(bright music) - Hi friends.

Welcome back to "Teaching in Room Nine," our region's largest classroom.

My name is Julia.

I'm a second grade teacher at the Soulard School, and here for "Teaching in Room Nine," my lessons focus on letters and sounds.

Welcome back, friends.

It is so good to be here with you.

Thank you for being here with me.

Now, as always, we love to see our learners at home following along with us, so always feel free to have your grown-up take a picture or a video of you following along at home and they can post them online and #ninePBS.

We'd love to see you following along.

We're gonna go ahead and get started with our mindful moment exercise, but before we do, we're gonna be doing some writing and reading of our letter sounds today, so if you'd like to follow along with us, go ahead and get a piece of paper and something to write with.

I can tell some of my friends are making their way back.

So we're gonna do our mindful moment exercise.

This will help our bodies and our brains be ready to learn.

Today, we're gonna do this by doing a tense and release muscle relaxation exercise.

So we're gonna start by laying flat on your back, so go ahead and do that now, friends.

Then when you're on your back, try to let go of any tension that you might be feeling in your body.

We're gonna start by taking a deep breath in through our nose, counting to three, and then breathe out through your mouth, counting to three.

Ready?

Breathe in.

And breathe out.

Great job.

We're gonna start by squeezing or tensing those muscles in your feet and you're gonna hold it for about five seconds, and then, you're gonna slowly let go of any tension that you're feeling.

And we're gonna work our way up our bodies.

Ready?

Tense those muscles in your feet!

Hold it, hold it!

Four.

Five.

Now slowly let go of that tension in your feet.

Nice job.

Now we're gonna work our way up our legs and you're gonna tense the bottom part of your legs.

Those are called your calves.

Are you ready?

Tense your calves!

Hold it!

One, two, three, four, five.

And slowly let go.

Great job.

Work your way up your legs.

You're gonna tense your thighs, the top part of your legs.

Ready?

Tense those thighs!

Hold it!

And slowly let go.

Amazing.

Now, you're gonna tense up those tummy muscles.

Are you ready?

Ready?

Tense your tummy!

Hold it!

One, two, three, four, five.

And let go of any of that tension.

Amazing.

The last one you're gonna do is you're gonna tense the muscles in your arms.

Are you ready?

Tense those muscles!

Tense!

And slowly let go any of that tension you're feeling.

Go ahead and take a deep breath.

Again, in through your nose.

And out through your mouth.

Keep taking those deep breaths and I'm gonna ask you a few questions.

How did your body feel before we started that exercise?

How does your body feel now?

How did your body feel when you really tensed up or tightened those muscles?

How did that feel different than when you let go or released that tension?

Great job, learners.

Take one more deep breath in through your nose.

And breathe out.

Amazing.

Now I know that we are ready to learn together.

So let's go ahead, friends, and talk about some strategies that we can use when we are learning at school.

We wanna give ourselves all the right tools to be able to learn our best, so we're gonna start by talking about some things that we've reviewed here together so far.

Now, we wanna make sure that we've chosen a smart spot.

This is away for any distractions that might take away from our learning.

Are you in a smart spot right now?

We also talked about showing body basics or whole body listening, and even though this might look different for everyone, it might look like having our eyes on the speaker, our ears are listening, our mouth is quiet, our body is calm, and our heart is ready to learn.

Then, friends, we talked about some red and green choices.

These are examples of smart choices and strong choices and I wanna share my screen and I'll review some of the ones we've talked about.

All right, friends, go ahead and say this with me nice and loud.

I can make green choices.

Great job.

The first one we talked about was using gentle hands, working together as a team, sharing, working really hard, keep my hands and feet to myself, that's important to keep everyone safe, use my words, play with friends, waiting patiently for your turn, this one can be hard, following directions, especially the first time that they're given, taking turns when you're playing together, doing my best work, put my things away after I'm finished using them or when it's time to clean up, and helping others.

That's a great way to be a buddy.

We also talked about some red choices that maybe aren't quite as strong.

These might be having an out of control body, using mean or unkind words, taking everything, all the toys or materials so no one else can use them, using our hands instead of our words when we are talking with our working through a problem with a friend, that is not safe, taking others' turns when you're playing a game together, talking over people, running away, that one is so dangerous, you have to stay when your grown-up can see you or your teacher can see you so that way they know that you're having a safe body, breaking things in your classroom, yelling, not following directions, throwing a tantrum, there are so many different tools or strategies you can use when you're feeling upset, but throwing a tantrum is not one of them, biting a friend, our mouths are for talking and using our words and eating yummy food, but not for biting, or pushing a friend, we don't ever wanna put our hands on somebody else's body.

Say this with me friends, I can make smart choices.

Great job.

I'm so proud of you.

Now that we've prepared our bodies and our brains to learn, we reviewed some tools to help us be successful when we're learning in school, now we're ready to learn.

As I mentioned, we're here to talk about letters and sounds.

In our time together before, we've practiced all of our letter sounds and we practiced lots of skills to help us work with those letter sounds.

We're gonna look at all parts of a word to find patterns and sounds that we know that will help us to be better readers and writers.

Today, friends, our learning goal or objective is, you're gonna say this after me nice and loud, I can, good, understand and hear consonants in words.

Amazing job, learners.

We're gonna go ahead and start with a word warm-up to get our brain ready to learn.

So go ahead and tickle those brains, turn on your reading and writing brain, so that way, we are ready to learn here together.

We're gonna go ahead, friends, and start with rhyming words.

♪ Rhyming words are words that have the same sounds ♪ ♪ They have to end in the same way ♪ ♪ Rhyming words have the same vowel sounds ♪ ♪ And the same sounds at the very end ♪ Good job.

Anytime I start singing a song, if you know it or you think you might know what some of the words or the sounds, go ahead and try to jump in whenever you can or just do your best to listen and follow along.

I'm going to go ahead and give you two words, all right, learners?

You're gonna give me a thumbs up if those two words rhyme, and if they do rhyme, we're gonna shout out what that rhyme is.

Again, the vowel sound and the sound that comes after it.

If it doesn't rhyme, you're gonna give me a thumbs down.

Are you ready to try?

Your first words, say these words, fact, lace.

Good job.

Do those rhyme?

No, they don't rhyme.

Say these words.

Help, heat.

Good.

Do those words rhyme?

No, those words don't rhyme.

They do start with the same sound, but they don't have the same ending sounds, so they don't rhyme.

Say the words list, wrist.

Great job.

Do those words rhyme?

List, wrist.

They sure do rhyme, and our rhyme is -ist.

Very good.

All right, friends, say the words some, soap.

Good job.

And do those words rhyme, some, soap?

No, they don't rhyme.

They start with the same sound again, but they don't end with the same sound.

Last one.

Say the words glow, show.

Great.

Do those rhyme?

Yeah, they do.

And they end in the same rhyme, which is -oh.

Very good.

Now I'm gonna say two words, you're gonna say them back to me and you're gonna tell me just the beginning sound you hear.

Let's practice.

Say the words pen, put.

Yeah, good job.

And the first sound is puh-puh.

Very good.

Say the words quick, quiet.

And the first sound?

Quah-quah.

Good job.

Say the words we, win.

And the first sound?

Wah-wah.

Very good.

Say the words talk, time.

Yeah, and the first sound is?

Tuh-tuh.

Very good.

Last one.

Say the words ball, back.

And the first sound you hear is buh-buh.

Very good.

I'm so proud of you.

Now, I'm gonna say the words, you're gonna say them back to me, and this time, tell me just the last sound that you hear.

Say the word miss.

Good.

And the last sound you hear in miss, sss.

Very good.

Say the word wet.

Good job.

And the last sound is tuh-tuh.

Very good.

Say the word dove.

Yeah.

And the last sound you hear in dove?

Vvv.

Very good.

Say the word tube.

Yeah.

And the last sound in tube?

Buh-buh.

Very good.

Say the word buzz.

And the last sound you hear in buzz?

Zzz.

Very good.

That's a fun one to say.

Say the word gym.

And the last sound you hear in gym?

Mmm.

Very good.

Last one, friends.

Say the word clean.

And the last sound you hear in clean is nnn.

Very good!

I am so proud of you, learners.

Go ahead and kiss your brains.

That was incredible.

If it felt kind of tricky, that's okay.

The more we practice together, the more progress we'll make.

I know that you're going to make progress with me.

All right, learners.

Then in our time here together, we talked about syllables.

Give me a me too if you remember learning about syllables.

Maybe you remember or you've learned them in school before.

Great job.

If not, that's okay.

Remember, syllables are the beats in words.

Syllables are built around a talking vowel.

Good job.

And we had a song that went along with it.

♪ Syllables are the beats in words ♪ ♪ Syllables are built around a vowel ♪ ♪ Vowels are A, E, I, O, U ♪ And then sometimes Y ♪ But you must hear the vowel ♪ And each vowel gets a clap ♪ Oh, syllables are the beats in words ♪ ♪ Syllables are built around a vowel ♪ Very good!

And just like our song said... ♪ Vowels are A, E, I, O, U ♪ And then sometimes Y Very good.

You can see, friends, I have all of my vowels on this chart right here behind me and we learned our short vowel sounds and our songs that went along with it.

So we're gonna go ahead and review them together.

Say this with me.

A says ah, ah.

See the way my mouth looks?

Do you feel it too?

Ah, ah.

Good.

And our song went... ♪ Ah-Ah, short A, that's your sound ♪ ♪ Ah-Ah, short A, that's your sound ♪ ♪ Ah in cat and ah in rap ♪ Ah in map and ah in cap ♪ Ah-Ah, short A, that's your sound ♪ ♪ Ah-Ah, short A, that's your sound ♪ Very good.

Short E says eh, eh.

See how that feels a little different?

Eh.

♪ There were 10 in the bed ♪ And the short E said eh-eh-eh ♪ ♪ Eh-Eh-Eh ♪ Bed eh-eh, red eh-eh ♪ Wet eh-eh, and jet eh-eh ♪ There were 10 in the bed ♪ And the short E said eh-eh-eh ♪ ♪ Eh-Eh-Eh Good job.

Then we have short I says ih, ih.

Look how much closer my mouth is now.

Ih, ih.

♪ Mary had a little pig ♪ Ih-Ih-Ih, ih-ih-ih ♪ Mary had a little pig ♪ That made the short I sound Short O says oh, oh.

My mouth is really wide now, right?

Oh, oh.

My sound is coming from my throat.

♪ The short O has the oh-oh sound ♪ ♪ Like dog, and log, and frog ♪ The short O has the oh-oh sound ♪ ♪ Pop goes the short O Good job, learners.

Oh, oh, oh.

And then the last one, short U says uh, uh.

See how my mouth is not nearly as wide.

Uh, uh.

♪ Found a short U, found a short U ♪ ♪ Short U has the uh-uh sound ♪ Bug and rug, pup and cub ♪ Short U has the uh-uh sound Great job, friends.

Then, we started focusing on all our letters that aren't vowels.

Those are called, I say, you say, consonants.

Good job.

It is so important, friends, when we are learning our letter sounds and for our reading brain to grow big and strong for us to understand how the letter sounds feel in our mouth.

Knowing how they feel when we make those letter sounds helps us understand the differences between our letters and it'll help us when we're reading and writing words.

So I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen, we'll review some of the consonants we learned together so far, and learn some new ones.

Okay, friends.

You can see here, this is my consonant sound wall.

We looked at this a little bit last time.

So the first consonants we see here are called stops.

And they're called stop because when we say these sounds, we push them out with a short breath.

And it's just one quick breath.

So our first one is our letter B says buh-buh.

You feel how that kind of shoots out of your mouth?

We're gonna write a little B together.

B says buh-buh.

Very good.

And our next letter here is, shout it out if you know it, T says tuh-tuh.

Very good.

It really just, whoops, kind of shoots out, that air shoots out between your teeth.

And letter T looks like that.

Another straight line down and then you cross it in the center there.

Here and here, these letters both make the same sound.

This is the letter C, this is the letter K. Letter C can also make a soft C sound, but when it is hard, it makes the same sound as the letter K. Let's try it.

Cuh-cuh.

Good job.

Go ahead and write your C. Good.

And your K. K is a long line down again and then you start about the middle and make a diagonal line and another diagonal line.

What letter is this here, friends?

Yeah, I'm hearing some friends do the letter sound already.

Great job.

Letter P says puh-puh.

That one really pops out of your mouth, right?

So for the letter P, we make a straight line, this line dips down and then it's like another C that it's attached to it, but going the other way.

What's another letter sound right here, friends?

Shout it out for me.

Say the letter or the sound.

Yeah, D says duh-duh.

Again, just like the B, but going the other way.

I'm gonna make a straight line down and then it's like it's a C there as well.

Good job.

And what's our last one on the top there?

Yeah, G says guh-guh.

Let's start by making a little C here and then a hook that comes down low.

Then these letters here, friends, these are called nasals because you can feel them in your nose.

This one is the letter N says nnn.

You can even touch your nose and feel it.

Nnn.

Go ahead and make your letter N. Just like that.

Here, I can pull this up so you can see it.

There we go.

And letter M says mmm.

You can feel it in your nose again.

And it looks just like our letter N, except it has two humps.

M. Nnn, mmm.

Very good.

Then, we have these letters here.

Those letters are called liquids.

Liquids float in your mouth.

Do you know what this letter is?

This letter is err.

R says err, err.

Go ahead and make your R. Straight line down and then you got that little hook curve at the top there.

And then you have the letter L says ull, ull.

See how my tongue, it's coming up to my teeth?

Ull, ull.

It might even be sticking out a little bit there.

And it is just a straight line down.

Last but not least here, we have the letter J says juh, juh.

This is called an affricate, or an affricate.

I'm sorry.

These sounds are sounds that make a stop, but our mouth is also kind of closed and blocking the sound.

Juh, juh.

See how my lips are kind of small and blocking the sound?

And then your letter J, you're gonna make a hook that comes down, dips down below, and then a dot at the top there.

Let's review, friends.

B says buh-buh.

T says tuh-tuh.

C and K say cuh-cuh.

P says puh-puh.

D says duh-duh.

G says guh-guh.

N says nnn-nnn.

M says mmm-mmm.

R says err.

L says ull.

And J says juh-juh.

Great job, friends.

I'm gonna stop sharing my screen.

I am so proud of you, learners.

You did a great job with our tense and release mindful moment exercise, we reviewed syllables, our short vowel sounds, our consonants, and we did our word warm-up together.

You are amazing, I am so proud of you, and I'll see you next time.

Bye.

(bright music) - [Narrator] "Teaching in Room Nine" is made possible with support of Bank of America, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Emerson, and viewers like you.

(bright music)