Syllables

Beth, Patrick and Kim are sitting around their tables in a classroom. Jeanie is teaching at the front.

JEANIE: Ok kids… today we are going to learn about syllables. Syllables are the things that make up different parts of a word. Like my name, Jeanie, it has two syllables ’Jean’ and ’ee’ But your name, Beth, has one syllable, ’Beth’. To find syllables we have to listen very carefully, it’s like a beat… ‘Jean’… ‘ee’… ‘Beth’. What about this, how many syllables does this have?

Jeanie holds up a pencil.

JEANIE: To work it out, why don’t you say the word out loud to yourself and clap your hands every time you think there is a syllable. Why don’t you try Patrick.

PATRICK: Uhhh… Pe…en…cil

Patrick claps for three syllables.

JEANIE: Very close Patrick. But pencil actually only has two. ’Pen’ and ’cil’.

Jeanie claps out the two syllables. We see the word 'pen-cil' written in lowercase, separated to show the two syllables, above a picture of a pencil.

JEANIE: So, now that we know how to count syllables, why don’t we all play a game? Let’s go outside and work together to find three different things with one, two and three syllables!

Outside the three kids search for things. One of them finds something.

PATRICK: I’ve found one, I’ve found one!

KIM: What is it?

PATRICK: It’s a rock! Rock… that’s one syllable.

The word appears above a picture of a rock, it is one syllable.

The kids go back to searching for something. As Beth stands underneath a tree thinking hard, an acorn drops beside her. She points down at the acorn.

BETH: A…Corn, A…Corn. Acorn! I found one I found one.

She says the syllables out loud while the syllables ’a’ and ’corn’ appear above a picture of an acorn.

PATRICK: Let’s work together to find the last one.

They put their hands together in the circle and lift them in unison. They lift up the lid to the sand pit. We see them from the inside of the sandpit, from behind a toy dinosaur that’s embedded in the sand. Kim's eyes light up and she reaches in and grabs it. The word appears on screen above a picture fo a dinosaur, it is seaparated into the three syllables 'din-o-saur'.

KIDS: Din - o - saur!

INTERIOR CLASSROOM - We’re back inside. On three tables are three baskets with different labels on them, ’One’ ’two’ and ’three’.

JEANIE: Great work everyone. Now why don’t we sort them into their own buckets! What do we have for one syllable?

Patrick proudly steps forward.

PATRICK: We have this… rock!

Patrick walks over and chucks it in the number one basket.

BETH: We found this! An Acorn.

Beth also places the acorn in the appropriate basket.

JEANIE: Amazing! Now last but certainly not least. What did we find three syllables?

Kim walks forward. She’s holding something behind her back.

KIM: Eh hemm… We found a din-o-saur!

She dramatically swings it round to hold it in front of her. When speaking it she dramatically emphasises the three syllables.

JEANIE: Wow! Can we all clap out the syllables for dinosaur together? ’Dine’ ’Oh’ ’Saur’.

Kim sets the toy dinosaur in the basket and everyone claps it out together.

End.