Lesson video

Hello, I'm Miss Corbett, and I love that you chose to learn with me today for the lesson, "Writing The Beginning of the Story of The Magic Porridge Pot." For this lesson, I need you to have your listening ears, your looking eyes, and your thinking brains.

As we are writing, you need to get those hands warmed up, and you need something to write with and something to write on.

It would be great if you could have lined paper, and it would also be great if you could have the success criteria nearby.

I think we're ready to get started.

Today's lesson outcome is, I can write the beginning of the story.

So by the end of this lesson, you'll have become a storyteller.

You'll have written the first part of the story of The Magic Porridge Pot.

Here are key words that will help us get there.

Are you ready? My turn and then your turn.

"Character," "setting," "plots," "beginning," "adjective." Fantastic.

Let's get started, and we are going to be preparing to write, so we are ready to go.

So today, you are going to write the beginning of the story.

When we write, we have a success criteria, but here are the things that we always try to do.

Use capital letters at the start of sentences and a full stop at the end.

Write letters neatly on the line, which is why it's so important to be sitting somewhere comfortably for this lesson.

Use your phonics to sound out and spell words.

And remember the spellings of some common exception words.

So those words that we can't use our phonics for.

Finally, so we can read it really clearly, we want to place finger spaces in between each word.

I think you can do that.

Do you think you can? Fantastic.

Here's the success criteria for today's lesson.

Use sequencing language to order events.

Use adjectives to describe characters and settings.

Use capital letters at the start of sentences and a full stop at the end.

And we want to read back our writing to make sure it makes sense.

So let's have a look at this sentence.

"Once upon a time, a girl called Jin lived in a village in the mountains." Okay, use sequencing language to order events.

What's my sequencing language? "Once upon a time." That's putting things in order.

I've got it.

Use adjectives to describe characters and settings.

So adjectives describe a noun.

So I'm looking for my nouns, my character - "girl Jin." I can't see any adjectives.

Let's look for my noun for my setting - "village mountains." I can't see any adjectives so we haven't met that one.

Use capital letters at the start of sentences and a full stop at the end.

I'm going to get my finger to where my capital letter should be at the start of my sentence.

(gasps) It's not there.

Then I'm going to get another finger and move all along.

"Once upon a time, a girl called Jin lived in a village in the mountains." It should be full stop.

(gasps) It's not there.

But I have read back my sentence to make sure it makes sense and spotted for some of those mistakes.

But I think we can fix them.

Let's see.

(gasps) Let's see this time.

We have now got a capital letter at the start of a sentence and a full stop with our "once upon a time." We have got an adjective to describe the character, "young girl," and to describe the setting, "small village." We've got a capital letter at the start of the sentence and a full stop at the end.

And we have read it back.

"Once upon a time, a young girl called Jin lived in a small village in the mountains." So that's our success criteria for today.

And it shows how important it is to read back our work, and it shows that if we didn't meet it the first time, we can go back and make our writing even better.

The writer tells us what happens in the story by narrating the events.

So I am going to use my story mountain to retell the beginning of the story.

Maybe if you have a story mountain, you could get yours ready too.

"Once upon a time, a kind girl called Jin lived in a tiny village in the mountains.

One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest.

She gave Jin a magical pot." That is the beginning of my story.

So in the beginning of my story, the very start, the main characters, we've got Jin, the grandmother, and we have the old woman are introduced and the settings are introduced, the village in the mountains and the shadowy forest.

To help us think of some great adjectives to describe, you might already have some on your story mountain, but I'm going to give you a few more so you have some last minute ideas.

Word banks give us ideas for different words to include in our writing, and they can help us with spelling some more difficult adjectives too.

Here are some adjectives that we could use to describe the girl and the village.

So for the girl, we could have "young girl." "Once upon a time, a young girl called Jin." Curious girl.

Kind girl.

Caring girl.

Hmm, which one do you like the best? I think I like "kind," 'cause she's a very kind girl, and we know that by the end of the story, she shows her kindness.

I also like "curious" because it shows she likes thinking.

Try and keep one of those adjectives in your head to describe Jin, the girl.

And we can also use them to describe the setting - the village.

We have got "small village," or another word for small, "tiny village." "Calm village," because at the start, it is very calm and peaceful.

Or "hilly village" to show that it's mountainous.

Hmm, I wonder which one you are going to choose.

Maybe try and keep one in your head.

Have you got one? Fantastic.

Let's see.

Which of these adjectives best describes Jin at the beginning of the story? Is it grumpy, scared, or young? Hmm.

I'm going to give you five seconds to choose the best one to describe her.

The beginning of the story.

Five, four, three, two, and one.

Which one have you chosen? Young.

I would choose young.

"Young girl," because she's not scared of anything.

And even though she's a bit hungry, she's not grumpy either.

What about the village? Which of these adjectives best describes the village at the beginning of the story? Is it an enormous village, a calm village, or a dark village? Hmm.

I'm gonna give you five seconds to choose one.

Five, four, three, two, one, and zero.

Have you chosen one? Which one did you choose? I chose calm.

The village isn't enormous, because in the story, it tells us it's a small mountain village.

The village isn't dark 'cause it doesn't look like it's nighttime.

At the start of the story, the village is calm, because nothing, no problems have happened just yet.

Fantastic adjective choosing, everybody.

We know that rehearsing a sentence out loud before writing it helps us to remember it.

So we are going to plan our sentences in our head and out loud so we will find the writing a little bit easier.

So we are going to plan the first sentence, introducing the main characters and the setting.

"Once upon a time." Hmm, okay.

"Once upon a time, a mm girl called Jin lived in a mm village in the mountains." Hmm, trying to think of my adjectives that I might choose.

Let's see an example.

"Once upon a time, a kind girl called Jin lived in a calm village in the mountains." I've chosen my adjectives and that sentence sounds great.

Let's see what that sentence includes.

We've got our capital letter at the start of the sentence, and we start with some sequencing language.

"Once upon a time.

." Well done.

Then we've got an adjective to describe the girl, to describe Jin - kind.

"A kind girl called Jin." So we have got an adjective.

Fantastic.

We've got another adjective to describe the village.

"Jin lived in a calm village in the mountains." And I finished my sentence so I end with a full stop.

That sentence has got so much in.

I think it sounds great.

After introducing the characters in the setting, the main events in the plot are described.

So we've got, "Once upon a time, a kind girl called Jin lived in a tiny village in the mountains.

Then one day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest.

She gave Jin a magical pot." That's our next bit that we need to plan.

Again, we can use word banks to help us come up with different adjectives.

Let's think how we could describe the old woman.

I used "mysterious." But there are lots of other adjectives you could use to either describe her personality or her appearance: "wise," "wrinkly," "mysterious," "generous." Generous is a great one because it shows that she's giving.

And we want to describe the forest, the bamboo forest.

You might say "leafy forest," "shadowy forest," "green forest," or "lush forest." Why don't you pause the video and decide which adjectives you're going to choose? Pause the video now.

Amazing.

I love the adjectives that you chose.

Finally, we can describe the pot, the pot that the old woman gave.

We want to show that it's not any old pot, that it's a magical pot.

So you might say "magical pot," "enchanted pot," which means it had magic done to it.

"Special pot," "mystical pot." Those are some really, really interesting adjectives.

Again, you could come back to this part of the lesson to help you remember the spelling of some quite difficult adjectives.

Fantastic.

Which of these adjectives then best describes the forest? Leafy, funny, green? Hmm.

Leafy, funny, green.

Maybe you could choose two.

I'll give you five seconds to choose two.

Five, four, three, two, and one.

Which ones did you choose? I chose "leafy," or you could have chosen "green." I wouldn't describe the forest as funny.

There's nothing funny about it.

Which of these adjectives best describes the pot? Magical, yummy? Hmm, I'm not sure I'd want to eat the pot.

Smelly? Hmm, I don't know.

Anything about it being smelly to you? Which one would you choose? Mm pot.

I'll give you five seconds.

Five, four, three, two, and one.

Which did you choose? I chose "magical" - the magical pot.

So with those adjectives in our head, let's plan our next sentence.

We will add adjectives to describe the character of the old woman and the setting of the forest, as well as the pot.

Three adjectives to choose.

"One day, Jin met a mm woman in a mm forest.

She gave Jin a mm pot." Oh, so that's two sentences there with three adjectives in total.

Let's see ones that I chose and see what you think.

"One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest." Full stop.

That's the end of my first idea.

"She gave Jin a magical pot." That sounds great.

I've got my three adjectives.

Let's see what I've included.

I've started my sentence with a capital letter and my sequencing language, "one day." Then Jin met a mysterious woman.

"Mysterious" is my adjective.

Mysterious woman in a shadowy, another adjective, forest.

I finished that idea.

I finished talking about that picture.

So I need a full stop.

What do I need? Full stop.

When I've had a full stop, my next sentence must start with a capital letter.

"She gave Jin a magical pot." I've got my final adjective and I finished my next idea.

"She gave Jin a magical pot," so I need a full stop.

Fantastic.

We have been practising rehearsing our sentences out loud.

Now, we're going to put all of that together 'cause we're almost ready to write.

It's really great to say sentences in different ways to help them stick in our head.

So I'm going to have a go, and then you are going to have a go.

"Once upon a time, a kind girl called Jin lived in a tiny village in the mountains.

One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest.

She gave Jin a magical pot." Next, I'm going to show you with just one sentence how I might say it in a silly voice.

"Once upon a time, a kind girl called Jin lived in a tiny village in the mountains." Now, I'm gonna say my next sentence, including my capital letter and my full stop.

Capital letter, "One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest." Full stop.

Capital letter, "She gave Jin a magical pot." Full stop.

Then I'm gonna tell somebody else all of my sentences.

Then I'm going to whisper my sentences to my pencil.

That's what you're going to do now.

With your writing, you are going to rehearse the beginning of your story aloud using the story mountain to help you and the sentences using the steps that we've just gone through.

Saying them, saying them in a silly voice, saying them with your capital letter and full stops, and saying them to someone else and then whispering them.

That will show that we are ready to write.

Can you pause the video and do that now? Off you go.

Wow, not only did I hear some fantastic sentences, but I love that I heard you saying it in so many different ways.

Did you manage to rehearse the beginning of the story aloud? This is one that I heard.

"Once upon a time, a kind girl called Jin lived in a calm village in the mountains.

One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest.

She gave Jin a magical pot." Fantastic.

I think we are ready to write.

So the next part of our lesson is going to be writing the beginning of the story.

Let's have another look at our success criteria.

Then we're going to read a sentence to see if it meets it.

We are going to try new sequencing language to order events, such as "once upon a time" and "one day." We will use adjectives to describe characters and settings.

We will use capital letters at the start of our sentences and full stops at the end.

And we will read our writing back to make sure it makes sense.

Here is the sentence that we're going to check.

"Once upon a time, a curious girl called Jin lived in a peaceful village in the mountains." Have we got sequencing language? Can you find it at the start of the sentence? "Once upon a time." Now, we want to look for adjectives to describe the characters and settings.

"Once upon a time, a curious girl," describing the character, "called Jin lived in a peaceful village," describing the setting.

We've got those.

Use capital letters at the start of sentences.

Can I go to capital letter, I'm going to get my finger to check? There it is.

And I'm going to get another finger and go across.

"Once upon a time, a curious girl lived in a peaceful village in the mountains." I finished my idea, so I need a full stop, which I've got.

And we've read back our sentence a few times now to make sure it makes sense and to check for any mistakes.

Remember to do that when you're doing your writing.

Today, we're going to be writing more than one sentence.

One simple sentence is one idea, and we will write one sentence for each image on our story mountain to help you or on here to help you.

So we have got, "Once upon a time, a kind girl called Jin lived in a calm village in the mountains." My capital letter and my full stop.

To start a new idea, I must start with a capital letter.

There's my capital letter.

"One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest." My idea is over, so I need a full stop.

There's my new idea, so I need a capital letter.

"She gave Jin a magical pot." And I need a full stop.

So for each of these pictures that we've planned is one idea.

So I need to make sure that each idea starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.

I'm ready to write the beginning of my story of The Magic Porridge Pot.

I have with me my success criteria printed at the top.

I also have something to write with, and I have lined paper to write on.

As well, if you have it, I have my story mountain that I've made of the story.

And here is the area that we're going to be focusing on.

Let's remind ourselves of the success criteria.

Use sequencing language to order events.

Use adjectives to describe characters and settings.

Use capital letters at the start of sentences and a full stop at the end.

Read back to make sure my writing makes sense.

Now, I've already written my first sentence, but I was wondering if you could check it with me.

Here is my first sentence.

I have got my success criteria and my story mountain here to help me.

So I used "once upon a time" as my sequencing language.

"Once upon a time, a girl called Jin lived in a small village." Full stop.

Let's check before I move on.

I've got my sequencing language, "once upon a time." Use adjectives to describe characters.

"Once upon a time, a girl." (gasps) I forgot to describe Jin.

So I've left a line here, which is really helpful, 'cause if I need to go back and add anything in, I can.

How could I describe her? I wanted to describe her as kind.

So once upon a time, a - and I'm not going to squeeze it in.

I'm going to put a little arrow and write it underneath.

Kind.

Could you stretch that word for me? Kind.

K-I-N-D.

Kind.

I know that the word kind starts with a letter K, and the I sound is being made just by the letter I.

K-I-N-D.

Kind.

Let's try now.

"Once upon a time, a kind girl," I've got it, "called Jin lived in a small village." Full stop.

Fantastic.

Thank goodness I checked.

Now, I'm ready to write my next sentence.

"One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest." That's a long sentence, but it's a good job that I've practised saying it lots of times.

"One day" is here on my story mountain.

So I'm going to start, after my full stop, start a new sentence with a capital letter.

"One day." My sequencing language has a comma.

"One day, Jin." Jin, now Jin is the name of someone, so it needs a capital letter.

Could you sound out Jin with me? J-I-N.

Jin.

Jin, finger space, met.

Could you sound out met for me? M-E-T.

Met.

Jin met a mysterious.

Oh, that's a long word.

That was a word that we saw in a word bank.

So I've got the spelling of it.

M, and then the I is being made by the letter Y, S-T-E, and then this "ous" is quite a tricky spelling.

O-U-S.

"One day, Jin met a mysterious woman." Or you could write "lady" if you'd like, or "person." One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in, I-N, in, in a, then I've got my adjective to describe the forest on my story mountain.

Shadowy.

I've run out of space, so I'm going to leave a line and start a new line.

Sh-a-d-ow-y.

Y making the E sound.

Shadowy.

"One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy, finger space, forest." F-O-R-E-S-T, forest.

"One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest." Full stop.

So finish that idea.

Let's have a look at our success criteria.

I have two lots of sequencing language.

I've used an adjective to describe the characters - "kind," and the settings - "shadowy" and "small." And I also use "mysterious" to describe the woman.

I've had two sentences so far that both have a capital and a full stop, capital letter and a full stop.

And I've read them back with you to help me.

I have one more sentence to write that I'm going to start, and then it's going to be your turn.

"She gave Jin a magical pot." "She gave Jin a magical pot." I'm going to start that sentence with you.

I've got a full stop, so my new sentence needs a (gasps), thank goodness you're here, capital letter.

She gave, g-ave, gave.

That's my split digraph A.

"She gave Jin." We know how to write Jin.

"She gave Jin a magical." That was another word on the word bank.

M-ag-ic-a-l, magical.

I may as well finish a magical pot.

And new line, P-OT, pot.

Have I finished? What do I need at the end of my idea? Full stop.

Then I will read all of my writing back and double check my success criteria again.

Thank you so much for helping me.

And now, it's your turn.

Thank you so much for helping me with my writing.

And now, it's your turn to write the beginning of the story, introducing the settings and characters.

Don't forget to check your success criteria.

I can't wait to see your fantastic writing.

Pause the video and off you go.

Wow, what fantastic writing.

Let's look at this one here and check our success criteria, then you are going to make sure that you've checked your success criteria.

"Once upon a time, a kind girl called Jin lived in a tiny village in the mountains.

One day, Jin met a mysterious woman in a shadowy forest.

She gave Jin a magical pot." I have my sequencing language - "once upon a time." I have my adjectives - "kind" and "tiny." I have used capital letters to start each sentence and a full stop at the end of each.

I have three separate ideas, so I should be searching for three full stops.

And I've read back my writing.

I would like you to pause the video and make sure one last time that you have checked your success criteria.

And if you haven't got all of them, why don't you try and make some corrections to make your writing even more brilliant? Pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic.

I love how carefully you checked your writing.

What a brilliant lesson today.

Thank you so much for learning with me, and you have managed to write the beginning of a story.

I hope you're really proud of yourselves.

We now know that rehearsing a sentence out loud before writing it helps us to remember it.

We know that the beginning of the story often introduces the characters, setting, and the start of the plot.

Every sentence must start with a capital letter, and sentences often end with a full stop.

We've used word banks to help find key words to include in our writing and help with our spelling.

And we've learned that reading a sentence back after writing helps to check if it makes sense.

I'd love to see you again next time.

So thanks so much for with me today, and well done for your excellent stories.

Bye.