- Hello, readers, welcome to Read, Write, Roar.

Today we're going to learn all about the letter W. We're also going to build words using letters that we've learned and we're gonna read a book to answer our big question for today.

What are hurricanes and how can we stay safe?

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

So, go get your things and we can get started.

- [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.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Mrs. Skelley and today you're going to be a letter hero.

You're going to learn how to read, write and learn the sound for the letter W. 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 W. This is the uppercase W. Can you say that?

Uppercase W. This is the lowercase W. Can you say that?

Lowercase W. Okay, let's practice naming the letters together.

Ready?

What letter is this?

Yes, uppercase W. What letter is this?

Lowercase W. I might mix it up.

What letter is this?

Lowercase W, good.

And what letter is this?

Uppercase W. Great job.

Okay, the letter W represents the sound wuh, like in the word watch or in the word watermelon.

Yum.

Let's practice making the sounds for the letter W. To make this sound, the back of your tongue is going to up a little bit and your lips are going to be round, like this, wuh, wuh, wuh.

Can you make that sound?

Wuh, wuh, wuh.

Good job.

Let's practice making this sound together.

What sound is it?

Wuh.

Wuh.

Wuh.

Great job.

Okay, now we're going to practice finding the letter W in a question.

This question is going to be our big question for today and later on, we're gonna read a book to answer our big question.

The question is what are hurricanes and how can we stay safe?

Okay, now your job is to be on the lookout for the letter W. So, I'm gonna get out my handy dandy magnifying glass and we're gonna look through each word to see if we can find the letter W. Here's our first word.

What.

Do you see the letter W in the word what?

You do?

Yes, there's an uppercase W right here.

Let's listen to the beginning sound of the word what.

Wuh, wuh, what.

We hear the W sound.

All right, let's look at our next word.

Are.

Do you see the letter W in the word are?

Nope.

The next word is hurricanes.

Look through that word.

Do you see the letter W in the word hurricanes?

Nope.

And.

Do you see a W?

Not in that word.

How.

Do you see a W in the word how?

Can you point to it?

I see a lowercase W. It's right at the end of that word, good.

Our next word is can.

Do you see a W in the word can?

Not in that word.

We.

Do you see a W in we?

Point to it.

There it is.

I see a lowercase W. Let's listen to the beginning sound in the word we.

Wuh, wuh, we.

We hear the W sound at the beginning of that word.

The next word is stay.

Do you see a W in that word?

Nope.

Safe.

Do you see a W?

No W in that word.

Great work finding the letter W in our big question for today.

I can't wait to read and learn more to answer our big question.

Now we're gonna learn how to write the letter W. You're going to need a piece of paper and something to write with, so you can write along with us.

But first, we're going to practice.

Let me show you how to write an uppercase W first.

Watch me.

We're gonna start at the top, slant down, back up to the top, slant down and back up to the top.

All right, now, before we write it with a pencil or marker or crayon, we're gonna put our finger in the air, like this.

Can you put your finger out?

And we're gonna air write the letter W together to practice and get our brains ready and get our fingers ready to write.

So, put out your finger, let's start at the top, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

Let's try it again.

Start at the top, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

One more time.

Start at the top, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

Okay, now we're ready to write it together, so get out something to write with, so you can write along with us.

Here we go.

Start at the top, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

Do it again.

Start at the top, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

One more time.

Start at the top, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

Nice work.

What letter did we just write?

Yes, an uppercase W, good job.

Okay, now let me show you how to write a lowercase W. It's almost the same, but a little bit different.

Instead of starting at the top, like the uppercase, we're gonna start in the middle of our line.

Start in the middle, slant down, back to the middle, slant down, back to the middle.

All right, so put your finger in the air, you know what to do, we're gonna trace it in the air.

Here we go.

Start in the middle, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

Do it again.

Start in the middle, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

One more time.

Start in the middle, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

Good job.

Get out something to write with and now we're gonna practice writing the letter W, the lowercase W. Start in the middle, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

Do it again.

Start in the middle, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

One last time.

Start in the middle, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

Good work.

All right, what letter did we just write?

Yes, lowercase W. Great work today learning all about the letter W. Now what sound can it make.

That's right, it can say wuh.

Great work.

Now, today if you're walking through your neighborhood or down the street, check out the street signs and see if you can find the letter W. (upbeat music) Okay, letter heroes, now, we get to be word builders.

Are you excited?

You've learned so many letters and sounds lately and now we're gonna take all of that information that you've learned and we're gonna put it together to read words.

You can read words by first looking at the letters in the word and then blending together the sounds that match.

We're going to change one letter at a time to build it new words.

And then after we're done reading that word, we get to act it out.

How fun.

So, make sure you're standing up, so you can act it out with me.

All right, let me show you how this works.

I'm gonna take my hammer and as I tap on each letter, you're going to say the sound that matches for each letter and then we're gonna blend it together and read the word.

Are you ready?

Let's try this first one together.

Here we go.

Ss, ah, puh.

Sap.

We just read the word sap, way to go.

Sap is something that comes out of maple trees and we can turn sap into maple syrup.

We can put that maple syrup on some pancakes.

So, can you stand up?

Act out pouring your maple syrup over your pancakes and now eating those delicious pancakes.

Yum, I just love pancakes.

All right, let's build a new word.

I'm gonna change one letter and again, we're going to blend together the sounds that match.

Here we go.

Say the sounds with me.

Nn, ah, puh.

Nap.

Good job.

All right, when I'm tired, I like to take a nap.

Let's stretch out and pretend like we're taking a nap.

Uh, good job.

All right, let's build a new word, here's our next word.

All right, let's blend together the sounds that match.

Here we go.

Cuh, ah, puh.

Cap.

Good job.

All right, let's put on our caps or our hats because it's very sunny outside, we want to keep our eyes protected from the sun.

Cap.

Nice work, nice job.

All right, let's make a new word.

All right, let's say each sound.

Cuh, ah, nn.

Can.

Nice job.

All right, I ate a can of soup for lunch.

Let's pour it into a bowl and let's eat our soup for lunch.

Yum.

All right, let's make a new word.

I'm gonna change the beginning sound this time.

All right, blend the sounds with me.

Rr, ah, nn.

Ran.

Good job, I ran really fast.

Can you run really fast with me?

Ran.

Okay, we're gonna make one more word.

Let's do our last word together.

Here we go.

Puh, ah, nn.

Pan.

I used a pan to cook some eggs.

Can you make some eggs in a pan?

Let's eat our eggs.

Yum, what a great breakfast.

We had pancakes, we had eggs, yummo.

Nice job today, word builders, building and blending together words.

Now remember, when you want to read a word, first, look at the letters and then blend together the sounds that match.

(upbeat music) Do you remember our big question from earlier?

What are hurricanes and how can we stay safe?

Well, today we're gonna read parts of this book to help us answer our big question.

Even though we don't have hurricanes in Michigan, it's really important that we know what they are and how to stay safe from hurricanes in case we ever visit somewhere that does have hurricanes.

The title of this book is called, "What Is A Hurricane?"

This book is written by Robin Johnson.

She's the author, she's the one that wrote the words.

This book is read aloud with permission from Crabtree Publishing.

Let's first look at the table of contents to figure out which parts of the book that we'd like to read.

The table of contents tells us about the topics that we can read about and the page number that they can be found on.

Well, what I did was I looked through the book and I want to just answer our big question, what are hurricanes and how can we stay safe?

So, I picked out some parts of the book to read to help us answer our question.

The first part is called, "What are hurricanes?"

and that can be found on page eight, so we're gonna flip right to page eight and get started and hope that we can answer our big question.

"What are hurricanes?"

That's the heading of this page.

That tells us what this page is going to be about.

Hurricanes are huge storms with very strong, swirling winds.

Hurricanes.

Can you say that word?

Hurricane.

Good, that's our first vocabulary word that's pretty important to answer our question.

I think we already answered our first question.

What are hurricanes.

The first part of our question.

Now remember, the book said they're huge storms with strong, swirling winds.

Check out this picture.

It's a pretty big storm, isn't it?

Yeah.

Let's keep reading on and see if we can answer the rest of our question.

How can we stay safe?

They are the biggest and most powerful storms on Earth.

A hurricane can be hundreds of miles or kilometers wide.

Wow, that's really big.

Some hurricanes can last longer than a week.

Wow.

This right here is a, called a caption, it tells us about the picture.

Hurricanes are so huge, scientists take pictures of them from space.

So, this must be a picture that scientists took from space.

This is called "Severe weather."

A hurricane is a type of severe weather.

Severe weather can damage buildings and land.

It can harm people and animals.

Learning about hurricanes will keep you safe from these dangerous storms.

Well, another important vocabulary word is severe weather.

Can you say that word?

Yes.

Very good.

A hurricane is a type of sever weather.

And severe weather is dangerous weather that can cause damage and hurt people and animals, so we have to be very careful.

All right, the next section is called, "How do hurricanes form?"

Hurricanes form over warm ocean waters.

The sun heats the ocean and causes warm, wet air to rise.

The air rises high in the sky, where it cools and forms clouds.

As the warm air rises, cooler air rushes in underneath it, creating strong winds.

As the hurricane forms, it spins around a center point called an eye.

Now, you can see in this picture, it shows a label that's labeling the eye of the storm.

Do you see that part where it's swirling around the center?

That's called the eye.

And this says this image shows a hurricane moving toward land.

So you can see, the scientists took a picture from above the Earth and this is a hurricane moving towards this land right here.

As the hurricane forms, it spins around a center point called an eye.

The eye is the tunnel of calm air in the center of the storm.

All right, let's read about tropical storms.

Hurricanes form only in areas of the world that have hot weather all year.

Now, in Michigan, do we have hot weather all year?

No, we don't.

We have winter and fall and spring and it's not super hot in those seasons, so we don't get hurricanes in Michigan, we don't have to worry about that in Michigan.

These places are found near the equator.

The equator is the imaginary line around the middle of the Earth.

Now, if you look at this picture right here, this is a picture of map of our Earth and this shows the equator.

It's this imaginary line right in the center of the Earth.

Okay?

So, hurricanes are found closer to the equator.

Hurricanes happen at different times in different parts of the world.

For example, hurricanes take place between June and November in the Atlantic Ocean.

This is the Atlantic Ocean right here.

This period of time is called hurricane season.

All right, let's keep reading on and see if we can answer our second part.

'Cause we learned about what are hurricanes, we know that they're swirling storms of wind and rain and we know that they're a type of severe weather that can cause damage.

But we still need to know how can we stay safe, so let's keep reading on to the next page and see if that can help us answer that part of that question.

This is called, "A watchful eye".

Meteorologists watch a hurricane closely as it forms.

Meteorologists are scientists who study weather.

They use tools to measure temperature, the speed and direction of the wind and other parts of the hurricane.

They use this information to track the hurricane's path and predict if it will blow onto land and where.

This one's called, "Watches and warnings".

Meteorologists warn people about hurricanes so they can prepare for the storms and stay safe.

A hurricane watch is announced if there is a possibility of a hurricane coming to an area within the next two days.

A hurricane warning means that a hurricane is expected within the next day and a half.

All right, this says what do you think?

Why is it important to know when and where hurricanes will make landfall?

What do you think?

Why is it important to know that information?

Well, is it important to be prepared in case there's a hurricane coming to where you live?

Then you can get out of there and you can make sure that you are safe.

All right, let's keep reading.

So, one of the ways that we can stay safe is by listening to the reports that the meteorologists tell us, so they can give us a warning before the hurricane arrives.

Let's keep reading on.

The next section I thought was important was called, "Hurricane safety".

Do you think this part is gonna help us answer our question?

I hope so.

All right, it's important to prepare for a hurricane if you live near the coast of a warm ocean.

And again, we live in Michigan, we're not near the coast of a warm ocean, so we don't have to worry about hurricanes.

That means that you could lose power in your home.

If there are floods or blocked roads, you may not be able to leave your house.

The supply kit will provide the food, water, blankets and other items that you need.

All right, let's read this part right here that says, "Hurricane supply checklist".

These are things that you would need in case of an emergency, in case of a hurricane if you lived in an area that had hurricanes.

It says first aid kit, enough bottled water for three days, three day supply of canned food and other foods that does not spoil, can opener, flashlights, a radio that runs on batteries, extra batteries, pillows and blankets, rubber boots and other rain gear.

And the caption underneath this list says this checklist shows some of the supplies needed during a hurricane.

Help your family gather items for your supply kit.

So, it's important, one of the ways that we can stay safe is have an emergency kit ready to go, just in case.

All right, this says, "Stay or go?"

You may be able to stay at home during a hurricane.

Before the storm hits, help adults put boards over the windows.

Bring toys, bicycles and other outdoor objects inside.

Do not forget your pets.

If the weather report says the storm will be very strong, you may have to evacuate your home for a while.

Evacuate is another important vocabulary word.

Can you say that word?

Evacuate.

Good.

Evacuate means to leave a place of danger.

So, if a hurricane is coming, you need to get in your car or find some way to leave your place of danger to a safe spot.

Your family should pick a safe place to go and plan an escape route before hurricane season.

And you can see all these people are driving to get out from the dangerous area, so they can get somewhere safe.

All right, so let's take a look.

We did such a great job reading and now we're gonna look at our question and we're gonna think and answer it.

What are hurricanes is the first part.

So, do you remember what are hurricanes?

Remember, a hurricane is a huge powerful storm, it's a type of severe weather with very strong winds and damaging rain.

All right, now, the next part of our question is how can we stay safe?

Do you remember some ways that we can stay safe if we were ever caught in an area with a hurricane?

Well, we can listen to a meteorologist report on TV, so they can warn us if a hurricane is coming near.

We can also have a supply kit ready, so that we have all the supplies that we need, just in case of an emergency.

And we can also evacuate or leave the place of danger if a meteorologist tells us that a storm is coming nearby.

Great job answering our big question today.

(upbeat music) Letter heroes, when we were reading today, we learned all about the importance of a hurricane supply kit.

We learned that people that live in areas with hurricanes should always have a supply kit ready.

Now, we live in Michigan and so, we don't have hurricanes, but other people that live in other areas of the United States need to be ready with a supply kit, so they're prepared in case of a hurricane.

Now, my friend Wanda lives in Florida and I really want to put together a supply kit for her, so she's prepared in case of a hurricane, in case of an emergency.

This says Wanda's hurricane supply kit.

I'm gonna put some items in the box to get it ready to send out to the post office.

Letter heroes, will you help me label the items that go in the box?

You will?

All right, let's go.

The first item that we need to label for Wanda's hurricane supply kit is water.

Can you say that word?

Water.

What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word wuh, wuh, water?

Can you take your finger and point to the label that says wuh, wuh, water?

Did you point to this one?

The word water starts with a W. Wuh, wuh, water.

The word water starts with a W, that's our letter for today and my friend Wanda's name also starts with a W. Let's put our finger in the air and trace the letter W. Ready?

Start at the top, slant down, back up, slant down, back up.

Water.

Good, we're gonna add that to the kit.

All right, the next thing we're gonna add is canned food.

Canned food.

That's two words.

Can you say those words?

Canned food.

Good.

What sound do you hear at the beginning of the first word?

The word canned.

Cuh, cuh, canned.

Can you take your finger and point to the label that says canned food?

Did you point to this one?

Look at that, the word canned starts with a cuh or a C. Great work.

Can you trace a C in the air?

Put your finger in the air and let's trace the letter C. Start in the middle and around like a C. Canned food, we're gonna add that one to the kit.

All right, our next thing we need to add is a radio.

Can you say that word?

Good.

What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word rr, rr, radio?

Can you take your finger and point to the label that says radio?

Did you point to this one?

Rr, rr, radio starts with the letter R. Great work, letter heroes.

Let's put our finger in the air and trace the letter R. Start in the middle, go down, back up and curve around.

Radio.

Let's add that to the kit.

All right, the very last thing we're gonna add to the kit is a big one.

We're gonna add pillows and blankets to the kit, okay?

Can you say those words?

Pillows and blankets.

Good.

Pillows and blankets.

I'm gonna set these down.

That's three words, pillows and blankets.

The first word is the word pillows.

Can you say that word?

What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word pillows?

Can you point to the label that says pillows and blankets?

Puh, puh, pillows starts with a P. Good.

Let's trace the letter P. Ready?

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

Pillows, awesome.

Thank you so much for helping me put together Wanda's hurricane supply kit.

I'm gonna go to the post office right now and send this in the mail to Wanda.

Today we learned about the letter W. We made words with some of the letters that we've already learned and we answered a big question about hurricanes and hurricane safety.

Thank you so much for learning with me, readers.

Great job today.

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

- [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.

(upbeat music)