Lesson video

Hello there.

How are you today? I hope you're feeling really very good.

My name is Ms. Afzal.

I am feeling pretty great today.

You know why? 'Cause we are exploring a little more about one of my favourite books, "The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark" by Jill Tomlinson.

So for this lesson, you're going to need your copy of the book.

So I'll pause here while you go off and get your copy.

All right, good to see you again.

So you've got your copy of the book.

What else have you got? Have you got a lot of ideas? Have you got a lot of energy? Are you feeling excited for this lesson? I really hope so.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is, "I can explore the story through discussing the characters, setting, and plot." There are some keywords in today's lesson.

Let's go through them one at a time.

My turn.

Your turn.

Character.

Setting.

Plot.

Fantastic.

Well done.

Loved hearing those.

Let's make sure we look out for these words.

Let's listen for them carefully.

Let's think about them.

Let's be curious about these keywords.

Today's lesson has two main parts to it.

We'll be exploring the characters and setting, and exploring the plot.

First of all, characters and setting.

"The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark" by Jill Tomlinson.

Look at that fantastic front cover there, and that lovely little owl! "The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark" is a fiction text.

The author is Jill Tomlinson.

The story is about a baby barn owl called Plop who fears the dark.

Plop's mother wants Plop to learn to like the dark, because owls are nocturnal animals.

So to begin, I'd like you to read chapter one, from page one to the end of the chapter, up to page 13.

So pause the video now while you do this.

Okay, so now you've read chapter one.

I'd like you to check your understanding by putting the following events from chapter one in the correct order.

Let's read through them, first of all.

Plop and his mummy and daddy watch the fireworks that night from their tree branch.

Plop's mother tries to encourage Plop to stay positive about the dark, and tells him to go and learn about it.

Plop gets to the ground, where he meets a young boy who teaches him all about fireworks.

Plop and his mother are discussing the dark and how it makes Plop scared.

So pause the video now and decide which order these four events go in.

Okay, it's good to be back with you.

Now, which order did you put these events in? Did you get this one? First of all, Plop and his mother discussing the dark, and how he feels.

Next, Plop's mother tries to encourage Plop to stay positive about the dark.

After that, Plop gets to the ground, where he meets the young boy.

And then Plop and his parents watch the fireworks.

Well done if you put the events in this order.

A character is a person or animal in the story.

So there's one of our keywords, character.

The main character is the person who the story is mostly about, the main character.

Here's my question for you.

Who are the characters in the story? So pause the video now and talk to someone nearby, and discuss, who are the main characters? Okay, what did you come up with? Plop the Baby Barn Owl is the main character in the story.

Did you get that? Did you get Plop as number one? Next, we've also met his mother, Mrs. Barn Owl, and his father, Mr. Barn Owl.

And Plop has also met a young boy in chapter one.

Well done if you identified these characters.

Check for understanding.

Who are the characters in the story of "The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark"? Plop.

Mrs. Barn Owl.

Squirrel.

Mr. Barn Owl.

Pause the video while you decide who the characters are in this story.

Well done if you selected Plop, Mrs. Barn Owl, and Mr. Barn Owl.

They are all characters in the story of "The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark".

The setting of the story is where the story takes place.

So there we go.

There's another one of our keywords.

Did you spot that? Did you see that one? So the setting is where the story takes place.

Where is the setting of this story? I'd like you to share your answer with someone nearby.

Have a discussion about this.

Okay, what did you come up with? Maybe something like this.

"The setting is the owl's home in a tree.

The tree is in an area of grassland, which Plop goes down to explore." You're going to use the knowledge you have about the story so far to make a prediction.

Making a prediction means deciding what you think will happen next in the story, using illustrations and the text as evidence.

Making a prediction helps us to understand the story more and makes reading fun.

There's no right or wrong answer when making a prediction, and your prediction may be different to someone else's and that's absolutely fine.

Check for understanding.

What is a prediction? Reading on to find out what happens next.

Retelling the story in your own words.

Guessing what you think will happen using evidence.

Pause the video while you decide what is a prediction.

Well done if you selected guessing what you think will happen using evidence.

That is what a prediction is.

And now it's time for your first task.

I'd like you to look at the contents page, which outlines the names of all the chapters with different illustrations.

Based on what you know so far, and looking at the contents page, what do you think is going to happen next in the story? Make a prediction.

And you might like to use some of these sentence starters.

You could begin, "I think the story is going to be about," or you could give your reasoning, "because the text says", or, "because the contents page shows".

So pause the video now, take a look at the contents page, use these sentence stems, and share your prediction with someone nearby.

I'm very curious, what's your prediction? What do you think is going to happen? Maybe something like this.

"I think the story is going to be about lots of different things you can do in the dark, because there are lots of positive words to describe the dark in the contents page." Ooh, good thinking.

Or, "I think Plop is going to meet different people who teach him about the dark, because I can see illustrations of people doing different fun activities." Well done.

Really great use of the contents page and the illustrations there.

And now, we will begin to explore the plot.

So what do we know so far about the plot of "The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark"? The main characters are an owl family, a mummy, daddy, and baby owl.

They live high up in a tree.

Plop the baby owl is scared of the dark, and his mother encourages him to learn more about it.

Plop meets a young boy who thinks nighttime is exciting, and teaches Plop all about fireworks.

Ooh, I wonder if you enjoy fireworks.

And now I'd like you to pause the video and read chapter two.

So let's recap what happened in this chapter.

Mr. Barn Owl asked Plop if he wanted to go hunting with him, but Plop said no, and had a sleep instead.

Plop's mother encouraged him to go down from their tree to learn about the dark.

Plop met an old woman who told Plop that nighttime is kind, and that she likes the dark because it's quiet.

And then Plop had a conversation with the old woman, and then returned to his branch.

Check for understanding.

True or false? Plop met a young boy who called the nighttime kind.

Pause the video while you decide that this statement is true or false.

Well done if you selected false.

Though it wasn't a young boy that said that, it was the old woman.

The old woman liked the dark because, she was afraid, she could remember, she could hunt.

Pause the video while you decide what's the reason for the old woman liking the dark? Well done if you chose, she could remember.

Okay, it is time to get together for our next task.

This is a really fun, exciting one.

So Plop has met two characters who've told him good things about the dark.

Now you are going to do some hot-seating to convince Plop not to be scared of the dark.

So hot-seating is where you get into role and you're pretending to be acting as if you were that character.

What would they say? What are they thinking? How are they feeling? So partner A is gonna be Plop, and partner B, you're just gonna be yourself.

And then afterwards, you're gonna swap roles.

So first of all, I want you to ask Plop why he's scared, and then give him reasons to like the dark by describing a fun activity or something that you like about it.

And Plop, I you to respond in role.

Be Plop.

Go for Plop for this one.

Okay, so have fun.

Pause the video now while you do your hot-seating.

One of you is Plop, one of you is yourself, and then afterwards you can swap roles.

All right, it's great to be back with you.

Now, how did you get on? Did you manage to convince Plop to not be scared of the dark? What reasons did you give for liking the dark? Did you have some fun, exciting things that you like to do in the dark that you were able to share? And did you have fun? I hope you enjoyed this activity.

Hot-seating is one of my favourites.

In our lesson today, we covered the following.

Making a prediction means deciding what you think will happen next in a story.

The main character in the story is Plop, a baby barn owl.

The setting of the story is the owl's home in a tree.

The plot follows the story of Plop, who is scared of the dark and meets different characters who tell him good things about it.

Well done everyone, for joining in with this lesson.

It was so good to be with you and I especially enjoyed your hot-seating and getting into that character of Plop, and being convincing with your fun ideas about the dark.

I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson, and bye for now.