Lesson video

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to lesson nine in our unit about Persephone.

We are really near the end.

Today is a really exciting lesson because we're going to be planning and boxing up an alternative ending to the story.

So we're going to be using our imaginations today to imagine what would happen if events went slightly differently in the ending of the story Persephone.

I started reading a really good book last night and I can't stop thinking about it.

I keep thinking, ooh, I can't wait to pick that up later and have a reading session.

Have you read any good books recently? And what have they been about? In this lesson you're going to need something to write on like an exercise book or a piece of paper and something to write with like a pencil or a pen.

You need your brain, but you've got that already inside your head.

So if you don't have either of the first two things, pause the video here and press play when you're ready to go.

Super, let's get started with today's lesson.

Let's go through what we're going to do today.

We're going to start with a fun game of What if, we're then going to dig deep into our ending.

And this time we're going to try and think of some alternative events that might happen instead of those in the original story.

Alternative basically means different.

We're then going to box up our new alternative ending.

So we're going to use the same characters and the same basic ideas, we're going to turn things on its head a little bit and change the ending of the story.

We're then going to finish with a challenge task.

So in today's lesson, we're going to be using our imaginations to generate, which means to create, ideas for how the story would have ended if Hades had refused Zeus's compromise to share for Persephone with Demeter.

So in that first box of our boxing up from lesson six, it was the agreement between Zeus and Hades that they would keep her in the underworld for six months and put her back on Earth for six months.

We're going to imagine today what would happen if Hades had just said no, and refused to give the Persephone away and kept her for all of time.

So, to help us dig deeper, we're going to go through some questions to help us imagine what would happen after that stage.

So once Hades had said no, what would the consequences of that decision be? So I'm going to need you to be ready to use your mind, to think of these different answers as we go through them.

You can pause in between each question if you need a little bit more thinking time.

That's absolutely fine.

If you'd also like to write some notes down to help you remember when we're boxing up later, that could be a good idea too.

Let's start with the first question.

What would happen to Persephone if that deal was refused? Okay, so let's have a think.

You might think differently to me.

What I think will happen is that Persephone will stay in the underworld with Hades and she will be absolutely miserable to be away from her mother, knowing that she will never be returned.

What would Demeter's reaction be? Okay, so Zeus is going to have to go and tell Demeter, isn't he, that the deal has been refused and that he can not get Persephone back.

Do you think Demeter will have a positive reaction to that news or a negative reaction to that news? Have a think.

I agree with you.

We know it's going to make her very, very upset and she's going to be bereft, could be a good word to describe it.

Really distraught and really, really sad.

And finally, what would happen to the Earth? Well, if we know that Demeter is sad and we know that her emotions control the seasons, we need to think back to the story about what happens to the weather and to Earth when she is sad.

Can you remember? Is it that all new life grows and it's sunny and it's lovely and summertime? No, it's not, is it.

You're right.

It's that everything begins to die and it becomes colder and colder and it becomes winter.

So I think given that Demeter is sad because Persephone is never going to return, everything on Earth would die.

And that means that summer isn't coming around in six months if Persephone's never coming back.

So perhaps it's going to get colder and colder and colder until everything freezes and everything is dead.

That doesn't sound like a very nice ending, does it? Let's have a quick reflection on our endings toolkit again, before we start planning and boxing up our new alternative ending.

Let's remember what goes in it.

Will it have a solution that rewards the main character? Now, I don't think it's rewarding our main characters of Demeter or Persephone because they still feel quite miserable.

But I guess it does reward Hades.

And he is one of the main characters.

But perhaps that's not the most satisfying ending.

Which goes on to number two, includes a solution which surprises or satisfies the audience.

It's not particularly satisfying because we probably want Persephone to return to her mother, but it's certainly a bit surprising, isn't it? So it does do that.

Shows how the good qualities of the main character lead to the problem solution.

That definitely doesn't happen this time because Zeus and Demeter and Persephone, even though they have good qualities, it's not a good outcome for them.

Show the consequences of the solution for the characters.

It does do that.

It shows that the Persephone stays with Hades and it shows that Demeter is sad and that everything on Earth dies.

So that's a consequence.

End with a memorable scene or event.

That memorable scene of everything freezing and getting frozen might stick in our mind, mightn't it.

To box up our alternative ending today, I boxed up exactly like we did in lesson six when we were doing the original ending of Persephone.

So I've got my three columns and I've got the pictures I'm going to draw for the events, some notes about the pictures to help me remember, and then the mood it creates in the reader.

Okay.

So we're going to do a similar process, but we're just going to change things and we're going to see what the outcome might be based on the thoughts and discussions we've already had.

I got a bit excited, so I started drawing, but you guys can catch up with me.

So in my first picture, it's going to look a little bit similar to the one from my last boxing up.

But that we know that they're not going to come to the compromise and Zeus is going to ask Hades for a deal.

And Hades is going to say no, so I'm going to draw them both looking quite.

Looking quite serious.

Okay, and I know that Zeus is going to, kind of, say "Please give Persephone back." But this time Hades is going to refuse the deal.

So I want to put no like that, okay.

And in here, I'm going to put Zeus asks for Persephone back, Hades refuses the deal.

So mood, I would say actually in this one, it makes us feel quite shocked.

Yeah? Cause Hades is being quite unreasonable.

Okay, so this time, from this point on things are really going to change.

Aren't they? Because last time we know that we had six months on Earth, things were summery, six months in the underworld things were wintery.

I managed to get some ink on my hand, look.

So this time that's not going to happen.

So in the next picture, what is Zeus going to do now that he's had this refusal, what's going to happen next? Who do you think he needs to tell? You're right.

He's probably going to have to tell Persephone, but he's also going to have to tell Demeter.

So I'm going to have my next picture's going to be Zeus is probably back on Earth and he's gone to tell Demeter what's happened.

And how do you think Demeter's going to be feeling? I agree.

She's going to be feeling a little tear.

She's going to be feeling very sad.

Okay.

Now think about the notes for this one.

So, Zeus tells Demeter about Hades refusing deal.

Demeter is distraught.

I'm going to say my mood for this one as a reader is sympathetic to Zeus, but also to Demeter and how she's feeling.

I feel really bad for her that she's not getting her daughter back.

That doesn't seem fair to me.

So I might say for Demeter, I'll put here, unfairness.

Okay.

So for the next few, I'm going to help you with the pictures, but I'm going to leave these two columns blank, the notes column and the mood column blank for you to do independently afterwards.

Okay, so.

Now, Demeter is very upset.

What do we know happens when Demeter is upset to the seasons and to life on Earth? You're right, starts to, it becomes winter, doesn't it? So we're probably going to have this wintery scene again.

Okay, with the snow falling down.

Winter.

Is it going to be six months now? How many months are there in a whole year? Yeah, there are 12, aren't there.

So I'm going to put times 12 here.

Okay.

So this time the winter carries on and it carries on and it carries on and it gets colder and colder and colder.

Now, if it gets colder and colder and colder, before it's just snowing, normal winter, but eventually it warms up and everything melts.

What's the opposite of something melting.

Yes, it becomes frozen.

So perhaps eventually it becomes so cold over time because summer and spring never come that everything freezes over and it gets to the point where almost everything has died.

So I'm just going to have.

I'll put here frozen and I think what will be quite good if the learning in this story, you might not have heard about this before, but a really, really long time ago, in the time of the woolly mammoths, when they became extinct.

There was an ice age where the whole of Earth froze over.

Okay, so perhaps this story, appears it's not teaching us as much about the seasons, it could be telling us about why the ice age happened, yeah.

So I'm going to say that things got so cold that there was an ice age.

Okay and you can see that there's absolutely nothing left.

In fact, its a bit gruesome.

Maybe I'll draw a little skeleton there.

Everything has died.

Oh my goodness, okay.

So, up next.

Now you can decide for your story whether, you know, this is the end.

We have the disagreement, and that's the ice age.

I think what would be quite nice is to explain the ice age didn't go on forever, didn't it.

Because we are on Earth now and it's not frozen, we have seasons.

So something had to end the ice age.

Now I wonder what could have changed in the events of the story from this point onwards to bring back summer, what would need to happen for Demeter to bring back summer? You're right.

She would have to have Persephone returned to her.

So maybe Hades, we know he likes to capture people from Earth.

So maybe Hades could come back up to earth, couldn't he, he could see that everything was dead.

He likes to capture things, nothing to capture, is there, if everything has died.

So perhaps he comes up to Earth, let's draw him on his chariot with this flaming hair.

He's come to capture another person to take down to the underworld, but this time, he comes up, he's very surprised 'cause he finds there's nothing there.

Everything's frozen.

Giving him a speech bubble and say, no life, question mark, who will I take.

Yeah, he's got no one to come and capture because there's no one there.

Okay, so he's saying "No life on Earth, who am I going to take?" My final box here.

I think he's going to decide, and it's kind of like returning to our original ending after we kind of diverted away.

He's going to decide that he will come to a compromise.

That he will keep Persephone for six months of the year and return her for six months of the year because he, it's in his best interest for there to be life on Earth so that he has souls that he can come and catch and take to the underworld.

Okay, so we can have for our final box where we kind of split it in half.

And he decides that six months of the year, he will let Persephone return, and then six months of the year, okay, he will take her back to the underworld.

Okay, so that's how our ice age ends.

Yeah, Hades realises that if there's no life on Earth, there's no one for him to capture anymore.

And he wants to be able to come and capture people and take them down to the underworld.

So he decides to share Persephone with Demeter so that in the summer months there is life and he can come and capture her.

Okay, so I've helped you with art.

We've done the first two rows completely together.

And I've helped you with the ideas for alternative ending here with our different pictures.

Your job in a minute is going to go through and add the notes in to explain what's happening in these, and then write how do these different sections make you feel.

Okay.

I just wanted to show you what my boxing up ended looking up like, just in case you couldn't see any of the pictures really clearly.

So I want you to be able to have a look at them here to help you when you're doing yours.

So feel free to pause on this slide whilst you're creating your own to help you with some of the pictures that go in the first column.

So for our challenge task today, the question is, if Persephone tried to escape the underworld, what would happen? Okay, so she's been stuck there with Hades.

She thinks she's going to have to stay there forever.

And she decides to escape.

For your challenge task today, I thought it would be fun if we could draw a comic strip to try and show the events in that ending.

So you might start with her realising she's staying forever in the underworld.

And then what would happen in the next few pictures in the comic strip, as she tries to escape and get back to her mother.

I'd like you to pause here and have a go at making your own comic strip for that ending and then press play once you're finished.

Oh, superstar, not only are you an incredible writer and someone with an amazing imagination that you could be a comic strip cartoonist too.

You have many talents, super impressed with your work today.

And I would love to see it.

So if you can take a picture of it and get a parent or carer to share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, by tagging OakNational and using the hashtag LearnwithOak, I would be more than delighted to see it.