Lesson video

Hello, super storytellers, and welcome to this english lesson.

This is our last lesson of unit 10! We've done 10 whole lessons, and this is our last one, looking at our story, Baba Yaga.

Remember you could always go back to listen to that story again in lesson one of this unit.

Now today, we are going to be writing our last opening of the story Baba Yaga.

And in this opening, we're going to focus on a character.

I'm going to act out some of the characters that we've met in Baba Yaga, see if you know who I'm being.

Okay, here's my first one.

Who am I being? Can you tell me? It was the mouse! The mouse who couldn't get into the hole and gave Olga the stone.

Okay, I'm going to be somebody else.

Who could I be? I know which character I'm going to be.

Who was I being? Can you tell me? It was one of the big black geese that Baba Yaga sent out to go and get Sergey.

Right, I'm going to do one more character.

Who am I going to do? I've got somebody.

Do you know who I was? Can you tell me? It was Baba Yaga shouting "who's eaten my dinner?" And today we're going to start our story by introducing the character of Baba Yaga.

So we are going to start our lesson today with a punctuation activity.

Then we're going to box up our character.

That means that we're going to look at the character of Baba Yaga, and we're going to think what details can we add about what she looks like? What does she wear? What does her house look like? So we're ready to introduce her.

Then we're going to do some independent writing, and we're going to write an opening that hooks the reader in, by introducing the terrifying character of Baba Yaga.

So these are the things that you're going to need in our lesson today.

You're going to need an exercise book or some paper.

It would be absolutely incredible, if you could get some plain paper for the box up plan.

And if you could get some lined paper, for when you're doing your writing so that you really take pride in your brilliant work.

You're going to need something to write with, so you're going to need a pen or a pencil.

And you're going to need your fantastic brain, especially when we're thinking really deeply about the character of Baba Yaga So let's start by looking at our punctuation activity.

So we have already looked at possessive apostrophes in lesson six and lesson eight, so you might've been there for those lessons.

Remember we use a possessive apostrophe to show when something belongs to somebody.

So if I have this pen, I could say it's Ms. Cashin's pen, and I would put my apostrophe before the 'S' Ms. Cashin's pen.

I've got two sentence starters here.

I'm going to read them to you, put your magnet eyes on the first word which is Baba.

Baba Yaga's hair was.

Next sentence.

The witch's nose was.

I wonder if you could extend these sentences to describe Baba Yaga with your possessive apostrophe.

So Baba Yaga's hair is her hair So you could say Baba Yaga's hair was wild.

The witch's nose, it's her nose, so I've got my possessive apostrophe before the 'S' the witch's nose was all long.

That would be a great adjective.

Your challenge is to see if you can add your own sentence about Baba Yaga with a possessive apostrophe so see if you can do that.

Pause the video now to do your punctuation activity.

What a fantastic start to our learning today, well done super stars! And we've warmed up our hand and warmed up our brains, ready for our writing.

Fantastic.

Right, now, you're going to watch me box up our character of Baba Yaga, and then you're going to have a go doing it yourself.

So I've got eight boxes for my box up plan of the character, Baba Yaga.

I've got one, two, three, four for my pictures.

And then I've got one, two, three, four, for my key words and phrases.

So I've tried to think about Baba Yaga in a few different ways.

Here, I've drawn her face.

Here, I've drawn her body and her clothes.

This is the outside of her house, and this is the inside of her house.

And when you go into your box up plan, you can break up your thinking about Baba Yaga like I have, or you can do it your own way.

So now I'm going to think about my key words and phrases, so I can see she's got a long, crooked nose.

Two adjectives, so I'm going to put a comma there, a long, crooked nose.

I won't use all of these ideas in my writing.

So I'm going to get down to as many as I like.

So I think, definitely wild hair.

I also quite like wiry hair.

It is wild, and wiry.

Black, beady eyes.

Again, I've got two adjectives.

I remember the story, we said she had a grey, green face.

I really liked that, I'm going to put that down.

Grey, green face.

I'm going stop there, but I could go on to describe this wart on her nose.

I could describe her furrowed eyebrows.

I could describe her mouth, and her teeth.

I could think about what her voice sounds like.

So many different things I get from this picture.

Right, now I'm going to have to look at her body and her clothes.

So I've tried to give her quite ragged, and tattered clothes, so I'm going to put those two words down.

Ragged, and tattered.

She got ragged and tattered clothes, probably quite dirty as well.

Okay, I've given her here some really sharp claws, so I'm going to put sharp claws down as a key word or phrase.

I want to use sharp.

I have to use my sounds, her.

Sh, ar, puh.

Sharp.

Fantastic, sharp claws.

I've given her some big black boots that I could think about as well.

Right, this is the outside of her cottage, and we have been describing it all the way through as a crooked cottage.

It's quite hard to say, so we're going to put here, it's a crooked cottage.

And I surrounded it by a smelly, swamp, smelly.

I'm going to use my sounds.

Ss, mm, eh, lee.

Smelly swamp.

And here is the inside of her house, which we haven't really thought about much.

But when I was thinking about what could be there, I put the pile of bones that Sergey will be playing with, and here is one of the big black geese in a cage, ready to be sent off to find her some food.

So I'm going to, oh I might, this is a cage, so I want to describe the cages maybe, maybe an iron cage or a metal cage.

I'm going to call it a cramped, metal cage.

It's not really big enough for the poor goose.

Cramped, metal cage, and then you could describe the bones as well.

Now that you've seen me boxing up the character of Baba Yaga, it's time for you to have go and think about all the things you want to have ideas for when you do your writing.

Here are the things that I put in my boxes, so I did the face, body, outside the cottage and inside the cottage.

But you might want to break it up in a different way.

Remember, you can get down as many different words and phrases as you like, and then you can just choose the best ones when you go and do your writing.

So you can pause the video now and go and do your box plan.

Well done for completing your box plan! You must have so many ideas now for your writing.

So I'm going to write an opening that hooks the reader by starting with that character, Baba Yaga.

You're going to watch me do it, and then you're going to go and do your own independent writing.

I've already got the beginning of my first sentence so I'm going to read it.

Once upon a time, there lived.

Oh I need a comma there.

Once upon a time, there lived, and I want to describe Baba Yaga, I might say she's an evil witch, a frightening witch, a terrifying witch, oh I quite like evil.

Once upon a time, there lived an evil witch called Baba Yaga.

And Baba Yaga needs to have a capital letter because it is a name.

Full stop, I'm going to read it back.

Once upon a time, there lived an evil witch called Baba Yaga.

My next sentence I want to describe a little bit about how she looks.

So I'm going to say she had, she, we just need to know it, S-H-E.

She had, let me have a look.

Well, I'm going to say a crooked nose, beady eyes, and a grey face.

Okay, here I go.

She had a crooked nose.

I'm going to list three things, so I need a comma after my first thing.

She had a crooked nose, beady eyes, Buh, ee, duh, ee, beady eyes and a grey face.

Let me have a look at the other things I've described here.

I really want to get her sharp claws in somewhere.

I want to introduce it in a different way, I don't just want to say 'she had' so I might say, oh I'm going to start her day.

So I might say as she woke up, She stretched out, or.

She ran her sharp claws through her hair.

So I'm telling the reader about sharp claws and her hair that's why I'm going to say, as she woke up, she ran her sharp claws through her wild hair.

Okay, I've got my full stop.

Capital 'A' for as, as she, remember one of our tricky words, we just need to know it, S-H-E, as she woke up, she ran, what did I say, sharp claws.

Oh I can even say talons.

Which is kind of like the nails that eagles have.

Claws or talons, I think I really like talons.

As she woke up, she ran her sharp talons through, T-H-R-O-U-G-H, another one of our tricky words, through her wild hair.

Full stop.

I'm going to read it from the beginning.

As she woke up, she ran her sharp talons through her wild hair.

Now, I've got three really quite long sentences here.

I've got 'and' in two of them.

Oh, sorry, I've got 'and' in this one, and I've got 'as' in this one and both these words help us to extend those sentences.

So I'm going to have a really short sentence to finish it off and make the reader think Oh my goodness, what's going to happen? So I'm going to say she felt hungry.

Only three words in that sentence.

Right, I'm going to read it from the beginning.

Once upon a time, there lived an evil witch called Baba Yaga.

She had a crooked nose, beady eyes and a grey face.

As she woke up, she ran her sharp talons through her wild hair.

She felt hungry.

I'm going to stop mine there, but remember when you go and do yours, there are the other pictures that you can look at.

Right, super storytellers, It's time for you to write your opening now where we introduce Baba Yaga.

So I've got the starter sentence here.

You can use this, or you can think of your own.

Magnet eyes on the first word.

It says, once upon a time, there lived.

Remember to think, have you written in full sentences with capital letters and full stops and keep thinking, have I introduced the character? Have I let the reader know how terrifying Baba Yaga really is? So have a go at writing your first sentence.

So you pause the video now.

Oh, I would love to read that first sentence and hear how you've described Baba Yaga whether you said she was evil, terrifying, frightening.

Oh, I'd love to read it.

Let's have a look at our next sentence.

Here's the sentence where I described three things about how she looked.

So I've got 'she had mmm, mmm, and mmm.

' Have a think about how you're going to describe her appearance.

Remember to think, have you written in full sentences with capital letters and full stops? Have you introduced that character of Baba Yaga? Have you told the reader something else about her? So you pause the video and have a go at this sentence.

Well done, super stars! Two sentences down, fantastic! Let's have a look at the last one that we're going to do together.

This sentence starts in a bit more of a tricky way.

It starts with 'as' so I've got, as she woke up.

Remember I said, as she woke up, she ran her long talons, or sharp talons through her wild hair.

So you can have a think about what she might do when she wakes up.

Does she stretch out her body? Does she stand across the room? Does she immediately start shouting about where her dinner is and where it's going to come from? So you can pause the video now to write your last sentence that we're going to do together.

Well done super storyteller, now that you've done three sentences, I am sure that you've really introduced the character of Baba Yaga and I'm sure whoever reads your work will go oh what an amazing opening! I definitely want to read more of this story.

I have got a challenge for you though.

Can you continue this opening paragraph independently? That means without me.

Can you do it by yourself using your box plan? I've got some sent- um, not some sentences.

I've got some questions here that you can think about, so what other details can you add about Baba Yaga's appearance? What might she have been thinking to herself? Where might she live? And I think this would be a great way to finish.

When might she have sent the geese off? Could you finish your opening, with her, telling the geese to fly away and bring her back a baby? So see if you can go and finish your opening now.

Well done super stars, absolutely amazing.

I would love to read these paragraphs.

Remember you can share your work with Oak National and I would love to read your terrifying openings.

So if you'd like to, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @ Oak National and hastag learn with Oak, and then I can see your amazing work.

That's the end of unit four.

When we go on to unit five, we are going to carry on thinking about the story of Baba Yaga.

And you're going to write your very, very, own story about someone who loses something and has to get it back from a monster.

So I really hope to see you then.

Bye.