(cheery acoustic music) - (Both) Good morning, super readers!

Thank you for joining us in our Valley PBS classroom.

I'm Mrs. Nix.

- I'm Mrs. Hammack.

- And this is a place for us to learn, practice, and... - (both) Grow our brains!

- To become even stronger readers, writers, - (both) And thinkers.

- Mm-hmm.

- So let's get started this morning by warming up our brains with some... - Ear training.

- Called... - (both) Daily phonemic awareness.

- Absolutely.

So, that's where we're training our brains to hear sounds in words.

So, today what I'm gonna do is we're gonna practice some blending.

- Mm-hmm.

- And we're gonna make it pretty simple.

We're gonna just blend some sounds down our arm.

When I say blending, I'm gonna give you some sounds and you are going to smoosh 'em together and say the word.

Okay, so let's practice kind of an easy one.

- Okay.

- Okay.

What's our sound that we're working on this week, Mrs. Hammack?

- 'Ar'!

- That's right.

So let's start the word out with 'ar', okay.

Put your arm out, and you at home should be doing the same thing.

So, we're gonna say, - Ar-t. - (both) Ar-t. Ar-t. - Oh, art!

- Art.

Absolutely.

That's how we do it.

So, we're just smooshing the sounds together to form words.

Okay, let's try it again.

- Okay.

- C-ar-t. - (both) C-ar-t. C-ar-t. Cart.

- Yes.

- All right - Just like a shopping cart or a race cart, okay.

So let's make it a little more tricky.

I'm gonna add some more blends in there.

- Okay.

- Okay.

That just is a fancy way of saying I'm gonna add some more sounds.

All right, here we go.

S-m-ar-t. - (both) Sm-ar-t. Sm-art.

- Smart.

- You are so smart.

- Mm-hmm - And I know that you can do hard things.

- That's the truth.

- Absolutely.

That's what we're here for.

So let's get our bodies wiggling, doing a little bit of a dance.

I think we've been doing "Get a Guitar".

- We have.

- All right, let's do it.

(cheerful guitar music) ♪ Get a guitar and you can sing a song ♪ - Oh, you need to wake up.

♪ Get a guitar and you can play it all day long ♪ ♪ Join the band and have some fun ♪ ♪ Sing and play till the day is done ♪ ♪ Get a guitar and you can sing a song ♪ ♪ Get a guitar and you can sing a song ♪ ♪ Get a guitar and you can play it all day long ♪ ♪ Join the band and have some fun ♪ ♪ Sing and play till the day is done ♪ ♪ Get a guitar and you can sing a song ♪ (guitar music continues) - Do-si-do, right?

(Mrs. Hammack laughs) - Woo-hoo!

Nicely done, Mrs. Hammack - Hey, did you hear guit-ar?

Did you hear the 'ar' at the end of guitar?

- I did.

And you know what?

It's only because we've been practicing it all week.

- I know, I didn't hear it either.

And then all of a sudden I was like (gasps), I hear the sound.

- Guitar.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's in a lot of words.

- It is.

All right, so now that we've trained our ears, let's go see if we can put that into action with our sound spelling pattern at our word work board.

You ready to go?

- I'll see you in just a little bit.

- Okay.

- Alright, here we are with our star card.

And that star card is the tool that we're gonna use to help us remember when we hear the 'ar' sound, we are going to write AR.

Or if we're reading and we see the AR right next to one another, we're going to say 'ar'.

So AR says 'ar'.

Say that with me, AR says 'ar'.

Very nice, okay.

We're gonna do some reading today using the blending strategy that we just did with Mrs. Nix.

I have some words here, and we're going to put the sounds together to make words.

And let's see if our friend Tina is ready to help us.

Hey, Tina.

- Good morning, Mrs. Hammack - Good morning.

I am so excited to see you.

- Oh, I'm so excited to be here.

- So, how's it going practicing the 'ar' sound?

How you been doing?

- Ooh!

You know what?

I think I'm starting to hear it.

- That is fantastic.

Well are you ready to help me to blend some words this morning?

- Ooh!

Let's do it.

- Okay.

So here we have our first word.

We see the 'ar' sound is in the middle.

It starts with the 'h' sound and the 'm' at the end.

So let try it.

Let's start with that 'h' sound.

What does that say?

- (both) H-ar-m. H-arm.

Harm.

- Harm.

- Ooh, I wouldn't want to harm any animals.

- Oh, I love that.

Right, harm means to do something that would hurt something or someone, right?

Harm, good.

All right, are you ready for the next one?

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay, oh, look at this one.

The 'ar' sound is gonna come at the end of the word and we have a blend at the beginning.

So let's try it.

The 's' and the 'c' are gonna be really close together.

So let's try it.

- (both) S-c-ar.

Sc-ar.

Scar.

- Scar.

Ooh yeah, and you know what?

I have a scar on my knee from when I fell off my bike.

- Mm, I bet a lot of our super readers have a scar on their knee from falling off their bike.

Hey, I wanted to show you, did you happen to see the little word inside the bigger word?

- Ooh!

There, it's right there.

It says car.

- Very nice.

- Oh my goodness.

- Isn't that fun?

- Yes.

- Alright, I have one more word for us to practice blending.

And this is the beginning steps of reading.

So when we take those sounds and put them together to make words, we are reading.

- Ah!

We are super readers.

- That is right.

And so when we do this, we are reading words.

And so let's read this next word, but let's look at it first.

What are some things you might notice about this word that could be maybe tricky?

- You know what is a little tricky to me, Mrs. Hammack?

- Tell me.

- It's got a, well, it looks like a magic e but it doesn't really make the a say its name, 'cause it's an 'ar' blend.

- You are right.

- Ooh!

- You're right.

So it is a magic e or a silent e or a super e or any of those names that we wanna call it.

It means it doesn't make any sound.

And usually it makes the vowel say its name, but you're right.

When we have an ar-controlled vowel, the ar is the one that tells the vowel sound what to do.

- However, remember that that super e doesn't just have power over the vowel, it also has power over the consonants of g and c and it makes them completely change their sound.

- Ooh!

- So, instead of saying the normal sound that we would have for g, the 'g' sound, when we have a e right next to it, it says the 'g' sound.

- That's right.

- Yup.

So, he is still using his power to change sound.

- Man, that e is one super e. - That is the truth.

All right, so now thinking about that, let's remember when we get to this part of the word, the g is going to say it's softer sound, the 'g' and the e is still gonna be silent.

It's not gonna say anything.

- Okay.

- All right.

- All right, I think I can do this.

- Okay, here we go.

- A lot of sounds.

Okay.

- (both) Ch-ar-ge.

Char-ge.

- Charge.

Oh!

That's like we're going into battle.

- (both) Charge!

- That's right.

Ch-ar-ge, only three sounds but look at all those letters.

- That's alot letters right there.

- That is, you are right.

- Wow, I can spell a really long word now.

- You sure can.

All right, so remember yesterday we talked about this part of our activity is decoding.

That means we're taking the code of the letters and breaking it so that we can read the words.

- That's right.

We're reading the words.

- That's right, that's decoding.

So now we're gonna practice a little encoding.

And encoding is when we... - (both) Write.

- So I thought maybe we could build a word and then maybe you might like to try to write it for us.

- Okay.

- Okay, good.

Let me put some letters down here and we'll leave that sound there, 'cause that's our sound.

And let's build the word mark.

- Ooh!

- Mark.

Let's sound segment it out so we hear the sounds... - (both) M-ar-k. Mark.

- Okay, three sounds.

- All right.

- Three sounds.

- Three sounds.

What do you think is the first sound you hear?

- I hear an 'm'.

- Yup.

And then our sound, 'ar'.

- 'Ar'.

- AR.

And... Ooh, that's a tricky ending.

- That is a tricky ending, but you know what?

Usually at the end, when we hear a 'k' it's a k. - Yes.

Sometimes it's a ck, but only when it's a short vowel, right?

- That's right.

- And this is not a short vow, is it?

- Mm, nope.

- Nope, so here we have mark, mark.

All right, let's see if you can write that on your board.

- Okay.

- This is one way that we can encode by building it, but the best way to encode is to actually use your pen or pencil.

- Okay, all right.

- Now, let's see.

- Okay, let me see.

- How'd you do?

- Um... - Oh, fantastic.

- Ooh!

- You did it.

- I did.

- Great job.

Writing is also called encoding.

- Encoding - That is fantastic.

All right, let's try another word.

I'll leave that right there for now.

How about the word, spark?

Spark.

Spark.

- Ooh!

I think we're just changing the beginning sound.

- I think you are right.

And we go from 'm' to 'sp' - Mm!

- Ooh!

It's a blend.

- Good listening.

- So so, 'sp'.

- Good listening.

You know, oftentimes readers will try to write spark like this and then they'll go back and read it, 'sark'.

- Oh, nope.

That's missing something, isn't it?

- Ooh!

- And then we have to add that sp-ark, spark.

- Alright, I'm gonna try and write it all down right here.

- Okay, are you writing it?

- I am.

- Okay, let's see.

- I squeezed my little p right in there, 'cause I almost forgot it when you were talking about it right now.

- Oh, great job.

You did a fantastic job with spark.

Wow.

- You are getting so good at this.

Well, I think that's all we have time for.

I'm gonna read a sentence with our super readers.

- All right.

- And I'll talk to you later.

- All right, have a great day.

- Thanks for your help.

Bye-bye.

All right, super readers.

Here is our sentence for today.

Mark put large jars in his cart.

Look, we have mark and large, jars and cart.

How'd you do?

Were you able to read that?

Great.

You might even try encoding on a piece of paper.

See if you can remember that sentence, Mark put large jars in his cart.

See if you can write that down.

That's a great way to practice.

Let's begin the practice.

Let's practice some high frequency words with Mrs. Nix.

- Awesome, thank you so much, Mrs. Hammack.

And yes, we're gonna practice our high frequency words today and I have a great one for today.

So let's go through.

We've got six of them this week.

Let's read them together.

Round, put four large only and none.

Now, today's word happens to be large.

And I love what Mrs. Hammack just went over because a lot of times our words are high frequency words we can't decode, but today's we can, because we talked about all of these different rules and spelling rules in here, because remember that g, that g that's in here, L-A-R-G-E. That g is gonna say the soft sound, just like she did and change, 'g'.

It's gonna say that 'g' sound and we can sound it out.

L-ar-ge, large.

L-A-R-G-E. You guys are super readers.

I'm loving it.

Okay, so let's use it in a sentence.

I saw a large dog in the park.

Do you see it?

Great job.

All right.

Now, today is whack a word Wednesday.

So we've got chart up here with all of our letters.

And this is another great way, super fun to practice identifying our letters and using them in the correct order to spell the word large.

So this one's just made with a pool noodle and a pencil, and I've got all my letters written up here and I'm gonna spell large.

So let's find it.

Here we go.

What comes first?

L A, where's R, R G, am I done?

No, I gotta get the E, right there.

So you can practice that with a friend.

You can do it on your own.

It's a great strategy to use to practice those high frequency words.

All right, I'm gonna turn it over to our story today.

It's one of my favorites.

It's about a frog and a toad.

And today what I want you to do is to practice thinking about point of view.

Think about how the frog feels, how the toad feels.

All right, we'll see you back here in just a few minutes.

And Mrs. Hammack's gonna talk to you about Frog and Toad.

- How can we classify and categorize things?

Read about what happens when Toad loses his button.

A Lost Button from Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel.

Toad and Frog went for a long walk.

They walked across a large meadow.

They walked in the woods.

They walked along the river.

At last they went back home to Toad's house.

"Oh, drat," said Toad.

"Not only do my feet hurt, but I had lost one of the buttons on my jacket."

"Don't worry," said Frog.

"We will go back to all the places where we walked.

We will soon find your button."

They walked back to the large meadow.

They began to look for the button in the tall grass.

"Here is your button!"

cried Frog.

"That is not my button," said Toad.

"That button is black.

My button was white."

Toad put the black button in his pocket.

A sparrow flew down.

"Excuse me," said the Sparrow.

"Did you lose a button?"

I found one."

"That is not my button," said Toad.

"That button has two holes.

My button had four holes."

Toad put the button with the two holes in his pocket.

They went back to the woods and looked on the dark paths.

"Here is your button," said Frog.

"That is not my button," cried Toad.

"That button is small.

My button was big."

Toad put the small button in his pocket.

A raccoon came out from behind a tree.

"I heard that you were looking for a button," he said.

"Here is one that I just found."

"That is not my button!"

wailed Toad.

"That button is square.

My button was round."

Toad put the square button in his pocket.

Frog and Toad went back to the river.

They looked for the button in the mud.

"Here is your button," said Frog.

"That is not my button!"

shouted Toad.

"That button is thin.

My button was thick."

Toad put the thin button in his pocket.

He was very angry.

He jumped up and down and screamed.

"The whole world is covered with buttons, and not one of them is mine."

Toad ran home and slammed the door.

There, on the floor, he saw his white, four-holed, big round, thick button.

"Oh," said Toad.

"It was here all the time.

What a lot of trouble I have made for Frog."

Toad took all of the buttons out of his pocket.

He took his sewing box down from the shelf.

Toad sewed the buttons all over his jacket.

The next day to gave his jacket to Frog.

Frog thought it was beautiful.

He put it on and jumped for joy.

None of the buttons fell off.

Toad had sewed them on very well.

I love Frog and Toad stories, don't you?

They always have a lot of adventures together because they're such good friends.

So, were you thinking about what they were feeling and thinking as they were each part of the story went along?

So that's called point of view.

And so when we are talking about the point of view, we are talking about somebody's way of seeing something.

And so, or how they feel about it and what they think about it.

And so in our story today, I made another chart for us about the Lost Button.

And we're gonna have, we're gonna talk about a character.

There's a clue from the text and then a point of view.

So you can see, it looks a little different than yesterday because on some places I have the point of view covered up so that we can figure that out.

And then here, I thought, hmm.

I wonder if we know the point of view, if we can figure out which clue lets us know that.

'Cause it's good to think about that too.

So, let's see.

The first one I have here is the character of Frog.

All right, so let's think about Frog and here's the clue that I want you to be thinking about.

Think about what this is telling us about what Frog thinks or feels.

Frog says not to worry.

All right, so Toad loses his button and Frog tells him not to worry.

What do you think Frog's point of view is?

What does he think or feel when he's saying this?

Because however he thinks or feels is the reason he was able to say, don't worry.

So what do you think?

Let's see.

It says, Frog is calm and patient.

That's true, isn't it, in the story?

Frog was very calm and he was trying very hard to have his friend not be so worried.

All right, so let's go the other direction now.

And here we have Toad.

And in the story, Toad's the one who lost his button.

And his point of view is, Toad is upset and he's mad.

He's thinking and feeling all these angry feelings because he lost his button.

But can you think of a clue from the story that lets us know that he's mad?

We could look at the pictures, but with frogs and toads, sometimes it's hard to tell.

So what are some of the words that you heard that tell us that he's upset or mad?

Can you think of any?

Let's see.

Did you think of this?

Toad shouts.

That is definitely something someone does if they're mad or angry, right, or frustrated.

And so that is our clue that lets us know he was upset and mad.

How about this one?

Frog.

Frog jumped for joy.

What does that tell us?

Let's look.

It tells us he was happy to get the jacket.

Oh, great job.

You're getting the hang of this.

So, let's talk about some writing about Frog and Toad.

I was wondering what you thought.

Do you think Frog or Toad was a better friend?

That's an opinion, right?

There's not a right or a wrong answer.

It's just what you think, your point of view, what your point of view is.

So Tina, did you listen to that great story?

- I did, Mrs. Hammack.

- So what do you think?

Is Frog or Toad a better friend?

And I have some sentence starters here that can help us.

- Well, I don't know, they were both really good friends, but I definitely think that Frog was more kind.

So I think Frog was a better friend because he was trying to help Toad find his button.

- That is an excellent idea.

And you could fill in this with your words about why you think that.

- Mm-hmm.

- And we could also say, I think Toad was a better friend because... - Well... - What happened at the end?

- At the end he ended up finding his buttons and then I think he felt really sorry.

And then he made his jacket.

- You're right.

- For Frog.

- You're right.

And so that was really a nice thing to do.

Hey, I'm so glad you were thinking about writing with us.

Now, let's go see what book our friends have for us that we might wanna know more about.

- Well, hello boys and girls.

My name is Rhonda and I'm from Georgia.

I'm out here visiting my cousin, Ricky.

And I wanna tell you about a book that I think is so funny.

(donkey braying sound) The book is called "The Book About Nothing".

(laughing) Can you believe that?

"The Book About Nothing."

If you open it up here, I love all these words.

Null, diddly squat, nothing, zip, zilch.

Well, anyways, this book is just really real funny.

And I highly recommend you go to your library and check it out.

With nothing, anything is possible.

Did you know you can trip over nothing?

(chuckles and brays) You might accidentally boo in someone's face then when they ask, "what's that?"

You can say, "nothing."

(chuckles and brays) So, this book is going to give you so many laughs.

Check it out.

Thank you for watching Valley PBS Reading Explorers.

Bye now.

- Oh, that was a great story.

I can't wait to check that one out.

- I know, that looks good.

I love it.

- Absolutely.

- Hey, Scooter has a joke for you.

- Of course he does.

- I know, he's been working on it really, really hard.

- Okay, tell me what it is.

- All right, so what is a frog's favorite kind of music?

- I'm not sure.

- Hip hop.

- Oh, no.

(both laughing) - That's awesome.

We'll see you back here tomorrow on Valley PBS.

Take care.

- Bye.

(cheerful outro music)