(guitar music) ♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games you play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪ (upbeat music) - Good morning third grade.

My name is Mrs. Nixon.

I am so excited to be here with you to help support you to become amazing thinkers, readers, and writers.

This morning, have you ever looked at a magazine before?

This morning I was reading the National Geographic.

Now this is one of those old ones I had in my classroom.

We were just discussing here in the studio.

It was from 2012.

It is almost 10 years old, this magazine but it is still one of my favorites.

It's all about our giant sequoias that are just up the mountain.

We have our nation's Christmas tree up there too.

So if you ever get a chance to go and see some of the giant sequoias, they are huge.

We used to take my whole class and all of us with our arms together, couldn't even connect all of our hands to fit around the bottom of a tree.

It was that big around.

So just imagine that.

So, a magazine will show you lots of things that are interesting in your world.

Beautiful, beautiful pictures.

I encourage it.

How can you check out magazines?

It's super easy.

You can check them out through your local county library, or I'm not really sure if Sora has them online but if you're looking for something to read you can always check out a book on Sora and here in Fresno Unified we love to put in a little plug and give a little bit of friendly competition.

We count down our top schools in the district our top five schools for the highest number of books that have been checked out.

So we are on Thursday so we're down to our last top our last two places for top schools.

And in second place with the highest number of books checked out in Fresno Unified we've got Wilson Elementary.

Right there, nice job, Wilson.

Good.

So if you wanna see your school's name here on our top checkout poster, it's super easy to do.

Just make sure you're going online and checking out books through Sora.

Now, my last little plug that I wanna put in for today, I love these activity books.

If you are looking for something to keep your mind busy and engaged and a little bit of thinking, these have, there are all sorts of word puzzles and games and dot to dots and rhyming words, so many fun activities, and it's free.

It's super easy.

Do you see that address that's up down below?

All you need to do, jot that down, send me a note, send me a postcard, write an email.

There's an email address that's right there just don't forget to include your return address and I will put one of these in the mail for free to you so that you can do these fun activities at home.

Super easy to do.

In that note or on that postcard, you can tell me anything.

It's something you've learned in class, something you've learned here on PBS, or even something maybe you have a question or just want to say hi, I'd love to read it.

All right.

Are we ready to start third grade?

We've got three things we're gonna go through.

We're gonna practice our variant vowels we've been working on them all week.

Today's Thursday, so we are over halfway through our week and we're getting close to Valentine's day.

Are you getting excited?

Are you sending those Valentine's day cards?

I bet people are really appreciating them this year.

All right.

We're gonna do those variant vowels, those Greek and Latin roots, and then we're gonna finish up with some context clues.

You ready to start?

Okay.

Let's warm up those brains.

Let's look at those high-frequency words.

You read them at home, big and loud.

I'm gonna read them here in the studio with you.

Here we go.

Then, ten, tell, take, such, stop, start, soon, so, and some.

Okay.

We've got two of them we're gonna practice right now.

We have the word start, which is S-T-A-R-T. And we have the word soon, S-O-O-N.

Okay.

Help me put these in a couple of sentences.

We will, hmm the quiz after lunch.

Hmm?

Think about it.

And how can hmm you be ready to go?

Woh, I can figure that one out, right?

This one.

How, soon can you be ready to go?

Guess what?

I can be ready to go anytime.

I'm super fast at getting all my stuff together.

If we're gonna go somewhere fun I will be ready.

How about this one?

We will start the quiz after lunch.

All right.

Are we ready?

Okay, so let's get started.

We're gonna work on our variant vowels.

Now I brought my straw card with me to remind me of the sound that we're working on.

So straw says, "aw".

Now there's many ways that we can spell the "aw" sound.

So we're gonna look at some of those different spellings and practice a couple of different words using that spelling pattern.

Okay.

So we've got AW says "aw" like at the end of the word raw or at the beginning of the word awkward, awkward.

Good.

And AU says "au" like in the middle of haul and in the middle of fault.

AL says "al" like in salt and sidewalk.

Good.

And ALL can say "all" like in halls or stalling.

And OUGH says "ough" like in bought or even this one, look, we just added a T ought.

She ought to go to the store with me, right?

It's another fancy way of saying should.

And WA says "a" or "wa" like at the beginning of water and want has that "aw" sound.

Okay.

Let's switch gears.

We're gonna look at Greek and Latin roots.

Okay.

So many English words come from Greek or the Greek or Latin language.

So that's kind of why we need to learn with some of them.

It's gonna help us, it's gonna help us figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words.

If we come across a word that we're unfamiliar with, if we know these small parts, it's gonna help us to think about how to make meaning.

Okay.

Let me show you an example.

We've talked about it all week, but graph means written, right?

Something written.

It comes from the Greek word that means something written.

So for our example, we've talked about this week photograph, okay, a photo is a picture, graph means to write, so it translates to written picture.

All right.

So a photograph another way to say it is written picture.

the word part aud means, comes from a Latin word that means to hear or listen.

So the word audience means a group of listeners.

Nice job.

Okay.

So let's go through let's practice some of those variant vowels and those Greek and Latin roots.

Okay.

So we're gonna read each word in the box and we're gonna place an X over any of the words that do not have the "aw" sound.

If it has the "aw" sound, we're gonna underline the letters that say, "aw".

All right.

So help me read these.

Here we go.

Let's look at this first one.

What does it say?

Flawless, does it have the "aw" sound?

Yes, right here.

AW good.

How about smallness?

Yes, ALL.

Good.

Are you training your brain?

Oh, I see oh, help me out.

What does it say, grouch?

Nope, it does not have the "aw" sound.

How about drawn?

Yes, AW.

How about chalk?

Yes, AL good.

How about brought?

OUGH.

Good.

How about sought?

We just talked about that word, right?

Yes.

Here's OUGH.

Does this say "raw"?

No.

Good.

You guys are really paying attention this morning.

What is this word?

Yeah, it says rough.

Rough.

There's no F but that OUGH can also be a tricky one.

How about that south?

Nope.

How about scorch?

Nope, that has "or".

How about thoughtless?

Yes.

How about mouse?

Nope.

Stock?

Yes.

Bounce?

Nope.

And squawk?

Yes.

Walrus, does walrus have the "aw"?

Yup, walrus.

Paused.

Salt.

Yep.

Crawl and would.

Nicely done third grade.

Okay.

Now we've got some sentences here.

We're gonna put some of these Greek and Latin root words into some sentences.

You helped me out remember that graph means to write and aud means to listen.

Okay.

So I think it's easy to take hmm, with his new digital camera.

Okay.

What are some of our choices here?

We have of audience, audition, biography, photographs, graphics, and auditorium.

So what would he take with a digital camera?

You got it.

He would take some photographs.

Good.

How about after the performance the blank cheered for several minutes.

Hmm, who was in, who was out there?

Who was cheering after the performance?

That's right, it's a group of listeners.

Remember, the audience.

Good job.

The musicians will play their next concert at the local, auditorium.

Nicely done.

Okay.

What time is your blank for the school play?

Okay.

You're gonna try out for something at the school play, biography no, graphics no.

It's your, when you're trying out you're doing an audition.

Perfect.

All right.

I'm going to stop that for just a moment and I want us to spend a little bit of time, talking about context clues.

Now context clues are simply an author's way of trying to give you the reader kind of a clue as to what some words might mean.

Now, we see the word blubber up here, right?

It's in blue.

Okay.

So we've got the word blubber and if I don't know what that is, sometimes my teacher will talk about context clues.

So there's a couple of different ways.

Sometimes the author might give us the definition.

They might just say it is, are, and means, it refers to, or they could restate it using a comma and like the word or.

Okay.

So let's look and see, how did this author help us define what blubber means.

Bears have a layer of blubber or fat over four inches thick.

Ah, did you hear that?

Or, it's got a comma or fat.

So what is blubber?

Yes.

It's fat.

It's what helps keep the bears nice and warm.

So this right here is the context clue for us so that we the reader, we know what blubber means.

Awesome job.

So great.

I am so excited that we got to hang out this morning.

Thank you for being with me and being here and doing your best.

Remember you are responsible for your learning success.

So listen, ask questions and share your ideas because together we can do so much more.

We had a great time we went through our variant vowels, our Greek and Latin roots, and finished up with those context clues.

As you're reading today, practice those you're gonna be so much better.

Have a great afternoon.

I look forward to seeing you back here at PBS tomorrow.

Have a good one.

Bye-bye.

(guitar music) ♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games to play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪