(gentle music) - [All] Good morning.

- Super readers.

Thank you for joining us in our Valley PBS Classroom.

I'm Mrs. Nix - I'm Mrs. Hammack.

- I'm Mrs. Vang.

- This is a place for us to learn, grow, or practice and 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, super readers.

Today, our daily phonemic awareness is going to be categorization.

I'm gonna give you three words and you're gonna have to really turn on those listening ears because I want you to find the word that doesn't match the other two.

Two of them are gonna have the same sound.

It could be the beginning, could be the end, could be the middle.

- Okay.

- You have to listen.

All right.

Are you ready?

Okay, how about these three?

Sick, wall, knit.

Sick, wall, knit.

- Oh, I got that one.

- Okay.

- Because sick says ih, knit says ih, they both have the ih sound, that's the middle sound, but walls says ah.

- Nicely done.

- That's what I did.

That's what I got too.

- Perfect.

Okay.

Let's try another one.

Here we go.

Now, ripe, and sign.

Now, ripe, sign.

- Okay, I got this one.

Because ripe and sign both say ay, but now says ow.

- Nicely done.

Okay, I'm really gonna trick you on this one.

So you really need to listen.

Here we go.

- Turn it up.

- Rap, rough, sing.

Rap, rough, sing.

You heard it right?

Can they figure it out?

- Oh Mrs. Nix, you are tricking us.

- Definitely.

- Cause my brain went straight to the middle sound.

- Yes, that's what I did too.

- It wasn't in the middle sound.

- No, it was not.

- Because rap says wr, rough says wr but sing says s. It was the beginning sound.

- Absolutely.

- That was tricky.

- It is tricky.

It doesn't have to be vowel or in the middle.

All right.

I'm gonna work on those and see if I can come up with some more.

How about let's do some dancing to get us kind of loose?

- I agreed.

- And you know, what else has the wr sound?

- Oh, what?

- No, tell me.

- Some roses.

- Oh.

- Those are so pretty.

- For you.

- Nice, thank you.

- Thank you.

- Cause our song today is "A Rose".

- A Rose.

- A Rose.

- How lovely.

- All right, okay.

- Are you guys ready?

You can pretend.

You can have, you can pretend to be holding a rose.

(slow music) - It's so pretty.

♪ A rose is nice ♪ ♪ A rose is sweet ♪ ♪ It's the loveliest flower that you will meet ♪ ♪ But here is a warning and a word to the rose ♪ ♪ Be careful with the little thorns ♪ ♪ A rose can make a beautiful bouquet ♪ ♪ A rose can make a pretty one thing ♪ ♪ Now, I don't want to grumble ♪ ♪ And I don't wanna frown ♪ ♪ But a rose can make you, say ouch ♪ (all laughing) - That was great.

- So fun.

- Hey, will you take mine and put some, put it in some water?

- I absolutely will.

- Because today we are going to learn about... ghost letters.

- Oh.

- That's fun.

Kind of spooky.

- Gonna be fun though.

- Oh, not scary.

- I think it's fun.

- Just fun.

- Just fun?

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- All right, are you ready?

All right, we're gonna go do it.

- See you guys later.

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

- That's right.

Today, e are learning about ghost letters.

They're not really ghosts.

They actually are silent letters, but I like to play a little game with them and just remind myself that we don't hear them at all.

So it's like, we're gonna pretend like they are a ghost and we can't see them.

Now, of course we can see them, but we're gonna train our brain to look at only one of the letters.

So here we go.

Let me, let me show you what I mean cause I know that sounds confusing.

Today, we're going to learn about the nest card but we're not gonna learn the N or the N-sound or spelling pattern that's spelled with just the N. Today, we're gonna learn about the other ways to spell the N sound.

We have "kn" and you can see by the little line, those are gonna be at the beginning of words.

We also have "gn" they both say the N sound.

"kn" says N and "gn" says N. Now this is where the ghost part comes in because we can't see ghosts right?

They're invisible, for pretend, but we're gonna pretend like that "k" is a ghost and we don't see it, but we do see the "n".

So when we see a "kn" right next to each other, we're gonna say n, just like we do with the nest card.

We're going to say N when we see "gn", because the "g" is like a ghost.

We're gonna pretend like we don't see it, and we're only gonna say the sound of the N. Now, we're also going to learn about the rose card.

Right?

I wonder if that's why we had roses today.

Hmm.

The rose card can be spelled with an "r" like we've learned a long time ago but it can also be spelled with a "wr" and that is tricky.

So the "w" is going to be our ghost letter because we don't say that sound.

We only say the "r", R. And so, we're gonna practice today.

I put up some little ghosts here to help us remember and you can see that we outlined the ghost part of those combinations.

So when you see that outlined letter that's a signal to you.

That's right.

It's a ghost letter.

I'm gonna pretend I don't see it, and I'm only gonna say the other sound.

So are you ready to get started with this?

It's a little tricky, I know, but we have all week long to practice.

Don't you think we should invite some friends to help us practice though?

I do.

Hey guys, are you ready to practice some ghost letters?

- Ooohh, it sounds.

It sounds kind of fun.

- I'm so excited.

I love ghost letters.

- Oh, excellent.

I'm glad you knew they weren't really ghosts, and I was just sounding kind of spooky for fun.

- Oh yes.

- Yeah, but that helps my brain remembers.

I love that.

- Good, I'm glad.

All right.

So today or this week, we're gonna learn three of the ghost letters.

Now there are other ghost letters also besides these three but we're gonna save those for another time because that would be a lot.

We're gonna focus on just three this week.

So we're going to focus on the "wr" and "wr" says R, and see how this is outlined and I'm gonna put my little ghost over it.

So when you see a "wr" next to each other, you're gonna say the "r" sound, R. Can you try that?

"wr" says R. - "wr" says R. - Fantastic.

Now, here is our word for today that we're gonna blend with the "wr" so when we look at it we wanna remember.

Now in our books, it's not gonna be outlined like this but since we're just learning, we're getting the hang of it, I wanna give you an extra scaffold or a help to help you.

So I'm gonna put my ghost over the "w" and now let's blend this word.

Are you ready to try it?

Okay, here we go.

- [All] R-e-ck.

- [All] Wreck.

- [All] Wreck.

- Have you heard that word before?

- Mm, like a car wreck?

- Exactly, a car wreck, or I hope you don't wreck your book by writing in it.

- Ooh, that was bad.

- Right.

So did you see how that worked with the ghost letter?

Okay.

So we're gonna take a look at the two spelling patterns for the nest card.

We have "gn".

"gn" says N. Try that.

- "gn" says N. - Fantastic.

That ghost we can see it with our eyes but we're gonna pretend like we don't, because it's only the "n" that makes the sound.

Now let's try this word together.

We're gonna blend it.

Let me put my little ghost up there.

Okay, are you ready?

Okay, here we go.

- [All] Gn-a-t. - [All] Gnat.

- How'd you do it?

- Gnat.

- Gnat.

- Those are those little, the little pesky bugs.

- Yes, they're kind like- - I don't like them a lot.

- I bet you don't.

I bet they sometimes try to nibble on your ears.

Don't they?

- You don't like a gnat.

- Of course not.

All right.

Let's take a look at this spelling pattern.

It also belongs to the nest card.

It's "kn" and it says N. Try it.

"kn" says N. - Fantastic, good job.

All right.

Now let's look at our word and let's practice blending.

So when you see that "kn", let's put our ghost up there.

Remember, we're just gonna say the "n" sound.

Here we go.

Ready, go.

- [All] N-ee.

- [All] Knee.

- Oh, like your knee on your leg.

- Yes exactly.

- We wouldn't wanna say kuh-n-ee.

- Kuh-n-ee, would be- - Kuh-n-ee, that's really funny.

- That doesn't make any sense.

- It doesn't make sense.

- It sounds funny.

- Gina, you're so funny.

- She is very funny.

So do you think that you'll be able to help us this week as we learn these ghost letter patterns?

- Oh yeah.

- I love, I got this Ms. Hammack.

- I bet you do.

I'm so thankful that you came to help me today.

I'm gonna let you guys get going, and I'm gonna read this sentence with our super readers and I'll see you guys later.

Okay?

- Okay.

- All right, bye.

All right super readers, are you ready to put into practice a little bit of what we've practiced today?

We're gonna read this sentence together.

I knew a mouse gnawed on the cheese.

Great job.

Good reading.

I know that ghost letters can be very tricky for super readers, but remember you're super readers and you can do hard things.

We're gonna practice all week long.

So if it was tricky for you, no worries.

We'll just keep practicing.

Now, you know what else we need to practice?

That's right.

High frequency words.

Let's go see Mrs. Nix and see what she's got going on for us this week.

- Hey, super readers.

This week, I have six new words for us to practice.

Let's go through and read them.

Remember, these are words that we're gonna see often in our reading.

We're gonna use them in our writing.

So it's important that we're able to read them just as fluently as we read our names.

So let's get some practice in.

All right.

Our first one is question, children, been, there, year, and month.

Okay.

Today we're gonna practice this word right here.

The word is question.

Woo, let's look at it.

Q-U-E-S-T-I-O-N.

Question.

Good job.

Now, what does it look like in our sentence?

Well, let's put it in.

Raise your hand if you want to ask a?

What could we do?

Question.

Right here.

Ask a question.

Great.

So today, as you're reading, it'd be awesome for you to go through and look to see if you can find some of those awesome words in your stories.

Now, how else can you practice?

It's a great way to practice your words doing rainbow words, and one of the things that we have are right here is going through and practicing just like a rainbow.

So if I had the word question, I could write it Q-U-E-S-T-I-O-N, and I did it in red.

What comes next?

That's right, orange.

So I can go through and I can write it again.

Q-U-E-S-T-I-O-N, and I can make a rainbow.

That's a wonderful way to practice my high frequency words.

All right.

So I'm gonna kick it over to a story about- It's a tall tale about Paul Bunyan, and we'll be back with Mrs. Vang.

She's got some questions for you.

See you in a bit.

- Paul Bunyan and the Popcorn Blizzard, an American tall tale.

What would you do if it snowed popcorn?

America is a mighty big land with some mighty big heroes but Paul Bunyan was the biggest and strongest hero of all.

Paul was born in Maine When he was just a newborn baby, Paul was so big that it took 10 huge trees to construct his crib.

It took a herd of cows to keep his milk bottle filled and an entire wheat filled to make the 40 bowls of forage he ate for breakfast.

As fast as some babies grow in 10 years, Paul grew in a single month.

His mama had to be very creative when making clothing for her unusual son.

She used wagon wheels for the buttons on his shirt.

When Paul began to walk, he was so tall that he could cover a mile in a single step.

Paul's father taught him how to swing an ax and cut down trees.

They sold logs from the trees to lumber mills to make wood.

When Paul grew older, he decided to head west where there was plenty of forests.

He arrived out west during the winter season that came to be known as the blue snow.

Nobody could have imagined the winter would be so cold.

The air was so frigid that people there shivered and turned blue, just thinking about it.

It was so cold that even the snow turned blue.

One day Paul was walking over a huge blue snow drift and brushing the snow off the tree tops.

He was listening to the wind howl and suddenly he heard another sound.

It was the sound of a baby animal crying.

Paul searched in a snow drip that was as tall as a mountain.

Then, he pulled out the biggest, bluest baby ox he had ever seen.

Paul named him Babe.

From that moment on, Paul and Babe were best friends and they were never apart.

Paul and Babe had fun in the snow while they waited for winter to pass.

As soon as the snow had left the ground, Paul got an ax and began to chop down trees.

With one swing of his ax, 10 trees would fall.

Paul hired a team of hundreds of lumberjacks to help him cut down trees and clear the land, that spring was warm and mild.

Paul's team cleared so much land that farmers planted row after row of corn in the new fields.

When summer came, the sun got hotter and hotter, and the cornstalk grew taller and taller.

The time came in the growing cycle for the cornstalk to form ears of corn.

The kernels of corn on each ear grew bigger and bigger.

Paul and his team got ride on clearing more land for fields.

One day when the sun came up, it was scorching.

The lumberjacks couldn't work.

As Paul walked by, the men rushed to him because his shadow was the only shade for miles.

When they complained about the heat, nobody heard anyone else.

There words melted from the heat before they could reach anyone's ears.

All of a sudden the corn started popping, all across Iowa and half of Kansas.

The big corn kernels burst right off the ears, as loud as fireworks.

No one predicted the heat would cause the kernels to pop the way they did.

Clouds of popped corn flew through the air and gently sanked to the earth like giant snowflakes.

In fact, Paul's lumberjacks thought the popped corn kernels were snowflakes.

"It's a snowstorm," they shouted.

The lumberjacks ran inside to put on their coats, boots, and gloves and ran and back outside again.

Then, they began to make popcorn snowmen.

They made popcorn balls and had popcorn snowball fights.

As for Paul, he just stood and watched his lumberjacks in grand.

He saw that in all the excitement, everyone forgot to think about the heat.

He knew his team would soon be back at work chopping trees, refreshed by the popcorn blizzard.

(acoustic music) - Did you guys enjoy that story?

Now, I've heard of the story of Paul Bunyan before but never Paul Bunyan and the Popcorn Blizzard.

Have you?

Oh, I really enjoy that tale.

But today, I wanna see if you guys can help me retell the story just by me pointing to the pictures.

Can you guys do that?

Oh, I bet you guys can.

You guys have gotten really good, but I think I'm gonna have a friend come and help me retell the story.

Should we have friend come in?

Okay.

Who's here?

Hi Mrs. Vang!

- Hey Gina.

- Well, I was gonna ask Ricky if he could come and retell, but he was out horsing around.

- Oh, Tina.

(Tina laughing) That's really funny.

Oh, that Ricky.

Okay, do you wanna help us retell the story?

- I'd love to retell some of it.

- Okay, so in the beginning- - Well, in the beginning Paul Bunyan was the biggest and strongest hero of them all.

It took 10 to make his crib and he grew faster than any baby could.

As much as a regular person grows in 10 years, he grew in one year.

He was giant, giant.

And then, and then when he was walking, he could cross a whole mile with one step.

It was huge.

- That was, no wonder they call it tall tale.

Huh?

- Okay, and then what happened?

- Well, and then he learned how to- His dad taught him how to how to chop an ax and cut down trees.

And then, he decided he was gonna move west where there were lots of forest and winter came and it was so cold that even the snow turned blue.

And so then he heard, he heard a sound like a baby crying and he went over and he found out that it was a baby blue ox but it was the biggest baby blue ox he'd ever seen.

And so, Paul pulled him out and named him Babe and they were best friends and they were never a part ever, ever, ever.

- That's great.

Okay.

How about the next picture?

- Well, then they go over and then he was able to chop down trees like 10 trees at one time with his ax.

Just one big hit.

And it was, the spring was nice.

And then, it started getting hotter and the corn stocks were growing taller and taller, and then it was scorching hot.

I remember that word scorching.

It was a hard word, but it got super hard and everyone was complaining that it was so hot.

All the lumber jacks, they would hide in his shadow and get away from the sun.

Yeah.

And then, at the end they started talking about it was so hot that the corn started popping like popcorn and everyone thought it was a storm.

They got their jackets on and they were playing and all of the, in the popcorn.

It was crazy.

- That was crazy.

And that's why, this tale is called Paul Bunyan and the Popcorn Blizzard.

That was- What a great story.

Did you enjoy that story?

- Oh, I did.

And you know what, I don't think any of those things really could happen.

- It does and that goes perfect with our writing today.

So our writing prompt today says, write an opinion as to whether you think the events in the story could really happen.

So I agree with you, Gina.

It says- So I started with, "I think the events in the story could not really happen," and I started with my first reason.

And so I said, "One reason is in the story when Paul began to walk one step could cover a mile."

I remember that from the story.

And then I thought, could that really happen?

It couldn't right.

So that was one of my reasons.

Can you think of other reasons that would be a good reason to write about why we think this story could not really happen?

I want you guys to think about that and I want you guys to write it down.

Okay.

I want us now to go and see because I have another friend who's gonna share a book with us.

- Good morning.

I'm Felicia.

I just read this book Geraldine by Elizabeth Lily.

It's about a giraffe with a long neck like me.

She's new at school and has trouble making friends.

But Geraldine, you meets Cassie, a girl that's just like her.

A little different.

We need to find out what happens with these two friends.

You'll like it.

Bye Felicia.

- So silly.

She's so silly.

I love her stories.

- If I stop thinking about the story cause I really wanted to retell, but it's okay because I have a joke for you.

You guys ready?

Knock, knock.

- Who's there?

- Lettuce.

- [Mrs. Hammack & Mrs. Nix] Lettuce who?

- Lettuce in his call.

- Oh no.

- So silly.

So silly, Ricky.

Goodness.

Hey, thanks for hanging out with us today at Valley PBS.

We look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

- That's right.

- Take care and make sure you check out a good book.

We'll see you then.

- Bye.

(upbeat music)