Lesson video

Hello everybody.

I'm Miss Corbett, and welcome to today's lesson, Writing Facts on an Information Page.

So you are going to write your very own non-fiction information page all about looking after cats.

So for this lesson, we need to make sure we're ready.

You need your listening ears.

Have you got them? Your looking eyes and that thinking brain.

It would be great if you could have someone to share your ideas with and someone to talk to.

The most important thing today is that you have something to write with and something to write on.

Your page might not be your usual lined paper, but it can be if that's what you've got.

And we'll show you what type of paper you could have in the lesson.

As well as that, if you've already got some facts that you've written about cats before, you might want to get them ready.

I wonder if you can remember all of that.

Pause the video now and go and get everything you need.

Have you got everything? Fantastic.

I think we're ready to get started.

And here is the outcome for today's lesson.

I can write an information page with facts and key information about a topic, and these keywords will help us to get there.

Are you ready to repeat them after me in your loud and proud voice? My turn, your turn.

Title.

Information.

This is a long one.

Listen carefully.

It's got three words in it.

Subject-specific vocabulary.

Should we say that together? Subject-specific vocabulary.

Fantastic.

Fact and list.

Well done.

Thank you so much for joining in with me.

Now here are what all of those key words mean.

The title is the name or label given to a piece of writing.

Information is fact learned about something or someone, like all of the facts that we have learned all about cats.

Subject-specific vocabulary is vocabulary we use when we're writing about a particular subject.

So you might talk about cats pouncing.

So the word pouncing might be subject specific to cats.

A fact is something that is known to be true or proved, which is what will be full on our information page today.

And the list is a number of connected items, things that are similar, maybe like what cats like to eat, meat, fish, and they like to drink water.

And let's get started with the first part of our lesson, searching for those keywords.

The first part of our lesson is the features of an information pitch.

So we are going to write our own information page about cats.

Just like the information that Lulu read before getting her own, I think we're going to help lots of people.

An information page can teach people about a particular topic.

All information pages need a title, so they need a name, to show the reader what it is all about.

The title of an information page tells us what we will learn if we read that page.

So in this lesson, we will write a title, for example, "How to look after cats" or "Looking after cats." We will also write an introduction to the information page.

An introduction is a starting point of something, introducing what the writing is going to be about.

For example, you might say that cats are really great pets and this page will teach you all about it.

Finally, we will write facts about three areas, feeding, sleeping and playing.

Now you already know so many facts about cats and you might have already got some written down, so that will help you in today's lesson.

For example, did you know that cats sleep for 16 hours a day? Cats like to play inside and outside.

Next, in another lesson, we will write instructions about how to feed cats.

So thinking about titles, which of the following titles would be suitable for an information page about looking after cats? Remember, an information page is non-fiction, which means it's about real things.

So we're thinking about looking after cats.

Would you choose, "Different types of cats," "How to look after cats," or "The adventures of Ernie the Tabby Cat"? Pause the video now and share your ideas and explain why.

Let's see what you thought of.

I think the title I would choose is "How to look after cats." I wouldn't choose "Different types of cats." That could be a title for an information page but not about looking after cats.

That would be the title of the information page all about just different types of them.

And "The adventures of Ernie the Tabby Cat" sounds like a fiction story to me.

What do you think? Well done if you chose "How to look after cats." So the title makes it really clear what information will follow.

The title is usually at the top of the page.

Can you see it? Should we read it together? "How to look after cats." And it's often in the middle or the centre of the page, and it's often underlined so it stands out.

So you might need a ruler for this lesson to underline your writing.

It can also be called a heading.

So you might hear this be called a title or a heading.

Should we say that word? Heading.

Well done.

An information page needs to be easy to read and understand.

So here it is.

let's have a look at what other features can help us to make it easy for the reader to follow and understand.

What do you notice has been added? These are called subheadings.

So do you remember we just learned that word headings, subheadings help to break up lots of information on a page, making it easier to read.

They help to organise the information into sections.

So you have your main heading, your title, and then your subheadings are like your chunks of information.

They're like signposts that show us what each part of the text is about.

Our subheadings are going to be sleeping, playing and feeding.

Can we say them together? Sleeping, playing and feeding.

Maybe we could add in an action to remind ourselves.

Sleeping, playing, feeding.

Great job.

Have a look again at these subheadings.

How are they different to the title? Maybe you'll have one idea and the person nearby will have a different idea.

Pause the video now.

How are they different to the title? Great ideas.

I loved how carefully you were looking.

Subheadings are usually short.

So do you notice the title is "How to look after cats"? Five Words.

Our subheadings are all only one word.

They grab the reader's attention and help them find the information quickly.

So do you remember, when we looked through our information text, all about cats? Each of these categories, sleeping, playing, feeding, was on its separate page that we found using the contents page.

Your information is going to all be on one page, which means we need to help the person who's reading know where each section is, because they might only want to learn about sleeping or feeding, so they don't have to read all of it.

They may also help the reader to remember the most important details.

Information pages should be easy to read.

Using a template can help to organise the information.

So you might have your page this way and sometimes it's easier to write on a plain piece of paper to then create your own lines, or you might turn your paper to be landscape, but you can see there's still space to have your title or your heading at the top, and then space for your separate chunks of information.

Which layout do you prefer and which one are you going to choose? Could you pause the video now and decide? Fantastic.

It's great to think about how you're going to present your information.

So you are going to start your information page now, and you are going to start it with a title.

First, you are going to write the title at the top of your page in the middle of your line.

Then you are going to underline it.

I have two examples here.

My first example is where the paper is landscape, and the title is "Looking after cats." My second example is where the paper is portrait and the title is "How to look after cats." You can choose.

So you're going to spend some time now getting your layout ready and written your title.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic.

Can you all show me your first page, your title? I can see landscape, I can see portraits, and I can see some brilliant titles.

Well done.

Did you remember to underline it? Fantastic.

So now we have done our title, we are going to start our information page with an introduction.

An introduction can be one or two sentences about cats in general.

An introduction's job is just to introduce the topic.

Here is an example.

"Cats are wonderful pets that can live inside or outside your home." Full stop.

"Taking care of a cat is an important job and this page will teach you how to look after one." So my first sentence is just talking about cats and my next sentence is saying that this page is going to really help anyone who wants a cat.

Introductions do not need to include facts or instructions.

So which of the following do you think is a suitable, which means a good, introduction? Are you ready? "Cats need food to survive." Full stop.

"Go to the shop and buy biscuits, meat, or fish for your cat." Full stop.

That's one introduction.

Listen to my next introduction.

"Cats are fantastic pets to have at home.

It is really important to learn how to look after them properly." So would you choose the first introduction or the second introduction? Could you pause the video now and decide? I have chosen the second introduction.

"Cats are fantastic pets to have at home." So it introduces cats as pets.

And my second sentence, "It is important to learn how to look after them properly." showing that this page will help them.

The first two sentences, "Cats need food to survive.

Go to the shop and buy biscuits, meat, or fish for your cat." those things are facts and instructions, which will come a little bit later in our information page.

I think I'm ready to write my introduction.

Do you think you can help me? I am ready to write my introduction for my information page.

Your layouts might look a little bit different from mine because remember information pages can have different layouts that make it easier to read.

I'm just going to write mine on my line paper so I can show you really easily.

I've already got my title or my heading, "Looking after cats." I wonder is your title the same or different to mine? I'm going to leave a line and then I'm going to start writing here.

My first sentence in my introduction is just going to be to introduce cats and I'm going to say, "Cats are great pets." Can you say that with me? "Cats are great pets." Okay, I'm starting a sentence.

What do I need at the start of a sentence? A capital letter.

Cats.

K, ah, t for cat, and then a letter S to show there is more than one that I'm talking about.

Cats, finger space, are.

Now, are is a common exception word because it has a letter E that we can't hear at the end.

"Cats are great." Great.

Could you send that out with me? G, er, ey.

Which ey is it? It's quite a rare spelling of ey, which is E-A.

G, er, ey, t.

Great "Cats are great pets." Again we need an S to show that we are talking about pets in general, more than one.

P, e, t, s.

Pets.

"Cats are great pets." Full stop.

Then I'm going to explain that my page will help them to learn about them.

This page will help you to look after them.

This, capital letter, th, i, s, this.

This page, hmm.

Have a look closely at the spelling of page.

P, ey, it's my split digraph, ey, j.

Actually, the letter G makes the j sound in split digraph words.

This page.

Oh, I'm running as a space.

I'm going to leave a line and start a new one.

Will, w, i, l, will help.

H, e, l, p.

Help.

This page will help you.

We're talking to the person who is reading, Y-O-U, you.

This page will help you to, T with an O, look, l, oo, k look after, a, f, t, er, er, E-R at the end.

This page will help you to look after either cats or them, because I've already talked about cats.

Th, e, m, them.

This page will help you to look after them.

I finished my sentence.

What do I need? A full stop.

I think you are ready to write your introduction.

Thank you for helping me with mine.

Thank you so much for helping me with my introduction.

Now it's your turn to write yours.

So you are going to write your introduction underneath your title about how to look after cats.

Make sure you check for the spelling of any subject-specific vocabulary using your information text.

read back to make sure it makes sense and make sure that you've got your capital letters and full stops.

Your first sentence should introduce cats as pets and your second sentence should show that your page is going to really help them to look after cats.

I can't wait to see your introductions.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic job.

Here is an introduction that I saw, my first sentence, capital letter, "Cats are a fantastic pet to have." Full stop.

Capital letter.

"This page will help you know how to look after one." full stop.

I can see that we've really checked for any vocabulary, and I can see that it makes sense and it introduces the topic.

Well done for writing yours.

We are now ready to start our information page full of facts.

Have a look at today's success criteria.

Are you listening carefully? For your writing, you are going to write facts as statements.

You will also write facts in as did you know questions.

You will use the information page for spelling subject-specific vocabulary, so the text that we've already read And you will present information with a title and subheadings.

So we've already done our title.

Now it's time to do the rest of it.

Let's read some information.

Are there any words, listen out, that you don't understand or recognise? "Cats need food to survive and they need water to stay hydrated.

Some cats hunt for their food outside and pounce on small animals like birds, voles and mice." Here are some of the words that I've spotted.

Survive, hydrated, pounce, and voles.

We call this subject-specific vocabulary.

There's our key word, words that are really specific to the topic.

We can use subject-specific vocabulary when we write our own information page, but first we need to make sure that we have that vocabulary ready.

So I would like you to think about the facts that you know about sleeping, feeding and playing, and then look back at the information text and the facts that you have already written, and check the spellings of any subject-specific vocabulary.

Here are some examples of those about cats in a word bank.

I can see hydrated, hunters, tinned food, pounce, vole, hours, healthy, skills and kitten.

Could you make sure that the facts you already have, and think about more facts that you'd like to write, are ready to go, making sure that you've got some spellings? You could always write them down so you've got them ready or you could underline them in your information text.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic.

Remember, you can always go back to your information text or your other writing to help you.

You will use the subheadings to help you organise your information.

First you will write about sleeping.

Here's an example.

My subheading is at the top and it's underlined.

s, l, ee, p, i, ng, sleeping.

Then I have some facts about sleeping.

You are going to aim to write two facts per section.

Here there are three.

So you might already have some that you've written down or some in your head, or you could pinch some of these as well.

"Cats need lots of sleep to stay happy and healthy." Full stop.

Capital letter.

"They might sleep in a cat bed," comma, "a sunny spot, or on your bed." Full stop.

Capital letter.

"Some cats sleep for nearly 16 hours a day." This section includes all of the facts and information that is important to know about cat sleeping.

So because of my subheading sleeping, I'm not about playing yet or feeding, just sleeping.

Can you pause the video and you could either say or write down one of those facts that you would like to pinch or magpie for your writing.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic.

It's great that we're all learning together and sharing ideas.

Next, you will write about playing, my favourite section.

There's my subheading playing, p, l, ey, i, ng, playing, and it's underlined, Again, I have some facts here.

I wonder what you will notice.

"Playing is a way for cats to practise important skills, like hunting and pouncing." Pouncing and hunting are some of my subject-specific vocabulary.

Full stop.

Capital letter.

"Many cats like balls," comma, "string and toy mice." Full stop.

"Playing with your cats can help you to bond with them," which means build a relationship.

Full stop.

Capital letter.

"Did you know that playing stops cats from feeling bored?" Question mark.

So can you identify a list of nouns separated by a comma? It might be in green to help you.

So I'm only going to give you five seconds.

Five, four, three, two, and one.

Well done, balls, comma, string and toy mice.

Remember a comma is always put between the first two nouns, and we can use and before the last noun.

Have a look at that writing about playing again because there is something else.

Can you see the question? Capital letter.

"Did you know that playing stops cats from feeling bored?" Question mark.

Including a did you know question can highlight a really interesting fact that the reader might not have known before.

Just don't forget to end it with that question mark.

So we have read some facts about playing, and these are some really great ones that you could take 'cause I can see nouns in a list and questions.

Can you pause the video now and either say or write down either one or two facts so you are ready to go along with the facts that you've already written about playing.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic.

Our final topic that we're going to write about is feeding.

I can see subject-specific vocabulary and nouns in a list.

I wonder if you can find them.

Listen out for them as I am reading.

Feeding, there's my subheading.

F, ee, d, i, ng, feeding.

capital letter.

"Cats need food to survive and they need water to stay hydrated." Full stop.

Capital letter.

"Some cats hunt for their food outside." Full stop.

Capital letter.

"They hunt for birds," comma, "voles and mice." Full stop.

Capital letter.

"Other cats eat tinned food." I wonder, can you pause the video now and share the subject-specific vocabulary that you heard and the nouns that you heard in a list? Could you pause the video now? Fantastic.

Well done.

I could see survive, hydrated, hunt, and then my nouns in a list are birds, comma, voles and mice.

Well done.

Can you now pause the video and you can say or write down one fact to go along with your other facts all about feeding.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic.

I think we are almost ready to write, but first I would like you to have one more chance of pinching some facts and making sure you've got your sections for your subheadings.

So you are going to match each fact to the correct subheadings.

The subheadings we have are feeding, sleeping and playing.

The facts are playing with your cats can help you to bond with them.

Cats need food to survive and water to stay hydrated.

Some cats sleep for nearly 16 hours a day.

Pause the video and match them if you can.

Off you go.

Let's see.

Playing with your cats can help you to bond with them, feeding, sleeping, or playing.

Well done.

Cats need food to survive and water to stay hydrated.

We've got feeding and sleeping.

We're talking about food and water, so I think it's feeding, which means, finally, some cats sleep for nearly 16 hours a day must be sleeping.

Well done.

I think we are ready.

You are going to write your information page using the facts that you know, that you've already written, and the ones that you've practised this lesson.

Make sure that you put each fact under your subheadings.

Don't forget to check your success criteria.

Writing facts as statements, writing facts as did you know questions, and using the information page for spelling subject-specific vocabulary.

Finally, make sure that you've got your title already and then each section is chunked up with some subheadings.

I can't wait to see the start of your information page.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic job.

I am so impressed with the writing that you have done.

Here is an example with information and features that you might have included.

Now, this is quite a long one, but I wanted to share it because it shows how many different things you could have included.

I can see my title at the top, how to look after a cat, then our introduction that we've already written.

Here's an example.

"Cats are wonderful pets to have that can live inside or outside your home.

Taking care of a cat is an important responsibility, but it can also be fun." Then I have my first subheading, sleeping.

"Cats need lots of sleep to stay happy and healthy.

They might sleep in a cat bed," comma, "a sunny spot, or on your bed.

Some cats sleep for nearly 16 hours a day." Then my next section, playing.

"Playing is a way for cats to practise important skills like hunting and pouncing.

Many cats like balls," comma, "string, or toy mice.

Playing with your cat can help to bond with them.

Did you know that playing stops cats from feeling bored?" There's my did you know question I can tick off in my success criteria.

Finally, my section on feeding.

"Cats need food to survive and water to stay hydrated.

Some cats hunt for their food outside and pounce on small animals like birds," comma, "voles and mice.

Other cats stay inside and need to be fed." I wonder if your facts were similar or different.

I want you to now double check that you have met your success criteria.

Can you go back with your writing and check? Remember it's okay if you haven't 'cause now is the time to add the information in.

Pause the video now.

What an amazing job.

I love learning with you today and you should be so proud of your writing.

We have learned that an information page needs to be easy to read and understand.

An information page needs a title, and an information page needs to include subject-specific vocabulary.

We know that when writing a list of what a cat needs, a comma must be placed in between each noun, apart from the last noun.

Did you know questions can be added to make writing more interesting? Thank you so much for learning with me today and I hope you are really proud of your writing.

Well done and I hope to you again soon.

Bye.