Lesson video

Hi everybody.

Miss Gardner here.

Welcome to lesson 12 on our unit to writing a non-chronological report on pandas.

I really hope you enjoy it.

So let's get started.

So the lesson objective today is to plan paragraphs on habitat and diet.

We're going to be using our notes for the research lesson to help us create a really thorough plan so that when you go and do your writing in the next lesson, you'll feel really confident and know you've got lots of stuff to say.

So, for this lesson you will need your exercise book or paper, a pencil, or pen and really importantly, the notes from the previous lesson that wrote with the research lesson.

So on the agenda today we'll start with a brightening warm-up, two writing activities.

Then we're going to plan the paragraph on diet, then the paragraph on habitat, and then we're going to be looking at some subject-specific vocabulary.

So for the writing warm-up, you'll need a pencil or pen and some paper.

Firstly, I was thinking could you? I would like you to write a sentence about this picture of the panda using an apostrophe for possession.

Just a reminder.

An apostrophe for possession is when something belongs to someone.

So like, Miss Gardner's pencil, Miss Gardner's pencil.

You have an apostrophe s because the pencil belongs to me.

Okay.

So for example, on the sentence I had to do with non-chronological reports.

A panda's wrists is enlarged in order to crush the tough bamboo.

I'd like you to now pause the video and have a go writing a sentence yourself, using an apostrophe for possession.

Welcome back.

Hopefully you've all written a sentence using an apostrophe for possession.

Now obviously, you're going to be doing this at home without a teacher marking your work.

So we're going to use this opportunity for you to mark and check your own work.

So, just like I'm going to be doing now with my own sentence, I'd like you to do this at home with a pencil.

So I'm going to be checking.

Did I use the apostrophe correctly? And also did I include other punctuations? Was all the other punctuation and spelling as accurate? Starting with a capital letter A, good, A panda's jaw is huge so that it can break the bamboo enough to be able to digestive, to digest it.

Sorry, not digestive.

I finished with a full stop.

I started with a capital letter.

I haven't got any commas, unnecessary commas and my apostrophe for possession is correct.

It's come after the word panda and before the s because it's just one panda.

A panda's jaw.

If you need to, go back and check your sentence and edit through any mistakes.

So for a non-chronological report, I want us to think about how we can refer to the pandas in different ways.

So we're not constantly be calling them.

Pandas, pandas, pandas.

Technically, it's fine.

It's allowed.

But it's just more interesting as a reader to read if you can, if you're not repeating, if you're not constantly repeating the word pandas.

So I'd like you to have to think in a minute, pause the video and think, "What else could we call the pandas? Instead of always saying the panda's jaw, what else could you use? Pause the video and have a think.

So these are the kind of, some of the nouns that I came up with to refer to you and also refer to the pandas but not repeating the word panda, a bear, an animal.

More specifically, it's a mammal, a creature or you could refer to them as general as the species.

Wonder if you've got any of the same.

Now we've had to talk about that though.

Then second writing warm-up, just to keep practising those writing their sentences.

I'd like you to write a sentence about panda, but referring to it in a different way.

So for example, This mammal is recognised by its distinct black and white fur.

I didn't use the word panda just so, cause I wanted to refer to the noun in a different way.

Pause the video now and you have go writing a sentence using, referring to the panda in a different way.

So we're first of all going to plan our paragraph on diet.

What facts can you recall about pandas diet from our research lesson? Can you remember what they eat and anything more, any more specific facts about them? Pause the video now, if you need to gather those notes from the original research lesson, or just have a talk to someone else in the room about what you remember.

So have a pause and have a recap of what you remember.

Welcome back.

I hope you managed to remember some of the facts.

I had a little think and these are the ones that I remembered.

The fact that pandas eat up to 38 kilogrammes a day of bamboo.

38 kilogrammes a day.

It's almost half the weight of an average adult.

Bamboo makes up 99% of their diet.

Sometimes they do prey on small mammals such as mice because they are technically carnivores they kind of raise bears so they can eat meat.

And sometimes they choose to eat small animals like mice.

Bamboo shoots, leaves and stems. They can all be eaten.

And all the parts of the plant could be eaten but all of them have very little nutritional value.

Nutritional value meaning that they don't give them any nutrients that they give them as fibre, protein, carbohydrates which is why they need to eat so much of it just in order to be able to get enough energy.

Enough calories inside them to keep them going.

Sorry.

Pandas could eat meat as they are carnivores.

Scientists though, think they eat meat.

They bamboo because there is so much of it and they don't have to fight with other animals to eat it.

Because no one else, none of the other animals around them are eating the bamboo so it's all for them.

So it's almost an easier option.

So, let's plan the paragraph.

What do you need to include? You'll need to have an intro sentence.

Your first sentence after the subheading, tells you kind of a general statement about the diet.

you're going to have some key facts, hopefully to make your writing more interesting and ambitious you'll have a variety of sentence starters.

Just like we did in the writing warm-up, hope you'll refer to the panda in different ways.

And then at the end of the paragraph, there'll be a linking sentence to the next paragraph on habitat.

Just to create a kind of natural and smooth flow within the non-chronological report.

Okay.

So now we're going to create our plan which you will keep safely for the next lesson where you'll write this paragraph.

If you'd like to pause the video and get your page ready like this, that would be a really good idea.

Don't worry about the different colours.

I've just done that for myself but if you only have a pencil or one coloured pen, that's absolutely fine.

But you could lay out your plan with your subheading at the top diet, intro sentence, leave a couple of lines for you to have a plan of what you might, you think your first sentence might be.

Some bullet points for the key facts you want to talk about, which we'd looked at on the earlier slide.

And then that all important linking sentence to create the flow into the next paragraph.

Pause the video now and you can create your plan.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully your plan is ready to go.

And I thought we'd go through some ideas for you to have some help filling it to the planning.

So, intro sentence.

It's good to have an intro sentence to kind of set the scene, set the tone for the rest of the paragraph.

Again, a bit like an introductory paragraph in an whole non-chronological report.

It's kind of, it works that it goes from general to specific.

The first sentence is quite a general fact about the diet.

So a panda's diet is predominantly.

And then you can carry on.

Or a panda predominantly eats.

You probably wouldn't in the first sentence go into the detail about how bamboo lacks nutritional value.

That's a key fact to come a little bit later.

So your intro sentence, some key facts, two or three facts about their diet.

This is just your plan.

So it's not going to be full sentences at all.

In fact, you could even use no language no formal language.

But you could think about different sentence starters.

And maybe you could think about the different ways you could call, refer to the panda.

Which ones from the sentence start, and from the writing warm-up did you think, "I'd quite like to refer to the panda in that way?" So this is the section where you're just going to take two or three of your favourite facts about their diet and then the linking sentence which is quite tricky to do.

But have a little think now in the planning lesson about how could you link the diet and the habitat? Is there a connection between what they eat? The bamboo.

And where they live in the bamboo forests? Have a little think about that.

And now it's the time to pause the video again and fill in your plan.

Okay.

Hopefully you have all spent some time planning your paragraph on diet really thoroughly so that you are feeling ready for the next lesson to write it.

But before we do that, we need to now plan our paragraph on habitat.

What facts can you recall about panda's habitat from that lesson where we watched video and gathered facts from the fact sheet? Do you remember where they live? Now is the time to pause the video, look through some notes.

Maybe speak to a parent or carer about anything that they know about a panda's habitat.

And then we're going to go through some key facts for you to put onto your plan.

So here are the ones that I remembered.

Pandas are native to central China.

Native meaning they're from there originally, that's their birth place.

They live in bamboo forests, high up in the mountains.

Instead of hibernating in winter, they go lower down in the mountain where it's actually warmer.

So lots of bears, you might know the word hibernating when you sleep throughout the winter, pandas don't do that.

When it's cold, they just go lower down the mountains and choose to locate themselves there where it's a little bit warmer.

The bamboo forest is cold and wet and very remote.

Remote means far from anything there.

You know, there's no one else around.

So they are though, and it's something that we're going to to speak about in a bit in a few lessons' time.

They are becoming a bit less remote because tourists are starting to go to the mountains a lot more cause they're realising what beautiful places they are.

So they are becoming a little less remote and a little bit more travelled.

And pandas who are not wild live in breeding centres and in zoos where they are often the most popular attraction, I think probably because of their very sweet face and then gentle nature for a bear.

People love to see pandas at the zoos so they're fascinated by them.

So this is some of the facts that I remembered about their habitat.

If you need to jot some of these down, just to remind yourself of them, but you're absolutely welcome to go back through the video when you're creating your plan to have a look at this slide again.

It's time to plan the paragraph.

What do you need to include? So just like in the diet paragraph, we'll start with an intro sentence, just to set the tone for the rest of the paragraph.

Kind of going from general into more specific.

We'll include some key facts.

Hopefully it's not a variety of sentence starters.

And not every sentence starts the same.

Refer to the panda in different ways just like we did in the writing warm-up.

and then a closing sentence to complete the paragraph.

So in a minute, I'm going to ask you to pause the video and you'll get your page ready.

Just like this.

Just like you did with the diet paragraph.

Set out with a subheading habitats, an intro sentence and then leave couple of lines so you've got space to write the intro sentence.

Some bullet points and so leave some lines so you can write your key facts, the ones you want to talk about.

About the panda's habitat and then a closing sentence and leave a couple of lines so you can shortly generate some ideas for what you think your closing sentence would be.

Pause the video now and set your page up ready like this.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully your plan is reset up and ready to start adding some ideas in.

So the intro sentence.

Again, a kind of general statement about their, where they live but also if you can't try and connect it to the previous paragraph.

Just as we spoke about earlier to kind of create a flow, a flow to the whole non-chronological report.

So I thought I would mention the fact that, they live in bamboo forests because that is, and that's where all their food is from.

So you could have a sentence starting something like, Due you their need to be near their food source, pandas are located.

And then so on.

It's the fact that they live so close to the bamboo, which is why they eat so much of it.

So that's quite a nice linking sentence between the two paragraphs.

Key facts.

I'm want you to think of two or three facts about their habitat.

As I mentioned, you can go back to that slide where we looked at the facts again.

If you need help a bit remembering that's fine.

Have a think about different sentence starters and maybe different ways to refer to the noun the panda.

And then that closing sentence.

How could you finish that paragraph? How could you kind of sum it up? So pause the video now and complete your plan so that it is ready if you're writing in the next lesson.

Okay.

So we're going to do now have a quick look at subject-specific vocabulary.

Vocabulary that we want to include in these two paragraphs of the non-chronological report.

The reason we do this is just to make our writing sound even more scientific, more formal and more informative.

So what is subject-specific vocabulary? They are words and phrases that are linked to a specific subject or topic.

They're often unfamiliar words that you wouldn't read on everyday texts and they are often formal or scientific language.

What subject-specific vocabulary about diet and habitat do you think you could include in this piece of, in this section of the writing? Pause the video now and have a think about what you want.

What kind of words do you want to get into your report? Okay.

Hopefully you've paused and had a little think.

The words that I thought would be really appropriate and I would consider subject-specific vocabulary for these particular paragraphs.

Carnivore.

The fact that pandas are technically carnivores.

They could eat animals and the fact that they have carnivorous teeth.

Nutrition or nutritional.

The idea that bamboo doesn't have much nutritional value for them.

Prey.

The mice are considered prey for pandas.

And bamboo of course, is a huge part of their diet, isn't it? It's very much specific to this text.

Hibernating.

More to do with the habitat section, but the fact that they don't hibernate during the winter, but that they moved down into the lower parts of the mountains.

Migrate.

Also a more scientific and technical term for the word move.

They migrate down the mountains and move down the mountains.

Mountainous.

Kind of an adjective to describe the landscape which they live or the environment where they live.

Basically mountains but the adjective of that.

And located.

A verb pandas are located or pandas are often located in bamboo forests.

All of these are brilliant subject-specificvocab that would be great to be to include.

So if you'd like to and you want to get the correct spelling, jot them down now on to your plan.

Welcome back.

Hopefully you have got a nice complete plan for a paragraph on diet and on habitat and some of the key vocabulary, some subject-specific vocabulary that you are keen to include in the writing lesson.

So great lesson today.

We've done writing warm-up with two sentences that you were writing.

We planned the paragraph from diet after recalling the facts from the research lesson.

Then we planned our paragraph on habitat and then we looked at some subject-specific vocabulary for these paragraphs.

Congratulations, you have completed your lesson.

Make sure you keep these plans safe for the writing lesson.

Well done everybody and see you soon.