(bright music) - Hey, good morning!

- Good morning, super readers!

Welcome, welcome.

And thank you for joining us in our Valley PBS classroom.

- Yep.

- 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 and thinkers.

- Definitely.

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

- Called... - [Both] Daily phonemic awareness!

- All right, so we're gonna do a little bit of blending today.

Do you remember what that is?

That's where I'm gonna give you some sounds and then we're gonna blend them down our arm today.

- Okay.

- So we'll tap out the sounds and then we're going to make it so that all the sounds touch one another.

And then you're gonna listen, so you gotta turn on those ears.

- That's right.

- You're gonna listen for the word.

You ready to play?

All right, let's do it.

- Okay, I'm ready.

- So, today's sounds are, wait.

Ready?

- Okay.

- [Both] Wait.

Wait.

- Wait!

- Nicely done!

- All right.

- All right, let's do another one.

How about this one?

- Play.

- [Both] Play.

Play.

- Oh, okay!

- Yeah, that was a great one.

- That was a tricky one.

- Okay, now we were blending on our arms.

What if we blend...

I've seen in some classrooms, Mrs. Hammack, some students do their head and shoulders.

- Oh, that's a fun way to do it.

That kind of gets your whole body involved.

- Exactly.

- I like it!

- So let's try this one.

- Okay.

- All right, here we go.

- Snail.

- Hm, oof.

- Hm.

- [Both] Snail.

- One more time.

- Oh, I think I got it.

- [Both] Snail!

- Snail!

- Did you get it?

- Hey, I heard something really interesting.

I heard wait, play, snail.

- Hmm.

- Did you hear that?

- I did do, I did.

I heard some of those same sounds.

Did you hear those same sounds?

- That is perfect for today because later on, we're going to be reviewing the long A sound, a.

- Absolutely.

- It's like you did that on purpose.

- Kind of.

Just a little bit.

You know what else that I have?

I have a little bit of a song - that maybe we could - Of course, you do.

- dance to, are you ready?

- As ready as I can be.

- Awesome.

All right.

So let's make sure that you've got a little spot.

Give yourself some room.

(upbeat music) We're gonna just play the piano.

(upbeat music) - Low.

(upbeat music) (Mrs. Hammack exclaims, laughs) (upbeat music) Woo!

That was tricky.

- It was a little bit tricky, but it was kind of fun to be able to listen.

Loud and soft, and fast and slow.

- I liked it.

- There's so many things with music, right?

- I liked playing the piano.

Did you see how we made it go across the keyboard and back?

- It was super fun.

- That was fun.

It really was like playing the piano.

- You know what time it is now?

- Yes, I do.

It is time for us to review the long A sound.

So I'm gonna head over to the word work board with my super readers, and I'll see you later.

- All right, sounds good.

- Okay.

- See ya.

- All right.

Today we are doing a review of lots of long vowel sounds.

This whole week, we'll be reviewing all of the long vowel sounds and their spelling patterns.

So we're gonna start today with the long A.

Here I have my train card.

Remember, this shows us the train helps us to remember the A sound, as in train.

And then, in the yellow box, these are all of the ways that we can spell that sound in different words.

And we've been learning when to use these different patterns for different words.

Today, we're gonna focus on the two most common.

We have the a by itself, but today we're gonna focus on these two, the A-I and the A-Y.

When we see A-I in a word, I want you to remember to say A.

Remember, they work like a team.

So say it with me.

A-I says A, good.

Then we A-Y.

It also says A.

Let's say it together, A-Y says A.

Good.

Those long vowels are tricky because there's lots of ways when we're writing that we can spell them.

And sometimes, often when we're reading, we see a lot of these different spelling patterns, and we wanna make sure we get it locked into our brain so that we can sound out words and we can sound out words for reading and for writing.

All right, you ready need to put it into practice now?

I hope so.

We're gonna start by blending some words, and then we'll build some, since this is a review.

But I think our friend Tina should come help us, don't you?

Hey, Tina.

Are you awake this morning?

- [Tina] I am Mrs. Hammack.

Good morning.

Good morning.

- Good morning.

Good morning.

Oh, you look very bright-eyed and bushy-shelled.

(both laugh) - [Tina] Yes, I did get it just polished.

- Oh, it is very shiny.

Are you ready to help our super readers?

We're gonna do some blending today and then we'll try to do a little building.

- Awesome.

That sounds great.

- Okay.

All right.

So here is our first word using the A-I spelling pattern to say the A sound.

So we have the S, which says S. Then we have ai.

- Ai.

And then we have the L that says... - [Both] L. - So when we put that together, nice and slow.

- [Both] Sail.

- And a little faster.

- [Both] Sail.

- Sail.

- Very nice.

- [Tina] Well, gosh, Mrs. Hammack, I can think of a couple of different ways we can use the word sail.

Is it like my shoes were on sale?

- Oh, that is a very good question.

That is a different kind of sale.

And we would use the A consonant E pattern for that.

When something is on sale at a store, when you're gonna pay a lower price, that's a different word.

This sail is like the sail on a boat.

- Oh, ooh.

- Or that's when it's a noun, it could be a thing, a sail on a boat.

Or if you're on a boat and you are sailing across the ocean, then it becomes a verb.

So you can use that word in a lot of ways.

- [Tina] Oh, that's great.

Oh, that makes so much more sense.

Oh, thank you, Mrs. Hammack.

- (laughs) You're welcome.

Thanks for helping us think about that as a word that can be spelled two different ways and have two different meanings, but they sound the same.

We're gonna talk a lot about those words.

All right, let's try the next one.

Are you ready?

- I'm ready.

- Okay, we have the H, which is the H sound.

Remember, that's a non, it's an unvoiced sound.

So when we put our hand here and we make that sound, H, it should not wiggle our vocal chords at all.

So hay.

Let's put it together.

- [Both] Hay.

Hay.

- [Tina] Hey, hey, that sounds like hey.

- That is right.

It does.

And you know what?

That kind of hey, like hey, that's spelled differently too.

- Oh!

- I know.

- [Tina] Man, there's so many words.

- I know, and this word hay is actually like what horses or cows might eat.

- [Tina] Oh, like straw.

- Yes, it is like straw.

It's a grass that grows and there's all different types.

So, see?

We're learning so many things besides just reading words.

- [Tina] Absolutely.

This is amazing.

- All right, now let's do some building.

I'll give you a hint.

We're going to use the A-I spelling pattern.

- Okay.

- And let's spell the word mail.

Mail.

I hope I get some mail today.

- ooh, mail.

- [Both] Mail.

- Okay, all right.

- What do you think?

- [Tina] So at the beginning, we're gonna have the letter M, - Yes.

- because M says M. - Very nice.

- And then you gave us a clue and said, we use the A-I for the A sound.

- That's correct.

- 'Cause I hear, mail.

And that's a letter L. - Yes!

Nicely done.

Mail.

Did you notice that we only changed the beginning sound?

- [Tina] Yeah, that makes me think that they rhyme too, right?

- Let's see.

- [Both] Sail, mail.

- [Tina] They both say ail.

- Fantastic.

- Woohoo!

- All right.

Let's try a word over here.

Let's try with an A-Y sound.

Let's write the word may.

Now, may can be used two different ways.

It can be the name of a month, May.

In that case, we'd use an upper case at M. Or I could be asking permission.

May I join you?

So this time let's use a lower case and let's write the word may, or build the word may.

- May.

- What do you think we need?

- [Tina] Well, we're gonna have that same M sound.

- Yep, we sure are.

- So we need the M. And we're gonna use that A-Y.

- Yes.

Fantastic.

- May.

- Now I want you to notice where the A-I is in this word and where the A-Y is in these two words.

- [Tina] Oh.

- So when you hear that A sound, if it's in the middle, it could be, not always, but could be the A-I sound.

If you hear it at the end of the word, more than likely, it's gonna be the A-Y.

That's one of the ways that you can tell which spelling pattern to use.

- [Tina] Oh, that's so smart.

Mrs. Hammack, you always give us such great tips.

- Well, thank you.

That's my job.

- [Tina] I love it.

- All right, I'm gonna read a sentence with our super readers, and then I will talk to you later on.

- Okay, that sounds great.

- Great.

- I'll see you later.

- [Both] Bye.

All right, super readers, I have a sentence for us to put into practice our spelling patterns for the long A.

Read it with me.

Ray waited all day to play.

Nicely done.

I hope you're practicing some books that have this long A spelling pattern so that you can get really, really, really good at it.

Ray, and day, and play.

Do you hear that A-Y at the end?

Pretty tricky, isn't it?

All right, speaking of tricky, because it's a review week, Mrs. Nix is going to help us practice some of the trickier high frequency words that we've been working on for the last five weeks.

So, let's go see her.

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

And yes, that's exactly what we're gonna do.

We went through and picked out some of the ones because we've been teaching in classrooms for a really long time, so we were looking for what are some of those words that kinder, first, second graders typically kind of struggle with.

And you know what one I always had a hard time with?

It's the first one that I picked out.

It's this word right here, laugh.

But let's go through, let's read them all together.

So this week we're gonna work on laugh, caught, found, would, and carry.

Now I know that you all have been working so hard on these, and I'm so proud of all the work that you've done.

Today, let's look at the word laugh and remind me, how do we spell it?

Well, let's do it together.

L-A-U-G-H.

There's no F in there and I hear a F sound.

But you know what?

That A-U-G-H can also have the F sound.

So, that joke made me Laugh.

That's how we can use it in a sentence, just like that.

Great job.

Now, I have another thing that we can do with it.

We can use the word laugh in a song to help us remember how to spell it.

It's a tune I'm hopeful that most of you are familiar with.

Do you know the song Bingo?

♪ There was a farmer who had a dog ♪ Do you remember that song?

Okay, we're gonna do the tune, but we're gonna change some of the words.

I made them pretty simple, so I think we can all do it.

But this is gonna be our word of the day.

So it's gonna sound like this.

♪ There was a word of the day ♪ ♪ And laugh was the word ♪ ♪ L-A-U-G-H ♪ ♪ L-A-U-G-H ♪ ♪ L-A-U-G-H ♪ ♪ And laugh was the word ♪ Pretty fun, right?

Yeah, it's always fun to be able to take our words and put 'em into songs.

It helps me remember, and I hope it helps you remember as well.

Today, we're gonna work on a couple of different things and review a few things as we're reading our stories.

One of them is to visualize.

Remember, we've been practicing.

We're trying to visualize or think about and make a movie in our head as we're listening to the story being read.

Can we visualize what's happening in the story?

Can you picture where the characters are and what they're doing based on the words that are being said?

The next thing that we're gonna think about as we're listening or reading a story is the sequence.

Is there a specific order?

What happens first, next, then, and last?

It's important.

Remember, we've talked about putting on our socks before we put our shoes on, because there's an order.

So listen today as our story is being read and follow along, and we'll see you back here in just a few minutes.

- [Woman] How do animals' bodies help them?

Read about how a beaver's tail helps him.

"A Tale of a Tail."

Long ago, there lived a beaver named Ray.

Ray was quite proud of his nice thick tail.

He spent a lot of time brushing and fluffing it.

"I have a splined tail," Ray bragged.

"It is the best tail that an animal can have!"

One fine day in April, Ray went out.

"It's a nice day to chop wood," he said.

So Ray got his ax.

He chop, chop, chopped a big tree eight times.

The big tree swayed this way and that.

Then it fell on top of Ray's tail.

Ray tugged and tugged at his tail.

He gasped when he pulled it out.

"My tail is flat!"

Ray wailed.

The sun looked down at him.

She could tell Ray felt bad about his tail.

"A flat tail will help you swim fast," the sun explained.

"A flat tail can send a signal, too.

Just slap it on the water."

That made Ray happy.

"I have a special tail!"

yelled Ray.

Then Ray slapped his tail on the water.

Slap, slap, slap.

His pals came running.

"Do you want our help?"

they asked.

"I want to give you a ride," said Ray.

"Hop on my tail.

I will carry you across the lake."

And happy Ray swam off as fast as a fish!

- Did you like that story?

Do you remember it?

Yeah, that was all the way back from the beginning of unit four.

And so, now let's think about the order that the story was told in.

"A Tale of a Tail."

Oh, did you see how they used both long A spelling patterns?

I love when they do that.

All right, "A Tale of a Tail."

So let's think about the order.

I have some pieces of the story here and we're going...

I'm gonna read 'em and then we're gonna figure out which one goes first, next, then, and last.

Do you think we should should get some helpers?

Let's see.

Hey helpers, can you come up and help us?

- Hi, guys.

- Ooh, ooh.

Hello, Mrs. Hammack.

- Oh, I am so glad you're here, because I'm gonna need some help with the sequence of this story.

And that's how we put the story in order.

Did you pay attention to the story?

- [Tina] I did.

Did you pay attention?

- Oh, fantastic.

I thought Scooter might be paying attention, he really loves stories, especially about bushy tales.

(laughs) All right.

Okay, here we go.

So I'm gonna read these to you.

Be thinking, what happened first?

A tree fell and made Ray's tail flat.

He was sad.

The sun explains how a flat tail will help Ray.

Ray really liked his thick bushy tail a lot.

Or, Ray's flat tail helps him send a signal, swim fast, and give his pals a ride.

- Hmm.

- So where do you think the story started?

Did it start with him having the tree fall?

No.

Scooter says, nope, nope, nope.

How about... Well, if the tree didn't fall and make it flat, then it can't be this one.

So what about this one?

Ray really liked his thick bushy tale a lot.

What do you think?

- [Tina] Yeah, okay.

That's the one that's Scooter and I think it was.

- I think you're right.

It started out with Ray and his beautiful bushy tail.

And he was quite proud of that bushy tail, wasn't he?

- [Tina] Oh, yes.

He loved his bushy tail.

- All right.

- So first, he liked it a lot.

What do you think we should put for next?

What happened next?

- Hmm.

- Hmm, he liked it.

Did the tree fall and make his tail flat?

And then he was sad?

Did the sun explain how a flat tail will help him?

- [Tina] Hmm.

Well, I think before the sun could explain, didn't the tree fall?

Or did the tree... Hmm.

- I think your thinking is correct.

- That's what I was thinking.

- Because he couldn't explain about a flat tail, if Ray didn't have a flat tail.

And the tree had to fall in order for his tail to go flat, right?

- Right.

- Good thinking.

That that makes the most sense, doesn't it?

- [Tina] It does to me.

- All right.

And so then, I think the sun then explains how a flat tail will help him.

So he's feeling sad and the sun is trying to help him feel less sad by explaining that might be a good thing.

- [Tina] Mm-hm.

- All right, so we have only one left.

Let me move it over.

And it says, last, Ray's flat tail helps him send a signal, swim fast, and give his pals a ride.

How'd you do?

- [Tina] I think we did it.

- Did you do the same thing?

Did you put this in order the way that we did?

That is called sequencing.

And when we know how to sequence a story, it helps us when we're retelling, because then we know how to tell the story in order.

If we were telling a story and we started at the end and then jumped all around, the person that we're telling the story to wouldn't understand what was going on in the story.

It wouldn't make sense.

Just like when we're writing a sentence, we have to put the words in order for it to make sense.

So, you guys are excellent at sequencing.

- Oh, thanks.

- Good job, Tina.

And good job, Scooter.

Thanks for helping us.

- [Tina] It was a lot of fun.

- I'm so glad.

And now, let's try to think about some writing.

Here I have a question for us, a prompt.

It says, how do animal bodies help them?

So all week that very first week of unit four, we learned about Ray and some other animals.

And they had special features about their bodies that helped them.

But you also have animals in your life, probably.

And so, let's think about how do animal bodies help them.

And let's see if Tina can come help us do some writing.

Hey, Tina?

- Hey, Mrs. Hammack.

- You are the perfect person for this job.

- Oh.

- So our question today, Tina, is how do animal bodies help them?

And since you are a beautiful little animal, I bet you have some ideas about how your body helps you.

- [Tina] Oh, you know what?

I do, I do.

So you know, I have a really hard shell and my shell protects me from predators.

- That is awesome.

What a great word, predators.

Woo, you're stretching our vocabulary today.

All right, so how could we write a sentence that tells about your shell protecting you?

What do you think we should say?

- [Tina] What if we said, turtles have shells - (gasps) That's so good.

- to protect them?

- Oh, that is great.

All right, I'm gonna start with the first word.

Turtles have shells to protect them.

That's six words.

I know.

- Ooh, six words!

So let's start with the word turtles.

And we need to always remember to start with an uppercase letter when we make a sentence, because the first word starts with a capital letter.

So, turtles.

Now we need some finger spaces.

Have.

That's one of our sight words, right?

Our high frequency words?

- That's right.

- Turtles have... - H-A-V-E. Yep.

- And then I need some more finger spaces.

Shells.

And now, I'm gonna return sweep 'cause I'm out of room.

To.

Protect them.

- Protect.

- Woo!

- [Both] Them.

- Oh, finger spaces.

Great job!

Turtles.

I forgot the word hard.

So if I rewrite that, I can add the word hard shells to protect them, because that explains it.

We're out of time, but let's go see... We have a friend who's gonna tell us about a book.

- [Tina] All right.

(door closing) - Hey, I didn't see you there.

I was just about to read "Just Me in the Tub" by Gina and Mercer Meyer to my bearded dragon, Lizzy.

There's a lot of books in the series of Little Critter.

Find out what he does to clean up the bathroom.

She likes the book most because she always takes baths.

And that's how she hydrates.

Thanks for watching Valley PS.

- Great.

Cooper, thank you so much for sharing all about your favorite story.

I loved it.

- And that dragon was amazing.

- Oh yeah, totally.

I don't know if I would have a lizard in my room.

- Ooh.

Yeah, no, probably not me.

- But you know what?

Scooter has a joke.

Did you wanna hear it?

- Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

- Okay.

So his joke is, do you know what a beaver's favorite snack is?

- Oh.

No, I don't.

- Wood chips!

(hysterical laughter) Have a great one, we'll see you back here tomorrow on Valley PBS, bye.

- Bye!

- [Mrs. Nix] Oh, Scooter.

(bright music)