♪ 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 ♪ (cheerful guitar music fades out) (upbeat music) - Good morning, third grade.

My name is Mrs. Nix and I am so excited to be here with you to support you as you become amazing thinkers, readers, and writers.

This morning, I'm looking at, it's a very, very old looking cover.

In fact, I was just looking to see, when was it published?

And it was published in 1954.

It's very old, but it's full of stories that I know you would be very familiar with.

These are the "Grimm's Fairy Tales."

So all of those fairy tales that you've listened to as a kid, guess what?

Back in 1954, they were listening to them too.

So how do you find books that you could read?

Maybe you could find a fairy tale that you're interested in.

It's really easy.

Visit your local county library and check the book out there.

Or here in Fresno Unified, we've been checking out our books through Sora.

It's an online app, it's totally free.

And we also love to celebrate our students who are checking out those books and reading those books.

And we have a little friendly competition going on.

We count down the top five schools in our district that have been checking out.

So let's go to number three because it's Wednesday and find out who is in that third spot.

It's none other than Ewing elementary.

So great job Ewing.

You guys are doing a wonderful job of checking out books using Sora.

The other thing that I would love to just take a quick little moment and kind of put up a little plug because I know that I love doing puzzles.

I love all of the word work.

I love doing mazes and figuring out which puzzle or which picture is different.

It's always something fun to do.

And I can give this to you for free.

It's very easy, all you need to do is send a letter to the address that's below on your screen.

Or you can send me an email and just let me know what your return address is.

And in that note, it's real easy.

Maybe you have a favorite story that you've been reading or something you've learned here on PBS or something you've learned in the classroom and just want to share.

I'd love to read your letters and I would love to send you an activity book for free.

All right, are we ready to start third grade?

Great.

I have three things that we're gonna go through today.

We're gonna practice words with the soft C and the soft G. We're gonna work on some comparing using E-R and E-S-T, and then finish off a little comprehension with metaphors.

So let's warm up those brains this morning and look at our high frequency words.

We've been practicing these this week.

And do you have one of those words?

Maybe it's on a post-it note in your bathroom and you look at it every day as you brush your teeth.

That's a great strategy to help you remember how to read it and write it.

Okay, let's look at them, let's practice them today.

Here we go.

You read them big and loud at home and I'm gonna read them with you.

Three, through, today, time, together, two, under, upon, very, and use.

Nicely done.

Okay, today we have the words together and two.

Now here's a little trick.

When you're thinking about the word together, it's T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R, but you can break it into little words and you can see "to," and then "get," and "her."

All those little words, put them together and you have the word together.

It's a quick way to think about how to spell it.

At least that's how I have to remember it.

And then the other word is two, T-W-O.

Now what kind of two is this?

Yes, it's the number two.

Okay, so help me put these into our sentences today.

So, "Want to go to the park 'mm'?"

And, "We might get 'mm' puppies."

"Want to go to the park two?"

Oh, that's the wrong kind of two.

We can't put that.

That would be T-O-O, right?

So this one says, "Want to go to the park together?"

makes more sense.

Oh, good job.

And, "We might get two puppies."

My fingers are crossed.

I would love to have some puppies.

Okay, now as we go down here, we're gonna start talking about that soft C and soft G. This is just a reminder.

And when do we use the soft G sound and the soft C sound?

Okay, well I have my jump card and my sun card to help me remember what those sounds are.

And you'll see, they've got some spellings on here.

So any time that we have G-E, G-I, or G-Y, we're gonna make the "J" sound.

And any time we have C-E, C-I, or C-Y, we're gonna make the "Ss" sound.

Here are some examples for you.

So I've got C-I right here.

So it's going to say "Ss" like in circle and sense.

And then I've got the G-Y that says "J."

So gyms.

Gyms like if you're gonna go and work out at the gym.

And large.

Large, excellent job.

Okay, now down below, we're gonna work on comparing.

So we use E-R any time we're comparing two things.

So if we're comparing two people, two places, two things, we're gonna add E-R to the word.

So if I were to be comparing, let's say puppies.

If I had two puppies, I could say, "This puppy is smaller," and I just add the E-R.

This puppy is smaller than that puppy.

Now, if I had a whole litter of puppies and there's lots and lots of puppies, I might say, "This is the smallest," and I would add E-S-T to the end of the word small.

So that would be the smallest.

Now, there are some spelling patterns to consider when we're adding E-R and E-S-T. And so if we look over here, any time we have a word that ends with the letter E, that magic E, like in this case we've got the word brave.

If I want to say, "She is braver than I am," I would drop the E and then I add my E-R just like that.

So braver.

And maybe I would say that, maybe my dog is the bravest of my whole family.

I think she's pretty gutsy.

So bravest, drop that E and add E-S-T. Now, when we talk about words that have a short vowel with a consonant at the end, before adding the E-R we want to make sure that we double that consonant.

So fat, and I would say fatter.

Okay, there we go, fatter.

The seal is fatter in the winter time.

And maybe this seal is the fattest.

And so I'm gonna double that consonant, so double the T and then add E-S-T. All right, excellent job.

Let's do a little bit of practice.

So right here, I have some sentences, and it says, "Read each sentence and underline the word with the soft C or the soft G." So you look for it at home, and I'm gonna look for it down here, and let's see if we can find it together.

"I learned to ice skate last winter."

Did you see it?

Yes, ice has the soft C. "Mom bought celery for the salad."

Did you see it?

Yep, right there, celery.

"It was fun to sing on stage last night."

Stage has that soft G. "He drew a perfect circle on his paper."

Yup, and circle has the soft C. Oak park- Oh sorry, let's read the directions.

"Read each sentence and write the correct form of the word shown below each line, and use E-R or E-S-T to complete the sentence."

Okay, so let's read these sentences.

We're gonna add E-R or E-S-T.

So the word is big.

"Oak Park is 'mm' than Blue Lake Park."

Well, we're just comparing two, so what do we have to do?

That's right, we're gonna do E-R. Now, it's a short vowel.

So I want to make sure that I add an extra G in there.

I'm gonna double that G. Oops, I almost made a mistake right there.

That's okay, I'm gonna scribble that off right there and we're gonna know that that's an R. Bigger because we're only comparing two.

"Mr. Landon's house is the 'mm' house in our entire town."

And so old.

Now it's the oldest one in the whole town.

We're doing lots of them.

So I'm gonna say it is the oldest.

Excellent job.

And last one, let's just do this one, cold.

"January is always our," blank "month."

"It's always our..." There's lots of months, so I'm gonna have to add E-S-T.

So it is our coldest month.

Great job.

Okay, I'm gonna switch gears just a little bit because I want us to talk about... Oh, I don't need that yet.

I want to talk about metaphors and some figurative language and what authors will do when they are writing so that we can help picture that, make that picture inside our mind as we're reading.

Now a metaphor is a little bit different than a simile.

A simile puts in words like "like" or "as" and a metaphor doesn't.

It takes two things that you're gonna compare that are totally different, and the author just says that they're the same.

So the man's teeth are white pearls.

Well it's not really that his teeth are really pearls, but the author is making that picture for you.

Okay, to help us find that a little bit, I have the startings of a poem.

By the end of the week, we'll read through the whole thing, but I'm gonna read this first page one more time today.

And then we're gonna talk about a metaphor that's found within just this first half of the poem.

There's a couple of lines that repeat themselves.

So just know that that's gonna be coming.

All right, are you ready?

Okay, this one's called "Why I Run."

The first marathon I ever saw was years ago with my grandma.

We stood out on the Boston streets and marveled at the number of feet, and marveled at the number of feet.

The runners were a rumbling herd, except for a few, like the swiftest birds, who shot out alone to run their races with determination carved into their faces, with determination carved into their faces.

Motorboats speeding over gray water, these runners would inspire anyone's daughter.

Okay, so I just want to show you real quick.

Right here is our sentence.

Here's our metaphor.

"Motorboats speeding over gray water, these runners would inspire anyone's daughter."

What is the author comparing in this sentence here?

Is the author comparing gray water with a daughter?

"Motorboats speeding over gray water."

Hmm, no.

How about, is it comparing motorboats and runners?

Yes, can you picture motorboats on a river that's nice and gray?

Can you picture runners maybe on a gray street and they're going super fast just like motor boats would be going super fast?

So it's creating that picture for us as readers.

That's a metaphor.

So as you're reading your stories, I encourage you to go through and look for metaphors on your own.

Does it paint a picture for you?

Awesome job.

Thanks for hanging out with me this morning as you're getting ready for school.

And remember you are responsible for your learning success.

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

Have a fantastic day, and I can't wait to see you back here at PBS tomorrow.

Have a good one, buh-bye.

(cheerful 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 ♪