Lesson video

- Hello everyone.

My name is Miss Weerasekera.

And welcome to lesson six in our unit about the story of the little bird and the forest fire.

So far in this unit, you have been taught by Mr. Sanknam, and I'm going to be teaching you for the rest of this unit.

We decided to share because we both love this story so much.

I know you have learned and explored so many brilliant things about the middle of a story with Mr. Sanknam.

You've been learning how they build drama, and they're really exciting and engaging for the people reading them.

In the rest of this unit, we're going to be boxing up the middle of this story and then writing it ourselves and really thinking about how we can build that drama ourselves as authors of our own stories.

We've got loads to do and it's going to be really exciting.

For today's lesson, you're going to need a pen or pencil to write with for your boxing up plan and a piece of paper for that too.

You're going to need your brain to think really deeply about those middle events in the story.

What's really important about them and how are they going to make the reader feel? If you don't have a pen or pencil or a piece of paper, go and fetch one now, and then press Play when you're ready to continue.

We're going to start off with a spelling activity, and I'm going to be introducing you to a brand new spelling rule.

We're then going to play an oral game called Three Words.

After that, I'm going to model how I would box up the middle of our story, and then you will have a go at the end of doing it yourself and filling in the rest of the table with all the bits that I left blank.

The spelling rule that we're going to look at today is this.

The /s/ sound can be spelled with a C when it comes before E I and Y.

Okay? So we've got a C, the letter C is making a /s/ sound, but it has to come before one of those three letters, E, I and Y.

Let's have a look at some examples to help us understand what this spending rule actually means.

Face.

We can see that the C here is before an E.

And when we think about it, face, the C sound is making an S, isn't it? Space.

Can you spot the C making an S sound? Fantastic.

Yes, it's before an E again, isn't it? Bicycle.

Oh, there are two Cs in this word.

Can you spot which one is making a /s/ sound? Right, it's the one before the Y, isn't it? The second C is a /k/ sound because it is not before an E, I or Y, it's got an L after it.

So bicycle is making a /s/ sound.

Circle.

Again, we have two Cs.

Which one is making the /s/ sound? It's the first one, isn't it? Because it's before an I.

Circle.

The second one is before an L so it's making a C sound.

Spicy.

Now, the strange thing about this word is that we have two /s/ sounds, but they're spelled with different letters.

The first is spicy, which is spelled with an S, and the second is spelled with a C, isn't it? C on the end.

And it's before a Y.

So all of these words, it's only when the C is before an E, an I, or a Y, that it makes that /s/ sound.

Very strange.

I'm going to put some, I am going to put up some words here, and they're going to have a missing letter.

I'm wondering if you could put the right letter in the gap to complete the word using our rule.

What would go there? What word would it make? How about this one? Remember it makes a /s/ sound.

So think about what letter is it gonna have there and how would you say the word? Oh, tricky one.

Right.

So we should have put the /s/ sound spelled C in each of those gaps to make our word.

We're now going to go through and have a look at the answers and do my turn, your turn to make sure that we can pronounce them properly.

So the first one is race.

My turn, race, your turn.

Fantastic.

Ice, my turn, ice, your turn.

Well done.

My turn, sell, your turn.

Good.

My turn, city, your turn.

Fantastic.

My turn, fancy, your turn.

Well done.

So in each of those words, the /s/ sound is spelled with a C.

One particularly strange one is the word sell, because the word sell is a homophone.

There are two meanings and two different spellings.

There's sell with an S like to sell something in a shop.

And the cell here with a C, which is like a cell inside your body.

Okay, now, an extra challenge that I have for you now is can you use each of these words with their correct spelling in a sentence? As I've said before in previous units, when we write words, that's when we really start to learn them, we read them, we write them and they get inside our head.

So it's important that we don't just look and learn them, that we practise using them in our writing too.

So pause here and have a go at writing these words in a sentence, and then press Play when you're ready.

We're now going to play our oral game called Three Words.

So I'm going to tell you three words and you need to come up with an imaginative story that includes all three of them.

Okay? So it has to have all three of them involved somehow.

But it's up to you what the story is.

I'm going to model one for you.

Then you'll have a go at this one and then we'll try another one too.

So the three words for our first imaginative story are fairy, flower and frog.

I'm going to have a go first.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful fairy.

She lived on a huge, beautiful, red flower, but she had one big problem.

Her flower was on top of a lily pad, and every single morning, right before she was even thinking about waking up, a big frog would hop by, onto the lily pad, and shake her flower so that she fell out into the water.

It got so annoying that after a while, one morning she leant over the side and she said, "Excuse me, Mr. Frog," just before he was about to leap onto her lily pad, "Please, can you go and jump on another lily pad instead? Because you're always waking me up." "Oh, sorry Miss, didn't even realise, didn't even know you were living there.

Uh yeah, I won't do it again." And that was it.

Frog always jumped by every morning, sometimes said hi if she was awake, but definitely jumped on a different lily pad that wasn't hers.

Okay, so I just made up a whole story from the top of my head, just using those three things.

I would like you to have a go at doing your own fairy flower frog story.

It can be any story you like, as long as it has those three things in them.

And you're just telling me out loud using your voice.

Pause here and press Play when you have done that.

That was such a creative story.

Okay.

Our next three words are ogre, cave and mushroom.

Hmm, what story could you have that has all three of those in it? I'm not going to model this one for you, because I want you to have all of your own creative ideas.

So you can pause here.

Think about your own story and tell it out loud, including those three things.

Remember, it doesn't need to be really long and it can be as silly as you want it to be.

Press Play when you've finished.

That was an even better story.

I am amazed by your creativity.

And if we use that today and in the rest of our unit for our writing, it's going to be really impressive.

Okay.

It's time for us to box up the middle now.

We're just going to be thinking about the middle six events in the story.

So we're going to leave the introduction and the ending for today.

So we can really think about how we can create drama and what we need to put there.

In our first column, we'll be writing pictures of those six events.

In the second, we'll be writing keynotes and things we need to remember.

And in the third column, we're going to be thinking about what mood we want to create for the reader when they get into each section.

How is it going to make them feel at each part? Remember, the middle is going to be quite dramatic.

It's going to be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

So they might be feeling great one minute, worried the next, scared the next, upset in another.

Okay, quite often the middle is quite a turbulent ride for the reader.

So we really need to think about those twists and turns and how we're going to make them happen as the author.

So before I start writing my boxing up, I am going to have a quick look at my story map from before.

Okay? Now the events that we're going to be using start from this point.

So there's a little bird, loves her home in the tree in the forest, and she notices a fire.

She flies up to the canopy and she sees there's a fire.

And then we're going to start here where she goes to tell everyone that they need to help, but everyone decides to run away.

She says she won't go with them.

She wants to protect her home.

She goes to the river to take the water up in her wings and try and put it out.

All of the gods in the sky are I laughing at her, saying that that will never work.

She's too small.

She'll get burnt.

But the Eagle God admires what she's doing, but goes down still to warn her, to tell her, "You're too small, you won't do it.

You'll be burnt to a crisp.

Please stop." Okay? So those are the six events, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, that we're going to include in our middle.

Because these three are part of our introduction.

And these ones at the bottom here are our conclusion.

So we're just going to focus on those six.

So I have prepared my boxing up table.

I've got my six boxes for my events here.

Then I've got my keywords and notes spaces and I've got my, what I'm going to say the reader's mood is here.

So my first picture, for my middle, is going to be this one.

Okay? So it's going to be the little bird.

She's in a tree.

She's gone to warn everyone about what's happened.

But all the animals' response, instead of thinking, oh, I'll stay and I'll help.

First response is to save themselves and run away.

And they want her to go with them.

She says, "No." She says she's got to stay.

Okay? So I'm just going to draw some animals.

Don't need to be perfect.

We just give it a go.

And we'll have, "Run away!" Okay? In this section.

Now we need to have a think about what is happening here.

What do we need to remember? So bird warns animals about the fire.

What else? Then, animals start to run away.

They ask bird to come, don't they? They say, "Come with us!" Okay.

So how do we think this is going to make the reader feel at this moment? The bird's come, everyone's running away.

There's a real sense, isn't there, of excitement, but also of fear.

Okay? So they might feel that panic as well.

Okay? It's quite a panicky time.

So you might be worried or panicky, it's up to you what you would like your reader to feel.

I would say I'd, like, feel worried, or perhaps even concerned.

Okay? Concerned for these animals, but also concerned for the bird and what's going to happen next.

It's quite a dramatic event, isn't it? Okay, our next box is the bird is going to refuse to go with them.

She's gonna say, "No!" 'Cause she loves her home, doesn't she? Okay? So, bird refuses, wants to try and save the home she loves.

Okay? So something like this.

How do we think the reader, how do we want the reader to feel now? Do we still want him to feel worried or concerned? Perhaps something slightly different? Perhaps they feel quite proud of the bird, or I feel quite sympathetic for the bird.

Okay? So I might say sympathetic.

Okay? Or they might even, admiration for how brave the bird's being.

They might admire how brave she's being.

Okay? Now, for the other parts of our boxing up, I'm going to help you with the pictures, but it's going to be your job afterwards to fill in the keywords and notes about what is happening in each and how you think the reader should feel at each of those events.

So in this one, we have all of the dramatic action.

We have the bird.

Swooping down.

The fire and the flames here.

She's going backwards and forwards, isn't she, with the water on her wings to try and put out the fire.

Okay? Then after that, in the clouds, the kind of sky gods are all laughing at her poor old.

So they're laughing away.

Ha-ha-ha.

Poor old bird.

They say, "She's gonna get burned.

She's too small.

Does she really think she can defeat the fire?" But there's one god, do you remember what god it was? Yeah, it was the Eagle God, wasn't it? Who looks down and was really in admiration, just like we were up here, of what the bird was doing and the bravery.

Okay? And then we've got the final one here, where the Eagle God is going to go and try and warn, warn the little bird, "You can't do it.

You're too small.

Please stop." So the bird is going to come back again, just like she did up here.

She's going to say, "I have to.

I can't, it's my home and I love it and I have to protect it." Okay? Now it is your turn to create your own boxing up.

Remember to fill in those second, third columns, even, where I didn't, using your amazing ideas.

On the screen, I've included some ideas for that final third column, about how the reader is going to be feeling at each part of your story.

But remember to make sure it works for you, because you're the one who's going to be writing this story.

And you're the one who has to make the writer feel those different things.

Have a go at doing your own boxing up, press Pause now, and then press Play when you are finished.

Fantastic.

That is a brilliant boxing up.

And it's really going to help us in our next few writing lessons.

If you would like to share your boxing up with me today, then ask a parent or carer to put it on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

You can tag @OakNational and use the hashtag #LearnwithOak.

In our next lesson, we're going to be writing the first two parts of our middle and really creating that drama.

So come ready with your writing hands and your writing brain, and we're going to create a really exciting start to the middle of our story.