(light upbeat music) - [Teacher] In this Read Write Roar, we'll be learning all about the letter A, including its sound and how to write it.

Then, we'll also look for the letter A in a riddle.

Let's go, Read Write Roar!

- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by The Kresge foundation, the Lauren and Phillip Fisher Fund for Children and Education, the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation, the state of Michigan, and by viewers like you!

Thank you.

(upbeat music) (lion roars) (upbeat music continues) (lion roars) - Hello.

Welcome to Read Write Roar.

All right, today we're gonna start by taking a little trip.

So let's get on a bus, we're gonna have our wheels go round and round.

So get ready.

(gentle upbeat music) ♪ The wheels on the bus ♪ ♪ Go round and round ♪ ♪ Round and round ♪ ♪ Round and round ♪ ♪ The wheels on the bus go round and round ♪ ♪ All through the town.

♪ - And the clues of this riddle.

I have a riddle that I'm gonna read for you.

I'm gonna read it and I want you to think about the answer.

You might know before I get to the end, but you'll have to hold it inside your head until I get to the bottom where it says, "who am I?"

So listen closely to the clues.

It says, "Who am I?"

"I can live outdoors in a lake."

"I am not green," "but everyone thinks I am."

"I have bumpy skin and a long tail."

"Aim your eyes at my mouth that goes, snap."

(hand clap) "Who am I?"

Who do you think I am?

- A crocodile?

- You think a crocodile?

- I think I think.. - Close.

- I think, I think... - An alligator.

- An alligator.

Let's look and see.

I'm an alligator.

An alligator.

Crocodile is very close to an alligator, but the clues in this riddle answered an alligator.

- Alligator.

- And I told you that we took that bus somewhere.

Where do you think I took you?

If I took you to the place that an alligator lives.

- A zoo?

- A zoo?

I could have taken you to a zoo.

Where else do alligators live?

- I saw alligators living in the jungle in Florida in lakes or rivers or even swamps.

- [Teacher] You think even swamp?

And then you had a response.

Where do you think I could have taken you?

- They could have lived on a lake.

- They could have lived on a lake.

(gentle upbeat music) I have something special hidden inside this riddle.

And it's about the letter A.

Everybody say "A."

- [Students] A - A.

This is an uppercase A.

It's an uppercase... - [Students] A.

- [Teacher] A. Yeah, and this is a lowercase A.

Say "A."

- [Students] A.

- [Teacher] A.

- That's a lowercase A, and A makes two sounds.

A can say its name and say A or A can say "ah".

Say "ah".

- Ah.

- Yeah, or A can say "A."

Say "A."

- [Students] A.

- Yeah, or A can say "ah".

- [Students] Ah.

- [Teacher] Ah.

So we're going to look and spy the letter A in this riddle.

I'm gonna read the line that says, "Aim your eyes at my mouth that goes snap!"

And anytime you see an A, we're gonna stop and I'm gonna circle it.

So remember we might see an uppercase A or we might see a lowercase A.

- [Student] I see both.

- You might see both.

Sit down so that way everybody can see.

So I'm gonna go slowly.

The first line, the first word in this line, is "aim."

Does anybody see an A?

You do.

Where do you see an A?

Right here.

So I'll circle this letter A in "aim."

Now let's go to the next one.

This is an uppercase A.

"Aim your", do we see a A in this word?

- [Students] No.

- [Teacher] No.

- "Eyes"?

No.

- No.

- "At"?

You all raised your hand.

Where do you see the letter A this time?

Yes, and this is a lowercase A.

So we spy an uppercase A and a lowercase A.

Let's keep going.

"my" no?

"mouth" that..." (student making buzzer sound) Oh oh, let's look closely at "that."

Uh oh, I see a thumbs up.

Is there an A?

You see an A?

All right, I'm gonna go very slowly, 'cause there's letters that make up the word "that."

And then when my finger gets underneath that letter tell me to stop.

T, H, A... - [Students] A!

- I saw one!

- You see one?

Here's the lowercase A, "that" "goes," no?

"snap!"

- [Students] Yes.

- [Teacher] Yes.

There is an A.

Right before the letter P, there's a lowercase A.

You found the letter A in "aim, your eyes at my mouth that goes snap."

Next... - [Students] and another one.

Yep.

There would be, if I kept going, it says, "who am" and you spied that letter A right there in the word "and."

- [Student] I rub my eyes again.

- I, yeah, well, I'm glad you said that, because I have a job for you.

Next you are gonna get a copy of this riddle and you are gonna be a detective and you're gonna spy all the letter As.

So let's get ready.

(upbeat music) Remember, we just learned about two different kinds of letter As.

We learned about the uppercase A, everybody say A.

- [Students] "A."

- and the lowercase A.

Say "A."

- [Students] "A."

- And we read a riddle about an alligator.

Now it's gonna be your turn to be A detectives.

I'm gonna give you a copy of the riddle.

You're gonna help go through each line, and every time you see a letter A, you're gonna circle it.

- All right?

- [Student] Thank you.

- You're welcome.

All right, let's look and see.

Which letter A are you looking for?

- [Student] I'm looking for the new A.

- You're looking for the lower case A.

You see a lower case A?

- Yes!

- Yeah.

- But, but there's two different kinds.

- You're right.

You're noticing that it looks different.

You found it.

It's a letter A in "and."

- [Student] Me (indistinct) - That's the A in alligator, you found it.

I am an alligator.

All three of those letters start with the letter A.

And there was a hidden letter A in the word alligator.

I'm coming around.

Oh, let's see all the letter As you found.

All right, now I'm gonna watch you do the next line and see if you find one.

I didn't even notice that A. Oh did you find all the letter As?

You are an A detective.

You have found all of the letter As.

That was so quick.

I'm curious, how many letter As was in that riddle?

You found them?

All right.

You found 18 letter As?

That's a lot of letter As.

And then tell me about this A right here.

- The uppercase... - That was the uppercase A.

How many uppercase As did we have?

- [Student] We only have one.

- There's only one uppercase A.

- And there, and there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9.

- So far you found 9 lowercase As.

- And one big A!

- And one big or uppercase A.

- Oh!

I, I, forgot... - Look at that.

- I found another one.

- You found another one.

And I think if you go really slow... Yep, there's that missing A.

Great work!

You all were really good A detectives!

All right, so we just found the letter A.

Now we're gonna practice writing the letter A.

We're gonna write an uppercase A.

When we make an uppercase A, we're gonna start at the top of our paper and make a long line down.

Go back to the top, make another long line down, and then we're gonna write a short line across.

This is the letter A.

So I'm gonna give everybody a piece of paper.

You're gonna make an A, an uppercase A in the first line.

And then when you're done, show me.

I think start at the top and slide a long line down.

Go back to the top, a long line down, and then to the middle, a short line across.

You did it!

- [Student] I know I'm gonna make another.

- I know I'm gonna remember.

I'm gonna give you something different.

So you also made an uppercase A.

You made an uppercase A.

And remember we said that A makes two sounds.

A can say its name A, or A can say "ah".

- "ah."

- Yeah.

A says A or A says "ah."

Now I'm gonna give you some wax craft sticks, and I want you to create a letter A in the next space.

Yeah.

See what you can do.

Remember how you wrote the letter A?

Now you're gonna make an A.

- Get one over there?

- An uppercase A.

- [Student] I'm making up, (indistinct) - You're making an uppercase A.

- And now we made a (indistinct).

- With a short line going across, two long lines down, one short line across.

- Look.

- Yeah, you made the letter... - A.

- A.

And remember the two sounds A makes.

A says.. - "ah" - A, "ah," or A says A, yeah.

All right, you all made an uppercase A.

Hold them up and let's see.

(upbeat music) During the episode today, we worked with the letter A.

We worked on the letter name, two sounds that it makes, how to form both uppercase and lowercase A, and we also looked for uppercase and lowercase A in the riddle we solved.

Teaching children the alphabet is an important step in their early learning.

When teaching letters of the alphabet, it is important to be very direct.

We want to tell children the name of each letter of the alphabet, as we are teaching them and not have them guess what it is.

Starting with names of letters in a child's name or names of letters in words they see frequently are generally the easiest places to start.

Names of your street, city, apartment complex, or even your child's school are other ideas to get you started.

Looking for the uppercase and lowercase letter A in text helps children see that letters make words, and words make up texts that we read.

Text is all around us.

And the activity of looking for specific letters can be done with no cost and with materials you already have.

You can use a book, cereal box, magazine, junk mail envelope, newsletter from school, literally anything that has print on it.

And don't forget to use what is outside of your house.

Street signs, billboards, or business names are just as great to use.

You can practice writing letters with any writing utensil and any paper that you have on hand.

It doesn't have to be fancy.

You can use things like pipe cleaners, wax crafts sticks, putty, or clay to make letters.

Whatever you choose to use, just encourage writing to be fun and done frequently at home.

(upbeat music) All right, so you all did such a great job making an uppercase A.

And remember we talked about A makes two sounds.

A says "ah" - "ah" or A says A.

- A See you next time on Read Write Roar.

- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by The Kresge Foundation, the Lauren and Philip Fisher Fund for Children and Education, the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation, the state of Michigan, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music)