Lesson video

Hello and welcome.

My name is Mr. Santhanam and welcome to lesson three of 10.

In today's lesson, our learning objective is all about deepening the tension in the middle part of the story.

So we are really going to start exploring those emotions and the language that we can use in order to make it a really dramatic middle part.

To begin our lesson today, we're going to think about the emotions that are presented to us in this story.

We're going to think about which emotion down below matches to which character.

So we're going to have to use our amazing, brilliant brains for this part.

I've done the first one to give you an example.

So the emotion is doubtful.

My turn, your turn.

Doubtful.

Doubtful.

I wonder what the word doubtful means, hmm? What do you think? I heard some brilliant ideas then.

I heard some people saying that doubtful means that you are full of doubts, and you really don't believe that someone can do something.

Who in the story didn't believe that someone else could do something? It was the Gods in heaven of course, 'cause they were laughing at the little bird saying, who does she think she is? She can't put out that fire.

Okay.

The second emotion that I have on the screen is caring.

My turn, your turn.

Caring.

Caring.

Which character do you think was the most caring.

Some great answers there as well.

You could have said the Eagle God, because he was the one who went down to help little bird when she was in trouble.

I heard some people saying that the little bird was caring as well because she cared about her home and protecting the forest.

So there's multiple answers here.

The next one is cowardly.

My turn, your turn.

Cowardly.

Cowardly.

Who do you think was cowardly? Ooh! I heard someone saying that the animals in the forest were cowardly because they run away from the fire and left the little bird all on her own.

Mm, let's find out.

Of course it was the little bird's friends who didn't want to stay and protect the forest but the little bird did.

And the last one is, what is this, protective.

My turn, your turn.

Protective.

Protective.

Who would you say was the most protective in the story? We have lots of answers then.

Again, there are multiple answers this time.

Let's find out what I said.

I thought the little bird was protective because she was so caring and protective over her forest.

But I think you could have also said that the Eagle God was protective as well.

He went down to help her and protect her from the fire.

In this lesson, you will need your exercise book and some paper.

You will need a pencil and you will need your brilliant brain.

Pause the video, while you go and get those things.

Amazing work! Let's begin.

Okay, so in this lesson today we are going to be doing our spelling activity first.

We are then going to do an amazing hot seating activity to really get to understand the Eagle God's emotions and feelings.

We will then do some freeze frames of the different parts of the story, from the Eagle God's perspective.

And in the end, we're going to track the Eagle God's moods to see how his mood changes throughout the story, and particularly focus on that middle part of the story.

Let's get started straight away with our spelling activity.

This week our spelling sound is zh, which is sometimes spelled like 's'.

So it can be a little bit confusing.

Let's have a look at some examples.

We have measure.

Decision.

Pleasure.

Usual.

Unusual.

Treasure.

Division.

Explosion.

Vision.

And television.

Pause the video now, while you have a go at writing down those words.

I know that I can look at a word.

I can say it in a sentence.

I can then write down the word, and then I can check the spellings.

Another strategy that you could use is one that I love.

It's my absolute favourite, and it is called rainbow words.

I love this because you get to use different colours for each letter, to help you remember the order of the letters.

What are the colours in a rainbow, hmm? Do you know? Wow, so many colours there.

I know that I can remember the colours of the rainbow by saying this rhyme, "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain".

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, which is a bit like dark blue, violet.

So for instant, if I wanted to spell the word measure, I would do it like this.

Red for m.

Orange for e.

Yellow for a.

Green for s.

Blue for u.

r for Indigo.

And purple for e.

And notice how that green s is actually making the sound, zh.

Pause the video now, while you write down some of your rainbow words.

Okay, it's time for our amazing activity.

The hot seating activity is my absolute favourite.

So, we're really going to focus on the middle part of the story now.

And to help us, we're going to have a look at our middles that build drama toolkit.

So I know already that in the middle of a story, we always have new events and setbacks.

New things for the characters to overcome.

We also sometimes slow down time to really build anticipation.

So the reader is always thinking, "Oh, what's coming next.

I want to find out what's happening next." Sometimes we use vagueness, or hinting, or empty words, and this adds mystery and builds suspense.

We can also sometimes you use uncertainties and expectations of characters to build drama.

So for example, what's the expectation of the little bird? We expect her to put out the fire, but we don't know how she's going to do that.

And that's uncertain.

And that's what really keeps us wanting to know how she's going to put out the fire.

In a moment, you are going to think of some example questions to ask the Eagle God.

You can do this on your own, or you can do it with a family member, or you can do it with a friend if you are in class.

Or perhaps even your teacher.

One person will pretend to be the Eagle God.

And the other will ask the questions.

Remember, the questions that we want to ask are open questions.

We want to find out as much information as possible from the Eagle God.

So good words to start your questions with are what, how, and why? Pause your video now to write down some amazing questions to ask the Eagle God to find out more about that middle part of the story.

Okay, I'm going to give you one example, first of all, and then I'm going to act as the Eagle God to answer your question.

And maybe that will give you some ideas of how to play this game.

The question I'm going to ask the Eagle God is.

What made you cry so much? Now, I know the question I'm being asked.

So I'm going to get into character, into the Eagle God character.

Well, the reason I cried so much was because I'd already seen the little bird's friends leave her all alone in the fire.

I knew that her home was being destroyed and she loved it so much.

Because of this act of going back and forth, and back and forth from the river and the fire to put it out.

Then, I saw the gods making fun of her, and mocking her, and doubting her.

And that made me feel even more sorry for the little bird.

It made me feel even more protective over the little bird as well.

And finally, the last thing that made me cry so much was when I asked the little bird, why are you doing this? You know you're too small and the fire is too big.

And she told me she did not care.

Her love for the forest was so great that she didn't care if she didn't win.

She just wanted to put out the fire and she would do anything she could.

I had never known love this great before.

It inspired me and it moved me to tears and that's why I cried so much.

Okay, I'm back into Mr. Santhanam mode now.

Pause your video here, while you ask your Eagle God some questions to really help you understand that middle part of the story.

Don't forget to use expression, and voices, and actions, that the Eagle God would use to really help you get into character and understand him.

Okay.

Now that we know a little bit more about Eagle God's emotions, we're going to think more about those actions that can help us remember the different parts of the story, and really help us to deepen that tension in the story.

So remember the Eagle God is our main character now.

Have a look at it and remind of what happens in his story.

I can see in the beginning part of the story, he lives happily in the heavens with the other gods.

But he's a little bit upset because the other gods don't believe in him very much.

And they don't believe what he has done is as important as what they have done.

But he loves to look down on the forest and all the animals living happily in the beautiful forest.

Then, one day he notices that terrible fire devouring forest, and he starts to feel very panicked.

He then notices the little bird going back and forth, back and forth from the river and the fire, trying to put it out, and all the other gods laughing at her.

He then feels admiration and love for the little bird and decides to go down and help her.

After speaking to her, he realises how much she loves the little forest and it fills his heart with sadness and moves him.

And that's when he begins crying.

And finally, he puts out the fire with his tears, and the fire goes out.

Okay, let's think about the first part of the story.

So at first, I'm happy living in the heavens.

I'm very contented.

I'm very contented and I enjoy living in the heavens.

So if I was contented, I might do something like this, ah.

Then I put a smile on my face.

But also I feel a little bit sad that the other gods are making fun of me.

So I might hunch over my shoulders and hang my head a little bit.

Then, I might describe the forest and how I love looking down on the forest and the animals.

So I might put my hand over like this, and have a big smile on my face again, mm.

After that point, the fire comes, I get a big shock.

I'm very scared.

So I might do this.

Ha! And freeze frame.

The next moment, the gods are laughing at the little bird.

That might make me a little bit cross or a little bit sad again.

So I might put my hands on my hips like this, mm.

I might be wondering what to do as well so I might do this.

That's not right! I need to do something to help.

The next point.

I'm looking down at little bird, and I realise I admire the little bird.

So I might do this, hah! With my hand on my heart.

The next point I go down to speak to the little bird, and I'm trying to help her and I'm trying to reason with her and beg her to be safe and leave the fire alone.

So I might do this, huh!.

Or I might put together my hands together like this.

Please, little bird leave the fire.

Finally, I've been so moved by those little bird's actions that I start to cry.

So I might do this.

And that's the middle part of my story.

Let's try it once more altogether.

Ah! Um! Ahh! Ha! Um! Mm! Ahh! Oh! Okay, now that you've seen me be a bit silly and try out my freeze frames for each part of the story, I want you to have a go.

Pause the video now.

Remember to look at your story map and think about what freeze frame you would do to show that part of the story, and show the emotion around each part of the story.

I saw some amazing freeze frames then.

So well done everyone.

Now it's time for us to track the mood of the Eagle God throughout the story.

The freeze frames are really going to help us with that part.

And it can help us to really focus on the middle part of the story and compare that to the end and the beginning.

I have got my mood tracking graph here.

I'm going to use it to help me to track the Eagle God's mood and feelings throughout the story.

Here, I've got my beginning, my middle, and my end.

And here are all the possible emotions he might be feeling.

I've started with happy, very happy at the bottom.

I've gotten to sort of a little bit happy.

Content in the middle.

Got angry here.

I've got sad.

Very sad.

And this is absolutely devastated, crying my eyes out.

Okay.

Now that you've seen how I draw my mood graph, pause the video while you draw your own.

Don't forget to include all the possible emotions that your Eagle God in your story might feel.

Try and put the positive emotions at the bottom of your graph, and the negative emotions, the powerful emotions at the top.

Pause your video now while you do that.

Okay, so in the beginning of the story, the Eagle God lives with the other gods in the heavens.

I mean he's very happy living in the heavens.

But he doesn't always feel very happy, because the other gods make fun of him sometimes.

So, the first part of the story is he's living in the heavens.

And I would say, hmm, I know that he's not really happy because the other gods make fun of him sometimes.

So I'm going to say he's about here.

I'm going to pop this on my graph, just like I would do in Maths.

He's about here, he's not very happy.

The second part of the story, is when he's looking down on the forest, and he loves looking down in the forest, that's what makes him very happy.

Because he gets to look at all the animals.

He really cares about the animals.

And I would say that makes him very happy here.

Where they're really happy faces.

Then, the next part of the story, I would say is when he gets really shocked because he sees the fire for the first time.

And this is the first part of our middle part.

So I would say, hmm.

I know that he wouldn't be happy about the fire.

He wouldn't be slightly happy about the fire.

He wouldn't be just content.

He's not quite angry about the fire.

I would say he's very shocked and very upset about the fire.

So I'm going to put it all the way up here.

Now, the next part of the story is when the other gods start to see him.

The next part of the story is when the other gods start to see the little bird trying to put out the fire and they laugh at her.

And this makes him.

I say it makes me quite angry.

So I'm going to put an x here.

The next part of the story is when he realised that he really loves the little bird, and he really wants to help her 'cause it makes him really sad to see what she's going through.

So I would put number five, I'd say up here.

Then he goes down to help her, and he pleads with her, "Please, little bird, fly away.

You're too small." "The fire is going to kill you." And this makes him very emotional.

He gets very sad.

He's not devastated just yet, he's trying to help her.

So I was going to say six goes up here.

And then seven is when he gets really, really, really upset, because she's moved him so much.

He's inspired her so much with her love and care for the forest.

So I would put seven all the way up here where it's really, really sad.

And number eight is our end part.

And that's when he goes up to heaven again and leaves little bird, and he feels like he's helped the little bird.

So I would say that would probably make him very happy again.

Now, if I was to take a pencil and draw a line between all of these dots, it would really show you how to track the emotions.

So he starts here.

Something like that.

Gets all the way up here.

Not bad again.

And here, up here, oh! And then, back down to happy again.

So as I can see the beginning part and the end parts are okay.

They're fine emotions.

He's happy, he's content.

It's the middle part where the tension is really, really, high, and that drama is building and building and building.

Okay, amazing work today.

Don't forget that we've done loads of things.

You should be really, really, proud of yourself.

We have hot-seated the Eagle God.

Find out more about his emotions.

We've even matched emotions, to the different characters in the stories.

We have done freeze frames about the middle part of the story and his emotions.

And we've even tracked the Eagle God's emotions throughout the story using a mood tracker graph.

So, great work today.

Don't forget to share your work with Oak National.

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

See you next time.