Lesson video

Hello super storytellers.

This is lesson four, of Unit 4, and my name is Ms Cashin.

In today's lesson, we are going to carry on learning about the story, Baba Yaga.

Remember, if you don't know that story, or if you'd like to go and listen to me tell it again, you can always go back to lesson one of this unit.

In today's lesson, we are going to be using prepositional phrases of place, to build up an amazing picture of the setting of Baba Yaga.

So we're going to be thinking about how we can use prepositional phrases of place to describe the forest, so if somebody read your opening of the story, they would feel like they were really in the forest.

Now, I've been looking around my house, and I've been thinking about the precious things that Olga is given, that she uses to defeat Baba Yaga.

What is she given? She's given a shell by the fish, she's given an acorn by the squirrel, and she's given a stone by the mouse.

I've been looking at some of the things that I have, in my home, and wondering, if I was trying to escape from Baba Yaga, what things might I be given, and what animal might have given them to me? So I've got a flower here from my garden.

I wonder, what animal might give you a flower to defeat Baba Yaga? I thought maybe a bee, I wonder if you had a different idea about what animal might give you a flower.

The other thing I've got is this apple.

I wonder what animal might give you an apple.

Maybe a squirrel again, just like in Baba Yaga, because it could scurry up the tree, get an apple and come back down with it? Or maybe a bird? Quite a big, strong bird if it's going to pick up a whole apple.

But a bird that could fly through the treetops and get one from the top of an apple tree.

I wonder what things you've got in your home, and what animal you might choose would give them to you, if you were going to defeat Baba Yaga.

Right, let's have a look at what we're going to be doing in our lesson, today.

So today, we're going to start by creating a detailed picture of our setting, and we're really going to need to use our imagination and our creativity to think carefully about the forest, and the cottage, and what that setting looks like.

Then, we're going to talk through our setting, and describe all the different things that we can see in our setting.

Then, we're going to write sentences about our setting, and that's where we're going to use our prepositional phrases of place, to describe where things are.

So we might say, a small brown squirrel sat on top of a log.

Or we might say, Olga stood inside the door of the cosy cottage.

So we're really going to build up that vivid picture.

These are things that you're going to need in our lesson, today.

You are going to need an exercise book or some paper, something to write on.

It will be fantastic if you could have some plain paper for our drawing, and then some lined paper for your sentences.

You're going to need something to write with, a pencil or a pen, and you're going to need your brilliant brain.

You're going to need your brilliant brain for your creativity in thinking carefully about that setting.

You're going to need to use it for talking through your setting and thinking about what are the best bits in my setting, that I really want to tell my reader about, and you're going to need it for when you do your writing, especially if you're going to be an absolute superstar, and use some of those prepositional phrases of place.

So first, we're going to create a detailed picture of our setting, and this detail is really important.

We know that the opening of stories are so important to hook the reader in and make them want to read more, so when we create our setting, we want the reader to feel like they're really in this incredible forest, so we have to think about that in a lot of detail.

So we're going to think now about all the different things that might be in our setting, that we might want to tell our reader about.

So, I've got some forests here to start off with.

I've got four different forests, and I've got a question.

Which forest is your favourite? Why? Pause the video and have a look at which forest you think is your favourite, or you might take a few favourite bits from a few different forests.

So you can pause the video now, and think about which one is your favourite.

Well done for having such a brilliant think about which forest is your favourite.

I think that the forest with the lake is my favourite, because I think the water looks so beautiful and calm, and I think if I was to describe a beautiful calm lake next to Olga's cottage, that we would have a really lovely peaceful feeling at the beginning of the story before we find out about Baba Yaga.

You might have said that you really liked the forest with the mist, and you could describe the beautiful mist streaming in through the forest on a lovely, lovely morning.

Right, I've got another question here about our forest.

Which parts would you like to include in your setting? So see if you can steal a few things from each picture that you think you're going to want to draw in your setting.

So I'm definitely going to want to draw a lake in my setting.

I wonder what you would like to draw.

So pause the video and think about which parts are you going to include in your setting.

I'm sure you've got so many fantastic ideas now, to help you when you make your detailed picture of your setting.

Right, I've got a different part of our setting now.

We've thought about the forest, now we're going to think about Olga's cottage, which we know she lives in on the edge of her forest.

So I've got four different cottages here.

Which cottage is your favourite? And why? So pause the video, and think about which cottage is your favourite.

Well done for thinking so carefully about which cottage is your favourite.

Remember, when you create your own detailed picture of the setting, you might choose to take a cottage like this, or you might create your very own cottage for Olga to live in.

I really really like the cottage with the flowers outside it.

I thought that'd be a lovely lovely place for Olga to live.

So I might try and make a cottage that has a roof like that.

I wonder which cottage was your favourite, and what you're going to create in your setting? Okay, we know that Olga lives in a forest, so there are going to be animals around, and actually, there aren't any animals in the opening, that I told to use.

So I think this is something that when we do our opening, we can really really use to hook the reader in.

They will really want to know about all the different animals that are in the forest.

So we've got a squirrel, we've got a deer with big antlers, or a stag, we've got a rabbit and we've got a beautiful blue bird.

So which animals do you want in your setting? And if you were really going to challenge yourself, you might say what they might be doing.

So I might say, I was like a bird, tweeting on top of a branch and fluttering it's wings quickly.

So have a think about which animals would you like in your setting, and pause the video now.

I'm sure you've got so much fantastic ideas now about the different animals that you might like to include in your setting, and what they might be doing.

Remember, you might have ideas about other animals that I haven't included here, so you can put whatever you would like into your forest.

Okay, it's now time for me to create my setting, so I'm going to create mine with my fantastic picture.

I've got ideas about the forest.

I've got ideas about the trees and the lake and the sunset.

I've got ideas about the animals.

I've got ideas about the cottage.

And because of our work in lesson 3 of this unit, I also have ideas about Olga and her family, and what they might look like.

So you can watch me create my picture now, and then it will be your go to create your own picture.

I am all ready now to create my detailed picture of the setting, so I can then pull out things that I really really like in it when I go and do my writing.

Now I'm just going to do mine here, with a pencil and a piece of paper.

I'm going to do it quite quickly for you, but when you go and make your picture, you can spend as long on it as you like, and can maybe use some colours as well.

So I loved in those pictures of the forest, that beautiful lake and I thought, that would be a beautiful thing to have in my opening setting, it's a beautiful lake.

So I've got a lake here, and I'm going to put some fish in the lake, and we already know that there is some fish in this forest, because obviously And we're also going to put some fish in there as well.

Can't wait to see things you might have in the water.

Fantastic, and I know that Olga lives in the cottage, on the edge of the forest, so we're going to put the forest in here and we're going to think carefully about what there might be I remember we saw some really tall trees, so we make them as tall as I can.

When you do this, you could colour them in green.

We've got some really tall trees here that I could describe.

Okay, and down the bottom, I'm going to do some smaller trees as well, because the forest just looks so thick, it looks like you would never be able to see the other side of it.

So I'm going to try and put in some smaller ones as well.

Okay, and then we go through until I've filled up my whole forest.

Right, on the edge of the forest, we know that's where Olga's cottage is, and I'm going to put her cottage on the edge of the lake as well.

So I'm going to put her cottage around here, and I'm going to copy that one that we saw earlier, with the really lovely, pointy roof, and I'm going to try and make it look as small and as cute and as cosy as I can, because I think it starts with a lovely peaceful mood, before we find out about Baba Yaga.

I'm going to give it a door.

And some windows there.

Fantastic.

Okay, right, I'm going to have another think about what I could have in my setting.

Up here, this is where the sky would be, and I haven't got anything, but I know that it's in the morning, so I'm going to do a beautiful sun in the sky, because it's the morning, and when I'm talking about my setting, I can talk about the sun streaming into the cottage, shining down on the fields and make it look so beautiful and green.

I think that'd be a lovely start to my story.

Right, I've got my cottage, I've got the beginnings of the forest.

I've got my lake which I really really liked.

I am going to think about some other things I could have, I could have some animals.

So I am going to draw a little log here, a little tree trunk that's been chopped off somewhere.

And do the circles that we always have on the inside of a tree trunk, and on top of this, I'm going to have a squirrel, because we know we've already got some squirrels, and just so we know he's a squirrel, I'll give him his big, bushy tail.

So I've got some squirrels, I've got some fish in here in the lake.

I'm going to carry on my forest over here, and I'm going to do some trees here, kind of on the edge of the lake, and on this, I'm going to give it a really clear branch.

You can see this is kind of a different sort of tree over here, and on this branch, I'm going to do a lovely bird.

Not one of the big, black geese.

A nice, little bird and there's a nest as well.

Now, I'm going to put a few musical notes, so we know that bird is singing, because I want to remember that, when I go and put that in my setting later.

So I've got my cottage, I've got the forest.

Now I know that Olga goes and picks flowers, so I might put some flowers as well.

If I do a bit of a front garden here, and I put a few flowers here, for Olga to go and pick.

Okay, so I think I've got more of an idea now of where my story starts and where Olga lives.

There's just one more thing that I need, which is my characters.

So I'm going to put Olga out here in her garden.

In fact, I'll make that a bit longer there.

I'm going to put Olga here, and I'm going to give her a sort of serious face, because she's a bit bored at the beginning of the story, and Sergei, and I'm going to put her mum and her dad, they're still here, they haven't left yet to go to work, I'm going to put them over here so they're on their way to work.

So there's Olga's mum, and I'm going to give her her pitchfork, ready for her day's work in the fields, and her dad as well.

You could have your characters wherever you want at the beginning of the story, because that's not a detail that we really have in the opening.

And I'm going to give him a spade.

Brilliant! I cannot wait to see the brilliant work that you're able to come up with when you go and create your own setting.

Now that you've watched me create my picture of the opening scene and the setting that Olga lives in, it's time for you to have a go.

So you can now create your own picture of the setting, so pause the video to do that, and then press play again when you're done.

Well done super storytellers! You have now got a really clear idea of that opening setting, so we can start to write some sentences.

So to do that, we're going to talk through our setting.

When we talk through our setting, we're going to use some of those prepositional phrases of place, and these are words that tell us where things are.

We're going to learn some of them now, and we're going to do my turn, your turn.

Okay? On.

Amazing.

By So Olga lived by the lake, it tells us where she is.

Beside.

Under.

Amazing job! Near.

So you could say near the forest, there was a beautiful cottage.

Opposite.

The calm lake was opposite Olga's house.

Inside.

Ooh, I wonder what's happening inside that cottage.

Above.

Amazing job.

So now you're going to watch me talk through my setting, and then see what sentences I can write about it, because I've been able to use some of those brilliant prepositional phrases of place.

So, I am all ready now to talk through my setting and think about some of those prepositional phrases of place So I'm going to have a look around.

Ooh, I really like this squirrel, and he is on top of the log, so I could say, the squirrel sat on top of the log.

I wonder how I could describe that squirrel? Ooh, maybe he's a bit of a fidgety squirrel.

So I'm going to say the fidgety squirrel sat on top of the small, brown log.

The fidgety squirrel sat on top of the small, brown log.

Here, I go.

So, I'm going to have my capital letter for 'the'.

The fidgety fid-get-y Squirrel, that's a tricky word.

Squah i rr Squirrel sat on top The fidgety squirrel sat on top the small, brown log.

small Brown, I'm going to have to have a careful think b-r-own log l-o-g The fidgety squirrel sat on top the small, brown log.

I missed a word! The fidgety squirrel sat on top of the small, brown log.

Full stop.

Okay, let me have another look.

I've got Olga here, she's standing in the field.

She's standing in front of her house.

She's standing opposite the lake.

So I'm going to say Olga stood opposite the calm lake.

You could even really challenge yourself by saying, Olga stood opposite the calm lake, whilst Sergei sat on the floor.

So I'm going to go with Olga sat opposite the calm lake.

So a capital O, for Olga.

It's a name and it's at the start of our sentence.

Olga stood Opposite is a tricky word, but we will have up on the slide for you to have a look at.

stood opposite the calm lake Full stop.

Olga stood opposite the calm lake.

Fantastic, okay! Those are my two sentences.

I cannot wait to see sentences that you can write from your setting.

So now it's time for you to talk through your setting, and write your sentences.

So you need to write three sentences about your picture, and make sure you include some of those prepositional phrases of place, which tell us where things are, and I've given you some words here that you might use to help you to do that.

I wrote two, you're going to write three, and if you're really going to push yourself on today, you could write even more, or you could extend some of those sentences and make them a little bit longer.

So now you need to pause the video, and go and look at your picture, and write your amazing sentences.

Well done, that is fantastic! So impressed that you've gone and done those sentences.

Amazing! I wonder if you have enough energy for a challenge.

You could do it now or save it for another time.

My challenge is can you create a setting for Baba Yaga.

I've got three, very frightening pictures here of where Baba Yaga might live.

I've got a swamp, I've got her house on stilts, and I've got her house at the bottom, which even has a witches hat on it.

So your challenge is to see, can you draw a picture of Baba Yaga's house, and then could you write three sentences with a prepositional phrase of place about her house? So you can have a go at the challenge now by drawing your picture and writing some amazing sentences.

I am just so impressed at what a super storyteller you are.

If you've not only thought about the opening one setting, but another setting as well, that is amazing! Well done for all your fantastic learning today, especially that brilliant sentence writing.

Remember, you can always share your work with Oak National.

We would love to see your pictures and your amazing sentences.

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

Were going to be carrying on, thinking about the opening scene, and how we can build even more detail in, to really hook our reader, so I look forward to seeing you, for our next lesson.

Bye!.