Lesson video

[Miss Weerasekera] Hi, everyone, welcome to Lesson two in our unit about Persephone.

In our last lesson we were learning all about our new story.

We were using our story matrix to help us understand different parts of the story better.

Today we're going to be looking at our story again and we're going to be mapping it and stepping it.

They're my favourite things to do with a story as they're so fun and expressive.

So, I can't wait to get started.

I'm having one of those days today where I can't stop thinking about food.

Do you ever have those? All I can think about is, "oh, I wonder what snacks I've go tin the fridge, and I wonder what I can have to eat next." Just so hungry.

What are you having to eat today? I wonder what time it is for you? Maybe you've just breakfast or lunch or maybe you're going to have dinner soon.

Wonder if you'll eat something tasty.

Okay, let's get started in today's lesson.

For today's lesson you're going to need these things: something to write on, something to write with and your brain but you've got that already.

If you don't have a piece of paper and a pen or pencil please pause the video now and go and get it.

And then press play when you're ready to get started.

Fantastic.

Now we have everything we need to start our learning.

Lets go through what were going to be doing in our lesson today.

Were going to start off with a spelling activity using the new spelling model we were looking at yesterday.

Were then going to hear the story again.

I can't wait to listen to it a second time.

Were then going to map a story.

This is something that hopefully you would have done in another unit if you've been doing our lessons before but if not, don't worry well go through it.

We're also going to step the story as well which is really fun because it means getting up out of our chairs and using our bodies to show the story in a really fun way.

Lets get started.

Were going to start with our spelling activity.

Hopefully, you can remember the new rule that we were looking at last time.

We were look the /j/ sound that was spelt with a G-E or a D-G-E.

There are two rules I introduced to you.

Can you remember them? I've put them at the bottom of the screen but I've left the spelling of each on out of it.

So, I wonder if you can help me put the spelling of the correct one in each place.

The first rule says, at the end of a word the /j/ sound is spelt mm after the vowel sound /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ or /u/.

Hm.

Was that the spelling G-E or D-G-E? That went after those short vowel sounds.

The other rule is, if the /j/ sound comes at the end of a word after any other sound it is spelt mm.

Can you remember which spelling went in each gap? Was it G-E or a D-G-E in the first one? Pause it here and have a think about which one goes where.

When you think you've figured it out you can press play.

Well done for having a go.

Shall we check it together? So the first one is D-G-E.

Yup.

So we spelt the /j/ sound D-G-E after the short vowel sounds /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ or /u/.

After any other sounds it will be spelt G-E.

Lets go on to an activity to practise this sound and these spellings in some words.

It says here, is the ending G-E or D-G-E? I have given you the start of some different words, and they'll all end in the /j/ sound but some of them end in the G-E /j/ sound and some of them end in the D-G-E /j/ sound.

I would like you to have a go at putting those different spellings on the ends of these words.

And trying to figure out which one is correct.

These are all words that would have seen before and read before.

So, hopefully when you try the different endings out, that one of them will seem like it's the right one.

I'd like you to pause the video here and have a go at spelling each of these words with the correct spelling for /j/ on the end.

When you think you've figured it out and you've written them all down you can press play.

We'll have a look at the answers together.

Well done.

Let's see what I got.

Did you get the same as me? I said that the words, badge, fudge and dodge had the D-G-E spelling of the /j/ sound.

That's because they have those short vowel sounds before, don't they? Badge has /a/, fudge has /u/ and dodge has /o/.

The rest of them don't have a short vowel sounds so they have a G-E on the end.

Change, village, charge.

Well done if you go that correct.

Don't worry if any of them were not correct you can just correct them now.

Let's go and do our strategy check.

We are about to listen to our story for a second time.

Just remember to be watching me on the screen for the expressions and the gestures that I use to add more details and life to the story.

Remember to use your listening ears for any vocabulary that really stands out to you.

Let's begin.

Demeter was the Goddess of life.

Everything grew and lived on earth because of her.

Demeter had a daughter called Persephone who she loved more than anything.

One day, Persephone was picking poppies in a field of corn when Hades, the god of death, appeared in his chariot.

He picked her up and took her own under the earth to his home.

When Demeter couldn't find her daughter she was really sad.

She looked everywhere but couldn't find Persephone and became so sad that she stopped smiling, stopped speaking, and stopped making life on earth.

The world became cold, nothing would grow, nothing could be born and everything began to die.

Down under the earth, Persephone was sad too and missed her mother.

Hades wanted her to stay and marry him but she said no and refused to eat or drink anything.

But after a few days she was so hungry that she ate just six pomegranate seeds.

Up above on earth, Zeus, the king of gods, was worried.

The earth grew colder and colder and nothing would grow.

He asked Demeter to make life again but she shook her head.

"Not without my daughter," she said.

So Zeus went to talk to Hades.

"You must let her go," he said, or everything on earth will die.

You cannot make her stay unless she has eaten some food from this place.

Hades smiled, "She has eaten six seeds from a pomegranate so now she will stay." Zeus thought about it for a while.

"if she has eaten six seeds then she will stay with you for six months of the year and for six months of the year she will live life on earth with her mother." So, from that time to this Persephone spends half of the year under the earth.

During this time, Demeter is sad and the world grows cold and nothing will grow.

This is the time we call winter.

The other half of the year, Persephone returns to her mother who happily makes new life on earth.

The world grows warm and everything can grow again.

This is the time we call summer.

Now, I'm gong to go through now how we can do our story map.

Okay, so when we're doing a story map, hopefully you've done one before but if you haven't I'm going to go through it.

We are going to draw some pictures that represent the main events in our story.

And this is going to hep us when we are stepping the story later in this lesson but also when we start to speak the story in the next lesson.

So, it basically just helps us to remember what has happened.

Okay.

So, we're gong to start off today right at the beginning of the story.

Okay.

Now, can you remember the two main characters that we meet at first? They're on earth and it's when things are nice and summery and lovely.

Do you remember what they were called? That's right.

It was Demeter wasn't it? And her daughter Persephone.

Now we want to keep our drawings nice and simple.

We don't need them to be too detailed.

They just need to work for us so that we understand which part of the story they represent.

So I'm going to draw the grass there.

I'm going to draw flowers to show that it's all warm and summery.

Then I'm going to draw my two characters.

So, I've got Demeter there.

She's looking nice and tall.

She's an adult.

And then her daughter Persephone there next to her.

Okay.

So that is my first picture in the story.

I've got Demeter and Persephone looking nice and happy and the sun is shining.

Okay.

Now when we do a story map we use a story map we use an arrow to show that we are moving on to the next event in the story.

Now the problem in our story happens pretty early on.

Can you remember what happens? Yup, that was right.

We know that Persephone goes into the cornfields and she goes to pick some poppies.

So it starts off quite happily.

We've got a flower there.

And we can draw Demeter there, about to pick her flower, nut something bad happens.

Can you remember who was coming to get her? Yeah, its Hades, isn't it? So I'm going to draw Hades.

He's got fiery hair, he's got his evil eyes, hands outreached coming to get her.

Put a wheel on his chariot.

He was going to come and grab her and take her away.

Do you know where he's going to take her to? Yeah, that's it, he's going to take her to the underworld.

'Cause it's the underworld, I'm going to put the ground up here.

It's going to be a little dark.

You can have the earth going down and down and down.

And down here we know this is the home of Hades.

Okay, so that's his house.

Then we have Demeter, sorry not Demeter, Persephone looking sad.

She's been taken away from her mother.

It's probably not very pleasant down there and then we've probably got horrible Hades, with his fiery hair holding his pitchfork looking very pleased with himself that he's managed to get her.

Isn't he? Okay, well done, if you're keeping up with me so far.

So, do an arrow down.

Next.

Now, Persephone is gone.

She's in the underworld.

What was the impact of this happening? Can you remember? Something how Demeter was really sad and because Demeter was sad something happened to earth.

Right, it was the earth, everything on earth started to die and it got very cold.

Didn't it? So I'm going to have my flowers have died.

Maybe I've got a tree.

I've got a big cross through it 'cause that's died.

Maybe the sun's gone away too.

I'm going to put BRRR 'cause it's really chilly because of Demeter's sadness at missing Persephone, everything on earth gets cold and starts to die.

Now, we know that Persephone is down in the underworld with Hades, but she is not happy about it like we can see here, and Hades asks her to marry her.

She says no, and she refuses to eat or drink anything until she gets so hungry that she eats something.

Can you remember what that was? That's right.

It was six pomegranate seeds, wasn't it? So, I'm going to draw my six pomegranate seeds and I'm going to draw a mouth to show that Persephone ate them.

Okay.

Now, the character that we've not seen yet.

Do you remember who it is? Yes, it was Zeus.

He is the king of the gods and he sees everything is dying and he goes to speak to Demeter.

Doesn't he? He says, "Demeter please stop this, everything is dying." Perhaps, want to give her a sad face.

She's not very happy is she? "Everything is dying, please stop it.

Please make things grow again." We've got him, he holds his lightening bolt like that.

Okay, and he's saying, "Please." Okay, and we've got Demeter saying, "No." She says, "No, not without my daughter.

I will not make life on earth until my daughter comes back." So, Zeus has to do something else to try and get Persephone back.

Can you remember who he goes to speak to? That's it.

He goes down, doesn't he? To speak to Hades.

So we'll draw him again holding his lightening bolt, and we're going to have Hades here with his fiery hair like that.

He's holding his pitchfork like that.

Okay, and the problem is, we know that Hades is smiling because Zeus asked for Persephone back.

He says," You can't keep her, she hasn't eaten anything from the underworld and that's the only reason you could keep her." Hades is smiling 'cause he says, "She's eaten six pomegranate seeds." But because of that, Zeus has an idea, doesn't he? Do you remember what it was? That's it.

His idea was that they could spend, Persephone could spend six months of the year with her mother on earth and then six months of the year with Hades in the underworld because she only ate six pomegranate seeds.

Okay.

So then our final, ending of the story.

This little bit I've been telling you I really love 'cause I find it really satisfying finding out from this Greek myth what they believed created the seasons and that they believed in these Greek gods.

I think it's a really clever explanation that these seasons reflect mood.

'Cause hey do, don't they? I think naturally sunshine makes us feel happy.

Sometimes when it's cold and dark it can make us feel a bit sad.

So I like that penning.

So, I've drawn a tree here and I'm going to put times six.

'Cause for six months of the year it's cold and it's wintry and everything dies because of Persephone being gone and Demeter being sad, so maybe we could draw Demeter looking a little bit sad there.

And then we've got six months of the year where it is lovely, everything is growing.

We've got lots of flowers, lots of life.

We've got lots of sunshine and we've got We've got Demeter looking very happy.

I mean though, that's why the season is summer.

Yeah.

So, we know that we've got winter here and Persephone has gotten summer here when Persephone returns for the six months.

Okay.

So, just move that so you can see all of it.

That is our story map.

Okay.

So, what you're going to do in a moment is have a go at one by yourself.

Feel free to magpie and use some of the pictures I've drawn.

I'm sure your artistic abilities are far greater than mine, but try and think of your own and be creative too.

Okay.

So, now you've seen me do my story map.

I would like you to have a go at creating your own.

And as I said you can use some of the ideas from mine, but I would love you to be creative and think of your own too.

So, have a go at doing that now.

Pause the video then once you've done your story map you can press play and we're going to continue on by using our map to step the story.

Okay, we're going to step the story now.

Now to step the story we're going to come up with one or two actions to represent each of the stages of each of the pictures in our story map.

To do that, in between each one I'm going to take a big step to show that I'm going on to the next section in the story.

If you have a big space to do this in, it might be nice because you can walk around.

If you don't you can just step on the spot like I am.

I'm going to tell you which part of the story I'm doing each time to remind you, and then I'm going to do my action as well.

Okay, let's begin.

So, we know that first bit of the story is when, we know the first part of the story is when Persephone and Demeter are happy and they are up on earth and everything is fine.

So, for that one I'm just going to have a big smile on my face and I'm going to make a heart shape with my hands.

Great, now I do my step 'cause I'm moving on to the next one.

The next part of our story, we know is when Persephone is picking up her flowers from the poppy field and then Hades comes to get her.

So, for this one, I'm going to do two actions.

So, my first one, I'm going to be Persephone, happily picking the poppies.

And for my second one, I'm going to be Hades coming to get her.

It's a bit scary isn't it? Okay, now I'm moving on to my next part of the story.

This is when their down in the underworld.

So I might go down a little bit as if I'm in the underworld We've got Persephone looking very sad.

Good.

Now, I'm going to step.

Next part of the story is when he world goes cold and everything dies.

So for that one, I'm going to act like I'm really shivering.

Good.

Next bit.

This is when Persephone eats the six pomegranate seeds, isn't it? So, I'm going to pretend like I'm eating them.

Well done.

The next bit is when Zeus goes to ask Demeter if he won't put everything back to normal.

Make life on earth again.

She says, "No." So, I'm going to have two little actions.

I'm going to have the first one which is going to be Zeus saying please.

And then the second one which is going to be Demeter saying no.

Good.

After that we know that Zeus goes to Hades and asks him.

Doesn't he? And they come to an agreement about six pomegranate.

This one I'm going to Zeus saying six.

And then I'm going to have Hades saying 'Cause he's agreeing, isn't he, that that's fine.

Okay then, for my final bit of the story, I'm going to have one, two actions.

The first one is going to be that it's a bit chilly for six months of the year when Persephone is in the underworld and Demeter is sad.

And then I'm going to have a nice heart one again, like the beginning when Persephone and Demeter are back together.

Okay.

So, those are the steps that I came up with for the different parts.

I've had my story map in front of me the whole time and I've been using it to help me so that I can look at the pictures and create the actions as I go along.

Now that I've created the actions, I'm going to go and practise it a few times and hopefully I can put my story map aside and I can remember the actions I need without having to look at it 'cause I'm starting to memorise the story.

Okay, so I'd like you to get your story map and to come up with an action for each part of the story and have a go at stepping the story yourself.

Remember to do a step between each part so that you remember that it's a new event in the story.

Okay, great.

Go and have a go a stepping the story yourself and remember these things: your facial expressions, the clear pose that makes it really obvious and the clear step between each one.

Pause here, and then press play when you've had a go yourself.

Just want to say another massive well done for your work today.

It's been so exciting to map the story and put all of their events in order and help us to remember them.

And I'm super impressed by your stepping too.

Hopefully you're starting to remember the story more now and we're going to do even more work on it in the next lesson in this unit.

I hope to see you here.

I would really love to see your work.

If you're happy to share it with me please ask a parent or carer to share it on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

You can tag @OakNational and use the #LearnwithOak.