Lesson video

Hello and welcome.

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

In today's learning objective, we're going to be thinking about how we can learn a story from memory.

It's really important to do this because once we know a story really, really well in our minds, we can then start to think about all the amazing storytelling and description and language and vocabulary that we want to use in order to make it a really effective, engaging, interesting story.

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 now while you go and get those things.

Okay, in this lesson, we are going to start off with comparing some of the other characters.

We're also then going to review our story map that we have we're then going to review our story map, which we've already created about the little bird in the forest.

Then we're going to think about creating a new mind map for the Eagle God.

And finally, we will then step and speak our new mind map.

To start with, we're going to get into character.

And who's our new character that we're focusing on from our story? That's right, it's the Eagle God, the mighty Eagle God who lives up in the heavens with the other Hindu gods.

We're going to have a go at my turn, your turn.

And then if you like, you can pause the video and think of your own descriptions and say them using the expressions of the Eagle God.

Here's a picture to help you.

What can you infer about the Eagle God from this picture? I am the mighty Eagle God.

I am the mighty Eagle God.

I am the mighty Eagle God.

I have powerful golden wings.

I have powerful golden wings.

I have powerful golden wings.

What do you think his voice would sound like? I fly from place to place.

I fly from place to place.

I fly from place to place.

It is my job to help people.

It is my job to help people.

It is my job to help people.

Fantastic.

Now that we've thought a little bit more about the expressions of the Eagle God, we can begin.

Remember, if you want to have a go at doing your own descriptions of the Eagle God, and really thinking about his expressions and mood and actions.

You can have a think about our characters toolkit.

Remember we want our characters to be characters that we care about and we really know and understand and are really well developed.

We can do this by deciding on the main inner qualities of the character.

And we can show this by using physical appearance and what they wear, what they look like, their actions, what do they do? Their speech? What do they say? And how do they say it? And their thoughts and feelings.

We know the Eagle God really well by now.

So have a go at doing your own descriptions.

First of all, let's have a look at some of the other characters in the story.

The Hindu gods are really important characters from Hindu culture, which comes from India, where our story is set.

There are loads and loads of amazing myths and stories about these gods and Hindus still hold them very, very close to their hearts today.

It's part of their religion.

So we must be respectful of them.

Let's find out a little bit more about some of the other gods.

I'm going to tell you some stories and you guys are going to guess which one is which.

There was once a Monkey God called Hanuman who led an army against a demon to save the princess.

Can you guess which one is the Monkey God? That's right.

It's the one just below here.

You can tell because he's got a monkey face and the tail.

Some of the gods have animal faces and heads and even animal parts.

There's a god there with a cow's head.

That's because cows are really sacred and really important to Hindu people.

In India, It's actually a crime to kill a cow.

You can even see if you look really closely, you can see a tiny little Elephant God at the bottom.

That's Ganesh and you can see he's actually got four arms. Hmm.

Lucky him.

Hindus believe that Ganesh brings good fortune and success to those who worship him.

There are lots of different kinds of characters in storytelling.

There is the hero.

Their job is to save the day.

And they're usually the main character in a story.

There is the villain who is the evil one in the story.

And he usually, and they usually bring all the problems. There is the helper, the character who comes down to help out the main character.

And they're often the solution to the problem.

There is the mentor who is a wise character in the story who really helps and nurtures the other characters.

And they often have really important information that we need in the story.

There is the trickster who might not necessarily be a villain, but plays tricks on people and is very deceiving.

So if you've ever heard any of the stories about Anansi the Spider, he's definitely a trickster.

He likes playing tricks on people.

Sometimes they're really funny.

Sometimes they're very irritating.

Sometimes they're a mixture of both.

There's also the guardian, and their job is to guard something precious and important.

And they are very important to the story because they often hold or guard something that the other characters need.

What kind of character do you think Garuda is? Hmm.

So what do we know about these characters already? Every character we can analyse to think about what kind of character they are.

Where is their home? What do they want? What are their wants? What powers do they have, and what are their weaknesses as well? What are the downfalls? Pause the video now, pause the video now to think about what these things are for each of the characters.

Okay, so straight away, I know that the little bird is definitely a hero.

They live in the forest.

What they want is to protect their home and save their tree.

Their power, the most important, powerful thing about them is that the little bird is determined and is loyal.

They have determination.

And their weaknesses? Hmm.

Maybe their weakness is that they are very, very small.

And maybe they're a little bit physically weak compared to the other big, strong animals and the mighty gods.

And of course the fire.

Now, Garuda, I would say that his character is either a helper or a mentor because they help the little bird throughout the story.

Their home is up in the heavens.

What they want is to protect people and to help other people.

We know that he's the God of service.

So he helps other people.

His power is helping people definitely.

And his weakness is maybe that he cares a lot about other people and this makes him very sensitive.

That's why he cried so much when he heard the little bird's story.

It's very good to care about people.

What ideas did you come up with? Okay.

We're now going to review our story map for the little bird story.

Okay.

So I'm having a look at my story map again.

Now I've drawn it out onto a different piece of paper because I want it all to be in one straight line so that I can really think about it when I start to develop my new story map for the Eagle God.

So I can see that first thing that happens is the little bird is living in her forest, which she loves very much.

The little bird sees a terrible fire and gets a terrible shock.

Her friends run away.

And she decides to stay.

She says, "No, I love my forest.

I will not leave it.

I will do anything I can to protect it." She then goes down to the river and starts to try and throw water on the fire, put it out to save her tree.

Up in the heavens, the gods are laughing at her, apart from the Eagle God who admires her.

And he swoops down to help her and speaks to her and says, "Little bird.

What are you doing? You're too small.

And this fire is too big.

You will never put it out." "No, I love my forest.

I must stay to protect it." And the story moves the fire God so much that he begins to cry tears and a stream of tears puts out the fire.

And then of course the bird returns to her home and the Eagle God returns to the heavens.

Okay, if you've not got your own story map, you can have a go at drawing one.

If you've not got your own story map, you can have a go at drawing your own one now.

Make sure you do it in a straight line because underneath we're going to do another story map for the Eagle God.

Do your little bird story map now.

Pause the video and resume once you've finished.

Okay, it's now time to draw our brand new story map, thinking about our story from the perspective of the Eagle God.

So I can see in the beginning part of my story, I had a setting description and that told me all about the little bird's home and where she lives.

So I'm going to do the same thing for the Eagle God.

Where does he live? Ah, of course, he lives in the heavens.

The heavens in Hindu culture.

and from the images of the gods, kind of looks like paradise.

It's full of clouds and glowing light.

There are sometimes blossoms and vines and beautiful things like that.

I'm going to draw a few flowers and I'll draw the Eagle God as well.

There's nice wings.

Remember these drawings do not have to be perfect.

It's just to show you what's happening in the story.

Okay, so now I've done my setting description.

What happens here? Ah, this is when the little bird notices the fire.

So we could do the Eagle God looking down and thinking.

Do him on his cloud there, and he can see the forest below.

And then we can do some more description of the forest.

Don't forget, in the heavens there's going to be other gods as well.

So I would just draw some pictures of some other people as well, because we'll need to explain that he lives with the other gods.

So he's looking down and he can see the forest.

The next thing is, he's going to notice the fire.

So as the animals are running away from the little bird, he notices the fire, and maybe it might even have a description of the fire as well.

Then all the gods around him start laughing, because they see the little bird trying to put out the fire.

Fire here again.

And this is when he realises that he really admires the little bird.

Don't forget he is the King of the birds.

So he's really going to care about the little bird, much more than the other gods would.

He's going to care about the little bird and decide to go down and help her.

And much, quite similar to what happens in this story.

This is when they have their discussion.

They talk to each other.

She explains that she is loyal and does not want to leave her forest.

And this is when we can explain Eagle God's feelings, and how he puts out the fire.

And what's great about telling it from the Eagle God's perspective is that we can really explain in the first person how the Eagle God feels and why he felt so strongly that he cried a stream of tears.

Okay, now we've had a go at thinking about the Eagle God's perspective in his own story.

You need to pause it here now while you create your new story map for the Eagle God.

Great, now that we know the story really well of the Eagle God, we are going to try and step and speak our new story.

If you need a little bit of help, you can always add in some key words and phrases to your new story map, to really help you tell the story.

So I've got my trusty story map, my new story map, and I'm going to use that to help me step and speak through the story.

Remember each time I start a new part of the story, I'm going to take a big step forward and physically step through the story.

Are you ready? Okay.

Once there lived a mighty Eagle God in the heavens in India.

he had golden, powerful wings and he was helpful and kind.

He was the God of service.

And he lived with many other Hindu gods in the heavens.

The heavens was beautiful.

It was a paradise.

It was filled with swirling, glowing clouds, and it was peaceful and dotted with blossoms and blooms. Below the Eagle God was a beautiful forest.

It was filled with tropical plants, towering trees, and interesting creatures.

One day, the Eagle God was sitting on his cloud and he saw in the distance that there was a raging fire devouring the forest.

He saw many of the strong animals rush out of the forest and escape.

The elephant screamed with his trunk.

The tiger roared as it sped away, even the snake slithered away into the darkness.

And he noticed that one creature remained.

A tiny little bird.

The bird was going back and forth between the river and the fire.

And he wondered what the little bird was doing.

All the other gods bellowed with laughter and pointed their fingers at the little bird, And exclaimed, "Who does she think she is? She is just a little bird.

She can never put out this fire." But the Eagle God felt strongly towards the little bird.

Watching what she was doing for her forest broke his heart.

And he admired her.

I had so much fun stepping through the story, but I want you guys to have a go at doing it on your own now.

Don't forget to use your story map as you're doing it.

And of course using actions can really help you to remember the story.

Think about what actions you would use when you were describing this setting description, the heavens that the Eagle God lives in.

What actions would you use to describe the animals that live in the forest? What actions would you use to describe the other gods that live with the Eagle God? Pause your video now, while you step and speak through your new story map.

Okay.

I loved seeing all the amazing actions and all the amazing storytelling that you did with our brand new story.

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

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

See you next time.