Lesson video

Hello everyone, and welcome to the lesson "Writing the beginning of a letter".

I'm really excited for today's lesson, because once you know how to write one letter, you can write as many as you want to your friends, to your family members, to characters in stories.

So, I'm really excited.

For today's lesson, as we'll be writing, you'll need something to write with and something to write on.

It would be great if you could have lined paper ready.

You will also need your copy of the story "Anna Hibiscus' Song", and it would be great if your copy could look just like mine.

Can you pause the video now to get all of those things.

Fantastic, can you put those things in front of you so they aren't distracting you? Show me your hands.

Well done.

You will also need your listening ears, your looking eyes, and your thinking brains.

It would also be great, if you have someone to talk to.

We are going to get started.

Here is the outcome for today's lesson.

I can write the beginning of a letter, including a greeting.

Here are the key words that will help us get there.

Are you ready to repeat them after me? My turn, then your turn.

Let me hear you.

Letter.

Greeting.

First person.

Question.

Question mark.

Thank you so much for joining in with me.

The first part of our lesson is, asking and answering questions.

We have read the story "Anna Hibiscus' Song".

The story focuses on Anna discovering what all of her family do when they are happy and it explores the themes of happiness, family, and love.

What is your favourite part of the story and why? You might want to look back through it or you might have it in your head already.

My favourite part was, because.

Pause the video and off you go.

Thank you so much for sharing your favourite part.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

We have received something quite exciting.

Are you ready? We have received some questions from Anna herself.

She has asked us some questions.

Are you ready to listen to them? What is it like where you live? What do your family do when they are happy? What do you love to do with your family? What do you do when you are happy? And, do you have a question for me? How exciting that you have been asked questions by Anna Hibiscus herself.

Anna has asked some questions.

A question are a type of sentence that ask the reader for an answer.

Here are some examples.

What is your name? How old are you? Do you like sunny days? We know that these are questions, because they are asking something and they end with a question mark.

The asking part often comes at the beginning.

What, how, do, and they all end in a question mark.

Can you see it at the end? Well done.

Take it in turns to ask somebody one of these questions.

You might ask, what is your name? How old are you? Do you like sunny days? Can you notice the way I'm saying it? My voice changes a little bit when I ask a question.

My voice goes a bit higher towards the end.

Pause the video and ask somebody around you one of those questions.

Fantastic, so which of these are questions? Remember, you can look for those question words, you can look for question marks, and you can think which of these are asking something.

Are you ready? Today, it is hot.

Where do you live? I love mangoes and strawberries.

What is your favourite colour? Pause the video and find the questions.

Well done, if you managed to spot.

Where do you live? You're asking where something is.

And, what is your favourite colour? Today, it is hot.

It's just a sentence, a simple sentence.

And so is, I love mangoes and strawberries.

So, which of these is a question mark? Get your pointing finger ready, and I would like you to point to the question mark.

I'll give you five seconds.

Five, four, and zero.

You're pointing to it.

Well done, if you are pointing to the question mark.

We could do that with our hands.

Ready? Question mark, your turn.

Well done.

When we answer questions about ourselves, we speak in the first person.

There's one of our key words.

First person, which means you are speaking as you.

Let's look at some words that we might use, because Laura is ready to answer Anna's questions.

And here are some first person words she might use.

I, me, my, mine, we, us.

Fantastic, an example in a sentence might be, my name is Laura.

So, which of these words would you use, if you were answering in the first person? You are talking about yourself.

Could you pause the video now and find them between I, and, we, and from.

Pause the video.

Did you find them? I, and we, even though we include yourself and others, you're still talking about yourself.

Rather than saying something like they.

We can start to think about answering Anna's questions by asking them to each other.

We can answer full sentences by using part of the question in our answer.

Who do you love in your family? In my family, I love my kind, funny sister.

So, can you see I've used some of the question my family, and love to answer it in a full sentence.

We can use descriptive language to answer some questions to help Anna imagine where we are.

Use the senses to describe where you live.

What is it like where you live? So, here's an example.

I can see bright blue skies, and I can hear noisy chirping seagulls.

Now, it's your turn.

With someone else, take it in turns to ask and answer questions in full sentences.

Listen to the questions first.

What is it like where you live? And try and ask a question with that intonation.

I can see, hear, feel, smell, taste where I live.

What do your family members do when they are happy? My, maybe you could name a specific member of your family, when they are happy.

What do you love to do with your family? I love to, mm, with my family.

And what do you do when you are happy? I like to, mm, when I am happy.

So take it in turns to ask and answer those questions in full sentences.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic, answering and asking of questions.

Let's hear some examples that I heard.

What is it like where you live? I can smell smoky, oily cars and I can taste fresh red apples.

What do your family members do when they are happy? My funny, silly sister plays happily and my kind caring brother reads quietly when they are happy.

What do you love to do with your family? I love to play games excitedly with my family and I love to walk energetically.

What do you do when you are happy? I like to sing tunefully when I am happy.

Did you manage to answer those questions and did you manage to use some descriptive language? Well done, if you did.

Let's move on to the next part of our lesson, starting a letter.

Anna has asked some questions that we need to answer, but how could we communicate them back to Anna? How can Anna hear our answers? Can you think of as many ways as you can what could we do? Pause the video now.

Fantastic, let me share some of those ideas with you.

We could go and see her.

Ooh, although Nigeria's a long way away, but maybe I'd love to go.

We could call her on the phone.

Okay, do you have her phone number? Oh, me neither.

Hmm.

We could write her a letter, that is an option.

We could send her a text message or an email, which is also a way of writing something down.

I think we should write her a letter, 'cause we are such excellent writers.

A letter is a written way to communicate to someone.

Let's have a look at what a letter might include.

Most letters start with Dear or To, and the person's name such as Dear Anna.

The main letter has a greeting, which introduces who is writing it? My name is.

And our letter will then answer the questions from Anna as well as ask a question to her.

So, letters include a greeting, writing about what you want to tell them, and maybe you might write a question you want to ask them.

And the letter will end with saying who it's from in the closing.

From, and your name.

We know who we are writing to so we know how to start our letter.

Dear Anna, To Anna, Dear Anna Hibiscus, you could use her full name, To Anna Hibiscus.

Which of these greetings will you choose? Could you pause the video now and choose one? Fantastic.

Well done.

Keep that greeting in your head.

So, which of these words could start a letter for your greeting? Is it From, and their name, Dear, and their name, To, and their name, or Goodbye? Hmm, pause the video now and choose.

Well done, if you spotted Dear, and To.

From, might come at the end and Goodbye might also come at the end, because they're ways to say goodbye and show that your letter is finishing.

When you write a letter, you can sometimes thank them for their letter.

So, we will thank Anna for her questions.

Dear Anna, then on a new line, Thank you for your questions.

Can you think of an adjective to describe her questions? Thank you for your questions.

Should I share some adjectives that I have? Interesting, thoughtful, helpful.

So, let's decide.

Thank you for your interesting questions.

Dear Anna, Thank you for your thoughtful questions, which means she was really thinking about us.

Dear Anna, Thank you for your helpful questions.

Hmm, I wonder which adjective you're gonna choose.

Most letters are written in the first person perspective, which means you are writing as you.

Lucas is ready to write his letter.

So, here are some first person words that he might use.

I, me, my, mine, we, and us.

My name is Lucas.

Then, once you start your letter, you must introduce yourself so the reader knows who is writing.

Here is Lucas' greeting.

I'm going to say it and then I'm going to write it.

Dear Anna comma a new line, capital letter, Thank you for your interesting questions full stop.

So, the adjective that I chose was interesting.

My name is Lucas full stop.

And Lucas needs a capital letter, because it's the name of someone specific, a proper noun.

Now, it's your turn to say your greeting before you write it.

Dear/To Anna comma thank you for your, mm, questions full stop.

Capital letter, My name is, and your name full stop.

Could you pause the video now and say your greeting out loud? Off you go.

Well done, so now, it's your turn to write the greeting, an introduction for your letter to Anna.

You are going to start with either Dear or To.

Dear Anna comma or To Anna comma.

Start a new line and your first sentence is going to thank Anna for her questions using an adjective.

Thank you Anna, for your, mm, questions full stop.

Then tell Anna your name in a sentence.

Capital letter My name is full stop.

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

Pause the video now.

Well done.

So, did you manage to write your greeting? Let's have a look at Lucas's again.

I would like you to get your greeting in front of you and I want you to check, point to where you started, and have a look at mine.

Do you have a capital letter? D, ear, Dear.

Then you need a capital letter for Anna's name.

Anna, have you got that? Then a comma, then start a new line.

So, get your finger, move it to the next line to check.

Capital letter, Th a nk, thank you, f or, for your helpful.

I used helpful.

Maybe use interesting or thoughtful.

H e l p f u l, helpful questions.

Questions is quite a hard word to spell.

So, maybe double check that you've got it.

And then thank you for your helpful questions full stop.

Then you need a capital letter.

My, m with a y spells my, name, N a m, a split a, is and then your name.

And I hope your name has a capital letter full stop.

I would like you to pause the video now and make sure that you have all of those things.

Pause the video now.

Have you finished your greeting? Well done, we have started our letter.

What an amazing job.

I think Anna Hibiscus is going to be really pleased.

So, we have now written the greeting, the start of our letter.

So, we know that writing a letter is a way to communicate to someone.

Letters often start with a greeting such as Dear Anna.

Writing in the first person uses words such as I, me, or my.

When answering questions, you can include part of the question in the answer to create a full sentence.

Well done for starting your very own letter.

You listened really carefully and wrote a beautiful greeting in your lesson.

I really hope to see you again soon, bye.