Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

It's Mr. Brown here with your English lesson for today, and we are going to be planning.

We're going to be planning to write a section of a non-chronological report, and this section is going to focus on hedgehogs, because our report is on nocturnal animals and hedgehogs are a nocturnal animal, and that's the one we'll be focusing on for this section of our report.

So, planning today, let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can make a plan for writing about hedgehogs in a non-chronological report on nocturnal animals.

And the keywords we'll use are plan and notes.

We will start our lesson by preparing to plan and then move on to writing the plan.

In this lesson, you'll be making a brief, which means short, a brief plan that will support you when writing a section of a non-chronological report on nocturnal animals.

A plan helps a writer to organise their ideas, thoughts, and the information they want to include in their writing.

However, in order to plan effectively, you will need to prepare by becoming familiar with the key information that you'll be sharing in the second section of your report.

So this is the second section of our report.

The first section was all about bats, and we're now moving on to hedgehogs.

The sections of a non-chronological report are structured in this order.

We know we start with the introduction, then section one, and then section two.

And in this lesson, we are planning the second section, which will be all about hedgehogs.

Now, to inform the reader all about hedgehogs, you'll need to have a good knowledge yourself.

You'll need to know everything there is to know about hedgehogs so that you can then pass that information on to the reader.

We will now revise, which means we'll go over the information that you might already know.

If you don't, this will be fresh to you, and that's absolutely fine.

We will revise your knowledge of hedgehogs so that you are ready to make your plan.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals.

This means they sleep during the day and are awake and active at night.

There are many different nocturnal animals, such as bats, badgers, foxes, and owls.

Let's check our understanding.

When do nocturnal animals hunt for food? Is a, during the day, b, at night, or c, when the lights are on? A, b, or c? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you manage to find the right answer.

When do nocturnal animals hunt for food? Well, we know nocturnal animals are nocturnal, which means that they stay up at night, they're awake at night.

They sleep during the day.

So when would they be hunting for food? It makes sense they'd be hunting while they're awake.

So the answer is b, at night.

Well done if you said b.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal and are awake at night, dusk and dawn.

They are small mammals and are recognisable because of the spikes they have on their backs.

These are the things that we know hedgehogs for.

We know hedgehogs to be spiky animals with spikes on their backs.

These sharp, pointy spikes are called spines and they play an important part in protecting the animal.

And there you can see lots and lots of spines on the back of the hedgehog.

Hedgehogs have around 5,000 to 7,000 spines on their back.

Each spine lasts about a year before dropping out and being replaced.

The spines are all over a hedgehog's back, but not on its face, hands, feet, or tummy.

True or false, hedgehogs have between 500 to 700 spines on their back? Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you are right.

So, we know hedgehogs have spines on their backs, but how many do they have? 500 to 700? False.

That is not right.

It's 5,000 to 7,000.

So a lot more.

Hedgehogs also have a long, pointed nose, which is called a snout, and you can see the snout there on the front of the hedgehog's face.

It's their long, pointed nose.

They use their long snouts to hunt.

A hedgehog's eyesight is quite poor.

So when looking for food, they mostly use their excellent sense of smell.

True or false, hedgehogs use their amazing eyesight to hunt? Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

Hedgehogs use their amazing eyesight to hunt? False, they do not choose their amazing eyesight, because they do not have amazing eyesight.

Hedgehogs have quite poor eyesight.

They use their amazing sense of smell to hunt, but not their eyesight.

So well done if you said false.

The spines on their back and long snout are both examples of adaptations hedgehogs have made to help them survive in their habitat.

Do you know you know what a hedgehog's habitat might be? So the habitat is the place that a hedgehog lives, the environment that they might live in.

And do you know what a hedgehog's habitat might be? The hedge part of a hedgehog's name comes from where they like to build their nests.

So you can see in that picture that hedge, or those shrubs and bushes, these are all perfect places for hedgehogs.

These creatures love to make their homes underneath hedges, bushes, and shrubs.

Therefore, a garden or park will be a suitable habitat for a hedgehog.

Hedges, bushes, and shrubs are perfect homes for hedgehogs because they provide cover and a place to be hidden from predators.

They attract insects which hedgehogs like to eat.

Their thick vegetation and tangled branches make them a great nesting spot.

They help the hedgehog regulate its temperature by providing shade in the summer and warmth in the winter.

These are all reasons why bushes, hedges, and shrubs are perfect places for hedgehogs to live.

Let's check our understanding.

Select the places that would make a suitable home for a hedgehog.

A, hedges, b, houses, c, bushes, or d, roads.

Select the places, so it could be more than one, that would make a suitable place for a hedgehog.

Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

So a, b, c, d, hedges, houses, bushes, roads.

What do we think? Well, I don't think it's d, roads.

That sounds like a dangerous place for a hedgehog.

Bushes, houses, hedges.

Houses.

I don't know about you, but I have never seen a hedgehog in my house.

I think a, hedges, and c, bushes, are the correct answers.

So well done if you said a and c.

A hedgehog eats both living creatures and plants.

This means they are predators.

However, some animals hunt hedgehogs and try to eat them, which means that hedgehogs are prey.

So you are a predator if you eat living creatures and you are prey if other living creatures try to eat you.

So a hedgehog is both predator and prey.

A hedgehog is a predator of the following animals, insects, such as beetles, caterpillars, ants, and grasshoppers, worms, snails and slugs, spiders.

These are all creatures that a hedgehog is the predator of, the predator trying to eat these.

A hedgehog will try to eat insects, worms, slugs, snail, and spiders.

Now, a hedgehog is prey for the following animals, foxes, badgers, owls.

These animals try to eat hedgehogs, so the hedgehog is their prey.

Let's check your understanding.

A hedgehog likes to eat a, worms, b, insects, or c, badgers? A hedgehog likes to eat a, b, or c, and it might be more than one answer that's correct.

So pause the video and decide, does a hedgehog like to eat worms, insects, or badgers? Off you go.

Welcome back, everyone.

Now, I can tell you that there are two correct answers.

So if you only have one, now's your chance to find the other one.

What could it be? Well, worms. A is the correct answer.

And does a hedgehog like to eat insects or badgers? Well, a badger is a lot bigger than a hedgehog, so I don't think it's that.

It's b, insects.

Well done if you said a and b.

Hedgehogs have made adaptations to protect themselves from predators.

Their sharp, pointy spines are the most effective tool against predators.

They make themselves very difficult to eat because they roll into a ball so their face, hands, feet, and tummy are safely tucked away and only their spines are exposed.

This puts animals off wanting to try and eat them, and I don't blame them.

Wanting to eat a spiky meal, some spiky food, I don't think that would be good.

True or false, hedgehogs protect themselves from predators by rolling into a tight ball with only their sharp spines exposed? Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see if you are right.

Hedgehogs do protect themselves from predators by rolling into a tight ball.

So well done if you said true.

Okay, over to you now.

It's a practise task.

I would like you to fill in the blanks using the words from the box below.

So you can see at the bottom of the page, we have got five words, snouts, backs, active, smell, shrubs.

Your job is to take those words and put them into the five gaps in these sentences.

So let me read you the sentences.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals and are something at night.

What word could that be? They have thousands of spikes on their something called spines.

Where do they have thousands of spikes? Hedgehogs have poor eyesight, and so they use their long something and good sense of something instead.

What do they use? Their long something and good sense of something.

A hedgehog's habitat might be garden, hedges, bushes, and where else? Your job, take those five words in the box at the bottom of the page and put them into the blanks.

Pause the video and have a go now.

Welcome back, everyone.

So let's see how you got on.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals and are active at night.

They have thousands of spikes on their backs called spines.

Hedgehogs have poor eyesight and so they use their long snouts and good sense of smell instead.

A hedgehog's habitat might be garden hedges, bushes, and shrubs.

Well done if you managed to fill in those blanks correctly.

Let's move on to writing the plan.

When we write a plan, we use notes.

Now, notes are short and capture key vocabulary and important information.

The purpose of notes is to help the writer to organise information easily for future use.

We use bullet points when note taking and they look like this.

You can see it's like a thick full stop on the side and then we write next to it.

And each full stop, that thick full stop that's floating above the line, it tells us that this is a new bullet point.

Which two of these are things that notes help us to capture? A, key vocabulary, b, every detail, c, full sentences, or d, important information.

Which two of these are things that notes help us to capture? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you managed to find the two correct answers.

So, notes help us to capture key vocabulary and important information.

We are not capturing every detail and full sentences in notes.

That's not what notes are for.

They are brief and short.

They just keep us on track, and so they only need to include key vocabulary and the important information.

Well done if you said a and d.

Notes are not written in full sentences and do not require capital letters, full stops, or commas.

They can be made of just a few words.

The writer making the notes just needs to understand them.

That's it.

The writer then takes the notes and turns them into full sentences.

So the notes are not full sentences, but the writer will take those notes and will turn them into full sentences.

When we write a plan, which of these do we not use? Is it a, full sentences, b, notes, or c, capital letters, full stops, and commas.

When we write a plan, which of these do we not use, full sentences, notes, or capital letters, full stops, and commas? Pause the video and decide now.

Okay, welcome back.

Well done if you said a, full sentences.

We do not use full sentences when we are planning, when we are making our notes, we do not need to.

Now, capital letters, full stops, and commas.

We may use those, but we also do not need to.

If we are writing someone's name, for instance, then it will be sensible to write in capital letters.

Give them a capital letter.

But things like full stops, commas, they're not necessary.

If it helps you, brilliant.

And you will see in some examples of notes that we will use things like commas, but you do not need to.

Well done if you said a and c.

Here's the example of some notes from a plan about hedgehogs, 5,000-7,000 spikes on back called spines, and then there's another dash, and then just three words, protect from predators.

Now, that is not a full sentence, but it's perfect as a note.

And let me show you.

The writer can take these notes and can turn them into a full sentence.

And here's an example.

So the notes that I've just read to you can be turned into this full sentence.

A hedgehog's back is covered in 5,000 to 7,000 sharp, pointy spikes called spines and these are used to protect the hedgehog from predators.

So that note that I made that wasn't in a full sentence has been transformed into a full detailed sentence.

Let's check our understanding.

Which notes helps the writer to write this sentence? Hedgehogs have poor eyesight, but use their excellent sense of smell and long snouts to hunt for food.

So which notes did I use to write that sentence? Is it a, habitat equals hedges, bushes, shrubs, b, poor eyesight, sense of smell, plus long snout, or d, diet of insects, worms, spiders dash predators equals foxes, badgers, owls.

Which note did I use to write the sentence, "Hedgehogs have poor eyesight, but use their excellent sets of smell and long snouts to hunt for food?" A, b, or c? Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you managed to find the notes that helped to write that sentence.

Well done if you said, b, poor eyesight, sense of smell plus long snout.

That's all that was required to write that sentence.

And you can see how the notes have been transformed into a full sentence.

Time for a practise.

I would like you to write at least four sets of notes about hedgehogs.

These will support you when you are writing a section of a non-chronological report about hedgehogs.

Now, use the words below to help you.

I've put some words in a box.

We have spines, eyesight, sense of smell, predators, and habitat.

Use those as a prompt.

They should all appear in your notes somewhere.

I would like you to also use bullet points for each note.

Now, I say at least four sets of notes.

If you want to do more notes, that's absolutely fine, but at least four notes will be required to cover everything that you need to cover.

I've left my example on the bullet points for you to see the 5,000 to 7,000 spikes on back called spines dash protect from predators.

So if you're not sure what notes should look like, that can inspire you, too.

Okay, it's over to you now.

I am so confident that you can do this.

Write your notes that will support you in the future when you're writing your section.

Pause the video and have a go now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see how you got on.

So we know that bullet points are perfect for each note.

So you should have your notes in bullet points.

I wrote the first note for you, 5,000 to 7,000 spikes on back called spines protect from predators.

We also have poor eyesight dash sense of smell plus long snout, diet of insects, worms, spiders dash predators equals foxes, badgers, owls, and habitat equals hedges, bushes, shrubs.

I have included things like some equal signs in there, some commas, dashes, a plus sign.

These are all fine to use.

They are personal to me because they are my notes.

So if you've used some symbols in there that have helped you, that's absolutely fine, too.

Let's summarise our learning for today.

A plan helps a writer to organise their ideas, thoughts, and the information they want to include in their writing.

Notes can be used in a plan to help organise key information and are not written in full sentences.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals, which means they sleep during the day and are awake at night.

Hedgehogs have thousands of spines that they use to protect themselves from predators.

Brilliant work today.

I am confident that you are ready to write a section about hedgehogs in a non-chronological report, and I hope to see you soon to do that.