Lesson video

Hello, super storytellers.

Welcome to this English lesson.

This is unit four, lesson seven, and my name is Miss Cashin.

In this unit we've been learning all about the story, "Baba Yaga." Remember if you want to hear that story again, or if you don't know what that story is, you can always go back and listen to it in lesson one of this unit.

Today, we're going to be exploring how writers hook their readers in with amazing openings to their story.

So we're going to be reading the openings of some different stories today, and we're going to see what the writers have done to make those openings so amazing.

In the rest of this unit, we're going to use that knowledge of amazing openings to write some openings of our own for our Baba Yaga story.

Today, we're going to start with a song and I love singing, so I'm very, very excited.

We're going to go through one verse at a time.

And this song is all about Baba Yaga.

We're going to learn it using my turn, your turn.

Here's the first bit.

Baba Yaga's coming now.

Baba Yaga's coming now.

Amazing.

Have a listen to my singing.

♪ Baba Yaga's coming now, coming now, coming now.

♪ Amazing.

Next bit.

♪ Baba Yaga's coming now ♪ ♪ You've got to get away ♪ Have a go.

Amazing singing.

I'm going to do it all the way through the actions.

You see if you can join in.

♪ Baba Yaga's coming now, coming now, coming now ♪ ♪ Baba Yaga's coming now ♪ ♪ You've got to get away ♪ Amazing.

Let's see if we can learn the next bit.

The next bit.

My turn, your turn.

Baba Yaga drank the lake.

Listen to my singing.

♪ Baba Yaga drank the lake, drank the lake, drank the lake ♪ ♪ Baba Yaga drank the lake ♪ ♪ You've got to get away ♪ Can you sing it with me? Here we go.

♪ Baba Yaga drank the lake, drank the lake, drank the lake ♪ ♪ Baba Yaga drank the lake ♪ ♪ You've got to get away ♪ Amazing singing! Next bit.

Baba Yaga ate the trees.

Fantastic, listen to my singing.

♪ Baba Yaga ate the trees, ate the trees, ate the trees ♪ ♪ Baba Yaga ate the trees ♪ ♪ You've got to get away ♪ See if you can sing it with me.

♪ Baba Yaga ate the trees, ate the trees, ate the trees ♪ ♪ Baba Yaga ate the trees ♪ ♪ You've got to get away ♪ Amazing.

Last bit.

Baba Yaga stopped and stared.

Amazing.

Listen to me sing it.

♪ Baba Yaga stopped and stared ♪ ♪ Stopped and stared, stopped and stared ♪ ♪ Baba Yaga stopped and stared ♪ ♪ The mountains stopped her there ♪ Bit different at the end.

Listen again.

Or you can join in.

♪ Baba Yaga stopped and stared ♪ ♪ Stopped and stared, stopped and stared ♪ ♪ Baba Yaga stopped and stared ♪ ♪ The mountains stopped her there ♪ Amazing singing.

I feel so ready for our lesson today, so let's see what else we're going to get up to.

In this lesson, we're going to start with a game and see if you can figure out what story we're going to look at today.

Then we're going to get reading.

So we're going to do a strategy check first, where we think about what we need to do to be brilliant readers today.

Then we're going to read through some extracts together, and then we're going to read as a writer.

That means we're going to be thinking if we were the writer, why might we have made these choices? These are the things you're going to need for today's lesson.

The thing you're going to need most of all is your brain.

And there's not very much writing in this lesson.

You might want to get your exercise book and a pencil, though, so you can jot down some words as we go, and there might be a need for it if you do our challenge at the end, as well.

So if you want to, you can pause the video now to go and get anything that you might need.

We are all ready for our reading lesson now.

I'm very excited.

Let's start off with a little game.

I have got a picture.

Oh, sorry.

I've got three pictures here.

All from the same story.

To start off with, do you know what story we might be looking at today? Can you tell me? It's "Little Red Riding Hood." Here's the next bit of my game.

I've got my three pictures.

I wonder, can you figure out which bits of the story each picture is from? So pause the video now and see if you can figure out which bits of the story each picture is from.

I am sure you've done brilliantly at this.

I bet you are already a Little Red Riding Hood expert before we even go and look at the openings of the story.

Let's have a look.

I think that the picture with the wolf in bed is from when Little Red Riding Hood finds the wolf and he tries to convince her that he is her grandma.

I think the one where Little Red Riding Hood is knocking on the door is when she's got to her grandma's house and she's trying to find out is she in there? Is she okay? And the last picture, the one where Little Red Riding Hood has got the trees in the background.

I think that's when she's walking through the forest and she might be walking through and then go, "I think I heard something behind me." Or, " I had someone stepping on something.

Is somebody following me?" But she can't see that the wolf is there.

Okay, let's do our strategy check before we go and read our openings of "Little Red Riding Hood." Stumbled over my words there.

Here's our strategy check.

We need our magnet eyes.

We need our listening ears.

So we're going to have magnet eyes to read, listen carefully to the question, and then we're going to go back and read it again to find the answer.

So to make sure that we're really, really reading as writers today, we are going to need to make sure that we read the extracts more than once.

So I'm looking for absolutely amazing readers today.

Now we're going to read together and then we're going to read as a writer, so we're going to read it first, then we're going to read as a writer and think about those questions.

We're going to start with an opening that focuses on setting.

So this opening of the story hooks the reader in, thinking about the setting.

So let's have a read.

Get your magnet eyes ready on the first word, which is "once." Get your eyes ready, and I am going to read it.

"Once there was a young girl who lived in a small, pretty cottage on the edge of a forest.

She smiled as she stared out of her window at the lush greenery and bursts of colourful flowers that surrounded her home.

The morning light streamed into her living room and shone onto her red cape that hung in front of the door, ready for the day ahead." That was my first opening of the story, "Little Red Riding Hood," and this opening focuses on that setting.

I'm going to read it one more time, so get your magnet eyes on that word "once." Once there was a young girl who lived in a small, pretty cottage on the edge of the forest.

She smiled as she stared out of her window at the lush greenery and bursts of colourful flowers that surrounded her home.

The morning light streamed into her living room and shone onto her red cape that hung in front of the door, ready for the day ahead.

Fantastic listening.

Okay, here's my first question for us to think about reading as a writer.

What has the writer done here? What do we know about where the story is set? So read through again and think, "Where has it told me about the setting? Has it told me anything about where this Red Riding Hood is? Has it told me anything about what she can see? Has it told me anything about what it looks like around her?" So pause the video now and see if you can find the bits that tell you about where the story is set.

Let's have a look at all the different bits.

We know that she lives in a small, pretty cottage on the edge of the forest.

So I already have that picture in my head of a small, pretty cottage on the edge of a forest, a bit like the cottage that Olga lives in.

Our writer has told us about the lush greenery that she can see.

So she can see beautiful trees and bushes all around her.

And there are bursts of colourful flowers as well that surround her home.

So already, I've got a really vivid picture in my mind.

I know that Little Red Riding Hood lives in a small, pretty cottage of the edge of the forest.

There's lush greenery around her, and there are beautiful, colourful flowers as well.

The morning light I've got as well.

So, the morning light is coming in through her living room window, so I know that it's morning as well.

Okay, I've not only talked about the setting in this opening, there's also some bits about our character.

So pause the video and see, what do we know about the character of Little Red Riding Hood from this opening? Let's have a look at all the information that we were given here about where the story is set.

So we know that Little Red Riding Hood lives in a small, pretty cottage on the edge of the forest.

So I've got that picture already in my head.

She's got lush greenery outside and bursts of colourful flowers.

And we also know that it's in the morning because the morning light is coming in.

Let's have a think now about our next question.

What do we know about the main character? We know where she is.

She's in that cottage.

She's got lush greenery.

She's got gorgeous flowers around her.

It's the morning, but what do we know about the main character? So go through again and see if you can find out some information that we're given about the main character.

So pause the video now.

Let's go through and see what we're told about that main character 'cause we're introduced to her as well.

We know that she is a young girl.

We know that she is smiling.

So she smiled when she stared out the window, and we know that she has a red cape.

We also know that there's something's going to happen to her today 'cause she's ready for the day ahead.

So I would already be thinking she's in a really good mood.

She's got a smile on her face.

She's got her cape ready.

I wonder what's going to happen on the day ahead.

But let's have a look at our next opening.

This one is an action opening.

So I've started the story in a different place.

I've actually started it when Little Red Riding Hood is walking through the forest.

So I put the reader into the action straight away.

Let's have a read.

Get your magnet eyes ready on the first word, which is "snap!" Let's have a listen.

"Snap! The young girl froze.

What was that sound? She shook her head and kept marching on.

She felt nervous as the bushes rustled around her and animals scuttled across the forest floor.

Crunch! Quick as a flash, she whipped her head around to see who was there.

She was all alone." I'm going to read it one more time.

There's a lot in there.

"Snap! The young girl froze.

What was that sound? She shook her head and kept marching on.

She felt nervous as the bushes rustled around her and animals scuttled across the forest floor.

Crunch! Quick as a flash, she whipped her head around to see who was there.

She was all alone." Okay, what action happens in this opening? So when you pause the video and go and have a look for any action, any things that our characters are doing or any things that they can hear happening, you might want to act it out as you go through to really help you.

So when I was doing, I was thinking, "Snap, the young girl froze." So that's an action that she's frozen where she is.

So pause the video and see what action you can find.

Let's have a look at some of the action that I was able to find.

So we start off with this sound that she can hear.

Snap.

And she froze.

She shook her head and she kept going.

So already Little Red Riding Hood has stopped.

She's frozen, and then she's kept going.

So I'm already thinking, "What made that sound and why is she still walking?" Bushes rustled, animals scuttled.

So there's a lot going on in the forest and she's whipped her head around.

So there's a lot that Little Red Riding Hood has done there in our opening.

So as a reader, I'm already thinking, "My goodness, what is going on in this forest?" We've got one more opening to look at and I've opened the story in a different way.

This is a character opening, where I really quickly introduce a character and try to hook my reader in by making them interested in this character.

So I've started with the big, bad wolf this time.

I'm going to read it, so get your eyes ready on "once." Here we go.

"Once there lived a big, bad wolf.

He had a long nose, pointy ears, and sharp, white teeth.

As he woke up that morning, he rubbed his dark black eyes and stretched out his tall body.

He felt very hungry.

His stomach rumbled, and he rubbed it with his enormous paw." I'm going to read it one more time.

There's so much in there about the wolf.

"Once there lived a big, bad wolf.

He had a long nose, pointy ears, and sharp, white teeth.

As he woke up that morning, he rubbed his dark, black eyes and stretched out his tall body.

He felt very hungry.

His stomach rumbled and he rubbed it with his enormous paw." So I've opened the story there, telling the reader all about the wolf.

So what do we know about the big, bad wolf? Read through it again and think, what do you now know about the big, bad wolf from this opening? So you can pause the video now.

Let's have a look at the vivid description that's in this opening that helps us to really think carefully about the wolf.

I want to find out what he's going to do in the rest of the story.

So we know he has a long nose, pointy ears, and of course, sharp, white teeth.

We know he's got dark black eyes and a tall body.

We also know that he's hungry and he's got an enormous paw that he's rubbing his belly with.

So already I know so much about the wolf from my opening.

Here's a challenge for you today.

We've looked at three openings and you have used your brilliant brain to think so carefully about how they hook the reader in.

Here's your challenge.

Is there any language that you want to take for your opening? Remember, we're going to be writing an opening for the story "Baba Yaga" and you can write different sorts of openings, just like I have for "Little Red Riding Hood." So you can go back and listen to the readings to see and write down any language that you would like to take for your openings.

So you can pause the video now and go back and listen again to some of those readings.

I would love to hear some of the language that you've chosen.

Maybe you took the description of Little Red Riding Hood's cottage.

Maybe you took some of those words that I used to describe the big, bad wolf to describe Baba Yaga.

Well done for your amazing storytelling today.

You have thought so carefully about how important openings are for our stories.

I would love it if some of you could share your work with Oak National so I can see the amazing learning you've done.

If you'd like to, please ask a parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and hashtag LearnwithOak.

In our next lesson, we are going to be doing our own writing of our own openings, 'cause we know so much about them now.

So well done, and I will see you next time.