- On "Read, Write, ROAR," learn about how maps can help us connect with special memories as we explore Belle Isle State Park.

Then learn all about Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

Put on your best walking shoes and let's go, "Read, Write, ROAR."

- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by, the state of Michigan, and by.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(energetic music) - Here's a mystery riddle.

What island in Michigan has its own aquarium, conservatory, and nature center?

Belle Isle Park.

Belle Isle is a stunning state park in the Detroit River.

Everywhere you look, there's beauty and history.

I just visited Belle Isle with my family and it got me thinking about special places.

I'm Mrs. DeFauw, and I love Michigan State Parks.

Belle Isle Park is very special to me.

When I visit a special place like Belle Isle, especially with people I care about, I like to reminisce or remember those experiences.

My experiences give me ideas for topics I can write about.

When I was at Belle Isle I picked up this map.

Maps are marvelous because they can take a large piece of land, like this 985-acre island park, and create a smaller image where we can locate all that Belle Isle has to offer visitors.

We can also use this map to jot or write short memories.

Today we are going to create maps of our favorite places and use those maps to help us think of writing topics.

One of my favorite things at Belle Isle is right here, the James Scott Memorial Fountain.

With my three children, we start every family trip to Belle Isle by first visiting the fountain to take our picture.

James Scott was an eccentric.

That is a person who behaves in an unusual way.

He was a wealthy landowner in Detroit.

When he died in 1910, he left all of his money to the city, but only if they agreed to build a fountain featuring a life-sized statue of himself.

If we look over here, we can see two really popular buildings on Belle Isle, the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, and the Belle Isle Aquarium.

I love to visit the conservatory with my family.

A conservatory is a building with a glass roof and walls, like a greenhouse.

It is over a century old.

This conservatory was built in 1904.

It is the oldest continually operating conservatory in the United States.

It features a huge collection of plants.

In fact, the conservatory is named after Anna Scripps Whitcomb because she donated her collection of 600 orchid plants to the conservatory back in 1955.

Next to the conservatory sits the Belle Isle Aquarium, which up until it closed in 2005, was the oldest continually running aquarium in the United States.

But don't worry, the aquarium reopened in 2012.

My kids love the aquarium.

We never miss it.

It's such a magical place.

Have you ever been to a place that is special to you?

Don't forget about your home, that's a special place too.

No matter where you've been, you have topics to explore in your writing.

Writers, we have a special superpower.

Even though our lives may seem ordinary, when we choose to see our lives as writers, our lives become extraordinary.

Let me show you a map of one of the ordinary places for my childhood that I choose to see as extraordinary.

Right here in my yard, I jotted down a memory I have of writing on the birch trees white bark.

This dog house reminds me of our playful dog.

Here in the front yard, I remember seeing my parents pick up my younger brother who had been lost for hours.

By using the map of my childhood home.

I now have ideas for stories I could write.

I'm not sure I could craft a story about the three birch trees, but maybe I can write about them in a different way.

I definitely could write stories about my dog and my brother.

I want you to create your own map.

Let's get started.

Writers, picture a place you love.

A room in your home, a place you visit.

Can you see that place in your mind?

Take a moment to draw a map of your special place.

Have the people around you create a map too.

It's really fun to have people you care about and have shared experiences with to create a map of the same place.

The ideas they write down on their map will probably be a little different, even if it's the same experience.

Take a few moments to jot down your memories on your map.

Did any of your memories surprise you?

Which memories could you write up as stories, poems, or reflections?

While you were creating your map and jotting down your ideas I checked out my two maps and looked for a topic I felt motivated to write about today.

At first, those birch trees seem ordinary, but they were extraordinary to me.

I'm excited to share with you a poem I wrote based on the memory I jotted on my map.

Please read along with me using your prosody, which means expression.

When we read with fluency, we read with prosody.

"Once Upon a Birch Tree."

Sitting under my three birch trees, I love to watch the green leaves dance with the invisible wind.

Flashes of sunlight seem to skip leaf to leaf.

Inspired by my birch trees, I peel away a piece of tree, pull out a pencil, a pen, a crayon, a stick, or even a rock, and etch my words into the soft bark.

My birch trees listen to my ideas, my stories, my moments, my memories.

Take some time to write your special memories.

You can write a poem like I did, or you can write anything you wish.

A list, a journal entry, a story.

Let the writing take you back to that moment so you can share your memories with others.

Our lives are extraordinary, just like Belle Isle Park.

Using maps can help us create more ideas to explore in our writing and conversations.

I hope you'll always choose to share your writing with others.

(upbeat music) (calm music) - Ms. AP here to help restore your energy.

Today we are going to be learning how to do some basic yoga poses.

But before we do, let's start with our warmup.

Since we already learned how to do a squat in the last unit, let's do three squats to warm up.

One, two, three.

Nice job.

Now that we've warmed up our body, we are ready to exercise.

Today we are going to learn another yoga pose called the halfway lift, which is typically what we do from the forward fold.

So today we are gonna move from our forward fold into our halfway lift.

We're gonna start in our tall mountain, our ready position.

Take a deep breath in.

Arms are up.

We are gonna breathe out into our forward fold, holding that stretch there, gently rolling into our halfway lift.

You can place your hands on your shins or just have them hanging.

Coming to your rolling tall mountain.

Last time, deep breath in.

Arms up.

Into your forward fold, breathing out.

Gently coming into your halfway lift.

We are gonna finish in our tall mountain and give yourselves a big clap clap.

(claps) Nice job.

Let's cool down by taking two deep breaths.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Great job.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Did you know that the Silver Beach County Park in St. Joseph, Michigan was once the ground of a and exciting amusement park?

From 1891 to 1971, the Silver Beach Amusement Park stood on these grounds.

Visitors could feel the rush of a roller coaster, experience the magic of a carousel ride, and danced to the rhythms of big bands at the iconic Shadow Land Ballroom.

- They danced frequently.

That was the fun of that era.

They would go out and dance, and boy, they love their dancing.

- Dancing was wonderful.

Dancing was done everywhere and people could never get enough of it because there weren't TVs and other amusements.

- [Narrator] However, couples were reluctant to dance in the pavilion due to its uneven flooring.

But as luck would have it, good or bad, a powerful storm damaged the pavilion.

And during the repairs, the dance floor was replaced by smooth maple flooring and the dancing began in earnest.

- And then on weekends, I had every other weekend.

So that weekend was spent dancing, and my husband took me to all the ballrooms in the area and there were a lot of them at the time.

- [Narrator] Over the years, several dance pavilions graced the shore of Paw Paw Lake in Coloma.

Beachwood Point Dance Pavilion, Woodward's Pavilion, and the last and grandest pavilion on Paw Paw, the Crystal Palace.

There was the Paradise Ballroom in Benton Harbor, also known as the Palais Ballroom, and the Eden Springs Dance Hall, also in Benton Harbor.

But the grandest of all, Logan Drake's dream come true, the ballroom that attracted thousands of dancers and the best bands was the jewel in the crown of Silver Beach, Shadowland.

Shadowland was the grandest of all the area dance halls with an immaculate floor, theatrical lighting, and decorated in art deco grandeur.

- That was a big deal when they built that.

It was the most beautiful, beautiful building, just gorgeous.

He had hired all kinds of people to come in and study 'cause he didn't want any support beams.

He wanted to open and he heard of a building that had been built without that.

And he went and studied it, hired the guy, and they built it and it was just beautiful.

- And it was terrific.

It had yards and yards of silk when it was first opened.

It was the glamour spot, and of course it was all live music.

- [Narrator] The grand opening on Saturday, April 30th, 1927 attracted more than 3,000 dancers ready to scuff the proverbial parquet, packing the pavilion with light footed free spirits, eager to take a turn on the magnificent dance floor.

- It just had the beautiful dance floor, real shiny, and it was a big floor.

When the orchestra would play, you had all you could do to get around the floor one time with a song.

It was that big.

That beautiful floor.

- You know, and when he decided to do the dance hall, he didn't just put up a dance hall, he wanted the best and he attracted the big bands because of it.

- These traveling bands would come through, Benny Goodman and Glen Miller being the the best known of 'em.

But there were a lot of these big band dance halls.

- And so with the big bands that came in here to Shadowland, it was the thing to do to see some of the best musicians that were in the country.

- All that era, the big band era.

My dad could tell you every single name because he was there dancing to those people.

- [Narrator] Shadowland saw many great bands on its stage over the years, with regulars like Wayne King and his orchestra.

(cheerful music) Dan Russo and the Orioles.

(cheerful music) Paul Tremaine.

(upbeat music) Harry Shannon.

(lively music) Laurie Sherman.

(cheerful music) Tommy Dorsey and his band.

(lively music) The Glenn Miller Orchestra.

(lively music) And a host of singers and entertainers whose names are, for the most part, long forgotten now but were an important part of the dance scene at Shadowland and an indelible memory for those who danced there.

- It was a dancing time.

- [Narrator] Today, visitors can experience the shores of Lake Michigan, take a ride on the Silver Beach Carousel, and perhaps attend an event at Shadowland on Silver Beach, a modern homage to the historic ballroom.

(upbeat music) - Hi scholars, Mrs.

Mask here.

Michigan has so many wonderful places to visit.

Have you heard of the Porcupine Mountains, or the Porkies, as they're sometimes called?

Well, today we're going to learn about this wonderful destination.

While we are reading together about the Porcupine Mountains, we'll answer the following questions.

Where are the Porcupine Mountains?

What activities do people enjoy doing at the Porkies?

When is the best time of year to visit the Porcupine Mountains?

Answering these questions will give us a purpose for reading.

We will also practice thinking aloud about what we are reading.

These ways of interacting with the text help us to better understand it.

Let's get started.

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, also known as the Porkies, is a big wild area in Michigan.

It's in the Upper Peninsula and has over 60,000 acres of land with lots of old trees, rivers, waterfalls, and really old mountains.

That's the answer to the where question.

They're in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, near and along Lake Superior.

The Porkies were formed over a billion years ago.

Even though they're not super tall, the views are amazing.

The mountains were formed from volcanic activity and they rise sharply from Lake Superior to provide some of the most beautiful views in Michigan.

A long time ago, the Ojibwa people lived near the mountains.

They thought the mountains were special, and that spirits live there.

Today people still respect the land.

Hikers, campers, and others visit to get away from the city life and enjoy nature.

I think it's great that people still take care of the land and they visit to experience the joys of nature.

It's so important to take care of the Earth since it supplies us with what we need to live.

One of the coolest places in the park is Lake of the Clouds.

It's a lake high in the mountains and the most famous attraction.

The lake is surrounded by thick forest and rugged hills.

The view is breathtaking, especially in the fall when they are ablaze with color.

When you look at it, it feels so peaceful and quiet, like time slows down.

Hiking to the overlook is easy and is one of the most photographed spots in the park.

I bet just looking at that great view will help anyone to relax and forget about their troubles.

So hiking was named here as an activity, but earlier campers were mentioned.

So camping is another activity I can add.

There're also waterfalls to see, some near the Presque Isle River.

Some other popular ones are Manido Falls, Nawadaha Falls, and Manabezho Falls.

In addition to waterfalls, the Porcupine Mountains have streams, rivers, and smaller lakes that add to the landscape.

For winter visitors, the Porcupine Mountains offer great places for cross country skiing and snowshoeing.

There's even a ski area for downhill skiing and snowboarding, with a variety of runs for different skill levels.

Wow, more activities to add.

Cross country skiing, snowshoeing, downhill skiing, and snowboarding too.

One of the most unique features of the Porcupine Mountains is their old-growth forest.

Hmm, I wonder what an old-growth forest is.

Those forests are made up of trees that have been growing for hundreds of years, undisturbed by human activity.

The old-growth trees include species like sugar maple, hemlock, and yellow birch.

Some trees here are believed to be over 400 years old.

Those towering giants not only provide beauty and shade, but also serve as habitats for many species and wildlife.

Old-growth forests are rare in the Midwest, making the Porcupine Mountains an important area for conservation, which means protecting the natural world and the resources it provides, such as water, air, plants, and animals.

Oh, now I know what an old-growth forest is.

The park is big and wild.

The trees are huge and old, and sometimes you might even see a black bear.

Winters here are cold and there's lots of snow, so only brave people go hiking and skiing in the winter.

I don't like cold weather, so visiting the Porcupine Mountains in the winter months would not be a good idea for me.

A lot of people come to the Porkies to turn off their phones and relax.

There's no phone service and that's what makes it special.

It's a place to enjoy nature and feel like you are part of something really big.

Well, as we were reading together, we were able to answer two of our three questions.

The one that I wasn't sure about answering was, when is the best time of the year to visit the Porcupine Mountains?

Well, we didn't answer this question directly, but it looks like you can visit and find fun things to do all year long at the Porcupine Mountains.

So the answer to that one is anytime.

Asking questions and thinking aloud while we read are strategies to help us remember and understand.

The next time you're reading, try these strategies out on your own.

(upbeat music) - Hello, I'm Miss Audra, and today we're going 65 million years back to the dinosaur.

So start to think about your favorite dinosaur or the sound that you think they might have made.

But first, let's take our deep breath in together.

Here we go.

(calm music) And blow it out any way you want.

And breath in, and hold.

And breathe out.

So think about a dinosaur and the sound you think they might make.

The wings of the pterodactyl flying through the night.

The sound of T-Rex.

The brachiosaurus, those heavy feet, making that sound.

Whatever dinosaur sounds you wanna make today, don't forget to use your hands, your arms, or your whole body if you can.

All right, on the count three, I'm gonna listen.

One, two, three.

I'm gonna make my sound.

(Audra imitates footsteps thudding) On the count of three, one, two, three, we're gonna pause.

Nice job.

Think about all the beautiful songs that we made.

We used our imagination to go 65 million years in the past and visit the dinosaurs.

Let's take our deep breath in together as we say goodbye.

Here we go.

And hold and blow it out.

Nice.

See you next time.

(upbeat music) ♪ Know yourself, be self-aware ♪ Check your feeling, show you care ♪ ♪ Manage actions, keep your cool ♪ ♪ Reach your goals, follow the rules ♪ ♪ See your friend, understand their view ♪ ♪ Share a smile, that's what we do ♪ ♪ Make good choices, think it through ♪ ♪ Make good choices, think it through ♪ - What is it called when you work together with other people to reach a goal, complete a project, or cooperate to play a game?

This superpower and skill is called collaboration.

Greetings, I am Ms. Yarnell, your 21st Century skills coach.

What are 21st Century skills?

21st Century skills are the skills and knowledge you need to do well, be happy, and keep learning in school and in life.

And today we're setting sail on a fantastic journey into why collaboration and teamwork are super important.

Are you ready?

All aboard, future captains!

Consider scientists working together to find a cure for diseases or artists creating a vast mural.

They talk, share ideas, and solve problems together and you can do the same.

So how can we become better at collaborating?

Here are a few tips.

Listen to each other as it your putting together a group puzzle.

Missing even one piece of what someone says could mean missing out on seeing the whole picture.

Pitch in your idea like everyone's building a giant tower using magnetic blocks together.

Your piece might be just what's needed to make it stronger and taller.

If someone shares an idea that you don't agree with, imagine you're giving their thought a gentle high five, not a thumbs down.

We can disagree, but still be friendly and kind.

It's let taken turns on the swing at the park.

Everyone waits patiently for their turn so that everyone can have fun swinging.

Make sure you let others have their turn to speak, just like waiting in line.

If you see a friend having trouble with a game, learning a dance routine, or schoolwork and you know what to do, help them out.

Helping each other makes any task easier and more fun.

All right, friends, it's turn Journal Quest time.

Your mission, reflect on a time when you collaborated with others for a common goal.

For example, in eighth grade, my classmates and I joined a quiz bowl.

I was good at geography.

My classmate excelled in science.

We met twice a week to practice.

On competition day our teamwork paid off.

We answered questions quickly and correctly.

Although we didn't win, we were happy because we did better than expected and we became best friends.

Now write in your journal about a time you collaborated with others.

What did you achieve together that you might not have done alone?

How did it make you feel?

So remember, collaboration is not just a skill, it's a mindset, a way of thinking that opens up endless possibilities.

So let's promise to support, share, and succeed together.

Keep collaborating and let's make our world a brighter place, one team effort at a time.

Thank you for spending this time with us.

Until our next adventure, we will close with a song by Miss Melody Jones titled, "Collaboration."

♪ Let's build a garden, students said with a smile ♪ ♪ Plant seeds of changed mile after mile ♪ ♪ Divided tasks, everyone had a part ♪ ♪ Collaboration was key right from the start ♪ ♪ Some dug the earth, soft and deep ♪ ♪ Others planted seeds before night's sleep ♪ ♪ They dreamed of a garden, vibrant and bright ♪ ♪ With collaboration made it all right ♪ ♪ Weeks went by, their garden did bloom ♪ ♪ Colors of hope in the previous gloom ♪ ♪ A lesson in teamwork, a beacon of light ♪ ♪ With collaboration the future is bright ♪ - [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by, the state of Michigan, and by.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(energetic music)