- In read, write, roar, we are going to write a letter together to a very special mascot, Ryan the Lion.

We will stamp it and ask our postal worker to make a special delivery.

Fingers crossed he writes back.

Let's go read, write, roar.

- [Narrator] This program is made possible in part by the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation, Elaine Stern Foundation, the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, Donald and Mary Kosch, Lauren and Phillip Fisher, the state of Michigan, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle upbeat music) (lion roaring) - Hi, children, welcome to- - [All] Read, write, roar!

- [Ms. Colon] That was amazing.

I'm so glad you have this much energy because today we are going to be talking about another community helper.

Oh, but I have to tell you about this one.

This one brings a smile to my face.

This community helper delivered a letter to me.

What do you know about the community helper that delivers letters?

- Me!

- They give it to me.

- [Ms. Colon] They do give it to me.

It's a postal worker or a mail carrier.

- Mail!

- [Ms. Colon] Yes!

And this mail carrier, look at this one.

Look at what I got.

I got a letter in the mail.

And look who it's from.

There's a part right here.

It tells me who the letter was from.

- How did they know your name?

- Ryan the Lion!

- You wanna know my name?

It says it right here.

So this is how you address it.

It says, "Ms. Colon," and it has my address on here.

It says, "1234 Read Write Roar Way."

And do you know who it is from?

- [Quincy] Tiger.

- [Ms. Colon] Ryan the Lion, yes!

And inside this letter is a message.

It's a message from Ryan the Lion.

Are you ready to know what it says?

All right, look right here, Quincy.

- Happy birthday!

- It says happy birthday!

Oh, thank you for that.

All right, take a seat.

I'm so glad.

Ah, thank you.

It's so nice to be welcomed on my birthday.

But let's see what this message says.

So listen up.

- [Zooey] I can see one word!

- You can see a word in there?

Yeah, 'cause sometimes when you write, even if it's a birthday card, you write a message, and he did.

He wrote a message inside that says, "Ms. Colon, hope you have an amazing day.

Love, Ryan the Lion."

And that just made me so happy.

(soft music) We are going to write a letter to Ryan the Lion, and then maybe he'll write us all back.

Letters have to be addressed to somebody, and it has to say their name.

So if the letter was to me, it said my name.

If we were writing a letter to Ryan the Lion, whose name has to be on there?

- Ryan!

- Ms. Colon!

- Ryan the Lion!

So let's write it out.

All right, I gotta start at the top.

Ryan.

So let's write Ryan.

Ryan starts with an R. It makes a (growls) sound.

The.

- [Zooey] Leo.

- [Yasmine] Lion.

- [Ms. Colon] Oh, that's gonna be the next one.

You already have the beginning sound for lion.

Yeah, lion starts with a L, lion.

We have this addressed to Ryan the Lion so that way Ryan knows that this letter is for him.

But I'm wondering what the message is because usually there's a message or something we wanna say.

Hmm, I'm gonna start, and then I want you to think about what it is.

I'm gonna say, "Ryan the Lion, I love-" - Love you.

- [Ms. Colon] That would be great.

I'm gonna say I love you.

I.

Love.

- [Zooey] Make a heart too.

- [Ms. Colon] Oh, I can make a heart too.

That way he would know.

- [Zooey] I'll make the heart.

- [Ms. Colon] All right, come up here and make a heart for me, Zooey.

Yep, bring it down to...

There you go.

Oh, thank you.

And then Yasmine, and you'll be next.

Yasmine coming up and make a heart right up here for Ryan the Lion.

- I know how to do it.

- You know how to do it.

All right, and then Quincy.

Oh, he's gonna feel so much love.

All right, make another heart for Ryan the Lion.

- I made a baby heart.

- You did.

- That's how you make it.

- Oh.

So let's look at what we already have.

It says, "Ryan the Lion, I love you."

- [Zooey] I know.

- [Ms. Colon] What, Zooey?

- I'll give you a gift card.

- [Ms. Colon] Ooh, I'll give you a gift card.

- A Mario one.

- [Ms. Colon] Ooh, what is it he's gonna spend that on?

Let me write that down.

All right, let's start from the top and read what we have.

And then Quincy, you're gonna tell me what's next.

It says, "Ryan the Lion, I love you," with three hearts 'cause we really love them.

"I'll give you a gift card."

So we'll write, "Ms. Colon is my teacher."

We'll end it with, "I'll give you a toy."

And then we end our sentence with a period.

So let's read it all together, and then you have to sign your name so he knows we wrote this.

It says, "Ryan the Lion, I love you."

- I'll give you a gift card.

- Ms. Colon is my teacher.

- I'll give you a toy.

- There it is.

And then we could say, love, and then write your name.

So I'll start.

Love Ms. Colon.

And then Zooey, you can write your name.

- I wanna write my name too.

- Yep, you'll be next.

Have a seat and wait for me to call you.

You're waiting so patiently.

It's gonna be your turn.

Yeah.

There he is.

And then Yasmine.

- I'll give it to Yasmine.

- Yep, give it to Yasmine, and then Yasmine will write her name.

- I'm making space.

- You're making some space.

- 'Cause I have a big one.

- You do have a big name.

- [Quincy] How me gonna draw my name?

- Well, I have some space over here.

- Oh my God, I think I ran out of space.

- You ran out of space.

Hmm, what could you do if you've run out of space?

What might you do?

- I can make tiny ones.

- You could make tiny letters.

Let's see.

Do you need to get down?

Yep, have a seat.

Go sit down until it's your turn.

I know, it's so hard.

You did it.

You made those really tiny to get your name to fit.

And then Quincy, there's a space for you to write your name right here.

Q. U.

- I.

- I.

- N. - N. - C. - C. - Y.

- Y. Quincy.

How will he get this letter?

- I know!

- I know!

- Oh, I know, I know, I know!

- We can deliver it to him.

- We can deliver it, but what does it have to go in?

- I know!

- In a... - In a?

- In his big mail.

- In his big mail.

- No, in an envelope.

- In an envelope.

Yes, everybody say envelope.

- [All] Envelope.

- An envelope.

- Just like that!

- Oh, that's huge!

- Yes!

- Just like that.

- It is huge because Ryan the Lion is really big, and we love him a lot.

So let's put it in there.

Hold onto this.

- I'm gonna hold it.

- All right.

- I wanna put it in.

- Put it in right there.

- I'm about to give this to the lion.

- We are, but- - All of us.

- We are, but have a seat 'cause I have one more thing 'cause we're missing something.

- Ow.

- Uh oh, you got it?

So here's the thing.

Before we deliver this, it has Ms. Colon's class, so that way he knows who it's from.

It says Ryan the Lion.

- [Zooey] We need to write our names!

- We have her name on there.

But what does the postal worker have to have- - I know!

- In order to send it?

- I know, I know!

- What?

- A bag.

- Well, they do have to have a bag.

But before we add this, I'm gonna show you the letter that I received, and you tell me.

It has to have a stamp.

- [Quincy] I know, you forgot, Ms. Colon, you forgot to give him five money.

- [Ms. Colon] Well, money, I would have to pay, and sometimes you can go to a post office and you can pay for a stamp, and then this will be delivered.

Yasmine, I'm so excited.

Today you get to write a letter to one of our classmates.

Yeah, you're gonna write your letter to- - Quincy.

- Quincy.

So remember we talked about that the outside of the letter tells you who you're addressing it to.

Write Quincy's name on here so that he knows that this letter's for him.

Q. U. I. N. C. Y.

All right, so Quincy knows this is to him.

And remember, inside that envelope, we have a message.

What message do you wanna write to Quincy?

- [Yasmine] I'll give you a surprise.

- [Ms. Colon] Oh, I'll give you a surprise.

Ready?

I'll give you a surprise.

How many words is that?

- One, two, three, four, five.

- [Ms. Colon] All right, let's see.

I'll give you a surprise.

And let's read our message to Quincy.

- [Both] I'll give you a surprise.

- All right, so now put your message inside the envelope.

- You can't put it like that.

- Well, oh, here.

You're thinking it needs something else?

Will it fit inside there?

- I think it needs... Oh, there it goes.

- Oh, there it goes.

All right, and before you get to deliver it, what goes on the outside?

Do you remember what goes in the corner?

A stamp.

Yeah, yeah, I have a stamp for you right here.

And now you get to be a community helper, a postal worker.

Put it inside your bag, and then I'll have you deliver it to Quincy's mailbox and put it inside.

Open it up and deliver your letter.

You stuffed it inside.

Great job.

(lion roars) In a world filled with technology and everything coming at a rapid speed, why not take the opportunity to slow things down?

Spending time composing, writing and mailing letters to friends and family is one way to do that.

While composing content for letters, we have a chance to engage in extended conversations with our children by asking open-ended questions.

For example, if you're helping your child write a letter to their teacher in the summer, you could ask, "What would you like to tell your teacher about the trip we took to the library?"

The way your child answers will guide the writing.

After you come up with ideas to write about, it's time to get started.

Your child can either write on their own, which is a great way to strengthen the small muscles in their hands and fingers, or they might ask you to write down what they say.

Either way works.

You know your child best and you can encourage them to even combine the two by having your child write their message, and then you copy it down in your own handwriting.

You're honoring your child's independent work, and also reinforcing that thoughts are connected to words, and that words, when read, send a message.

What's the last step?

Well, let's get that letter in the mail.

Talk through each part of this process by narrating.

First, we fold up the letter.

Next, we put it into the envelope.

Then we seal the envelope.

We need to write the name and address on the envelope, which tells our postal worker who we are writing to and where they should deliver it.

Finally, we add a stamp.

Now let's drop it in the mailbox so it can be picked up and delivered.

Cards and postcards are other types of mail that you could send with the help of your child.

Who's first on your mailing list?

I had so much fun writing a letter today.

We talked about the community helper of a postal worker.

And who is that postal worker gonna deliver our letter to?

- I know.

- [Ms. Colon] Who?

- Ryan the Lion.

- [Ms. Colon] Ryan the Lion.

If we had to write Ryan the Lion a letter, and we wanted him to write us back and answer the question, what would you ask him?

I'm gonna go first.

I would ask him, what's your favorite ice cream?

Zooey, what question would you ask?

- Would you like to eat?

Do you like strawberries or blueberries?

- [Ms. Colon] Ooh, what would you like to eat?

Yasmine, what question would you ask Ryan the Lion?

- Do you like ice cream or you like lollipops?

- [Ms. Colon] Ooh, do you like ice cream or lollipops?

And then Quincy, what question would you ask Ryan the Lion?

- I know.

Do you like chicken nuggets in the Kid's Meal?

- See you next time!

- [All] On read, write, roar!

- [Narrator] This program is made possible in part by the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation, Elaine Stern Foundation, the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, Donald and Mary Kosch, Lauren and Phillip Fisher, the state of Michigan, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) (flourishing music)