- In this "Read, Write, Roar," we are going to take a trip outdoors using our imaginations.

You are also going to write about your adventure with some help with me.

Let's go, "Read, Write, Roar!"

- [Spokeswoman] This program is made possible in part by The Kresge Foundation, the Lauren & 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) - Hello!

Welcome to "Read, Write, Roar!"

All right, we're gonna start today by singing a song.

So everybody stand up, and we're gonna go marching.

♪ The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah ♪ ♪ The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah ♪ ♪ The ants go marching one by one ♪ ♪ The little one stops to suck his thumb ♪ ♪ And they all go marching down to the ground ♪ ♪ To get out of the rain ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ Wow.

We just sang a song about ants, but guess what we're gonna do today.

We are going to go for a walk outdoors, but we're gonna go with our imaginations, so first, I want you to close your eyes and let's think about what we might see if we take a walk outside.

All right, open your eyes.

Tell me, what did you see?

- Ants.

- Ants.

Ants starts with the letter A.

We might see ants.

Lexie, what else might we see outside on our wall?

- [Lexie] Butterflies!

- Butterflies.

Butterflies, that starts with the letter B. Butterflies.

And I wonder if we might see a tree.

Tree.

I think we might see a tree.

So before we go outside, let's pack a backpack.

So get your backpacks out for our adventure.

Get some bug spray, put it on first.

I don't wanna get bitten out there.

Put it in.

Hmm, get a water bottle, take a sip, put it in there.

What else might we need?

A camera.

Get your cameras in.

Put on your backpack, and let's go on an adventure.

Ready?

(gentle music) Stop!

I see a pond over there.

What do you notice in that pond?

- [Alana] Ant.

- An ant, all right, let's take a picture.

Let's keep going.

Oh no, look!

Lexie, what do you see?

- Butterflies.

- Butterflies!

Open up your backpack, and I put something special inside.

Look, there's a butterfly net, can we catch them?

All right, let's see it.

Let's catch a butterfly.

Oh, I have a pink one.

What color is yours?

- Blue!

- [Mrs. Colon] Blue!

What about yours?

- Orange.

- Orange.

Look, I'll take a picture in the net.

Let's release them, we have to let them go.

Keep going.

Look, I see a tree.

Look, at...

But those aren't leaves, those are... Ouch!

(giggles) Those are prickly needles.

They don't really hurt, but I don't wanna pick those up again.

Not all trees have leaves on them.

But, uh oh, I see something.

I see something.

What do you see, Alana?

What do you see?

- A mountain.

- A mountain!

That mountain is huge.

How are we gonna get up the mountain?

- Climb!

- Climb!

All right, let's climb up that mountain.

Oh no, this mountain is high, it's enormous.

Stop, I need a break.

Okay, keep going, keep climbing.

And you know what the best part is?

When you get to the top of the mountain, we get to run down!

Go!

Run down as fast as you can!

We made it.

Look at that.

Alana, I had so much fun on our walk today.

What's something you remember?

- We saw ants.

- [Mrs. Colon] We did see ants.

And what do you remember about those ants?

- They were in the pond.

- They were in the pond.

Something that I like to do after I take a walk is write down something that I remember, so that I can remember it later.

Let's think about what you wanna write.

Tell me again, what did you see?

- Ants.

- Ants, and what about those ants?

- They were in the pond.

- They were in the pond.

So let's think about if we wrote a sentence we could say, "Ants were in the pond."

How many words are in the sentence?

- Five.

- Five.

Sometimes I like to write down lines that we can remember what we wanna write about.

The ants were in the pond.

All right, so the ants were in the...

Uh oh.

Let's do it again.

The ants were in the- - Pond.

- Pond!

That's actually six lines.

All right, so let's start writing here on this first line.

You can write the word the.

The ants... Ants, nn, tuh, ss, 'cause we saw more than one.

Yeah, that ends with an S. The ants were... And were is spelled like this.

It's W-E-R-E.

In.

You could write out just the letter N if you want, or you can spell it I-N. And you were thinking about that, thinking of that word differently.

The ants were in the... Do you remember where you wrote the?

You started your sentence with the.

Pond, puh, puh, pond, duh.

Yeah.

Let's read our sentence together.

- The ants were in the pond.

- Yeah.

Good writing.

Lexie, I had so much fun on our walk today.

Do you remember what we saw?

- Butterflies!

- Butterflies!

And what were the butterflies doing?

- Fly!

- Flying.

Sometimes when I go for a walk I like to write about what I saw.

So you said you saw the butterflies fly.

What should we write?

- Butterflies.

- Butterflies, and what did they do?

- Fly.

- Fly, so we can write, the butterflies fly.

Let's count how many words are in your sentence.

- Three.

- Three.

So I'm gonna write three lines, so we remember.

The butterflies fly.

And that period is because that's the end of our sentence.

All right, here you go.

Now I'll give you a marker, and let's write about the butterflies fly.

The butterflies fly.

And there's your period, 'cause that's the end of your sentence.

(giggles) The butterflies fly.

You wrote multiple sentences.

Oh, you're gonna do it again.

Tell me about what you wrote.

All right, tell me about what it says.

- Butterflies.

- The butterflies, what did they do?

They fly!

(gentle music) Lexie, I'm so excited that you wrote about what you saw, now you get a chance to draw what we saw on our adventure.

I'm gonna give you some crayons, and you get to draw.

Tell me about something you saw.

- Butterflies.

- The butterflies.

You can draw a picture of the butterflies.

Do you remember the colors that we saw?

Yeah, it's a blue butterfly.

Yeah, that's a big butterfly.

I see the wings coming out.

It's flying.

That was right before we caught it.

Yeah, tell me about it.

- It's flying.

- It's flying.

I'm wondering if you want to have it have a partner or a friend.

Should we draw another one so that there was multiple or more than one butterflies flying?

That's my favorite color.

- Green.

- Green, yeah!

What are you thinking about the green?

- Grass.

- Grass, yes.

Look at that grass.

I sometimes love to lay in the grass and watch the butterflies fly.

Red.

What will you use the red for?

- [Lexie] Cherries.

- Cherries.

Oh, cherries are one of my favorite fruits.

I love cherries.

Now you're thinking.

What are you thinking about drawing with purple?

Tell me about it.

- [Lexie] Monsters!

- [Mrs. Colon] Monsters!

I wonder if the monsters are running from the butterflies or running toward the cherries.

- [Lexie] Yeah.

- Yeah, that's a hungry monster.

Well, thanks, Lexie.

(gentle music) There are two areas of focus in today's lesson, promoting literacy in every day activities, in this case, a walk, and supporting children while they write a message.

Going for a walk for your child is a free activity that can be done in many places.

You might choose to head to a park, or go on a walking trail, or just stick around your neighborhood.

You could even choose to walk indoors at a library, museum, or store, or even use your imagination to go somewhere.

It doesn't matter where you decide to go, it's what you decide to do with the experience that matters.

Narrating or talking about the actions and describing what we see, using a variety of words, increases the vocabulary of our children, which will support early reading and writing.

A great time to write is after a walk.

Don't tell the child what to write, instead help your child with their thinking around what to write, and then help them come up with a clear message.

Writing blank lines supports the transfer of ideas into writing.

In pre-kindergarten, it is not critical that all words are spelled correctly or that all of the letters are formed correctly.

It is, however, critical to the heart of writing experiences that children deliver messages via text that are personally meaningful to them.

(gentle music) What an exciting adventure today we had outside.

We saw ants.

- [All] Butterflies and a tree.

- The next time you go outside, take your camera, think about what you would see, and then you can go home and write about it.

So see you next time on... - [All] "Read, Write, Roar!"

(Mrs. Colon laughs) - [Spokeswoman] This program is made possible in part by The Kresge Foundation, the Lauren & 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)