- Hello, readers and welcome to "Read, Write, ROAR!"

Today we will focus on the big question, how can I be a world changer?

We'll practice words with vowel teams and we will read a story about an amazing tower.

For today's activities you'll need something to write on, even a scratch piece of paper or an envelope, and something to write with, like a pencil or a crayon.

Come and join us for "Read, Write, ROAR!"

- [Announcer] 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!

(bright upbeat music) (lion roars) (lion roars) - Welcome, readers.

When I'm reading and I come to a long word that I've never seen before, I remind myself that I don't have to read the entire word all at once.

Instead, readers can break long words up into syllables or word parts to help them read that word more accurately.

By learning about the different kinds of syllables, we can learn how to break long words up into syllables.

Our goal today is to learn how to read words with vowel teams.

A vowel team is when there's vowels working together but they only make one vowel sound.

Remember, a syllable is a word part that only has one vowel sound.

Our vowels are A, E, I, O, U, and oftentimes the letter Y that make those vowels sounds.

Sometimes a syllable might have two vowels in it, but they're working together to only make one vowel sound.

Actually, we're going to see a lot of that in our lesson today.

Let's look at this first word.

This is a word that I don't know how to read.

We are going to work through our word and work together to loop it and swoop it so we can figure out what this word says.

Now remember, the first thing we do is put a dot under each vowel in our word.

I'm going to put a dot under E, A, and O.

Next I have to scan across my word and see if there's any vowel teams that I should underline.

I'm going to scan across my word and look for any vowel teams that I should underline.

Oh, I see one, E-A.

Now, I have to decide where I'm going to split this word, between two vowels, a vowel and a consonant, or between two consonants.

I think I'm going to split my word between this vowel and this consonant right here, because I know oftentimes that's where we would split a word.

I'm gonna loop and swoop so I can try and read this word.

Sey son, sayson.

That doesn't sound like a word that I know, but I remember that this vowel team, E-A, can work together to say E. So I'm gonna try reading it again now that I remember that.

Sea son, season.

I know that word, that word is season, like summer is my favorite season.

Okay, let's try our next word.

Readers, I want you to do this one with me.

So can you get your scratch piece of paper or envelope, and pencil or crayon ready.

Here's our next word.

This is also a word that I don't know how to read.

On your scratch piece of paper or envelope, can you write down these letters?

W-E-A-T-H-E-R.

I'll give you a second to get them written down.

Okay, now remember, our first step is to put a dot under any vowels that we see in this word.

On your paper, can you put a dot under any vowels in this word that you see?

And I'm going to do the same.

Look up here when you're done and we'll check our work together.

Did you put a dot under E-A and E like I did?

You did, great job, if not, that's okay, fix it up quick.

Now, we need to scan across our word and we need to see if there's any vowel teams that we should underline.

Can you scan across your word on your paper and I'll do the same?

And if you find a vowel team, go ahead and underline it.

Did you find one?

I did too!

I found E-A, so I underlined it.

Now we need to decide where we're going to split this word, between two vowels, a vowel and a consonant, or between two consonants.

Hmm, I think I'm going to split this word between A and T, a vowel and a consonant, because I know oftentimes that's where we would split a word.

Get your pencils ready.

Let's loop and swoop so we can try and read this word.

We ther, wether.

That doesn't sound like a word I know either, but you're right, this vowel team can work together to say, "eh".

let's try and read it again.

Wea ther, weather.

That is a word I know.

I think we're supposed to have some snowy weather coming in this next week.

Okay, readers, you're doing such a great job.

I think you can try this last word all on your own.

Get your scratch piece of paper and your envelope.

Okay, on your scratch piece of paper or envelope, can you write R-E-L-I-E-F.

I'll give you a second to get them written down.

Are you ready?

Okay, the first thing we have to do is put a dot under any vowels in this word that we see.

Can you put a dot under any vowels in this word on your paper?

And I'll do the same up here.

Look up here when you're done and we'll check our work together.

Did you find E, I, and E like I did?

Great job, readers.

Now, we need to scan across our word and see if there's any vowel teams that we should underline.

Can you scan across your word on your paper and underline any vowel teams that you might see and I'll do the same?

Look up here when you're done.

Did you underline I-E also, like I did?

Great job.

Okay, it's our last step.

We need to decide where we're going to split this word, between two vowels, a vowel and a consonant, or between two consonants.

I think I'm going to split this word right here between E and L, a vowel and a consonant.

Get your pencils ready.

Let's loop and swoop this word so that we can read it.

Re lief, relief.

Whoo!

What a relief, we made it through all of our words today.

Great job, readers.

Remember, when you're reading and you come to a word that has more than one syllable in it, you can break it up into smaller syllables and think about the sounds in those syllables to help you read it.

Now that we understand what a vowel team is let's practice reading some of these words in a story.

Are you ready to follow along?

When Lucy builds a bridge, she thinks about it in every se son, seson.

And that doesn't sound right.

Season, she thinks about it in every season.

Will it be slippery in winter weather?

Will it be too hot and summer weather?

It is a re lef, relef?

No, relief, it is a relief when her bridges are safe and beautiful in every type of weather.

Great job, readers.

You used what we learned about vowel teams to make sense of this story and read it accurately.

Now that we're getting really good with vowel teams let's try writing some of these words.

When we spell, we listen for and visualize the word parts and then we think about the sounds that match those word parts.

Are you ready to give it a try?

Let's go.

Our first word is, season.

Can you say that word with me?

Season.

Let's write a line on our paper for every word part we hear in the word season.

Here we go.

I hear sea son, season.

Two word parts.

Now let's think about the sounds in each of those word parts.

I hear, sss, eee, sss, aaa, nnn.

Two sounds in the first word part and three sounds in the second word part.

Now let's think about the letters that match those sounds.

Sss, I know S matches, sss and E matches E, see.

Sss, aaa, nnn.

Something doesn't look right though.

You're right, this is supposed to be a vowel team, E-A work together to say E. Season, let's loop and swoop this word so we can read it now.

Sea son, season, like summer is my favorite season.

Are you ready to try our next one?

Get your paper and pencil ready.

Our next word is relief.

Are you ready?

Re lief.

One line for each syllable or word part in that word.

Now let's think about the sounds in those word parts.

Rrr, ee, uu, ee, fff, re lief.

Okay, now it's time to match letters to those sounds.

Are you ready to write these letters on your paper?

Rrr that's an R, ooee that's an E, re, lll, ie, fff, relief.

Let's leaf and swoop so we can read this word together.

Re lief, relief.

It will be a relief when winter is over.

I don't like snow.

Are you ready to try our last word together?

All right.

Our last word is, weather.

Can you say that word with me?

Weather.

Let's write a line on our paper for each word part that we hear in weather.

Wea ther.

Now, let's think about the sounds in each of those word parts.

Woo, eee, th, er, weather.

Okay, let's match some letters up to these sounds so we can spell this word.

Woo, ee, th, er.

You're thinking what I'm thinking?

This doesn't look right, does it?

Vowel team, you're right.

This should be an E-A working together to say, "eh".

Wea ther.

Let's loop and swoop so we can read it.

Wea ther, weather.

What kind of we other do you have at your house right now?

Readers, you did such a great job using everything we learned about vow teams to help you read and write these words today.

I am so proud of you.

(bright music) - Somebody told me a riddle the other day, would you like to hear it?

It goes like this, Mercury, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all have it.

Venus and Neptune do not.

Well, when I was asked that riddle I got a little bit worried because I don't know a lot about the planets.

So I said, "Well, do they all have water?"

And the person said, "No, they don't all have water.

You're thinking too hard."

Do you know what the answer is?

Mercury, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all have the letter R and Venus and Neptune do not.

Thanks for sharing this with me today.

(bright music) - Ani boshu readers.

Today, we're going to continue reading, "The Wonderful Towers of Watts" written by, Patricia Zelver, and pictures by Frane Lessac.

Friends, our focus today is, Main Idea: "The Wonderful Towers of Watts" and pulling out the details of the story as read as text evidence.

Although this book is a narrative, a story, it is also an informational text.

Specifically, It's a biography.

A biography is a text or book about someone's life.

And in this book, we are learning all about, Sam's life.

So far, we've learned about Sam.

Sam has come from Italy to the United States.

And we have also learned that he collects other people's trash.

And when he collects other people's trash we've learned that he has started to make some beautiful, amazing, structure so far.

Let's see what happens next.

Sam went on working.

He worked all by himself for 33 years in all kinds of weather.

High off the ground with an only a window washers belt to keep them from falling.

While he worked, he listened to opera music on an old gramo-phone.

His favorite singer was, Enrico Caruso.

Old Sam could be heard singing along with him.

The children of the neighborhood grew up and had their own children who watched Old Sam's Towers soaring into the sky.

Old Sam was getting older too, but he went on working just as before.

Hmm.

So I see that he is making these beautiful structures.

Let's go ahead and add that to our details.

Sometimes Old Sam invited the neighborhood children into his yard, which was now surrounded by a decorated wall.

Inside, the children found a magical city with little streets, squares and fountains.

Squares?

Oh, I'm making a connection.

A square is like an open area, not like, a four sided square, right?

Yeah, like an open area inside of a town, okay.

The walks and walls were covered with starfish patterns, heart shapes, seashells, and colorful tiles decorated with peacocks, and a golden bumblebee.

Stuck into the cement, were all sorts of curious objects which, Old Sam had collected over the years.

A teapot spout, a cowboy boot, faucet handles, horse shoes, even willow ware plates.

Sam is making a magical place.

More details to support, "The Wonderful Towers of Watts".

Let's keep going.

Newspaper reporters heard about the Towers and came to see them and to talk to Old Sam.

"What do they mean?"

they asked him.

Old Sam just smiled.

"Where are your plans?"

they said.

Old Sam pointed to his head.

"Why did you do it?"

they said.

"I just felt like it."

Old Sam said.

One day when Sam was 80 years old he gave the key to his house to a neighbor and went off to live near his relatives in another city.

It was the last time he saw the Towers.

He never came back again.

Los Angeles grew up around Watts.

The city officials decided the Towers must be dangerous.

They could fall down on an earthquake or in a windstorm.

"After all," they said, "Old Sam was not an engineer."

Mmmh, awe an engineer is somebody who goes to school, to get a degree in building things.

When some people who loved the Towers heard this, they volunteered to make a wind load test to prove the Towers were safe.

The Towers passed the test and we're saved.

Watts is still a poor part of Los Angeles but no other place has the Watts Towers.

Every year, people come from all over the world to Marvel at Old Sam's crazy dream.

My friends.

This is the last piece of our text evidence that we're gonna add.

Today friends, not only have we gone through three new vocabulary words as we read, but we also pulled out more details of the story to support the main idea which is, "The Wonderful Tower of Watts".

(bright music) Writers, today we're gonna put our thoughts into sentences.

Now remember, a biography doesn't have to be everything about a person's life.

It can be just a little section.

A tip I have for you is that when you're stuck and you're not how to get started you can think about M-D-O-D. Movement, Dialogue, Onamatopoeia, and description, to start your section of writing.

So, how do we wanna start?

Maybe description, a way to kind of get the reader into imagining our world.

Hmm.

And I'm thinking we might, my friends wanna think about using a metaphor or a simile.

Now, a metaphor is when something says, what something is, like, "You are the apple of my eye."

But a simile is like, Hmm, oh, when you use "like" or "as" in a sentence to describe something.

Okay, so in thinking to myself, a description and maybe we could start up with a big feelings about how I was maybe feeling about being able to help that day.

Oh, I've got it.

Let's think so.

My heart shined like the sun.

What do you think?

So I'm describing and I've added that simile.

My heart shined like the sun inside my chest as I... Hmm.

Oh, carried a food box for maybe a Tribal elder?

Hmm, something like that.

Okay.

My heart shined, like the sun.

Let's start there.

Off we go.

(bright music) (lion roars) Writers, what should we do next?

One way you can help yourself is to reread what you've already wrote to get an idea or a sense of what naturally follows, what you've described or what you've written so far.

My heart shined, like the sun inside my chest as I carried a box for my Tribal elder.

Hmm.

So I'm carrying the box.

Oh, and I'm remembering now, I went to like go put it in his car and we kind of smiled at each other and yeah.

And then I was gonna have to go off, back to help other people carry their food boxes and, okay, so let's stop there.

Hmm, what could we say next?

I smiled as I put the box in Charlie's car.

Hmm, what do you think?

Okay, let's go.

I smiled as I put the.

Hmm, box or heavy box?

Yeah, I think I like heavy too.

The heavy box, okay.

In Charlie's car.

The heavy box.

Oh, let me think.

In Charlie's car or the heavy box of food.

Yes, are you making that movie in your mind?

Awesome, Food.

Excellent writers.

Do you see how, as I was thinking up some of the ideas I could add little, describing words here and there to make our sentence more descriptive And helps your readers make that movie in their mind.

(bright music) (lion roars) Writers, I went ahead and added a little more description in detail just to tell the reader what was going on in the story.

Let's read it.

My heart shined like the sun inside my chest as I carried a box for my Tribal elder.

I smiled as I put the heavy box of food inside Charlie's car.

Today was a big day!

This was the day I would get to help with the Feed America Food Truck.

All right.

Wow!

Now friends, we need to add one more element before we end this big first section.

Are you ready?

Let's think.

I'm playing back in my mind what Charlie and I were doing.?

And I remember, like Charlie smiled at me and we both waved and I might have said, "Miigwe" no, he said, "Miigwech," which is thank you in Anishinaabemowin.

And I might have said, "Baamaapii giga-waabamin" which is see you later, but, hmm.

How could we end this?

Oh, let's just end it with Charlie.

Like Charlie at me, "Miigwech," he said.

Yeah, and then I can like do like as I waved back or something, okay.

Charlie smiled at me," Miigwech."

Dialogue, "Miigwech," he said, as I, as he smiled at me, what do you think?

Maybe?

Well, see writers, that's the great thing.

It doesn't have to be perfect yet.

Let's just get our thoughts and ideas down.

I think it's good so far.

Off we go.

Charlie smiled at me, "Miigwech," he said as he waved.

Writers, today we used one strategy to help us get started on our writing.

M-D-O-D, Movement, Dialogue, Onomatopoeia, or Description.

We can start our writing with one of these techniques to help our readers start that movie in their mind.

- [Announcer] 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!

(bright upbeat music)