?

The one I chose, the setting is going to be at Otsego Lake State Park.

That's my where, and the what, it's gonna be quite the adventure when I share that with you about the weather taking a turn.

The last thing after you know that you're excited, it's related to the daytime, nighttime sky.

It'll help us learn about that time of year, again, because this is connected to our science topic.

The last thing, which story am I excited to write about that will help me think about the importance of the daytime or nighttime sky?

Really want to be excited about it, okay?

And then remember, way back when we first started talking, who will I share my story with?

You need to have an audience.

You want to make sure that there's someone that you're excited to share this story with, to help them learn about you and your experience, but also about the daytime and nighttime sky at a certain time of year.

Hey, learners, we're gonna play a little game right now, get your thinking caps on.

We're thinking about writing.

We want to be making sure the topics that we pick have to do with the subject we're supposed to write about.

We're supposed to be writing about something that has to do with a time when the daytime or nighttime sky is an important part of a story in your life.

So here's what we'll do.

I'm going to read one of these things, and you're going to give a thumbs up if it does have to do with the daytime or nighttime sky, and if it would be a good idea to choose for your topic.

Or you're gonna choose a thumbs down if it wouldn't have to do with the daytime or nighttime sky.

Here we go.

First idea.

Walking home as the sun is setting, thumbs up, or thumbs down?

Yes, thumbs up.

Walking home as the sun is setting could have a good story to do with the daytime or nighttime sky.

Let's read the next one, eating in the cafeteria at school, thumbs up, or thumbs down.

Would this be a story to do with the daytime or nighttime sky, thumbs down, right?

That wouldn't have to do with that topic.

How about this one, going for a hike when I hear thunder, thumbs up, thumbs down?

Which one?

Yes, thumbs up.

That would have something to do with the daytime or the nighttime sky.

Last one, looking for my lost toy, thumbs up that would have something to do with the daytime or nighttime sky, or thumbs down?

You got it, thumbs down.

So when you're thinking about your topic to write about, do this in your mind too.

Is it a thumbs up, a story that has to do with the daytime or nighttime sky, or is it a thumbs down?

Might be a great story, but not one to do with our topic.

Keep thinking about what you'll write about.

I'll see you next time.

Thank you for coming today.

You did learning about our blends.

You did learning about high frequency words.

You practiced reading those too, and spelling them, remember?

Then we thought about topics for writing, and how you can narrow that down from lots of ideas to just one that you're going to choose to write about.

So keep these questions in mind as you choose the one that's right for you.

And the next time we come back, I'm going to start showing you how to write that story, thinking about your characters, and your setting, and what happens in the story to make it move along and be exciting for the person who's listening, or your audience.

I look forward to seeing you next time, have fun.

And keep thinking, I love you.

- [Narrator] 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.

(soft music continues)