The following is a color presentation of the instructional television Center of
Broward County, Florida.
Far far away in an enchanted forest lives a fair
maiden named Evergreen. She is a friend to everyone
who enters the forest, and she teaches them all about letters
and the sounds they make. She even shows them how to make
words. If you watch and listen, you may learn
something too.
Hey Evergreen, what you got there? Oh, it's an old photo album I
found while I was cleaning upstairs. A photo
album, huh? Hmm. Are there any pictures of you in it? Oh yes, from a
long, long time ago, I think I was in first grade in this one.
Wow, you were kind of cute back then. Look at those curls.
Well, who's this holding the toad? Oh, your favorite
troublemaker friend and mine. Is it your sister
El Green? Yes, it sure is. Did she cause trouble
back then too? Oh yes, she's always played jokes on me,
you know, I thought when she got older that maybe that she'd
stop, but she hasn't. It's gotten worse.
What kind of jokes did she play on you back then? Well, she used to steal my
toast, and then she put toads in my coat pocket.
Well, that doesn't sound so terrible. Well, maybe not to you, but when I got
to school, the toads would croak, and then the
teacher would send me home with a note. Ah,
that's too bad. Say, is, uh, is that your mom?
Yes, hey, she's got letters on her wall
too. Yes, she loved talking about words and letters
just like I do. Hm. Did she have a favorite letter? Oh,
I don't know. Wait a minute. You know, I think she did. I think her favorite
letter was the long O, at least she taught us a lot of words that
had long o in them. Is long 01 of the vowels?
Yes, there's a.
E I O
U, and sometimes y is long
o the one that says its own name? Oh
yes, did you know that? Well, you know, I think you
said some words a minute ago that had the long o in them. I
did like what? Well, first you said
old. Photo then you said
toad jokes, toast
coat. Croak
Home and note. Did
you hear all those words? Words can have an o in the middle, like in the
word note or have an OA like in the word toad.
Can you think of any long old words? Say some out loud.
Good. I heard you say goat.
Boat Robe
to. Toes. Whoa, talking about toes.
Who's that character with those big feet? Woo! Hey, that
happens to me, my dad, so don't make fun. Oh, I'm
sorry. So, uh, wow. Oh
look, there's a picture of my home.
Home was a castle. That's right. We even had a moat,
a moat. Whoa, do you know what a moat is? I say evergreen. Is
that like where you have a ditch filled with water going around the outside of
the castle so that no strangers could get into the castle?
That's right. Did you have alligators in that boat? I
think so. There was even a rope around the moat, so El Green and
I couldn't fall in. Hm, hey, Evergreen, those
words home. Moat and
rope, they had the long o in them too. Did you boys and
girls hear that? When the letters O and E are
separated by a consonant such as PM, or
N like in the words rope, home, and cone,
they often spell the long o sound. Oh, that's interesting.
Hey Evergreen, uh, what are you doing here? Oh, that's the day
Elgreen and I sold lemonade. Did you ever sell lemonade?
It's fun, isn't it? Oh yes. Well, this time really wasn't too
much fun because the lemonade wasn't very cold and it was
really sour. See, why, why was that? Because evil
Green stole all the ice and she put a magic. Expelling the
lemonade and when people tasted it, they burned their mouth because
it was very hot and very sour. That wasn't very
nice boy she sure does mean things. Evergreen, did I hear the word
sold, cold and stole?
Yes, they all have the long O, don't they? Yes, you're
a good listener. Oh, here we are on
vacation at the ocean trying to float on a
raft. Ooh, that looks like fun. Well,
not really. The water was so cold and Eil
Green kept trying to throw me off the raft, but
I got back at her because when she wasn't looking, I pulled the plug
and all the air came out of the raft. Oh,
that was good thinking. Say, I heard you say some more long old
words. You did, yes, ocean
and float. You're a good listener. Did you hear
those words? Did you ever swim in the ocean? You know the
words cold and throw also have a long o.
Boy, I can't believe how many long o words there
are. Did you know that words can even begin with a long
o? Begin with an O? Yes, like the word
ocean that you just mentioned. Why don't you try to think of some more words
that begin with the long o? Hm, well, let's see, uh, hey,
what about the word oak? I mean like this tree here. Oh,
that's a good one. Can you think of some more?
What about the words uh open? Uh,
obey. Old and
uh oatmeal, those are some
really good old words. Did you think of any of those
oatmeal, hm, you know that makes me hungry. Do you
think you can make me some lunch now? Not now, Sammy. I'm busy, but
maybe in a few minutes. Sammy, what do you mean by hearing the word oatmeal
makes you hungry? You were born hungry. Magic book
that was so funny. I forgot to laugh, but you better watch it or I'll have
Evergreen here turn you into a joke book and then I'll get the last
laugh. I agree. Well, I don't know if that's such a
good idea. Maybe if we're nice to magic book, he'll help us learn some
more along old words. Well, well, he can help you. I'm so
hungry. Uh, uh, I, I think I'm just gonna go upstairs for a minute,
OK? Uh, you know, she won't fix me any lunch, I think I'll go upstairs
and fix my own. Well,
magic book, I guess it's just you and me. Do you think you could help me learn some
more long old words? Do you have any on your pages?
I sure do. Just turn my page. OK,
what do you see? I see a
rose. Cone.
Phone. Smoke
Talking about smoke. What's that I smell? Oh
no, Sammy must have tried to fix his own lunch.
Oh my, come on, magic book. Let's go upstairs and see what he's
done now. Oh, I don't know about that,
Sammy. Oh boy. Oh, no, no, it shouldn't look like that,
no. Oh no, Sammy,
what happened? Where did all this smoke come from? Well,
please don't yell at me, please. Uh, it was all an accident. I'm not gonna yell at you,
but tell me what happened. Well, you see, I got real hungry and, well,
I decided to make. Well, why didn't you ask me to fix it?
I did. Well, you said you were too busy, so I
decided to do it myself. See, I thought I'd make some toast, so I put
3 pieces of bread in the toaster, 3 pieces,
the toaster only takes 2. Well, I guess
that's why the 3rd piece got stuck and started to burn a
little. You call this a little.
Oh, and what's this stuff? Oh, that's my bowl of
oatmeal. Oatmeal. You mean to tell me you not
only came into my kitchen without permission but you used
the stove. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Don't yell
at me, please. Don't you remember what I've told you about using the
stove? Well, I guess I kind of forgot for a
second. I was so hungry. I don't know what I was doing. I
told you never to use the stove unless a grown-up is around.
I bet you boys and girls know that important rule. Oh,
now I remember, yeah, you told me that the stove isn't a
toy. It's very dangerous, and I could, I could burn myself, all
right, Evergreen. That's right. You're just lucky that this is all that you
burned. Oh, now have you learned any important
lessons from this experience? Well, uh, uh, well,
I learned that, uh, when you want to make toast, uh, this toaster only takes
2 slices of bread, and, uh, uh, the oatmeal
gets real lumpy real fast when you cook it on a stove.
Is that all you learned? Oh, well,
uh, wait a minute, wait a minute. I think I learned something else. Yes.
Oh good. I learned that the words
toast, toaster, bowl.
Oatmeal, grown up.
Stove, all those words have the long o in them.
I guess that's a pretty good lesson to learn, even though I did misbehave.
But now, Evergreen, uh, could you fix me some lunch? I'm
really starving. You're always starving.
Hey, why don't you make yourself useful and give Evergreen some recipes
so she can make me some lunch. Just a minute, Sammy. Who
said I was going to make you some lunch? Well, uh, I, I, I don't think you'd want me
to make it myself again, do you? That's for
sure. Well, OK, but first, let's. Talk about what we learned
today. OK, well, while we looked at your
photo album, we heard words could have a long O in the
middle like in the word photo or have an
OA in the middle like in the word toad
and coat. And when the letters
O and E are separated by a consonant like uh
pm or N, they often spell the
long o sound like in the words rope
and home and cone. Words
can also begin with a long o like in the words
ocean. Oak And
oatmeal. Evergreen,
most of all, I learned that you should never use the stove
unless a grown up is around, even if you're starving.
Well, that's good to hear. I guess you did learn a lesson today.
I sure did. So now could you please fix me some
lunch now? See, I'm sure Magic Book has some recipes you could look
up. Well, I bet he does. You
know Sammy's convinced me to fix him some lunch, so I better get