Far from our old, planetary, located at the center of the universe, live space, station, read-star, read-star, houses of horrible, computerized memory bank, containing every language that has ever existed in the cosmos since the beginning of time. Trusted with the responsibility of operating this space station, is Commander Wordstalker. Assistant Commander is WC, the linguistic mechanic. Their knowledge is imparted to inquiring white forms everywhere. You are about to be officially welcome to... Space Station Research Star. This is Space Station Read-Star, calling planet Earth. Do you read me Earth? Please respond. We are not capable of sending or receiving at this time, Commander Wordstalker. This is Space Station Read-Star, calling planet Earth. Do you read me Earth? Please respond. Have you found the problem yet, WC? Not yet, Commander. Check the oscillating rectifier. It may be vapor-locked. Or possibly the voltage generator has a weak connection. I've checked those, man. Wait a minute. Here it is. I found it. Can you fix it? It'll just take a second, Commander. The main secondary switch is hard. It'll just take a moment. Harry WC, we must be making contact. This is Commander Wordstalker, calling planet Earth. Do you read me Earth? Please respond. It's fixed. Two-way communication with planet Earth is now firmly established, Commander Wordstalker. I am receiving a message now. Send Earth a shipment of short vowel sounds. Thank you, Vad. Welcome to Space Station Read-Star, boys and girls of planet Earth. I'm so glad you could join us. I'm Commander Wordstalker. My mission is to help you develop your reading skills. This is WC, my helper. Hello. WC, arrange for a short vowel shipment to planet Earth. Sure, Commander. Thank you. Read-Star to cargo tube. Read-Star to cargo tube. Come in, pilot North, over. Cargo to the read-star. Come in, read-star, over. North, please proceed directly to read-star to pick up a shipment of short vowels for immediate transport to Earth, over. We're on our way, WC, over. Thank you, over. Well, what are short vowels, North? Well, Orb, do you know which letters are called vowels? Uh, I think so. A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes even Y. Very good, Orb. I didn't think you'd know that. The vowels are A, E, I, O, and U. Y is sometimes a vowel, but we won't bother with the Y. It's not part of the short vowel shipment. Okay, okay, so A, E, I, O, and U are vowels, but what are short vowels? Little potty vowels? No, Orb. Vowels, short vowels are sounds. Each vowel has a short sound. Look, say, Matt. Matt! The A in Matt says, A, and A is the short A sound. A, Matt, hey, wait a minute. Cat, sat, hat, they all have short A's. Right, you are, and the other vowels have short vowel sounds too. Short E says, E, like Fred, Red, and Bad. Holy Fred, that was a red bed. I made a sentence using short E's. You sure did? The short I says, E, like winds or grin. Can you say a sentence using those words? Yeah, Bill will grin when he wins. Well, good for you, Orb, good for you. What about O? That's it. What's it? Ah, the short O says, A, like not, pot, and lot. Well, are there any more vowels of the shipment? Well, we wouldn't want to forget about the short U's. They say, A, as in the words. Oh, let me do it, let me do it, I don't. Well, okay. What? Cup? Mm-hmm. Bug, and a... Oh, oh, oh, oh, very good. Boy, you're really sharp today. Tell you what, how would you like to handle the controls here as we head to Space, Station, Reed Star? Oh, Dorff, he really made it. Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh boy. Okay, careful now. My, you're watching? Oh, boy. Oh, let's see. Oh, my, my, please. This is good WC. Run this program on a regular basis. I'm going to check the short vowel shipment on VAD. This is our visual auditory discriminator. We call him VAD. VAD, say hello to the boys and girls of planet Earth. Greetings. How may I be of service today? VAD, I want to check your short vowel shipment. What do you have? Let's see now, short vowels. Hmm. Yes, here they are. Short vowels. My memory bank is operative. Here we go. Short A. A. Hat. Short E. A. Tell. Short I. I. Win. Short O. A. Hot. Short U. A. Bulk. Do you require sentences? Not at this time, VAD, but thanks for your help today. You really did a very good job for us. Thank you. Boys and girls, you all have communicators in your ReadStar packets. I want you to be sure to have them in front of you whenever you visit us here on ReadStar. I will often ask you to press these communicators to let me know that you understand something that we've talked about. Press them now, and I'll show you what happens here on ReadStar. That was good. Now let's try that again. Try that again with me. Ready? Very good. But remember, this only happens when I ask you to press those communicators. This is our Perry Opticon. We call him Perry. Look carefully with me, and check out today's program. A. Albert. Arrow. Apple. Accident. E. Eddy. Envelope. Elephant. Egg. E. Indian. Ill. Eggy. A. Otter. A. Octopus. A. Umbrella. Under. Up. Isn't Perry fun? He's one of my favorite parts of the lab. This is our decoder. I want to check these short vowels, and I'd like you to help me. Look here. Vowel sounds can be used to make words. If we start with the short A, that says a, and add a T to that, we would have at. Let's add some beginning consonant sounds to this, and see what words we can make. Hat. Hat. At. Rat. Rat. At. Fat. Hat. Rat. Fat. If we continue on with the short E, remember that says e. If we add a T to that, e, what do we have? At. Adding some beginning consonant sounds, we have pet. At. Net. At. Jet. Pet. Net. Jet. Good. The short I says e. Dig. Pig. Big. Dig. Pig. Big. Okay, the short O. Short O says a. Up. Top. Mop. Hop. Top. Mop. Hop. The short U says a. Up. Cup. Pop. Cup. Pop. There. See, I told you it was easy to make words. Now it's your turn. Take out your pencils and your papers. You will hear a word. You have to fill in an A, an E, an I, an O, or a U to make the word that you hear. Now don't worry about making a mistake. You will see the right answer. If your answer was correct, just give yourself a check. If not, just change it and write in the correct answer. Ready? Let's go. Number one. Bat. Billy hit the ball with his bat. Bat. Did you write in the letter A to make the word bat? Very good. If you did not write an A, don't worry about it. Just erase your answer and write it in now. Number two. Red. Red is my favorite color. Red. How did you do? Did you write in the letter E to make the word "red"? If not, do it now. I will wait for you. Remember to give yourself a check if you did do it correctly. Number three. Fit. Betty's new dress didn't fit. Fit. If your answer is correct, give yourself a check. Change it if not. Number four. Hug. Your mother loves it when you give her a great big hug. Hug. How did you do? Check your answer. Number five. Not. I cannot sing very well. Not. I hope you did really well on that worksheet, boys and girls. Cargo two has arrived, Commander. Load the short file shipment immediately, WC. I hope you enjoyed your first visit to Space Station Read Star. ♪ ♪