(cheerful music) - Good morning!

- Good morning!

- Good morning, super readers.

Thank you for joining us in our Valley PBS classroom.

I'm Mrs. Nix.

- I'm Mrs. Hammock.

- And I'm Mrs. Vang.

- This is a place for us to learn, practice, and - [All] Grow our brains!

- To become even stronger readers, writers, and thinkers.

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

- Called?

- [All] Daily phonemic awareness.

- All right, today's daily phonemic awareness is simply this, I'm gonna give you three words, but one of them doesn't belong.

Can you figure out which one does not belong, and be able to tell me why it doesn't belong?

- I bet they can.

- I'm gonna try and trick you.

Here we go.

- I don't doubt it.

- How about these three?

Dawn, dawn, hole and pause.

- Oh.

- Dawn, hole.

- Dawn.

- Pause.

- Oo, I think I got it.

- Think you got it?

- I think I got it.

- Okay.

- 'Cause Dawn, I heard that aw, and then, pause says aw, but hole says oh.

It was tricky 'cause they do sound very similar.

- That's what I heard too.

- Excellent.

- That was tricky.

- It is a little tricky.

Okay, so listen very carefully.

Turn on those listening ears.

How about these three?

Wait, saw, game.

Wait, saw, game.

- Oh, I got this one.

Okay, wait and game both have the a sound.

So it has to be saw, and I noticed because my chin went down saw, so that was like, oh wait, it didn't do that with the others.

So that's the one.

- Excellent job.

How'd you do?

Yeah, okay.

Let's try it one more time.

How about these three?

Mouth, yawn, couch.

Mouth, yawn, couch.

- Did you get it?

- I think I got it.

- All right.

- Okay.

- What is it?

- So mouth says ow.

Couch says ow, but yawn says ah.

- And again, ah.

- Yep.

- I like.

- My chin dropped.

- Mm-hmm, excellent.

So you guys are doing an amazing job, and I know that our amazing readers at home are too.

So make sure you're practicing those sounds.

And I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to kind of warm up our brains and get our bodies wiggling.

- We definitely need to warm up, and I was thinking let's build a fire.

- Okay, let's do it!

Sounds good to me.

(cheerful music) - Warming up my hands.

- Act like you're in front of the fire.

♪ Let's build a fire (singing) ♪ ♪ Let's build a fire and invite all our friends ♪ ♪ You bring the hot dogs I'll bring the buns ♪ ♪ Let's build a fire and we'll have a lot of fun ♪ (cheerful music) ♪ Let's build a fire (singing) ♪ ♪ Let's build a fire and invite all our friends ♪ ♪ You bring the hot dogs I'll bring the buns ♪ ♪ Let's build a fire and we'll have a lot of fun ♪ (cheerful music) - Ta da!

How fun!

- Right, are you feeling warm now?

- Love it, yes.

- I am.

- Nothing like a good fire to warm up your brain.

- Absolutely, that's great.

- That's right.

- So today we're going to be, I'm gonna introduce our super readers to our phonics spelling pattern for this week.

It is a tricky one.

- All right.

- So I'll see you guys later?

- Okay, we'll see you in a bit.

- Okay, bye.

- All right, super readers.

Let's come over here to our word work board where I'm gonna introduce you to the straw card.

So here I have a picture of juice, but do you see the arrow pointing to the straw?

Because I want you to hear that ending sound straw.

Right, it sounds like the short o, doesn't it?

It's not, not this time.

This time we have a whole, we have five different ways.

There's actually a few more than five, but we're just gonna look at five ways to spell that aw sound that we hear in straw.

So let's invite our friends to come and join us so that I can introduce those spelling patterns to them too.

And they can help us as we blend some words using those spelling patterns.

You ready to call 'em?

All right, hey guys, are you ready to read?

- Oh yes!

- Good morning, I'm ready!

- Good morning, Ricky!

Wow, you look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to go.

- Mm-hmm!

- All right, so I was just telling our super readers this week, we are learning the straw card.

Can you say straw?

- [Puppets] Straw!

- Do you hear the aw sound in it?

- Oh yeah, and my mouth gets really big.

- That's right, and we can spell that sound five different ways.

So we're going to work on that all week long.

Now I want you to look at our card here and see that we start with the a all by itself can say aw, say that.

- [Puppets] Aw.

- Good, now, let's look at the next way.

A-W says aw.

- Aw.

- Good, A-U saws aw.

- [Puppets] Aw.

- A-U-G-H also says aw.

- All those letters says- - Yes, isn't that crazy?

- It is.

- It's like me saying (brays) (laughs) - It is like that.

And then A-L can also be used to say aw.

- Aw.

- Right, now- - The A-L, that seems really tricky.

- It is now because we have five different ways to spell that sound, I wanna also point out to you that they go in order of frequency.

Now, remember frequency means how often we see them.

So often when we hear the aw sound, it will be a or A-W or A-U, those are the most common aw spellings.

And then we move down to A-U-G-H and A-L because those are less common.

They're not as many words that use that spelling pattern for that sound.

So that will help us as we are building words tomorrow.

Today, though, I wanna just practice blending some words.

You ready to help me?

- Oh yeah, let's do it.

- Mm-hmm.

- Fantastic.

Okay, we're gonna start with the most common spelling for the aw sound, just the a by itself.

And we're gonna look at this word, you ready?

What does w say?

- [All] Wuh.

- Wuh, then, we're gonna say the aw, And now this is a tricky one.

It's just the ck sound.

Remember those silent letters?

- Oh, those little ghost letters?

- That's right, so this is wuh alk.

- [All] Walk.

- Did you do it?

- Oh walk!

- Good job.

All right, now we have the, op, I didn't put 'em in order, but let's go to the A-L sound.

This is the aw sound.

All right, so here we go.

- [All] Buh all.

- Ball!

- [All] Ball.

- Oh yeah, ball, I like to play with the ball.

- Yeah, that's fun, isn't it?

- Mm-hmm.

- All right, here's our second most common way to spell it.

A-W says aw, let's read this one.

- [All] Ss aw.

Saw.

- Saw.

- Like I saw my friend.

- Yes, it could be you saw your friend with your eyes, but it also could be a saw, like a tool.

- A saw like you're cutting wood.

- Right, they are spelled the same, but they mean different things, don't they?

- Oh!

- It's a multiple meaning word, isn't it?

- You know what?

It does have multiple meanings, but we actually call those homographs.

Oh, did I steal it from you, I'm sorry.

- You did, you did.

- Homographs mean they are written the same way, and they sound the same, but they have different meanings.

So multiple meaning word, it is, for sure, but we have an even different name that we use for that.

All right, let's do A-U says aw.

- Okay.

- Ready, here we go.

- [All] Huh awl.

Haul.

- Good job.

- Oo, but that's not like the hall like I walked in the hallway.

- You're right.

- That's a different kind of haul.

- Do you know which kind of haul this is?

- Um, is it like when you're transporting things in a truck and you're hauling them around?

- That's exactly right.

You could even say I had to haul my backpack all the way home.

- Oh yeah.

- So it tends to be something about carrying things or heavy things or taking things somewhere from one place to another.

Let's try this one.

A-U-G-H saw aw.

Let's do this word.

- [All] Ck aught.

Caught.

- Wow, that one has a lot of letters, but there's only three sounds.

- It does, I'm so glad you said that because I was going to ask you how many sounds.

Ck aught.

Only three sounds, and look at all of these letters.

- That's a lot!

- It is.

So you've done a fabulous job helping our super readers blend this complicated spelling pattern, but I'm gonna let you guys go so I can read this sentence, and I'll see you later, okay?

- Okay.

- Okay, bye.

- Thanks for your help!

All right, super readers, here is our sentence for our week's phonics spelling pattern focus.

Here we go.

Paul saw a hawk in the big tree.

Did you see Paul and saw and hawk?

They all have that spelling pattern, nicely done.

All right, we're gonna continue working on that 'cause it is tricky, but right now, we're gonna go over and visit with Mrs. Nix and see what high frequency words she has planned for us this week.

- Awesome, thank you so much, Mrs. Hammock, and yes, we have six different high frequency words this week.

So let's go through and read them together.

So we have friend, love, picture, father, mother, and brother.

So today, let's focus in on this one right here.

So this word is friend.

Let's spell it together.

F-R-I-E-N-D, friend.

There's a lot of letters in there.

So we need to make sure that we can remember all of them.

So it's helpful to practice seeing them in a sentence, which we're gonna do and to practice writing them.

So let's use it in our sentence.

My mm, my friend my friend Liz goes to my school.

Do you see it?

Great job.

Okay, so over here, I have just, we've talked about these before different ways to practice those high frequency words.

Today, we're gonna go through, and I've got just some little dobbers.

They came from the Dollar Store.

and I'm going to go through, I've traced it in yellow, which hopefully you can't see it too much on the television, but this is a great place to start.

Sometimes having an adult write it in yellow first so that we can go through and practice it, that's a great strategy, but maybe you wanna do this just on a piece of paper without tracing it first.

That's okay too.

But I'm gonna go through, and I'm gonna say F. So the word is friend, R I E N and D. And I can practice all of my letters there.

So friend and my E kind of looks a little silly, doesn't it, from afar?

There you go, is that a little bit better?

So then friend, and I can go through, and I can practice all of my words that way.

So today, focus on the word friend.

All right, so I'm gonna kick it over to a story, and today, as you're listening, I want you to be thinking about what are some of the things that are the most important so that we can practice our summary.

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

- [Narrator] "Anansi's Sons", a tale from Africa.

What are your special skills?

How can you help people with them?

Long ago before the moon rose high in the sky at night, Anansi, the spider, had six sons.

The first son who could see problems from far away.

So he was called See Trouble.

The second son was able to build roads by cutting through thick forests.

So he was called Road Builder.

The third son could drink up mighty rivers.

So he was called River Drinker.

The fourth son could quickly catch animals.

So he was called the Game Catcher.

The fifth son could throw a stone a long distance to hit a mark.

So he was called Stone Thrower.

And the sixth son was big and round.

So he was called Cushion.

One day, Anansi went away on a long trip.

When he didn't return a few weeks later, his sons became concerned.

His son called See Trouble swiftly climbed to the top of a very tall tree and looked all around for his father.

Suddenly, he spotted Anansi and called out to his brothers, I see where our father is!

He has fallen into a river, and he is being swallowed by a huge green fish!

Then the son called Road Builder swung into action.

Follow me, he cried.

He quickly built a road that led to the river.

The other five brothers followed after him.

Next, it was time for the son called River Drinker to act.

Stand back, he shouted.

Then he drank huge gulps of water until the river was dry.

The son called Game Catcher ran to the green fish on the river bottom.

He cut open the fish, and Anansi jumped out.

Just then, a hungry hawk flew down from the sky.

It grabbed Anansi in its sharp claws and flew up towards the clouds.

The son called Stone thrower acted quickly.

He picked up a stone and threw it at the Hawk.

Crack!

The stone hit the hawk, and it dropped Anansi down down down down he fell.

I will save him, the son called Cushion called.

So cushion stretched out on the ground.

Flop, Anansi landed on soft Cushion, and he was not hurt.

That night, Anansi said to his sons, you have been very brave and I respect each one of you.

Thank you, my sons.

The following night, Anansi walking in the forest when he saw a beautiful, shining sphere.

I will take this shiny ball home and give it to one of my sons, he thought.

It will be a fine reward for the son who did the most to save my life.

Anansi took the ball and headed home, but then he realized what a difficult decision he had to make since each of his sons deserved a reward.

He decided to ask the sky god Nyame for his advice.

Anansi explained to Nyame what each son had done to save his life.

The sky god asked to meet with Anansi's sons.

So Anansi brought Nyame to his home and gathered his sons.

I will give this shiny sphere to the son who did the most to save my life.

Anansi said, Nyame will make the decision.

Then Nyame spoke.

I believe See Trouble should get this shiny sphere since he was the one who first discovered that his father was in trouble.

He then presented it to See Trouble.

However, See Trouble replied, I cannot accept this shiny sphere because I did not help the most.

So Nyame next presented the shiny sphere to Road Builder who gave the same answer.

As each son in turn replied in the same way, Nyame smiled.

Just as he had guessed, they all helped equally.

I will place the shiny sphere in the sky where I hope it will inspire all creatures on earth to work together, he said.

So Nyame took the beautiful sphere up into the sky and to this day, that is where the moon has remained.

- Did you guys enjoy that story?

Oh, have you heard it before?

Because I've heard this story.

It wasn't called "Anansi's Son", it was just called "Anansi".

And it was a different type of story.

And guess what, it was about a spider.

So I wonder these stories are all related.

Isn't that interesting?

Well, today, I wanted to work on the skill of just responding to the reading.

So that means as you were listening to the story, I wanted to see if you were really comprehending the story.

That just means are you understanding what's happening in the story.

So I have a couple questions for us, and let's see if you can help me answer these questions.

Now, I did put the text next to the picture, and if we need to, we'll go back and re-read, and find the answers in the text.

That's another way that we can make sure that we are comprehending our story.

So you guys ready?

So the first picture, my question is, what are the names of Anansi's six sons?

What can each son do?

That's a long sentence, isn't it?

'Cause there are six of them, right?

Did you guys remember all six of them?

Do you remember what they can do?

Well, let's go and look.

So right here, it says the first son, right here, you see that?

The first son can see problems far, far away.

So they called him, that's right, See Trouble.

That was his name.

And then the second son, so that second means two, right?

That was the second so that's two so far was able to build roads by cutting through thick forest.

So guess what they called him, that's right.

He was called Road Builder, that was his name.

The third son could drink up mighty rivers.

And so he was called River Drinker, good job.

Are you guys remembering, good.

The fourth son could quickly catch animals.

That's what he could do so they called him Game Catcher.

Awesome, let's keep going.

That was four.

The fifth son could throw a stone long distance to hit a mark.

So he was called, you're right, Stone Thrower, right?

And the sixth son was big and round.

So he was called Cushion, six sons.

So we talked about their names and what each of them can do.

Did you guys remember that?

Good, awesome.

Let's quickly look at the second picture.

Now, it says what do River Drinker and Game Catcher do?

So in the story we remembered Anansi was missing.

So the son had to go and look for him, right?

So what did River Drinker do?

Here's his name, River drinker.

He drank a huge gulps of water until the water, until the river was dry.

Now, what did Game Catcher do?

So here's Game Catcher.

I'm gonna look right here, what did he do?

Oh, he cut open the fish, and Anansi jumped out.

So we now know that the fish had him.

Did you guys get that?

Awesome, now again, what did Anansi find in the forest?

Do you guys remember?

What did he find?

He was walking in the forest when he saw a beautiful shining sphere.

That's right.

And then last, why does Nyame decided to take the shiny sphere up to the sky?

Remember we couldn't, they couldn't decide who to give that shiny sphere to, and so, why did she take it up?

Because she said it's where I hope it will inspire all creatures on earth to work together.

'Cause remember none of the son wanted it 'cause they said they didn't do enough, and so that's what they had decided.

Did you guys enjoy that story?

Oh good, I'm so glad.

Now, let's go and work on our writing, and let's see what we are writing about today.

Are you guys ready?

Okay.

Today, our writing, we're gonna be focusing on the prompt.

How do you think children can help their parents?

Just like in the story, Anansi's six sons was helping him.

So I want you guys to think, how can you help your parents?

And so I started with my topic sentence.

Remember, we always have to start with our topic sentence so we can tell the reader what we're writing about.

So, my topic sentence says children can help their parents in many ways.

Is that a good topic sentence?

Awesome, but you know what?

Let's have our friends come and help us.

You ready?

Tina!

Rita!

(puppets shouting) Here they are.

Hi, friends.

Did you guys enjoy that story?

Wasn't it a great story.

- That was so good.

- Okay.

So our prompt is how do you think children can help their parents, and I already put the topic sentence.

Children can help their parents in many ways.

Can you guys gimme some details?

How can children help their parents?

Hmm, what's some details we can write?

(puppets whispering) Oh, I like that they're talking to each other.

- Okay, I say one way that they can help is by keeping their things picked up.

I know my mom likes it when I keep all my stuff picked up 'cause it helps her.

- I like that.

That is a great sentence, and I liked how you started with one way they can help is by keeping their things picked up.

Oo, I like that.

That's a great detail.

Okay, Tina.

- A second way is by washing dishes after meals.

- Oo, that's another great detail of how children can help their parents.

Another, a second way is by washing the dishes after meals.

Great job, now, don't forget.

We still, you can add more details, but don't forget.

After the details, you have to add a concluding sentence to let the reader know that they're done.

So I wanna see what you can add and how you can close our story.

Now, while you guys do that, I have a friend who wants to share a book with you guys.

So let's see what my friend wants to share with you guys today.

- Hi, everybody.

My name's Daniel Guerrero, and I work for the IT department at Fresno Unified School District.

And I'm here today to tell you about one of my favorite books called "Unstinky" by Andy Rash.

And in this story, we see Bud the stink bug who is on his journey to find his stink because he can't seem to find it, and he's entering different competitions to against different stink bugs just like these.

If you'd like to know more about Bud's stink journey and finding his happiness, you can check this book out at your local library.

Thank you for watching Valley PBS Kids, bye.

- Daniel, thank you so much for sharing.

That was excellent.

- I don't know, another book I don't know.

- I don't know it either.

I'm excited, we have to go check it out I think.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Hey hey, I have a joke for you guys!

- I was hoping you would say that.

- Okay, are you ready?

- Okay, I'm ready.

- Why did the tomato blush?

- Hmm.

- Do tomatoes blush, I don't know.

I don't know, why?

- Because he saw the salad dressing.

(laughs) - Oh my golly, getting, oh, you're so silly, Ricky.

- All right, well, hey, thanks for watching us today on Valley PBS.

We can't wait to see you back here tomorrow.

Have a great one, we'll see you.

- That's right, bye.

- Bye.

(cheerful music)