Lesson video

Hello, everybody!

I'm Ms. Corbett, and I can't wait to learn with you today.

I hope you are ready.

Today's lesson is called "Exploring illustrations in 'Lulu Gets a Cat.

'" (gasps) I'm really looking forward to it.

For today's lesson, I need you to have your listening ears.

Can I see them?

Your looking eyes, and your thinking brain.

As well as that, it would be great if you could have somebody to talk to.

But don't worry if you don't because you can always talk to me.

I wonder if you're ready to get started.

I love looking at a new book, so I really hope you're excited to learn with me.

Let's get started.

And here is the outcome for today's lesson: I can make predictions about a book using the front cover and illustrations.

And these keywords will help us to get there.

First, you're going to repeat them after me.

Are you ready?

My turn, then your turn.

Prediction, illustration, character.

I wonder if you've heard those words before.

Let me tell you what they mean.

A prediction is when we make a guess using what we already know.

(gasps) I predict that it might rain tomorrow because I looked at the weather forecast.

An illustration is a picture in a book that is most likely a drawing, so the illustrator is the person who drew those pictures.

And finally, a character is a person or animal in a story.

Let's get started with the first part of our lesson, looking at the front cover.

I'm going to give you one moment to think about what you can see.

I can see, I can see.

.

.

Pause the video and say everything that you can see on the front cover.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Can I tell you what I saw?

I can see the author's name at the top, Anna McQuinn.

That is the person who wrote this story.

I can see the illustrator's name right next to it, Rosalind Beardshaw.

What else can I see?

I can see the title.

Let me try and read it.

"Lulu Gets a Cat.

" (gasps) That sounds very exciting because I love cats.

And finally, I can see an illustration, one of our keywords, an illustration of who I think is maybe the main character.

Okay, can you get your pointing fingers ready?

You could point to your copy of the book, or you could point to the screen.

Can you point to the title?

I'm going to give you five seconds.

Let's see, did you get it?

Well done!

Okay, pointing finger ready again?

Can you point to the author's name?

Five seconds.

One, let's see.

(gasps) Anna McQuinn, well done.

Pointing finger down, and pointing finger back up.

Point to the illustration.

Five seconds.

Well done if you were pointing to that drawing, the illustration, fantastic.

Finally, pointing finger ready?

Great job.

Can you point to the illustrator's name?

So we've pointed to the author's name, but where is the illustrator's name?

Can you point to it now?

Five seconds.

Did you get it?

Well done.

Rosalind Beardshaw.

Fantastic.

Using the front cover, we can make a prediction, that is one of our keywords, a guess using what we know, and we will use the front cover.

We can see that Lulu is a character in the story.

And looking at Lulu, she looks like she is a little girl.

And the title is "Lulu Gets a Cat.

" So I'm going to tell you some of the things that I notice from the front cover.

I notice a little girl cuddling a cat.

I notice a little girl wearing cat ears.

I notice a character's name in the title, Lulu.

Now it's your turn.

You might notice some of the same things as me, or you might get those eyes out and spot something else.

Can you tell everybody what you can notice?

I notice.

.

.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic thinking; keep what you notice in your head because that will help us to make a prediction.

Here's our front cover again.

Have a look at the little girl.

I wonder how we could describe the little girl using some adjectives.

The girl is, hmm, happy.

The girl is relaxed.

And how do you know?

I'm going to ask you to pause the video now and share how you think the girl is feeling.

The girl is.

.

.

Pause the video now.

Great, here are some adjectives that I heard.

The girl is calm.

I can see she's calm because she's cuddled up in bed.

Her eyes are closed.

Her shoulders are over.

The girl is caring.

(gasps) Caring is a great adjective, and I can see she's caring because she's holding on to the cat to look after it.

The girl is relaxed, another word for calm.

Great job.

We can make predictions about what a story may be about using the front cover.

Let's see what we can use to help us.

"The illustrations and the title help me to predict what a story might be about.

" "I look carefully at the illustrations of the characters to help to predict how they are feeling.

" Aren't they fantastic tips?

Can you keep those tips in your head to remember?

I am going to use the front cover to help me make a prediction about what the story will be about.

I will make my prediction, and then I will explain why I predict that.

Remember, though, one person's prediction might be different to somebody else's because we haven't read the book yet, and that's okay as long as we are using what we know.

Are you ready to listen to my prediction?

I predict that the story is about a calm, caring girl who loves cats.

I think this because the little girl is cuddling a cat and she is wearing cat ears.

I wonder if you agree or disagree with my prediction.

Well, now it's your turn.

Using a front cover, don't peak inside the book, make a prediction about what you think the book is going to be about, and then explain why using because.

Then listen to somebody else's prediction and see if they are the same or similar or different.

I predict that the story is about.

.

.

And then I think this because.

.

.

Pause the video and off you go.

What fantastic predictions.

I loved how much you thought about it using the front cover to help you, and I loved your listening to someone else's predictions.

Let's listen to some that I heard.

"I predict that the story is about a little girl who dreams about getting a cat.

I think this because the title is 'Lulu Gets a Cat' and it looks like she is sleeping.

" (gasps) So we think she's dreaming about it.

What a great prediction using some evidence.

Here's another one, "I predict the story will teach us about how to look after a cat.

" (gasps) Great thinking.

"I think this because the title is 'Lulu Gets a Cat' and getting a pet can be difficult.

" I love that this person thought about everything that they know about the topic.

Really great job.

Was your prediction similar or different?

Fantastic.

Now we're going to move on to the next part of our lesson, exploring illustrations.

We've already made a prediction just using the front cover.

Now we're going to dive into the story.

But we aren't going to read it yet.

We're just going to look through some illustrations.

I like to call this a picture walk because looking at illustrations from the story can help us to make more detailed predictions about a story before we read it.

Here is the first two pages.

I would like you to list everything that you can see on these first pages.

And have a think; what does this tell us about the character Lulu?

I want you to first list everything you can see.

Tell me what you think then, what you predict, this means about Lulu.

Pause the video now.

I wonder what you spotted.

Can I show you some of the things I spotted?

Because on these two pages, there is lots of evidence in the illustration that Lulu loves cats.

Did you notice that too?

Let's see.

I can see a cat statue on the bookshelf.

I can see a photo of a cat.

I can see a cat hair clip, a cat hanging down the shelf, lots of toy cats as well as some cat pajamas, a drawing of her and a cat, and even more toy cats.

Did you notice all of those things too?

I wonder, Lulu really loves cats.

Is there anything that you love as much as Lulu loves cats?

I actually really love cats too, and I used to have a cat when I was younger.

But I also love rabbits, or maybe it's about something else.

You might love cars so much, or LEGO, or swimming or running.

What do you love?

I'm going to give you 10 seconds to think about it just to yourself.

Five.

Great, isn't it brilliant just to think about the things that we love?

Have a look at this illustration.

Lulu is carrying a bowl of water.

Have a look behind Lulu.

I can see a tick chart with the days of the week along the top and some things down the sides.

And there is a cat bed and some cat toys.

But have a look at the cat in the box.

Do you think that Lulu is looking after a real cat or a pretend toy cat?

I'd like you to shout it at me.

What do you think?

Real cat, pretend cat?

Oh, interesting predictions.

Maybe looking at the next illustration will help us.

Let's compare the two illustrations, the illustration from the very start of the story where Lulu is on her bed, and then to where Lulu looks like she's looking after a cat.

(gasps) What do you notice?

"This is the same cat from the first page.

I think it is a toy cat!

" Do you agree?

But why do you think Lulu is looking after a pretend cat?

Hmm, maybe, somebody predicted earlier that they were trying to show that they can look after a cat, a real cat, because that's quite difficult, so maybe she's practicing.

Discussing our ideas like we have so far about a book before reading it can build our excitement about reading it.

I really can't wait to find out about Lulu and the cat.

Let's hear what some people are looking forward to.

"I'm looking forward to reading more about what you need to look after a cat.

" "I'm excited to find out if Lulu actually gets her own cat!

" Me too.

"Lulu looks like a kind character, so I'm looking forward to reading all about her.

" I love that.

"I love animals, so I enjoy any stories about animals!

" I wonder if you can share what you are looking forward to about the story.

Is it the same as some of these characters, or is it different?

Pause the video now.

I'm so pleased to hear that you're looking forward to reading it because I definitely am too.

So, which of these is true about Lulu?

And use those illustrations that we have looked at so far to help you.

Have you got them in your mind?

Is it that Lulu loves cats, Lulu loves dogs, or that Lulu is unkind to animals?

What do you think?

I'm going to give you 10 seconds to decide.

Five, zero.

What do you think?

I think Lulu loves cats just from what we've seen so far.

We have already made a prediction about the book using the front cover.

And looking at some illustrations before reading can help us to make a more detailed prediction because the illustrations help to tell the story.

And remember, like we said earlier, one person's prediction might be different to another person's.

And it's really important, though, to use what we know to help us: the front cover, and then we'll build on that by thinking about the illustrations we have seen so far, and knowledge and understanding of the topic.

Do you remember earlier we heard a prediction of somebody telling us it's difficult to look after a pet?

That's them using their knowledge and understanding of the topic.

So we can bring all of those together to make a more detailed prediction.

Let's see what you can remember.

What can you use to help you to make a prediction?

The front cover, another book I've read by a different author, illustrations, or reading the whole book first.

This time, I'm going to ask you to pause the video to really think about it.

Pause the video now.

Let's see, to make a prediction, I can use the front cover and the illustrations.

Looking at another book that I've read but by a different author isn't really related to this book and won't really help me.

And reading the whole book first, I can't make a prediction because I'll know what's happened.

That's cheating!

Well done if you got those.

So I think I'm ready to make my prediction based on the front cover, the illustrations I have seen, and what I know about the topic.

I predict that the story is about a little girl named Lulu who wants to get a cat, (gasps) but she isn't allowed one.

Then I'm going to explain why I think that.

I think this because the title has Lulu and cat in it.

In the illustrations, I can see lots of cats and Lulu looking after a pretend cat in a caring way.

I know that cats are difficult to look after, so she might be too young to have her own cat.

Now it's your turn.

Make a prediction about what you think the book will be about using the front cover, the illustrations you have seen, and your knowledge about the topic.

So firstly, I predict the story will be about.

.

.

Then I think this because.

.

.

And finally, think about your knowledge of the topic.

I know that.

.

.

'Cause I'm sure you know something about cats and animals.

I can't wait to hear your prediction.

Pause the video now.

What a fantastic job.

I love that this prediction was more detailed than the prediction from our first task.

Great job.

Here's a prediction that I've heard, "I predict that the story is about a little girl called Lulu who is preparing to have a cat.

" I really like that word preparing.

It means getting ready for.

"I think this because the title is 'Lulu Gets a Cat,'" (gasps) that word gets, "and in the illustrations, it looks like she's practicing and she looks like a caring person.

" "I know that there are lots of things to remember when having a cat, so she might need to practice.

" What a great prediction.

This person explained their prediction, they explained why they thought that using the front cover and the illustrations, and they linked it to their knowledge of the topic.

Was your prediction similar to that or different?

Maybe you knew lots more about the topic.

Fantastic.

It's made me really excited to read the book properly.

Thank you so much for learning with me today.

I really enjoyed it, and I hope you have too.

Let's have a look at what we've learned.

We have learned that a front cover often shows the title, the illustration, the author's name, and the illustrator's name.

We've also learned that the title and illustrations can generate a prediction about what a book may be about.

We also need to remember that one person's prediction might be different to another person's.

Looking closely at some illustrations can help us to make more detailed predictions.

And looking at illustrations and discussing a book before reading builds excitement about reading it.

I really hope you've enjoyed today's lesson, and I really hope to see you again soon, bye!