- Welcome second grade scholars to Read, Write, Roar.

Today we're gonna focus on the big question, how can small acts show kindness?

Today we're gonna work with the suffixes, er and est.

And we're gonna read a book about kindness.

So go ahead, get your paper, pencil and let's get started.

(upbeat music) - [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.

- Hello word builders.

Thanks for coming to learn with me, Mrs. Z-K. Today, we're going to work with suffixes.

A suffix is a meaningful word part that we add to the end of a word.

Today we're going to be working with suffixes that we use when we want to compare things.

When we want to compare two things, we're going to use the suffix er.

It says er.

Can you say that?

Er.

It means more.

We're going to use the suffix est.

It says est.

Can you say that?

est, you're right.

And this one means most.

We'll use that suffix when we're comparing more than two things like three things or five things or a hundred things.

Let's take a look here.

Our first base word is cold.

If we want to add the suffix er to the word cold, our word would become colder.

What word?

Colder.

If we were to add the suffix est to the word cold, our word would become coldest.

What word?

Coldest.

You're right.

Take a look here.

I have two seasons here.

One is summer and one is fall.

If I wanted to compare these two things I'm going to use the suffix er.

Which one of these seasons do you think is colder?

Here's a clue.

Look at our little thermometer.

Ooh.

The one with the lower temperature is the one that is colder.

You're right.

Fall is the colder season.

But look at this.

Now I have all four of our seasons on here.

We have fall, winter, summer, spring.

Now we're comparing more than two things.

We're going to use our suffix est.

Which season is the coldest of all?

Remember, you can look at our thermometers again.

Look for the lowest temperature.

You're right.

Winter is the coldest season of all.

Nice work.

Let's work on our next base word.

Our next word is tall.

If we want to add the suffix er to tall, our word becomes taller.

What word?

Taller.

Nice job.

Now, if we were to add the suffix est to the word tall, we would have tallest.

What word?

Tallest.

Nice work.

Let's look at that really quick.

I have a little drawing here.

We have a flower and a tree.

When we're comparing two things, we're going to the suffix er.

Which one of these things is taller?

Of course, the tree is taller than the flower.

But what happens now?

Now I have more than two things.

We have a flower, a tree and a mountain.

Which one is the tallest of all?

For sure.

That mountain is the tallest of all.

Nice work.

Let's keep going.

Our next base word is quick.

When we add the suffix er to our base word quick, we get the word quicker.

What word?

Quicker.

And when we add est to our base word quick, we get quickest.

What word?

Quickest.

You're gonna see three animals pop up.

There's a cat, a horse, and a cheetah.

Which one of those do you think can run the quickest?

For sure that cheetah has to be the quickest of all.

Now for our last base word.

Our last word is high.

If we wanna add the suffix er to our word high, we'll get the word higher.

What word?

Higher.

And if we add the suffix est to our word high, we're going to get the word, highest.

What word?

Highest.

Maybe before you've been playing on the playground and you had a ball and you wanted to see how high you could throw it and you practice and you throw it high or even higher but then you keep on practicing and then you find out you can throw it the highest of all.

It can be fun to work with suffixes.

Let's go ahead and reread our words that we just practiced.

Are you ready?

We have colder, coldest, taller, tallest, quicker quickest, higher, highest.

Nice job scholars.

Great job.

Now, we're gonna go ahead and practice writing these words that we just built.

We're going to see some sentences pop up on the screen.

The sentences will be missing a word.

That word will be a blank.

We're going to have to use one of our words that we built today in that blank.

So go ahead, get your paper, something to write with and come on back.

(soft instrumental music) All right.

Let's read these sentences together.

When we come across the blank, let's pause and think about what word might fit there.

In the winter the days are in February.

Let's think about that.

What kind of days would be in February?

Oh, cold.

Cause it's winter.

You're right.

So do you think it should be the colder days are in February or the coldest days are in February.

You're right.

It is coldest because we're comparing more than two things.

Nice work.

All right.

Let's read our second sentence.

That skyscraper is much than my house.

Which one of those words do you think fits?

You're right.

A skyscraper is pretty tall.

It's a really tall building.

So it must be either taller or tallest.

Let's see which one fits better.

That skyscraper is much taller than my house or that skyscraper is much tallest than my house.

You're right.

It's taller because we're only comparing two things.

Nice work.

Next sentence.

On the swings, I always go than my best friend.

What do you do on the swing?

Do you go pretty high on the swing?

Yeah, me too.

So would you go higher than your best friend?

Or would you go highest than your best friend?

Higher.

You're absolutely right.

Because you're only comparing you and your friend, how high you can go.

It's two things so we would write higher.

Here's our last sentence.

All the second graders ran to see who could be the to the lunch line.

Do you think they're running to see how quick they can be?

Yeah, I think so too.

Do you think all the second graders were running to see who could be the quicker to the lunch line or who could be the quickest to the lunch line?

I think you're right.

Quickest for sure, because I'm sure there's more than two scholars in your second grade class, right?

So you're comparing more than two things.

Nice work scholars.

Today, we worked on building, reading and writing words with the suffixes er and est.

We use these to compare things.

Can you practice comparing things at home?

Can you practice using the suffixes er and est?

Maybe you can find out who is taller than you and then you can find out who is the tallest in the house.

All right scholars, let's take a break for a second and do some breathing.

We're going to do a breathing that's called four square breathing.

What happens is we're gonna do it four times.

What we're going to do is we're going to breathe in, hold our breath, breathe out and take a break and then we'll do it again.

All right.

Are you ready?

All right.

Let's breathe in, two, three, four.

Hold your breath.

Two, three, four.

Breathe out.

Two, three, four.

Take a break, two, three, four.

Breathe in, two, three, four.

Hold your breath, two, three, four.

Breathe out, two, three, four.

Take a break, two, three, four.

Breathe in, two, three, four.

Hold your breath, two, three, four.

Breathe out, two, three, four.

Take a break, two, three, four.

Last one.

Breathe in, two, three, four.

Hold your breath, two, three, four.

Breathe out, two, three, four.

Take a break, two, three, four.

Nice job scholars.

Breathing can make you feel better.

(soft instrumental music) - Hi scholars.

I'm Mrs. Ziegler.

Let's get ready to read "Each Kindness" by Jacqueline Woodson.

The goal for today is to listen for the lesson or message of the story.

While I read think about what the author might be trying to teach us throughout the story.

"Each Kindness" by Jacqueline Woodson.

That winter snow fell on everything, turning the world a brilliant white.

One morning, as we settled into our seats, the classroom door opened and the principal came in.

She had a girl with her and she said to us, this is Maya.

Maya looked down at the floor.

I think I heard her whisper, "Hello."

We all stared at her.

Her coat was open and the clothes beneath it looked old and ragged.

Her shoes were spring shoes.

Not meant for the snow.

A strap on one of them had broken.

That word ragged.

I'd like us to look at it a little bit further.

Here's the word, ragged.

Can you say it with me?

Ragged.

Ragged has two syllables.

Here is my ragged stuffed animal kangaroo.

Look at the holes.

Can you see the holes?

It is old and torn and dirty.

Very old and very ragged.

Here is my new stuffed animal owl.

It is not torn.

It is not old.

It even smells good.

This is not ragged.

If we look at her clothes in this story, her clothes were ragged.

Our teacher, Ms. Albert said, "Say good morning to our new student".

But most of us were silent.

The only empty seat was next to me.

That's where our teacher put Maya.

And on that first day Maya turned to me and smiled, but I didn't smile back.

I moved my chair, myself and my books a little farther away from her.

Was that being very kind?

No.

When she looked my way, I turned to the window and stared out at the snow.

And every day after that, when Maya came into the classroom I looked away and didn't smile back.

Was that being kind or unkind on her first day at school?

That was unkind.

My best friends that year were Kendra and Sophie.

At lunchtime we walked around the school yard, our fingers laced together, whispering secrets into each other's ears.

One day, while we were near the slide, Maya came over to us.

She held open her hand to show us the shiny jacks and tiny red ball she'd gotten for her birthday.

"It's a high bouncer," she said.

But none of us wanted to play.

So Maya played a game against herself.

Have you ever felt like Maya, not being included at recess or somewhere else in school?

It makes you feel kind of sad or lonely.

That was not very kind to not include her or play with her.

That afternoon, when we got back into the classroom, Maya whispered to me, "Bet you can't guess who the new jacks champion of the world is."

Behind me, Andrew whispered, "Chloe's got a new friend.

"Chloe's got a new friend."

"She's not my friend," I whispered back.

The weeks passed, every day we whispered about Maya, laughing at her clothes, her shoes, the strange food she brought for lunch.

Some days Maya held out her hand to show us what she had brought to school.

A deck of cards, pick up sticks, a small tattered doll.

Whenever she asked us to play, we said no.

Let's go back to that word tattered.

Here's the word, tattered.

Can you say it with me?

Tattered.

Tattered.

Also has two syllables.

Tattered also means old or torn or in poor condition.

Like the word ragged.

I have a pair of old tattered jeans to show you.

Look at these holes.

Look at the patches.

They are very old and worn in pretty poor condition.

I still like to wear them though.

The jeans I'm wearing today are pretty new and comfortable.

They are not tattered or ragged.

Maya liked to bring those kinds of toys with her.

There's her tattered doll but nobody wanted to play with her.

Must be hard.

The days grew warmer and warmer.

The pond thawed.

Grass began growing where snow had once been.

One day Maya came to school wearing a pretty dress and fancy shoes.

But the shoes and the dress looked like they belonged to another girl before Maya.

"I have a new name for her," Kendra whispered, "Never New.

"Everything she has came from a secondhand store."

We all laughed.

Maya stood by the fence.

She was holding a jump rope, but did not come over to us to ask if we wanted to play.

After a while, she folded it double, rolled the ends around each hand and started jumping.

She jumped around the whole school yard without stopping.

She didn't look up once.

Just jumped, jumped, jumped.

The next day Maya's seat was empty.

In class that morning, we were talking about kindness.

Ms. Albert had brought a big bowl into class and filled it with water.

We all gathered around her desk and watched her drop a small stone into it.

Tiny waves rippled out away from the stone.

Here are the ripples in the story.

The word rippled in this story is a verb or an action word.

Let's take a look at the word ripple.

Can you say it with me?

Rippled.

Rippled.

So rippled means the action of moving away from the spot on the water.

Have you ever thrown a rock into a pond or a lake and watched the water move away from where the rock was?

It looks kind of like this.

Here are the ripples on top of the water.

"This is what kindness does," Ms. Albert said.

"Each little thing we do goes out like a ripple into the world."

Then, Ms. Albert, let us each drop the stone in as we told her what kind things we had done.

Joseph had held the door for his grandmother.

Kendra helped change her baby brother's diaper.

Even mean old Andrew had done something.

"I carried teacher's books up the stairs," he said.

And Ms. Albert said it was true.

I stood there holding Ms. Albert's rock in my hand silent.

"Even small things count," Ms. Albert said gently, but I couldn't think of anything and passed the stone on.

Maya didn't come to school the next day or the day after that.

Each morning, I walked to school slowly hoping this would be the day Maya returned and she'd look at me and smile.

I promised myself this would be the day I smiled back.

"Each kindness," Ms. Albert had said, "makes the whole world a little bit better."

Bet she's really thinking about all those missed opportunities to be kind to Maya.

But Maya's seat remained empty.

And one day, Ms. Albert announced to the class that Maya wouldn't be coming back.

"Her family had to move away," Ms. Albert said.

Then she told us to take out our notebooks, it was time for spelling.

That afternoon, I walked home alone.

When I reached the pond, my throat filled with all the things I wish I would have said to Maya.

Each kindness I had never shown.

I threw small stones into it over and over.

Watching the way the water rippled out and away.

Out and away.

Like each kindness done and not done.

Like every girl somewhere pulling a small gift out to someone and that someone turning away from it.

I watched the water ripple as the sun set through the maples and the chance of a kindness with Maya became more and more forever gone.

What a powerful story.

Thank you for listening.

Did you pick up on the lesson or message of the story?

Maybe you're thinking that the lesson is that we should treat others the way we wanna be treated or that each kindness counts.

And I would agree with you.

Every kindness matters.

Just like the waves, one little act of kindness will ripple out and you never know what impact it will have on other people.

The lesson is really in the title of our story today, "Each kindness."

This week, I'd like you to think about our big question and think about how you can show kindness or how others show kindness to you.

Can you choose a few small things to focus on like holding the door open or offering a smile.

See how your act of kindness ripples out and away, out and away.

Okay, readers and writers, let's review those three vocab words we focused on today during our story.

The first one was ragged.

Can you say it with me?

Ragged.

Remember ragged means old and torn.

Like my old kangaroo I showed you.

The second word was tattered.

Can you say it with me?

Tattered.

Tattered was similar to ragged in that it can also mean old and torn or in poor condition.

Like those pair of pants I showed you.

Our last word was rippled.. Can you say it with me?

Rippled.

And this was the verb that referred to the motion of the water, where the stone was dropped in.

It also reminds us of the message of our story where one act of kindness will ripple out and away like the motion on the water.

Great job.

Thank you so much for being with us today.

Join us again on the next Read, Write, Roar.

(upbeat music) - [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.