- Hello, readers.

Today, we are going to focus on the big question.

What is special about Michigan?

We are going to work with compound words.

What are those?

Read some important facts about Michigan and race to write an informational text.

For today's episode, you'll need something to write on.

Even a scratch piece of paper or an envelope is fine, and you'll need something to write with like a crayon or a pencil.

Come and join us for "Read, Write, Roar!"

- [Narrator] For this program is made possible in part by the Michigan Department of Education, The State of Michigan, and the WK Kellogg Foundation.

Additional support by... And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright music) - Welcome, readers.

My name is Mrs.

Friend.

Today, we're going to do some work with compound words.

Do you know what a compound word is?

You're right.

It's two smaller words, and when we put them together, it makes a new word.

Our goal today is to be able to read and understand compound words.

Let's do a warmup.

Are you ready?

I'll say two words.

We'll put them together, and then we'll make a new word.

When we make that new word with the two smaller words put together, we're making the compound word.

Are you ready?

Here we go.

Our first two words that we're going to put together are out, side.

Outside.

Great job.

Are you ready for our next one?

Next is play, ground.

Playground.

Lunch, room.

Lunchroom.

Book, case.

Bookcase.

Readers, you're doing great.

Let's keep going.

Class, room.

Classroom.

Text, book.

Textbook.

Just a few more, readers.

Here we go.

Hall, way.

Hallway.

White, board.

Whiteboard.

Home, work.

Homework.

Readers, you did a fantastic job helping me put both of those smaller words together to make the new compound word.

Did you hear how when we put both words together, we made a brand new compound word.

Fantastic work.

Let's try reading some of these words.

Looking for parts you know in a larger word is a strategy or a tool that we can use to help us read.

We will divide each compound word into its parts.

Read each part, and then slide the parts together to make the compound word.

The challenge is to decide where to break apart these words.

For compound words, we always divide after the first word.

Let's take a look at our first word.

To help us read compound words, we can loop and swoop each word part to help us put them together.

In order to do this, I'm going to slide until I see the end of my first word.

The end of my first word that I see is blue.

So there's my first loop.

The second word I see is berry.

So I'm going to make my second loop here.

Now I'm going to slide both of these words together to read my compound word.

Blueberry.

Blueberry.

Hmm, what's a blueberry?

Oh, I know.

It's a berry that's blue.

We have lots of blueberries that grow here in Michigan.

Yum!

Readers, are you ready to try and help me read our second compound word?

Here we go.

Here's our second word.

Just like before, I'm going to slide until I see the end of my first word.

My first word looks like beach.

Now I'm going to slide until the end of my second word.

My second word is ball.

Now I'm going to slide both of these words together to make my compound word.

Beachball.

Great job, readers.

Here's our next word.

All right, here we go.

Let's slide until we find the end of our first word.

The end of my first words right here.

So my first word looks like it is straw.

My second word is berry.

Straw, berry.

Strawberry.

Great job.

Here's our next word.

Are you ready to slide with me?

Light, house.

Lighthouse.

We also have lots of lighthouses here in Michigan because of all of our Great Lakes.

Great job.

We've got one more.

Here we go.

Let's get ready to slide.

Land, mass.

Landmass.

I know a mass is a really big chunk of something.

So a landmass must be a really big chunk of land.

Michigan is made up of two different pieces of landmass, our Lower Peninsula and our Upper Peninsula.

Readers, thank you so much for helping me read these compound words today.

You did such a great job.

Now that we're getting so good at reading compound words, let's try reading some of these words in a story.

We're going to be word detectives.

Every time you see a compound word in our story, I want you to go ahead and write it down on your scratch piece of paper or envelope.

Are you ready?

Here we go.

One summer day in Michigan, I went blueberry, blueberry picking with my grandmother.

Grandmother.

The sunshine, sunshine was bright and warm.

We picked so many berries!

We were starving so we got hotdogs, hotdogs and ice cream.

I hope next time we can go strawberry, strawberry picking!

Readers, I'm gonna read this story one more time without stopping so you can hear what it sounds like fluently.

Are you ready to listen?

One summer day in Michigan, I went blueberry picking with my grandmother.

The sunshine was bright and warm.

We picked so many berries!

We were starving so we got hotdogs and ice cream.

I hope next time we can go strawberry picking!

Were you able to write down all of those compound words that you heard or saw in our story?

Let's check.

Blueberry, grandmother, sunshine, hotdogs, strawberry.

Did you get them all?

Fantastic work, readers.

Now it's your turn to write.

When we write words, we listen for the word parts in each word and then we listen for the sounds in each word part.

Let's try one together.

Are you ready?

Our first word is firefly.

Can you say that word with me?

Firefly.

When I say the word firefly, I hear fire, fly, two word parts.

So on my whiteboard, I'm going to draw two lines.

One for each of those word parts.

Fire, fly.

On your paper, will you draw two lines also?

Now in my first word, I hear the sounds f, i, r, fire.

Hey, I know how to spell that word.

In my second word, I hear the sounds f, l, y, fly.

I know how to spell that word, too.

Now It's time for us to put both of our words together to make our compound word.

Fire, fly.

Firefly.

Have you seen a firefly before?

They're fun to spot in the summertime, aren't they?

Are you ready for our next word, readers?

Get your papers ready.

Our next word is sunshine.

When I say the word sun, shine, I hear two word parts.

Let's draw two lines down on our paper or whiteboard, so we're ready to go.

Sun, shine.

When I say the first word sun, I hear the sounds s, uh, n, sun.

When I say the second word shine, I hear sh, i, n, shine.

Now I need to put each of those word parts together to build our compound word.

Sun, shine.

Sunshine.

Did you have sunshine at your house today?

We did.

Readers, fantastic work.

Are you up for a challenge word?

I thought you might be.

Are you ready?

Here we go.

Okay, our challenge word is watermelon.

Can you say that word with me?

Watermelon.

When I say watermelon, I hear water, melon.

So I'm going to draw two lines.

One for water, one for melon.

Can you do the same on your paper?

Now we need to listen for the sounds that we hear in water.

W, a, t, er, water.

Now let's listen for the sounds we hear in melon.

M, e, l, n, melon.

Great job, readers.

You know what to do now.

We have to put each of these words together to build our compound word.

Water, melon.

Watermelon.

A piece of watermelon sounds pretty juicy and refreshing right now.

Readers, you did such a fantastic job building these compound words and writing them down with me.

Great work.

(gentle music) - Aanii, boozhoo, readers.

Today, we are going to be thinking about what is so special about Michigan.

And while we do this, we are going to be reading this fantastic informational book.

It is called "Exploring The States, Michigan, The Great Lake State".

This is written by Amy Rechner and we have special permission to read it by Bellwether Media.

While we read, we are gonna be focusing on thinking about what is the main idea.

And then of course, our important details.

Where is Michigan?

Michigan sits in two parts in the northern Midwest.

The larger part is a peninsula shaped like a mitten.

This is called the Lower Peninsula.

To the north is the Upper Peninsula.

Lake Michigan and Lake Huron separate these two landmasses.

Wisconsin lies southwest of the Upper Peninsula.

The rest of the peninsula is surrounded mostly by Lake Superior, Michigan, and Huron.

Canada lies to the north of the Upper Peninsula and east of the Lower Peninsula.

Indiana and Ohio are neighbors to the south.

The state capital of Lansing stands in the middle of the Lower Peninsula.

What could be our main idea?

Yes, we're gonna learn all about Michigan and what makes Michigan so special.

We learned two really important things about Michigan.

One, that it's made of two peninsulas, the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula.

We also learned that the capital is Lansing.

History.

I'm noticing that as a text feature, that's right, it's in the heading position.

This is the heading of the page.

Native Americans were the first people to live in Michigan.

French explorers arrived from Canada in the 1600s.

They traded with the native tribes.

England took control of the land after the French and Indian War.

The United States gained the region after the Revolutionary War.

Michigan became a state in 1837.

Are you noticing something over here, friends?

Right!

Another text feature.

This text feature is called a timeline.

And the timeline is course about Michigan.

Michigan's timeline.

It starts in 1618, 1622, and goes all the way to 1974.

You can also see another text feature.

We have a map of Michigan and where it belongs in the United States, the Midwest.

And we also have a little text box along with... That's a right, a picture of Andrew Jackson.

Did you know in 1835, Michigan and Ohio fought each other for the city of Toledo.

President Andrew Jackson gave the city to Ohio.

Michigan got the Upper Peninsula instead.

Now let's go ahead and think.

If our main idea about this page is the history, what were some important facts or details you learned, friends?

Hmm.

Well, let's first put our heading and next, I learned that... Hmm.

Well, the Native Americans lived here first and that Michigan became a state in 1837.

Ooh, let's use our text for clues again, friends.

What do you notice?

A heading.

Excellent.

I think this page is gonna be all about the land.

Different land that we can find in Michigan.

Fun fact.

Michigan is the only place where Petoskey stones are found.

Their rare pattern was formed around 350 million years ago by a plant-like animal called coral.

And there's our picture box with a caption Petoskey stone.

Michigan's two peninsulas have very different terrain.

Hmm, I wonder what that word terrain means?

I'm noticing that it's dark type.

I bet you, I can find it in the glossary.

Terrain is the surface features of an area of land.

Let's keep reading.

What kind of land features does Michigan have?

Or terrain, the new word we just learned.

The Lower Peninsula has high bluffs along its shore.

Gently rolling hills into rich farmland in the south.

Sand dunes line the western coast, and large lakes dot the northwest.

Damp air from the Great Lakes brings snowy winters and sticky summers.

Much of the Upper Peninsula is wilderness.

It is covered with thick forest and rocky land.

The Huron and Porcupine Mountains march along the Lake Superior shore.

The Upper Peninsula has a much cooler climate than the Lower Peninsula, especially in the winter.

Land.

I think that we could write land as our next main idea.

That was the heading of our text.

Now, what were some important details that you learned as we read about the land of Michigan?

Hmm.

This is some time to think.

I learned the new word terrain, which is just another way that we can say land features.

We learned that word in science.

So terrain, we learned about the bluffs and those are cliffs.

Uh-huh, cliffs over by Lake Superior.

And then I learned about the sand dunes on the west side of Michigan by Lake Michigan.

And, oh my goodness.

We also learned about the mountains in the Upper Peninsula.

One way we can always remember our Great Lakes is by using the acronym H.O.M.E.S, Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.

Those are our five Great Lakes.

Moving on.

The next section has a heading titled Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park covers the northwest corner of the Upper Peninsula.

It boasts one of the largest uncut hardwood forests in the country.

The Porcupine Mountains inside the park are 2 billion years old.

They rise near the Lake Superior shore.

More than 90 waterfalls break up the park's rivers.

Colorful striped rocks called agates are scattered on the beaches.

Lake Superior's strong waves create ice volcanoes in the winter.

Water freezes and builds up in a cone shape on the shore.

Pounding waves spurt water up through the cone.

Oh, and those are so fun to see.

Oh, fantastic.

So what did we learn?

Wow.

This section was about a state park and we learned in particularly the specific details about the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

Oh my goodness.

We learned that it has a lot of hardwoods, compound word, and ice volcanoes.

Our next section is all about wildlife.

Michigan's land and waters provide shelter for a wide range of wildlife.

Black bears and moose can be found in the northern forest.

Deer roam both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

The animals that once attracted fur traders to Michigan still live in the wild.

Minks, muskrats, and foxes are just a few of these.

The state's lakes and rivers are filled with perch, bass, and walleye.

Ducks, herons, and egrets live nearby.

Owls, woodpeckers, and hundreds of songbirds fly through Michigan's wooded areas.

Songbirds, that's another compound word.

Fantastic.

So, what did we learn?

Our heading was all about wildlife.

And we could name them all if you wanted to.

Foxes and muskrat and bears and deer.

Oh my goodness.

How about, let's just say that Michigan has all kinds of animals.

We have the four-legged, the winged animals, and don't forget our swimming animals as well.

Friends, great job today.

You have worked really hard with me to understand and to pull out the main idea as well as the details using not only our text features, but the text in the book as examples.

Migwatch.

Thank you.

Scholars, we have learned so much about Michigan and what makes it truly special.

Did you know, I had a friend the other day who lives in Arizona, ask me, "What makes Michigan so special?"

And I thought to myself, "Hmm, so many things, right."

But maybe I could get together my thoughts and ideas so that I could write an informational letter to her to explain why Michigan is so special.

Today, to help me do this.

I'm gonna use the RACE strategy.

This strategy R, is gonna help me restate the question.

It's going to then A, help me answer the question.

Then I'm going to C, cite the evidence.

And then of course, I'm going to E, explain my evidence.

So the first thing I need to do is restate the question.

She said, "What makes Michigan so special?"

Hmm.

How do I put that?

Oh!

I could say Michigan is very special!

Michigan is very special.

I have just restated the question.

That's one way you could do it.

I could also say, "What makes Michigan so special?

Let me tell you."

And that would be another way we could R, restate the question.

Let's go on to the next part.

A, answer the question.

Hmm.

Well, we've learned so much about Michigan, but I think what's really kind of cool about Michigan is that it's made of two peninsulas!

the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula, my friends.

Right?

We are the only state made of two peninsulas.

Hmm, how could I... Michigan is the only state made from two peninsulas.

Now I've answered the question.

Our next job is to C, cite the evidence.

Well, now we have to think back to the book.

What did the author say?

Oh yeah, the author said that a peninsula is mostly surrounded by water.

So a peninsula is surrounded on three sides, and Michigan is made up of two peninsulas.

Wow.

So, I could say, "In the book, the author told us that Michigan is mostly surrounded by water."

That's right.

Good job.

E, our last step, explain our evidence.

Well, did you use HOMES to help you remember all of our Great Lakes?

Maybe we could use this to help explain about how Michigan is mostly surrounded by water.

So I wrote to my friend to explain my evidence that this is because it is bordered by four of the five Great Lakes, Michigan, Erie, Huron, and Superior.

Friends, today, you have helped me organize my thoughts on how Michigan is such a very special place to live so that I can write my informational letter to my friend in Arizona.

We used the RACE strategy to help us organize our thoughts and ideas.

We started with restate the question.

Then we went to A, answer the question, C, cite the evidence, and E, explain our evidence.

Now remember, when you are writing to your friends about informational stuff that you wanna teach them about, you can use the RACE strategy to help you write, too.

Howa, scholars.

You have done a great job learning about those compound words.

And we also went through main idea and important details as we read that informational text.

And don't forget, we used the RACE strategy to help us organize some thoughts and ideas and how I could explain how Michigan is so special.

Who are you gonna tell all about Michigan, my friends?

Great!

Awesome!

Well, I can't wait to see you next time on "Read, Write, Roar!"

Baamaapii waabamin.

- [Narrator] This program is made possible in part by the Michigan Department of Education, The State of Michigan, and the WK Kellogg Foundation.

Additional support by... And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright music)