Lesson video

Hello everybody, I'm Ms. Corbett, and welcome to today's lesson, writing instructions.

So you are going to learn how to write a new type of sentence, giving somebody instructions all about looking after cats.

I hope you're ready, 'cause I'm really excited.

For this lesson, you will need your listening ears, your looking eyes and your thinking brain.

It would be great if you could have someone to talk to.

As well as that today, you need something to write with and something to write on and somewhere to sit comfortably.

Can you pause the video and make sure you have all of those things ready? Off you go! I can see that you have got everything ready.

So I think we're ready to get started on learning all about instructions.

And here is the lesson outcome for today's lesson.

"I can write simple instructions and commands." And these keywords will help us with that.

First I would like you to repeat them after me in your loud and proud voice.

Are you ready? My turn, your turn.

Command, instruction, verb, noun, comma.

Thank you so much for joining in with me.

That was quite a lot of keywords.

Let's talk about what they mean.

A command is a type of simple sentence that tells someone to do something and it can end with an exclamation mark or a full stop.

An instruction is a direction or order.

So quite similar to command, telling someone to do something.

A verb is a doing or a being word.

A noun is a naming word for people, places, and things.

And a comma is a punctuation mark used to separate in this lesson nouns in a list.

The first part of our lesson is learning about commands.

A command is a type of simple sentence that tells someone to do something.

"Feed the cat." "Look at the tiny kitten!" A command can end with an exclamation mark if it is expressing a strong emotion.

So imagine you can see a tiny, cute kitten and you really want someone to look at it.

"Look at the tiny kitten!" Rather than, "Look at the tiny kitten." So it can show excitement, surprise, or sometimes fear.

"Wait, stop!" So a command.

Let's see.

Is it a command asks the reader for an answer, a command expresses a fact or opinion, or a command tells someone to do something? Think back, feed the cat, look at the tiny kitten.

Which one is it? Pause the video now and decide.

A command.

Let's see how you got on.

A command tells someone to do something.

A sentence asking the reader for an answer is a question and a sentence expressing a fact or opinion is a statement.

Commands are similar to instructions.

There are two keywords together, because they both tell someone what to do.

"Feed your cat twice a day." So that's telling someone, instructing someone to remember to feed their cat two times in one day.

"Give your cat a fresh bowl of water.

Put a bed down for your cat." Giving an instruction to someone can be really useful in teaching them something or giving them information just like Lulu learned when she was getting a cat.

And we're going to write instructions and commands today all about how to best look after a cat just like Lulu learned.

Instructions like these ones are less likely to end in an exclamation mark, because they're not particularly expressive, they're not surprising or shocking or exciting.

They're just simple instructions.

So our commands today will end in a full stop.

What will our commands end in a? Full stop, well done.

Have a look at these commands again.

Notice the word at the beginning of each sentence.

"Feed your cat twice a day.

Give your cat a fresh bowl of water.

Put a bed down for your cat." Commands and instructions often start with verbs.

Verbs.

A verb is a being or a doing word.

Feed, that's something that we do.

We feed things or animals or people.

"Give your cat a fresh bowl of water.

Put a bed down for your cat." So our commands will start with verbs.

Can you think of another command that starts with a verb? Let me give you a few examples.

"Jump up and down.

Go over there.

Hop on one leg." Think about some things that we do, some actions.

Pause the video now and think of as many as you can.

What a fantastic selection of commands, are verbs that will start our commands.

I wonder which ones you'll be able to use today when we are writing our commands about looking after cats.

So is this true or is this false? Get your thumbs ready.

Commands often start with verbs.

Is that true or false? I'm going to give you five seconds to think.

Five, and zero.

Well done if your thumbs are up, commands often start with verbs.

"Give your cat a bowl of water.

Give your cat a bed.

Feed your cat twice a day." Instructions can also come in a sequence using sequencing language, because it's really important sometimes that we do things in a certain order.

So, "First, find a safe and quiet place.

Next, put a bed down for your cat.

Then, give them a bowl of water nearby.

Finally, leave your cat to get comfortable." So if they weren't in the correct sequence, it might be, "Put a bed down for your cat.

Leave your cat to get comfortable.

Find a safe and quiet place." We need to do things in certain orders and sequencing language can help us.

Can you find the sequencing language in these instructions? I'm going to read them one more time.

"First, find a safe and quiet place.

Next, put a bed down for your cat.

Then, give them a bowl of water nearby.

Finally, leave your cat to get comfortable." Pause the video and identify the sequencing language.

Did you get it? Well done.

First, next, then, finally.

First is the sequencing language that we might use at the start and finally is the one that we might use at the end.

So now it is time for your first task.

I'm going to read you this information about how to feed a cat.

Then you are going to underline the sequencing language that starts these commands.

Then you will circle the commanding verb.

So the action, the thing that we are instructing them to do.

So underline the sequencing language.

Circle the commanding verb.

Do you think you can do that for me? I'm going to read them for you now.

Are you listening? Have you got those listening ears ready? This is how to feed a cat.

"First, buy cat food from the shops.

Next, scoop some cat food into your cat's bowl.

Make sure you give them the right amount.

Finally, put the bowl on the floor in a safe and quiet place." So you are underlining the sequencing language and you are circling the commanding verbs.

Pause the video now.

Let's see how you got on.

Let's have a look.

Underlined I have first my sequencing language.

Then I have circled buy, okay, that's something we need to do, a commanding verb.

So first, buy cat food from the shops.

There's another sequencing word, next, scoop, which is a verb.

Hope you've got it circled.

Some cat food into your cat's bowl.

We have gone through the first two sentences.

Can you check that you have underlined two examples of sequencing language and two commanding verbs? Fantastic, let's keep going.

Make, that's a verb.

Hope you've circled it.

"Make sure you give them the right amount." Finally, underline, put, verb, so you should have it circled, the bowl on the floor in a safe and quiet place.

How did you get on? Well done if you managed to get those.

I think we're ready to move into the next part of our lesson, writing command.

Here is the success criteria for today's writing.

Have you got your listening ears on? You are going to write three commands, starting each with a capital letter and ending each with a full stop.

Also, you will include sequencing language to sequence those instructions.

You might use sequencing language like first, then, finally, next or after that.

And notice that they are starting our sentences, so they have a capital letter and they also end with a comma to separate them from the rest of the sentence.

Finally, we are going to use a comma to separate nouns in a list.

So you'll have a noun, comma, noun, and noun.

Let's have a look.

So the commands that we write can include a list, which is really important for our success criteria today.

Here's an example.

"Give your cat food, water, and love." Food, water, love are our list of things that we need to give to the cat and they've been written in a sentence.

"Feed your cat biscuits, tinned meat and fish." Biscuits, tinned meat, fish is our list of what we can feed our cat.

"Provide a bed, a sunny spot, and a quiet place for your cat to sleep." So the bed, the sunny spot, and the quiet place are the things in our list.

"Buy string, balls, and toy mice for your cat to play with." String, balls, toy mice is our list of things to buy.

We put these into a sentence by adding a comma and the joining word and and to separate those nouns in a list.

Look at this command again and see how many nouns that are listed you can find.

"Give your cat food, water, and love." Cat is a noun, but which of the nouns that are being listed to give to the cat? How many are there? Could you count them? I'll give you five seconds.

And zero.

Did you find them? There are three nouns in this list of things that a cat needs, food, water, love.

One, two, three.

It is best to choose three nouns when you write a list, because otherwise your list will be a bit too long.

A comma is always put between the first two nouns and we usually use and before the last noun.

So you can see food, comma, water and love.

And your success criteria will help you to remember that, because remember it says noun, comma, noun and noun.

So our comma separates our first two nouns and then before the last noun, we put in the joining word and.

So how many nouns should we include in a list? Is it two, three, or four? Can you remember? Pause the video now.

Did you remember? We are going to include three nouns.

Well done.

So now I would like you to identify the sentence that is written correctly.

Looking out for the list of nouns.

The sentence is, "Cats play with balls, string, and noisy toys." Okay, I've got three nouns there.

Can I see any commas separating them? Hmm.

Then B, "Cats play with balls, comma, string, comma, and, comma, noisy toys." Hmm.

C, "Cats play with balls, comma, string and noisy toys." And D, "Cats play with balls and string and noisy toys and mice." Hmm.

Only one of those is correct with the correct punctuation and the correct number of nouns.

Could you pause the video and try and figure out which one it is? Pause the video now.

Did you get there? Let's see.

The correct answer is C, because we have listed three nouns, balls, string, noisy toys.

For the first two nouns, they are separated by the comma.

And just before the last noun, noisy toys, we have and.

D has too many nouns and no commas.

We just have and, and, and, and, and.

And did you notice when I was reading it, it made it quite tricky and difficult to understand? A had no commas at all and B had too many commas.

So well done if you got C.

Here are some commands based on the information that I know about playing with cats.

"Find out what your cat likes playing with.

Buy some new toys.

Play with your cat." I have started each command with a verb.

Find out what your cat likes playing with.

"Buy some new toys, play with your cat." I can add sequencing language to help to order and sequence those instructions.

"First, find out what your cat likes playing with.

Then, buy some new toys.

Finally, play with your cat." I can also include a list of nouns separated by a comma and the joining word and.

So notice that second instruction has changed.

"Then buy some new toys like balls, comma, string, and squeaky mice." Now we are going to write instructions about how to feed cats.

First, you're going to help me.

Are you ready? I am ready to write my instructions all about feeding a cat.

I have got my success criteria here with me reminding me that I need three commands to use sequencing language, and if I have nouns in a list, I need to separate the first ones with a comma.

I've also got my information page here, because I thought that would be helpful just in case I need to remember any spellings or any information.

I've already started my first command, so I wonder if you can check it with me.

Let's have a look.

It says, capital letter, first.

There's my sequencing language, buy biscuit, meat and fish.

Full stop.

I have nouns in a list.

Let's look at my success criteria.

Use a comma to separate nouns in a list, and it should be my first noun, then a comma, my next noun and my final noun.

Hmm.

"First, buy biscuits." What am I missing? Can you tell me? I'm missing a comma.

"First buy biscuits, comma, meat and fish." Full stop.

Thank goodness you're here to help me.

Now onto my next command.

I'm going to say it.

"Then, give your cat water." Can you say that with me? "Then, give your cat water." Okay, then my sequencing language is there.

It has a capital letter, because I'm starting my sentence with it.

So I'm starting a new line and I can just copy it, but I could also sound it out.

Th, E, N.

Then I need my comma.

Then give, give.

Now I can sound out the first part of that.

G, I, V.

But there is a sneaky letter E at the end.

Then give, your, your.

Your is a common exception word.

Y-O-U, like the word you, and then R, a letter R or an R.

"Then give your cat." We can write cat.

C, A, T, cat.

Hmm.

I also want to write water.

I can't remember how to write water, so I'm going to check here.

"What do they drink? Cats should drink water," so I'm going to copy it.

W-A-T.

Then E-R to make the R.

"Then give your cat water." Full stop.

Now I'm onto my final command, so I'm going to use the sequencing language, finally.

Finally, feed your cat how many times a day? Twice a day.

So capital F for finally and I can copy it.

Finally, comma, feed.

Can you sound it out with me? Feed, feed, feed your.

We've already written your, Y-O-U and an R.

Feed your cat.

How many times? Twice, hmm.

Could you stretch the word twice with me? Twice.

T, W, ice.

Twice.

T, W.

Then it's my split digraph I.

T, W, ice.

What letter's making the S sound in spit digraph words? The letter C.

"Finally, feed your cat twice a day." Day.

I'm going to leave a line and write day, D, A, day.

And I need to finish my sentence with a full stop.

I think I'm done.

Write three commands, starting each with a capital letter and ending each with a full stop.

I need to include sequencing language.

First, then, finally.

And then I need to separate my nouns in a list.

Biscuits, comma, meat, and fish.

I have met my success criteria.

Thank you for helping me.

And now you're ready to write yours.

Thank you so much for helping me.

And now it's your turn.

You are going to write three commands that teach someone how to feed a cat.

Don't forget, you're going to write three commands, each starting with a capital letter and ending with a full stop.

Your commands can include sequencing language to put them in a correct order so the person knows what order to do them with.

And if you choose to list some nouns to remember to use a comma to separate those nouns in the list and the joining word and.

I can't wait to see your instructions and commands.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic.

What amazing writing.

Here's an example that I have seen.

"First, buy biscuits, meat and fish for your cat." That has ticked off our sequencing language and our nouns in a list.

"Next, put the food bowl in a quiet place.

Finally, feed your cat twice a day." All of my commands have a capital letter and a full stop.

And I have three of them.

I have included sequencing language.

First, next, finally.

And I have used a comma to separate nouns in a list.

Biscuits, comma, meat, and fish.

I would like you to look at your commands and double check your success criteria.

Remember, it's okay to make mistakes, because we can learn from them as long as you fix them now.

Pause the video.

Wow, fantastic checking.

And I'm really pleased that you've now managed to meet your success criteria.

Thank you so much for learning with me today.

We have learned that instructions or commands tell someone what to do.

We know that giving an instruction to someone can be really useful in teaching them something or giving them information.

You have taught someone how to feed a cat.

Really good job.

We know that instructions mostly start with verbs unless we are using sequencing language first.

Instructions can come in a sequence using sequencing language.

And a command can include a list.

Thank you so much for learning with me today and well done for writing such fantastic instructions.

I hope to see you again soon.

Bye!.