Lesson video

Hi there.

I'm Mrs. Howley, and I'm really excited about us taking the next step on our storytelling journey today, where you get to be the storytellers.

My friend Cedric's excited as well, but, he's quite slow, being a snail.

So we should be along any moment now.

Oh, here he is.

Hi, Cedric.

What can you remember about our story? That's right.

There's a Tortoise, who's very slow.

And there's a cheater, that's really fast.

That's right.

I wonder what you can remember about our story.

This is what we're learning today.

In this lesson, we're going to tell a story from memory, the story of a Wunggurr Lima.

We're going to start by learning a song, and then we're going to use the storytelling school's method of hear, map, step, speak, to learn the story so that you can tell it yourselves.

In this lesson, you'll lead an exercise book or some paper, a pen or a pencil.

And of course, your brilliant brain.

If you need to collect any equipment now, pause the video and press play when you're ready.

I wonder what you can remember about the story of a Wunggurr Lima.

Can you remember what the animals are trying to find out? What are they trying to find out, Cedric? The name of the old Acacia tree.

That's right.

And they have to send lots of different animals to find it.

Some of the animals run really fast, but then they end up crashing into an anthill, and forgetting.

But who takes it slOwly, and plods, plods, plods up the mountain top and gets the name of the old tree? Can you remember who? The Tortoise.

That's right.

And then all of the animals have a lots of fruit to feast on and fill their bellies.

That's right.

Now, I've got a song we can sing, that they might have some on the mountain top.

It goes like this.

I'll sing a line and then you can copy.

♪ Mountain spirits mountain spirits ♪ ♪ Talk to me talk to me ♪ ♪ Tell me the name tell me the name ♪ ♪ Of the old old tree old old tree ♪ Should we try it together? Okay.

♪ Mountain spirits mountain spirits ♪ ♪ Talk to me talk to me ♪ ♪ Tell me the name tell me the name ♪ ♪ Of the old old tree old old tree ♪ Fantastic.

You might have your story map from lesson one.

If you haven't, don't worry because you've got a picture of mine on the screen.

Now, I'm going to talk through my story map.

I'm not retelling it yet.

I'm just going over the key points in the story.

This will really help me later when I want to retell it with lots of description.

So at the start, I've got my sun because there was no rain and the animals were so hungry.

But they don't know the name of the magical tree.

So first of all, they send Cheetah.

And he runs as fast as the wind up to the top of the mountain.

He asks the mountain spirits the name, and they tell him, and then he runs back down as fast as the wind, but then he hits, crash, an anthill and forgets the name of the tree.

So next, they send Lion.

And Lion runs up the mountain as fast as the wind, learns the name, runs back down, hits an anthill, and then forgets the name of the tree.

So then they send Jaguar.

Jaguar runs up the mountain really, really fast, gets the name, runs back down really, really fast, but hits an anthill, crash, and forgets the name.

So then, they decide to send a slow animal, and they send Tortoise.

The plods, plods, plods, as slow as a slug.

Up the hill, finds out the name, plods back down again, says the name of the tree, which is then filled with fruit.

And they are all get to fill their bellies, and have a fantastic time.

Pause the video now and have a go at talking through the story map.

So far, to help us be able to retell the story from memory, we've heard the story, we've mapped the story and talked through it.

Now we're going to step the story.

You might have done this before.

But if you haven't, don't worry it's very simple.

We're going to imagine that there's a river.

And there's stepping stones across a river.

Each of these stones is an important part of the story.

We're going to use actions and words to help us remember them.

Okay, so these are my steps.

If I get stuck, I've got my story map right here to help.

Okay.

The animals were so hungry and they gathered under a tree.

Who shall we send? "I'll go," said Cheetah.

He ran to the top of the mountain, heard the name, ran and crashed.

He was bitten all over, and forgot the name.

Who shall we send now? "I'll go," said the Lion.

So we ran to the top of the mountain, ran and crashed.

He got bitten all over, and forgot the name.

Who shall we send now? "I'll go," said Jaguar.

Jaguar ran and ran as fast as he could to the top of the mountain, heard the name, run back down and crashed, got bitten all over, and forgot the name.

Who should we send now? A slow animal.

"I'll go," said Tortoise.

And he plodded and he plodded.

And he plodded to the mountain top, heard the name, and plodded and plodded and plodded.

He said the name and the tree was full of fruit.

The animals filled their bellies.

Should we try that again and you can join in? Okay.

The animals were so hungry and they gathered under a tree.

Who shall we send? "I'll go," said Cheetah.

He ran to the top of the mountain, heard the name, ran and crushed.

He hit an anthill, got bitten all over and forgot the name.

Who shall we send now? "I'll go," said Lion.

Lion ran as fast as he could to the top of the mountain, heard the name, run back down and crashed.

He hit an anthill, and got bitten all over, and forgot the name.

Who shall we send now? "I'll go," said Jaguar.

Jaguar ran and ran as fast as he could, got to the top of the mountain.

heard the name, ran again, then crashed.

He hit an anthill, got bitten all over and forgot the name.

Who shall we send now? A slow animal.

"I'll go," said Tortoise.

Tortoise went plod, plod, plod, plod, to the top of the mountain, heard the name, went plod, plod, plod, back down.

Tortoise said the name, and the tree filled with fruit.

The animals filled their bellies.

Now, pause the video, and have a go at stepping the story yourself.

You can make up different actions, to the one I used, if you like.

Have a go and then press play when you're ready.

Now, we've heard the story.

We've mapped the story.

We've stepped the story.

It's your turn to have a go at speaking the story up.

Retelling thee story.

I'm going to have a go now.

But if I get stuck, I'm going to use my text map to help me.

And, Cedric's just had the great idea.

I can remember the actions from my stepping too.

Once upon a time, in the forest of Africa, there had been no rain.

The land was dry and brown and the animals were so hungry.

They gathered under a huge Acacia tree.

The Lion stepped forward.

"If we can say the name of this tree, it will give us all the fruit we need.

Who can remember the name of this tree?" The animals all shook their heads.

"Who will go and learn the name from the mountain spirits?" said the Owl.

"Ooh, let me check my map." Cheetah.

"I'll go," said Cheetah.

And off Cheetah went.

He ran as fast as he could to the top of the mountain.

He ran and he ran and he ran as fast as the wind until he got to the top of the mountain.

And he said, "Mountain spirits, talk to me.

Tell me the name of the old, old tree." "A Wunggurr Lima," said the mountain spirits.

"A Wunggurr Lima," said Cheetah.

And he set off back down the mountain.

He ran and he ran and he ran as fast as the wind until crash, he hit an anthill, and got bitten all over.

"Ow!" he yelled.

And as he brushed up the ants, he realised, he'd forgotten the name of the tree.

When he got back, the animals asked him, "What's the name of the tree?" "I forgot," he said.

And he hanged his head.

Who did they send next? The Lion.

"I'll go," said Lion.

And Lion set off up the mountain.

He ran and he ran and he ran as fast as the wind until he got to the top of the mountain.

"Mountain spirits, talk to me.

Tell me the name of the old, old tree," said Lion.

"A Wunggurr Lima," said the mountain spirits.

"A Wunggurr Lima," said Lion.

And off he went back down the mountain as fast as the wind, and then crash, he hit an anthill, and got bitten all over.

"Arg!" he roared, as he brushed off the ants.

He realised, he'd forgotten the name of the tree.

""Who shall we send next?" said the Owl.

Who did he send next? The Jaguar.

"I'll go," said Jaguar.

And off Jaguar went.

He ran and he ran and he ran as fast as the wind until he got to the top of the mountain and then he called out, "Mountain spirits, talk to me.

Tell me the name of the old, old tree." "A Wunggurr Lima," called the mountain spirits.

"A Wunggurr Lima," said to Jaguar.

And off he went back down the mountain.

He ran and he ran and he ran as fast as the wind until crash, he hit an anthill, and got bitten all over.

"Ow!" he yelled.

And as he brushed off the ants, he realised, he's forgotten the name of the tree.

When he got back to the tree, the animals asked, "What is the name of the tree?" "I forgot," said Jaguar.

Who shall we send now? Who did they send next? They sent a slow animal.

They sent the, Tortoise.

And the Tortoise went, plod, plod, plod, plod, as slow as a slug, to the top of the mountain.

Can you join in? What did he say? "Mountain spirits, talk to me.

Tell me the name of the old, old tree." And the mountain spirits called out, "A Wunggurr Lima." And what did the Tortoise do then? He went plod, plod, plod, plod, back down the mountain, until he got to the Acacia tree with all the animals gathered around.

And he said the name of the tree.

"A Wunggurr Lima." And suddenly the tree was filled with the most beautiful, delicious looking fruit.

And the animals ate, and they ate and they ate, until their faces were dripping with juice, and their bellies were full.

And they sat together happy in the sun, under the old Acacia tree.

I enjoyed telling that, then.

Did you notice that I started to add some more description? Maybe you could do that, when you have a go at telling the story? Cedric, can you remember what we're focusing on in this unit? Vivid description, that's right.

I wonder if when you're retelling the story, you could make the listener feel like they're really there, watching it.

Pause the video now, and have a go at retelling the story.

Remember, you can use your map to help, and your actions from the stepping.

Good luck, and press play again when you're ready.

I wonder what your favourite part of that lesson was.

What was yours, Cedric? Cedric enjoyed the stepping the most.

I wonder if you could use your story map to retell the story to somebody at home before our next lesson.

Maybe you could even teach them how to step it.

Let's sing our mountain spirit song one more time before we finish.

Are you ready? ♪ Mountain spirits mountain spirits ♪ ♪ Talk to me talk to me ♪ ♪ Tell me the name tell me the name ♪ ♪ Of the old old tree old old tree ♪ We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Bye.