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(Describer) Words over lined school paper read, ‘Let’s get ready to learn. Nine presents, Practicing Letters and Sound.’

(Describer) In cloud bubbles, photos appear of kids playing with blocks, running under a parachute, and reading. A title appears. ‘Teaching in Room Nine.’ Colorful animated rainbows zoom across the screen.

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(Describer) 'Today’s objective. I can understand and hear consonants in words.’ A teacher with long brown hair and glasses waves.

Good afternoon, learners. Welcome back to "Teaching in Room 9," 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 9," my lessons focus on letters and sounds. Welcome back, friends. Thank you for taking time to be here with me today. I'm so excited for us to do some learning here together. As always, we'd love to see our learners at home following along with us. So if you'd like to have your grownup take a picture or a video of you following along at home, they can always post them online and hashtag #ninePBS. All right, friends, we're gonna go ahead and get started, but before we do, if you would like to go ahead and grab some paper and something to write with, we're going to do some writing of our letter sounds here in a little bit. So go ahead and grab that right now.

(Describer) A posterboard hangs behind her with words containing the vowels a, e, i, o, u.

Alright, friends, I can tell some of you are making your way back. We're going to go ahead and start with our Mindful Moment exercise. This will help get our bodies and our brains ready to learn. And when we do this, it allows our body and our mind to recenter and gives us all the right tools to be able to focus and take in new information. Today we're going to do an activity called Body Scan. So go ahead and start by laying on your back. When I say go, you are going to tense all of your muscles from head to toe and hold it for 10 seconds. And then, when I say, we'll release all that tension that we're feeling. All right. Are you laying on your back? Ready to tense those muscles? All right. Ready? Go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Alright, friends, go ahead and release that tension that you're feeling in your body, and go ahead, start taking some slow, deep breaths, in through your nose. [inhales] Counting to three, and out through your mouth. [exhales] Counting to three. Keep taking those deep breaths. And I'm going to ask you a few follow up questions. How did that make you feel when you tensed all of your muscles? What was your body doing when you tensed your muscles? Where in your body did you feel that tension? Now, after you've released the tension and you're taking some deep breaths, how does your body feel now? And how is this different from how you were feeling before? Alright, whenever you're ready, take one last deep breath in through your nose [inhales] and out through your mouth. Go ahead and sit up nice and straight and tall. Doing this activity together helps us really be able to see the difference from being in a really tense state and a calm and relaxed state. And it also helps us to understand that we are in control of our own body. Alright, friends, hopefully now you're feeling a little bit more re-centered, relaxed, and ready to learn. We're going to go ahead and take a minute to talk about being ready to learn at school. We want to give ourselves all the right tools to be able to learn our best. We're going to go ahead and start by reviewing some of the strategies we've talked about together so far. We want to make sure that we're in a smart spot that's away from any distractions that might take away from our learning. Are you in a smart spot right now, friends? We also want to try our best to show body basics or whole body listening. This might look a little different for everyone, but it might look like sitting up straight and tall, making sure our eyes are on the speaker, our ears are listening, our mouth is quiet, our heart is ready, and our body is calm. Something that might help us when we're learning at school is remembering to make smart choices. Sometimes these are called green choices and choices that aren't as smart might be called red choices. Some of the green choices we've talked about together so far were: using gentle hands, working together as a team, sharing, working really hard and trying our best, keeping our hands to ourself, using our words, playing with a friend, and waiting patiently. Some new green choices today, friends are making sure that we follow directions and take turns when we're playing and learning together. Some red choices that we've talked about so far might be having an out of control body, using mean or unkind words, taking everything so no one else can play, using our hands instead of our words, taking turns or taking others turns when we're playing with them. That's not very kind. Talking over people instead of listening to their words, or waiting for our turn to speak, running away from your adults or your grownup or breaking classroom materials. Some new red choices this week are: yelling. You'll talk a lot when you're at school about the right volume for the right space. Another red choice might be not using whole body listening that we just reviewed together. I say, you say, friends. We are in control of our body and our choices. Great job, learners. You are absolutely in control of your own body and how you react to things throughout the day. Alright, now that we've prepared our bodies and our brains to learn, we've 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've practiced lots of skills that help us work with those letter sounds. We're going to be just like reading scientists, looking at all parts of a word to find patterns and sounds that will help us better understand how to read and write new words. Today, friends, our learning goal or objective is: will you repeat this after me? "I can..." I think you can be a little louder. Let's try that again. "I can..." Ooh, great job, learners. "Understand "and hear consonants in words." Great job, learners. All right, so we're going to go ahead. Before we jump into consonants, we want to warm up our reading brain. So go ahead and tickle that reading brain of yours. All right, learners, we're going to start by doing a word warmup here together. All right. And we're going to start with rhyming words. Let's do our song real quick. If you know it, try to sing along with me, okay?

♪ 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 ♪

Oh, great job, learners. Alright, I'm going to give you two words. You're going to repeat or say them back to me. And then we are going to shout out the rhyme, the vowel sounds and the sounds that come after it. So the parts at the end of the word that make the words sound the same, that make them rhyming words. All right, let's go ahead and try, friends. Say the words "leave," "weave." Great job. And the rhyme in "leave" and "weave" is...? Yeah, if you said, "eave," you're absolutely right. If not, no worries. Let's try another one together. Say the words "much," "such." Yeah, and our rhyme in "much" and "such" is "uch," very good. Let's try another one. Say the words "dry," "fly." Yeah. And our rhyme in "dry" and "fly?" Yeah, it's the "I" sound at the end. Very good. Say the words "floor," "door." Yeah. And our rhyme in those two words? Yeah, if you said, "or," you're absolutely right. Last one of these, say the two words, "bell," "tell." Yeah. Great job. And our rhyme in "bell" and "tell" is... "el." Very good. All right. Now I'm going to say two words. You're going to repeat both the words and tell me the beginning sounds you hear. Let's go ahead and practice. Say the words, "big boy." Yeah. Great job. What's the first sound you hear in those two words? "Big boy." Yeah, you're right. It is the "buh" "buh" sound. Make sure you give me the sound and not the letter. Say the two words "fun fast". Yeah. What's the first sound you hear in those two words? "ffff." Very good. Say the two words "jump job." Yeah, and what's the first sound you hear in "jump" and "job"? Great job, learners. If you said "juh" "juh," you're absolutely right. Say the two words "Me man." Yeah. Great job. And the first sound you hear in "me" and "man" is? "Mmm." Very good. Last one of these, say the two words, "kick, keep." Great job. And the first sound you hear in "kick" and "keep" is"? "Kk, kk." Very good. All right, we're going to do the same thing, but this time, friends, I'm going to give you one word, you repeat it back to me, and then tell me the very last sound you hear. Let's go ahead and practice together. Say the word "club." And the very last sound you hear in "club." "Buh, buh." Very good. Remember, make sure you give me the sound. Say the word "glad." Great job. And what's the last sound you hear in "glad?" Yeah, if you said "d-d", you're absolutely right. Now say the word "tough." Great job. And what's the last sound you hear in "tough?" Yeah, "f" is the last sound we hear in "tough." Great job. Say the word "fig." Yeah. And the last sound in "fig?" "g, g." Very good. [chuckles] Say the word "stage." And the last sound you hear in "stage?" "j, j." Very good. Two more, learners. Say the word "bike." Yeah. And the last sound you hear in "bike?" "kuh-kuh." Very good. Last one, say the word "heat." Yeah. And the last sound in heat is? "t-t-t." Very good! Wow, what a great job you've done on our warmup. Go ahead and kiss your brain, friends. [kisses] You should be so proud of yourself, Even if some of those are feeling kind of tricky, no worries, we're going to practice together. And the more you practice, the more progress you'll make and the easier it'll feel. All right, friends, we've also learned about syllables together. And if you remember,

syllables [clicks fingers on beat]

are the beats in words. Syllables are built around a talking vowel. Very good. Some of you might have remembered that from before, but we learned a little 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-oh-oh, syllables are the beats in words ♪

♪ Syllables are built around a vowel ♪

Very good. So when you hear a vowel in a word, that gets its own syllable. Okay, like in the words:

[claps] ap-ple

dog or cat-er-pil-lar. Very good. Then we focus all on our short vowel sounds. Do it with me, friends. Go shorties, it's your big day" And we just want to hear what short vowels say!

[chuckles] Very good.

And we started with: "a" says, ah-ah. "e" says, eh-eh. "i" says, ih-ih. "o" says, aw-aw. "u" says, uh-uh. Very good. So we already know that vowels are super special letters. They're really important, they make more than one sound, and they help us figure out our syllables in words. So today, friends, we are actually going to focus on all the other letters of the alphabet that are not vowels. And those are called consonants. I say, you say "consonants." Very good! All right, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen, and I'm going to introduce to you, our consonants sound wall. All right, friends, you can see our consonants sound wall here.

(Describer) Consonants match the first letter of seven pictures

It is so important to help our reading brain grow, to understand the sounds that letters make and how they feel in our mouth when we say them. Knowing how they feel in our mouth when we say the sounds helps us understand the difference between letters and will help us when we're reading and writing words. Hey, so you can see my consonants sound wall here. The first one we're going to focus on at the top is called "stops." And stops are called that because they stop short when we say the letter sound. And when we do this, we push the sound out with one quick breath. Okay, our first stop consonant is this one right here. Does anybody know what this letter is? If you do, shout it out really loud.

(Describer) An image of a ball.

Yeah, you said the letter "b," buh-buh, "b," you're absolutely right. Let's do, if you remember, we've done the letters on the bus before. Let's do that for our letter sounds here.

♪ The letter on the bus says b, b, b ♪

♪ b-b-b, b-b-b ♪

♪ The letter on the bus says b-b-b ♪

♪ All through the town ♪

Very good. Do you hear how when you make the "b-b" how it kind of, one quick breath and it stops after you make the sound. All right, and we're going to go ahead and write the letter "b" underneath it. When you write the letter "b," you're going to make a long line down, then come up and make a little curve there-- b-b. All right. And the next letter we see here is... What is it? Shout it out for me.

(Describer) A tiger.

Very good. You're right, it is a "t." "t" says, "t-t." This one's right in the front of our mouth, right on our t-t-teeth. Very good.

♪ The letter on the bus says t-t-t ♪

♪ t-t-t, t-t-t ♪

♪ The letter on the bus says t-t-t ♪

♪ All through the town ♪

Very good. All right, if you're writing along with me at home, we're going to write the letter "t." You make another straight long line down and then we are going to cross right there. Very good. I can see the "b" has a b-ball; "t" has a t-tiger. All right, what's the next letter we see here?

(Describer) A cat.

Yeah! If you said the letter "c," you're absolutely right. And "c" says, "k-k" This one kind of comes more from the back of your throat.

♪ The letter on the bus says k-k-k ♪

♪ k-k-k, k-k-k ♪

♪ The letter on the bus says k-k-k ♪

♪ All through the town ♪

Good. We're going to write our "c" just like that. Kind of like an "o" that doesn't go all the way around, and I made it, this letter is a shorter letter, so I made it below my "t" there. And what's this one right here, friends?

(Describer) A kite.

Yeah, very good. The letter "k" also makes the "k-k" sound. Okay, so let's go ahead and skip singing our song on that one. And when you make a letter "k," you make another straight line down, just like that. And then around the middle here, you make a slanted line in, slanted line down. Very good. So we have a k-cat for the "c" and a k-kite for the "k." And what's our next letter here, friends? Shout it out for me, nice and loud.

(Describer) A pig.

Yeah, if you said "p"-- p says, "puh." You're absolutely right.

♪ The letter on the bus says p-p-p ♪

♪ p-p-p, p-p-p ♪

♪ The letter on the bus says p-p-p ♪

♪ All through the town ♪

Very good, and we've got a p-pig here. When we make the letter "p," as you can see here, it dips down low. So I'm going to start with my line, go down low, and then I jump back up and I make a letter "c" to connect it there, or backwards "c." [chuckles] Very good. All right, I wish I could see all of my friends writing at home. I bet your letters look amazing. What is our next letter here, friends?

(Describer) A dog.

It looks a lot like our "b," but it's not. It is a "d." Very good. "d" says, duh-duh. Very good.

♪ The letter on the bus says d-d-d ♪

♪ d-d-d, d-d-d ♪

♪ The letter on the bus says d-d-d ♪

♪ All through the town ♪

Very good. And when we make our "d," you're going to make a straight line down, another big long line, just like our b, our t, and our k. And this time, instead of giving it a belly, you're going to go on the other side. Sometimes I'll tell my friends, we got a belly and a diaper. [chuckles] All right, and then our last one here, friends, Can you see it? Shout it out for me if you know what letter this is.

(Describer) A goat.

Yeah, if you said the letter "g," and "g" says, guh-guh. You're absolutely right. The "g" really comes from the back of our throat. You can even put your hand on your throat and feel it when you make the sound, g-g. And when I make a "g," this is another one that dips down low. I start with that backwards "c," close it, and then come all the way down and hook around.

♪ The letter on the bus says g-g-g ♪

♪ g-g-g, g-g-g ♪

♪ The letter on the bus says g-g-g ♪

♪ All through the town ♪

All right, friends, we're going to go ahead and stop at our stops for today. Let's review the letters that we have looked at here. All of our consonants, right? We focused on vowels last week and our short vowel sounds. These are our stop consonants. And again, they're called stops because we push them out with one quick breath and then the sound stops. Ready? "b" says buh-buh. "t" says t-t. "c" says k-k. "k" says k-k. "p" says p-p. "d" says d-d. And "g" says g-g. Very g-g-good. [laughs] I'll stop sharing my screen here. You did a wonderful job with me today, friends. We did our Body Scan, Mindful Moment Exercise. We talked about all those red and green choices, and then we focused our learning on consonants today. We focused on how those sounds feel in our mouth as we make them. We focused on our stop consonants. We did a word warm up and we reviewed syllables, and some of our vowel sounds too. I'm so proud of you, friends. Thank you for your hard work, and I'll see you next time. Bye.

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(Describer) Credits roll. Nine PBS. ‘Teaching in Room Nine.’ In partnership with Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. On screen teacher, Julia Knarr, The Soulard School. 2022 Nine PBS.

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(announcer) "Teaching in Room 9" is made possible with support of Bank of America, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Emerson, and viewers like you. Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

(Describer) ‘If you would like to reach any member of Teaching in Room 9, please visit, Nine PBS dot Org forward slash T I R 9 Feedback.’ Nine PBS. Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.

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