Lesson video

Hello everyone! My name is Mr. Brown and I'm your English teacher for today's lesson.

We're going to be reading and responding to a poem, and that poem is by a poet called Robert Hull, and the poem is entitled, Please Do Not Feed the Animals.

Let's Get Started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can give a personal response to the poem and read it aloud.

The keywords you'll use are rhyme and humorous.

Let's say this together, rhyme.

That's my turn.

Now your turn.

Perfect! And humorous.

Fabulous.

Well done.

The definitions, rhyme means the similarity of sounds between the ending syllables of words.

Humorous means something that makes a person laugh or smile because it is funny or silly.

Let's start with an introduction to the poem and poet and then we'll move on to exploring the poem itself.

Robert Hull is a British writer who is mostly known for his humorous stories, poetry and books written for children.

Hull's writing often focuses on themes that young readers enjoy, such as adventure, friendship, imagination.

He creates funny and relatable characters as well as crafting engaging and entertaining stories that capture the imaginations of children.

Select the statements that are true.

A, Robert Hull is a British writer.

B, Robert Hull is known for his scary stories written for adults.

C, Robert Hull is known for his stories written for children.

Select the statements that are true.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look and see if you selected the correct statements.

Well done if you said A and C.

Robert Hull is a British writer and he's known for his stories written for children.

He is not, B, writing scary stories written for adults.

That's not what he's known for.

Throughout his career, Hull has written many books for children of various ages ranging from picture books for younger readers to chapter books and novels for older children.

His writing is easy to read and humorous, and he's able to address important topics in a way that is both entertaining and educational.

Before we read the poem, what does the title, Please do Not Feed the Animals, make you think of and expect from the poem? What words and images come to mind? Hmm.

Have a discussion with your partner.

Pause the video and talk about what does the title make you think of.

What words and images come to mind for you? Pause the video now.

Welcome back.

It's a very interesting title, isn't it? It's quite unusual.

Now, Jun says, it makes me think the poem's going to be set in a zoo and will be about the rules you must follow.

Yeah, it does sound like a rule or a warning that you might be given if you went to a zoo.

And Sophia says, I imagine the humour might come from people not following the rules and trying to feed the animals Funny things.

That does sound funny.

Good idea, Sophia.

Now, are these positive or negative images? Do you think this poem's going to be a positive, fun, interesting, engaging poem or do you think it's going to be more serious, negative? It's now time to read the poem.

It is also available in the additional materials too.

Please do not feed the animals.

Please do not feed the ostriches sandwiches or the polar bears eclairs.

Do not offer the wombats kumquats or the rattlesnakes fruitcakes.

Remember that piranhas are not allowed bananas or partridges or sausages.

Never approach a stalk with things on a fork or the busted with a plate of custard.

No leopard likes anything peppered and mere cats dislike Kit Kats.

Remember that grapes upset apes and meringues do the same for orangutans.

Most importantly, do not feed the cheetah your teacher.

Okay, that is the poem, Please do not feed the Animals by Robert Hull.

I'm now going to give you my initial response to the poem.

So I liked that the poem was full of funny rhymes and I'd like to know if the poet had any animals he couldn't think of a humorous rhyme for.

So did he have any animals he wanted to include but he couldn't find a funny rhyme for? Okay, it's now time for you to give your initial response to the poem.

So your first ideas, and you can use these questions like I did to help you.

What did you like about the poem? And do you have any questions about it? Over to you.

Pause the video and discuss with your partner your initial response to the poem now.

Welcome back.

I am sure you had an excellent discussion that was really interesting.

The amazing thing about poetry is everyone has different opinions.

Let's explore the meaning of the poem a little bit closer.

So the title, Please Do Not Feed the Animal, we Know at the start of the poem, the speaker of the poem is telling the reader to not feed different animals.

Now this starts with Ostriches.

The speaker gives one example of what they should not be fed.

And for the ostriches, it is sandwiches.

For the polar bears, it's eclairs.

The humour comes from the foods being things that the animals wouldn't normally eat and these are of course rhyming words.

As we move on, the pattern of the poem continues with the speaker saying that a particular animal should not be fed a particular food.

Each time the food rhymes with the name of the animal.

For example, rattlesnakes and fruit cakes.

The pattern of the poem continues, but the poet is now being more creative with the ideas for each animal, for the things that each animal shouldn't eat.

Rather than just listing the food each animal shouldn't eat, the poet finds more creative ways to find humorous rhymes.

So things like Kit Kats, which are chocolate bar, are included.

And instead of saying and things that the stalk can't eat, it says never approach a stalk with things on a fork.

So he doesn't actually even tell us a food that the stalk can't eat, but he finds a creative way to achieve that funny rhyme.

The poem comes to an end with a final warning that is labelled as most importantly.

So we know this is going to be a really important thing, the most important thing and that thing is, the warning provides a humorous twist to the end of the poem as the reader is warned not to feed the cheetah, your teacher.

And that is a really fun and interesting way to finish the poem.

And I know having read this to children many times that they love it and find it quite surprising too.

Time for a task.

Put the following events that occur in the poem in order.

A, we are warned not to feed the ostriches sandwiches.

B, we are given an important warning not to feed the cheetah, our teacher and C, we are told that no leopard likes anything peppered.

Your job is to order these events that occur in the poem.

Pause the video and have a go now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see if you found the correct order.

Well, the first thing that happens in the poem out of these three events is of course, we are warned not to feed the ostriches sandwiches.

The ostriches are the first animal and we are told not to feed them sandwiches.

Number two is we are told no leopard likes anything peppered, so anything with pepper on it.

And then finally, we are given an important warning.

This happens right at the end and that important warning is not to feed the cheetah, our teacher.

How did the poem make you feel? Izzy says, this poem made me laugh so much because the rhymes were very funny and unexpected.

Andeep says, 'I loved the ending of the poem when I was warned not to feed the cheetah my teacher.

' Absolutely.

How did the poem make you feel? Are there bits that you loved? Are there bits that you didn't like? And remember, our personal responses to the poem will be different because we are all unique.

Pause the video and have a discussion with your partner.

How did this poem make you feel? Welcome back.

I am sure you enjoyed those discussions and I'm sure they were all unique because everybody is different and responds to poetry in different ways.

Time for a task.

I'd like you to refer to the poem, discuss these questions with your partner.

How did the poet add humour to the poem? So we are talking about this poem being a humorous poem, but how did Robert Hull achieve that humour? Next question is did you notice a structure or pattern that the poem followed? And finally, are there any warnings you would add to the poem? You can use these talk scaffolds, the poet added humour by or, I noticed that the poem followed a pattern of.

Okay, it's over to you now.

Pause the video and have a go at this task with a partner now.

Welcome back! How was your discussions? Well, let's have a look at some examples.

Now, Alex says, the poets added humour by including funny and unexpected things that animals shouldn't be fed like Kit Kats.

Yes, the things that animals shouldn't be fed were funny because they were so unexpected.

There were things that you wouldn't expect.

Ostriches to be fed sandwiches, well, that wouldn't happen in real life.

And so the poet is being creative and imaginative and that generates the humour.

Jun says, I followed that the poem I noticed, sorry.

'I noticed that the poem followed a pattern of being in pairs of lines with the rhyming words at the end of each line.

' Very good, good observation, Jun.

And finally Laura noticed I would add the warning, do not feed the moose apple juice because moose and juice rhyme.

Very, very good idea and something that I actually could imagine being in the poem itself.

Exploring the poem.

The poem, please Do Not Feed the Animals, is a humorous poem which uses rhyming words.

Rhyme in poetry is the similarity of sounds between the ending syllables of words, creating a musical quality and pattern in the poem.

No leopard likes anything peppered.

Leopard and peppered rhyme because the ending of syllables of both words sound the same.

Let's check your understanding.

Which word rhymes with the word cats? Is it A, dogs; B, furry or C hats? Which word rhymes with the word cats? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

A good way to work out if a word rhymes with another is to say the two words side by side to see if they sound the same.

They have the same ending syllables.

So let's try that.

Okay.

Cats, dogs.

No, they don't sound the same.

Different syllables at the end.

Furry, cats.

Cats, furry.

No.

Cats.

Hats.

Hats.

Cats.

That's the one, that's the rhyming word.

Well done if you said C.

Sometimes rhyming words have the same spelling at the end, which helps us know they rhyme.

For example, cats and hats, house and mouse.

House ends with O-U-S-E and mouse ends with O-U-S-E.

Boat, O-A-T and coat, O-A-T.

But sometimes they have different spellings at the end, but they're still rhyming words as they make the same sound.

For example, snail and whale.

Snail has an A-I-L making the A-I-L sound or sounds and whale is a split E and an L.

So they are spelt differently.

Chair and share, blue and zoo, they are good examples of this too.

Which word rhymes with the word yak? Is it a rat, B, snack or C, map? You'll have to look closely at this one.

It's getting a bit trickier.

Look closely and remember that not all writing words have to be spelled exactly the same.

They don't all have to end in exactly the same letters.

Same sounds, but not the same letters.

Okay, pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see if you found the correct answer.

Well done if you said snack, B.

Yak and snack rhyme.

Now rats and map both have the same act sound as yak, but rats ends in a T, map ends in a P.

So that means that they still could be rhyming sounds, but it's the sounds they make.

So yak end in ack sound rat end in at and map ends in ap sound, whereas snack does end with a ack at the end.

Now it's spelled differently because it's ack making the curve sound, but that doesn't matter.

It's the sound that matters.

Yak and snack, right.

I would now like you to work with a partner to read through the poem and find examples of pairs of words that rhyme.

Sort them into two groups.

Pairs of words that rhyme, pairs of rhyming words which are spelled the same, and then pairs of rhyming words, which are spelled differently.

So that's the two groups you're sorting them into.

So here's a table that you might want to use.

So we have rhyming words spelled the same, such as rattlesnakes and fruit cakes, snakes and cakes both end in a KES.

They are rhyming words which are spelled the same.

And then we have rhyming words which are spelled differently like partridges and sausages.

Okay, pause the video and work with a partner to read through the poem and find examples of pairs of words that rhyme and then sort them into those two groups.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Well done.

Okay, let's move on.

We can emphasise the rhyming words when reading a rhyming poem aloud to convey the humour.

I'd like you to read the first four lines of the poem to a partner and try to emphasise the rhyming words.

Please do not feed the ostriches sandwiches or the polar bears eclairs.

That's the first four lines.

You are going to read those and emphasise the rhyming words so that those rhyming words really hit the audience.

When they're listening, they really can hear them.

Okay, over to you.

Have a go at this task now? Welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed using that opportunity to practise hitting those rhyming words, making sure they were really clear because we are now going to reread the whole poem out loud to a partner.

Use your voice to read the poem clearly and with expression, focus on the poet's use of rhyme in the poem by emphasising the rhyming words just like you practised.

Use those words to convey the humour.

It is over to you now.

Have a go at rereading the whole poem out loud to a partner.

Pause the video and complete this task now.

Welcome back.

Let's reflect on how you read the poem to your partner.

Did you read the poem in a loud, clear voice? Did you emphasise the rhyming words in the poem to convey humour? Did you enjoy reading the poem out loud? Well, here's an example.

I emphasised the word busted and custard because they rhyme with each other.

Perfect.

That's what we're aiming for.

Well done.

We are emphasising the words that rhyme.

Brilliant work.

Let's summarise the learning we've done today.

Robert Hull is a British writer who is mostly known for his stories, poetry, and books written for children.

Please do not feed the animals is a humorous poem.

The poem uses rhyming words.

Rhyme in poetry is the similarity of sounds between the ending syllables of words.

When we read aloud, we can use our voice to put emphasis on the rhyming words to convey the humour.

Superb Work today.

Please do not feed the Animals by Robert Hull, another poem you now know.

I will see you again very soon!.