Lesson video

Good morning everyone.

My name is Miss Weerasekera.

And welcome to lesson three in our unit about our news report.

In today's lesson, we're going to have to use our amazing acting skills to do some role playing.

And we're going to be role-playing Apollo and a police officer because Apollo is going to go to the police officer to report the crime of his harp being stolen.

And the police officer's job is going to be to ask him lots of questions to find out the details of the case, the five W's, which we'll find out a little bit more about later.

I am really excited today because I'm going to see some of my family later and they're going to come around and visit my house and I'm going to cook them some dinner.

What exciting plans do you have today? In today's lesson, you're going to need a piece of paper, a pen, or a pencil and your brain.

To be honest, today's lesson is much more about the brain than the pieces of pen and paper because we're going to be getting up and acting and using our voice but we're going to need a pen and paper to write some notes as well.

So if you do not have a pen or pencil or a piece of paper then please pause now, go and get it and then press play when you've done it.

To get to start it today, we're going to begin with our spelling activity.

We're going to continue to look at our common exception words and find some different strategies to help us learn those tricky words that don't follow our spelling rules.

After that we're going to play an oral game to get us warmed up for the acting that we're going to do today.

And that game is called take on a role.

After that, we're going to deepen the story through some role play, where we pretend to be Apollo and the police officer.

And finally, we've got a challenge task to really test our brains.

So we have already looked at common exception words earlier in the unit.

And these are words that do not always follow our spelling rules.

And so they're quite tricky to remember, the only way to get them into our heads is to practise, practise, practise and read, read, read.

By seeing these words in books that we're reading and writing them down in our writing and practising in different ways, they're going to get absorbed in our head that we couldn't forget them, even if we wanted to.

So we're going to continue practising with a different strategy today.

In our last strategy, we looked at pneumonics and a pneumonic was a funny poem that took all the letters in the word and made a little poem out of them.

That's one way to help learn them but probably in our heads, there's only so much space for lots and lots of silly poems. So we might need some other strategies too.

This strategy is a really simple one.

It's just a really quick way to practise a word and get it embedded into your brain so that you can remember it.

It's called look, cover, say, write check.

And we're going to do that with some of our common exception words today.

I'm going to model it to you first.

So you know what I want you to do.

And then we're going to go through and you're going to have a go at using that strategy to learn these common exception words.

To do it, first of all, you look at the word, okay? I can see that the word is wild.

I'm looking at it.

I'm thinking in my head, w-i-l-d, okay? And then I'm going to cover it up.

So for me, I'm going to cover it on the screen and you can do the same.

So I cover the words so I can't see anymore.

You can't see me covering it but that's what I'm doing.

I'm covering it and then going to say it again, Wild, w-I-l-d, okay? Now, whilst it's still covered and I can't see it, now I'm going to write it.

Now I've written it, I'm finally going to check.

I'm going to uncover it, I'm going to look at it and I'm going to look at what I've written and I'm going to check if it's the same.

W-I-l-d, w-I-l-d.

Fantastic, okay? You're now going to have a go at doing that with the next words, okay? So I'm going to give you the chance.

I'll put it up on the screen.

I will say out and sound out.

You will look at it, say it, cover it with your hand, say it out loud, write it down.

And then once you've written it down, take it away and have a look and see if you've got it correct and make any corrections, okay? So door, say it, my turn door.

Your turn, fantastic.

Cover it with your hand, I'm doing it too, okay.

Say it, door, try and say the letters.

Write it.

Okay, check it.

Got it correct, so I'm going to tick it.

Did you get to correct? Superstar.

Let's do the next one.

Okay, look floor, f-l-o-o-r, you've done it? Let's cover it together.

Okay, my turn, floor.

Your turn? Let's write it.

Are you ready? Let's look.

Oh, I made a small mistake there, I missed that one of my o's, so I'm going to correct mine.

And then I'm going to give myself a tick because I corrected it.

How did you do? Your turn.

Okay, next one, could, let's look together.

Say the letters, c-o-u-l-d.

I remember, o-u, lucky duck for this one, my pneumonic, so I'm going to use that to help me, right? Let's cover it together.

My turn, could, your turn, excellent.

Ready to write it? O-u, lucky duck.

You written it? Should we check? Fantastic, I got that correct.

I'm going to give myself a big tick, did you? Okay, this one, eye, e-y-e, such a strange spelling, isn't it? I'm talking about this eye here, eye.

Okay, I'm going to cover it, that say at my turn, eye, your turn? My turn, e-y-e, your turn? Let's write it.

Are you ready to check? Fantastic.

It's such a strange spelling that, that one actually stuck in my head quite easily.

Well done on those spellings today.

That strategy might not be our most exciting strategy but it is really effective and it does help to get them in our brain.

It's also quite quick.

So if you are either struggling with a word and you know, you keep spelling it wrong in your writing, that's a really nice way to practise it.

We're going to play our oral game now called, Take on a role, I love this game.

So we're going to be getting our voices and our bodies and our faces warmed up for some fantastic acting today.

So it says here, when we take on the role of another character, there are some things we have to think about.

Firstly, we have to think about our voice and what kind of voice we think our character will have.

Are they going to have a low voice or are they going to have quite a high voice? Are they going to speak slowly or are they going to speak fast? Are they going to be very quiet or are they going to be very loud? Now, some of these things might just match up with our character and how they speak most of the time.

But we might also need to think about what situation or what emotion that character is feeling and that might change how they speak throughout what we're doing, okay? So have a general sense of, I think this character would speak in quite a low and slow voice because that helps but also think about how you're going to change your voice depending on how they're feeling or what's happening, okay.

So if I know that they're feeling really sad, I might decide that they're going to be quite slow and quiet.

I'm just feeling really sad.

Whereas, if they are excited and happy, they might be quite high-pitched or quite fast.

Oh my goodness, I just can't wait to get my presence, okay? So my voice might change depending on what's happening.

So we just have to make sure that we're ready to move our voice and change it depending on what we need to do.

And depending on what character we're doing.

Thus we need to think about our facial expressions, okay? So a huge amount of communication we do with other people, isn't even in the words that we say, it's how we use our body and it's how we use our faces to communicate, okay? So I can show that I'm happy without saying anything or making any noises.

I'm going to show you my happy face and then it's going to be your turn.

Okay, can you show me your happy face? Oh, you look so happy that makes me even happier.

Okay, we're going to practise a couple of other faces just to get our faces and our face muscles warmed up, okay? Can you show me your sad face? That's a fantastic sad face.

Okay, now show me your angry face? Scary, finally, let's show me your excited face.

You look super excited, is all about excitement for this lesson, I thought it was.

Okay, so our faces warmed up and we thought about how we can show different emotions with our voice and our face.

Now, the last thing we need to think about is our body language.

How do we think that person is going to stand? Are they going to be standing up tall? Are they going to be hunched over? Are they going to use the hands low to be moving a lot? Are they going to be really still? Now a bit like with our voice and our face, this might suit a character but also might change depending on how they're feeling, okay? My hunched shoulders might show that I'm feeling quite sad, whereas being really expressive and moving a lot with my body by make it seem like I'm excited or happy.

If I'm really still, I might be really calm.

I might be a bit nervous, if I'm really nervous, I might be shivering or shaking, okay? So we're going to move and change our body depending on what's happening and the mood, okay? So voice, facial expressions, body language.

We're going to practise getting into well with some random ideas first before we move on to the characters that we're going to be looking at today, the police officer and Apollo.

So the first thing I want us to think about is a child on their birthday.

What do you think their voice will sound like? I agree, I think it will be quite high-pitched.

I think it will be quite fast and I think it will be quite loud, okay? So what might they be saying? But like I said earlier, oh my goodness, I'm so excited for my presents, okay? Think about our face.

I mean, think about what we might be doing, I was doing clapping, it might cheering and dancing.

It's up to you.

You're going to have a go at doing it yourself, okay? So you can stand up and find a space.

Am I going to be an excited child together, ready? One, two, three, Yours is even better than mine, you're a fantastic actor.

Okay, let's try another one.

Oh, this time, a teenager who has been told off.

Now, you might have a teenager living in your house, maybe if you have an older brother or a sister, okay.

But teenagers, sometimes can be a little bit grumpy, okay? And if they've been told off they maybe, they're going to be quite grumpy, okay? So let's think about how different that will be from an excited child on their birthday.

So perhaps they will have those hunched shoulders, perhaps their face of a furrowed brow, I talk about furrowed brow, that's what, this is frowning and perhaps he'll be like this or maybe even hunched with their arms crossed, perhaps they'll be grumbling and you can't really hear what they're saying,.

Okay, your turn ready? One, two, three,.

Good, can you see how different that was from the others and how we used our voice and our face and our body language in a different way? Now we're going to think about some of the characters from a created story.

So this, we're going to start with Hades demanding the harp to play.

Now I reckon Hades has quite a deep and aloud voice.

I also reckon he's quite tall and strong, okay? And I reckon he, when he's demanding, he's going to use an aggressive finger and he's going to have frown on his face like this, and he's going to say, play for me now, harp.

Okay, so we're going to stand up and we're going to practise that together, ready? One, two, three, play for me now, harp.

that was fantastic, well done.

Okay, so, now we're going to do Apollo refusing to bring out the sun.

So this is when Zeus comes to him and says, please, everything's dying, you need to help me.

And he says, I just can't do it if I don't have my harp.

Okay, so how's he feeling at this point? Yeah, you're right.

He's feeling quite sad, isn't he? So he's probably going to have a sad face, perhaps a bit slumped, maybe quite still.

Yes, he's not moving that much, just like this.

And I reckon his voice when he's quiet, quite slow, you might say, I just can't do it.

I don't have my harp.

Okay, so we're going to practise that together with your sad face on, it's slumped, face down, think about your voice low and quiet.

We're going to do it, one, two, three, I just can't do it if I don't have my harp.

Such a fantastic actor, Now we're thoroughly warmed up and hopefully we understand how to use our voice and our facial expressions and our body language to show different types of characters but also to show different emotions and reactions.

As I said, we're going to be Apollo going to tell the police about what's happened.

And we're also going to try and be a police officer finding out about the story.

Now there, if you're doing this by yourself, you're going to be like me.

I'm also doing it by myself.

And I'm going to take on both roles.

If there's someone else there with you and you can do it together, then you might want to take on a role each, it's up to you, okay? Now we're going to think about how these characters are going to act.

I think Apollo telling the police what's happened is going to be a bit like the one we just did here.

Yeah, we know his harp is still lost.

He wants to find where it is.

He's probably quite sad, okay? So might have that similar kind of pitch down, talking quite quietly or you might take it a different direction.

Perhaps he's quite angry and frustrated.

So he's a bit louder, he's a bit more expressive, he's face is a bit more angry.

You can choose what type of Apollo you want to have.

Now how about the police officer, what do we think? I think you're right.

The police officer is going to be probably calmer.

This is their job and they're going to be used to dealing with people who are upset, if they've had something happened to them, something bad has happened.

So I think they're going to be quite calm.

I think their voice will be quite measured and slow.

And I think they'll just be asking questions and being patient, okay? So we have quite a neutral face, which means quite normal, nothing too excited, nothing too sad or angry, just kind of, and perhaps they'll not along.

So they really showing that they're listening, using eye contact, okay? So those are the two roles, are you going to have a sad Apollo or you can have an angry Apollo? I think we'll agree that the police officer is going to be quite calm and nodding along and asking questions.

Now, a police officer's job when they have someone who comes to report a crime is to find out the important information about the case by asking questions.

So they're going to find out the facts and the details of what's happened.

So they use the five W's plus we've added in an extra one as well.

So who was involved? What happened? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Why did it happen? And sometimes, how did it happen? But that might come across just in finding out that other information.

So we're going to pretend to be both the police officer who's going to be calmly asking Apollo all of these questions and patiently listening to his answers and we're going to switch them to Apollo who's going to answer the questions as best as he can, probably with pile of emotions, sadness or with anger.

So you can decide how you want to play your Apollo.

The first question the police officer is going to ask Apollo is who do they, who is involved in this crime? Who will, what is involved in this crime? Okay, so we're going to, I'm going to model acting this one out for you and then I'm going to show you the other questions and you're going to have a go at doing that yourself.

Now, earlier, I said, you might need a piece of paper and a pen here because I think once you've asked out each question, it would be a good idea to make some notes about what you said because when we do these role play activities, our imagination goes really free and wild and sometimes you can get some really brilliant ideas that we can use in our writing.

You want to make sure that you've got those written down just in case you forget them.

I'll model doing that for this one.

But once you've finished your answering the question as Apollo, it would be a good idea to make some notes about what you said before you move on to the next one.

And then you can use it in our writing later in the unit.

Okay, so let's do the first one together.

We're going to start off, get my microphone again.

My trusty-pen microphone.

And I'm going to ask my question.

I'm going to be the calm police officer first.

Thank you for coming in Apollo, it's really great that you've come to speak to us as the police and we're going to do our best to help you.

To start off, I'm going to need to get some details from you.

So just try and think about what happened as best you can and tell me everything you can remember.

Firstly, I'd like you to tell me who and what is involved in this crime? Okay, so now I'm going to be Apollo.

Now I'm deciding that my Apollo is going to be quite agitated, he's going to be quite cross because he's looked everywhere and he really wants some answers now.

You can decide if you want to be the same as me or you'd rather be sad Apollo or maybe a calmer Apollo, it's up to you.

I just, okay, it's me.

Obviously, it's my harp.

And it's been missing for a really long time.

I've looked absolutely everywhere for it.

And I just can't stress how important this harp is.

Not only does it bring me happiness, it brings everyone else happiness.

And without it, I'm not going to be able to do my other jobs.

And my other jobs are really important.

I'm in charge of the sun and the light.

And if that disappears that you can see outside, it's already starting to disappear.

And if that disappears, then we're not going to be able to keep the plants alive.

We're not going to have food.

It's going to be really serious.

So I just, I really need your help with this.

I was quite different from the police officer, wasn't I? I was moving my hands a bit.

I had a frown, I'm speaking quite quickly and quite in quite high-pitch, just quite different to the police officer who was calm and sitting back.

Now in that, I'm going to make some notes about the bits that I think were useful.

Okay, so I'm going to say things I want to write down.

So I'm going to put who, okay? And then I'm going to think about what were some of the things that were interesting? So the item would say that the harp is mine.

That I was worried.

I'm going to say without it, I can't.

I like that idea if I can't do my job properly.

So not writing down all about and just writing down a few notes about what I said because that might help me later when I'm doing my writing.

It's going to be your turn to have a go at doing the rest of these questions and acting as the police officer and Apollo.

If you're with someone else, you might take on the roles or swap over and you can have a little bit of role play together.

If you're by yourself, like I am, you can take on both roles in practise, okay? So just remember to think about your voice, your facial expressions and your body language and how you can really use them to show the character.

So I'm going to read through the questions.

Then you're going to press pause and have a go at taking those out, making some notes about what you said, just for lecture on a new unit and then you can press play when you finish.

The questions that you're going to answer, ask and answer, what happened? When did this happen? Where did this happen? How do you think it happened? And finally, why do you think this happened? So why has this harp been stolen? Pause here, have a go at doing your acting and your role play and then press play when you finished.

That was some fantastic acting.

And I'm so impressed with some of the ideas you came up with when you were answering as Apollo.

And I hope you've written some of your notes down.

If you haven't written notes about some of the things you said, you can pause again here, quickly, write a few things down and then keep that safe for one of the next lessons in our unit when we're writing.

You did a fantastic job today.

And sometimes these lessons can feel a bit silly and a bit of fun.

They're so important for our creativity and our imagination.

And it's so hard to start writing when you haven't really let your imagination run wild for a bit.

So doing this acting and this role play means that when we come to writing later in the unit, we'll have all these amazing ideas.

We'll really be able to imagine the character and put ourselves in their shoes.

So as a challenge task today, it says, can you think of what questions the police officer would ask Zeus or Hades, if they were to question them about the crime? Now as a police officer, you try and question as many people involved in the crime as possible, especially if you have a suspect.

Now a suspect is someone who you're suspicious of being responsible for the crime.

So I suspect in this one, is Hades because we think we know at this point, probably everyone thinks that Hades stole it.

And Zeus is involved in the case.

So perhaps they would question him as well.

What questions might they ask them? They might be similar and some of them similar to the ones that they asked Apollo but perhaps they would ask them slightly differently, given that they have a different involvement in the case.

So press pause here, have a think of some questions that the police officer would ask Zeus or Hades, then press play when you're done.

I would love to see some pictures or videos or notes from your acting today.

If you would like to share them with me, then please ask your parents or carer if they can do it on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

You just need to tag at, @OakNational and use the hashtag, #LearnwithOak.

As we go forward into this unit, we're going to be using those amazing ideas to box up on your report, to start writing on your report and also to perform on these reports at the end of the unit.

It's going to be so fun and I'm really excited.

I hope to see you in our next lesson.