Lesson video

Hi everyone.

My name is Miss Boyle, and welcome to this reading lesson where we are going to be exploring the theme of collaboration in "The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse." For this lesson, you need this copy of "The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse" written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by John Klassen.

Pause the video and get your copy of the book now.

Great.

Now, I know you have the book with you.

During this lesson, you need to be listening and looking carefully, and now be tasked where you need somebody to talk to.

I hope you are feeling excited and ready to learn.

Let's get started.

The learning outcome for today's lesson is, I can explore the theme of collaboration in the story.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

Let's practise saying them.

My turn, your turn.

Theme, collaboration, optimism, resourcefulness.

Great job, well done.

You will be hearing these words throughout today's lesson and we will be looking at their meanings.

There are two parts to today's lesson.

In the first part, we will be understanding and identifying themes, and in the second part, we will be exploring the theme of collaboration.

So let's begin with understanding and identifying themes.

"The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse." Let's remind ourselves a bit about this story.

"The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse" is a children's story, which is told through narrative writing and illustrations.

It is a narrative fiction text, which is told in a humorous manner.

This means you might find parts funny.

The author is Mac Barnett and the illustrator is John Klassen.

The main characters are the wolf, the duck, and the mouse.

The main setting is inside the stomach of the wolf.

I am going to summarise the story of "The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse." A wolf encountered a mouse in the woods and swallowed it.

The mouse then found themself inside the wolf's stomach.

The mouse discovered that a duck was already living in there.

The two cooked and danced together and made it their home.

The duck and the mouse worked together and tricked the wolf into giving them things which made the wolf unwell.

The wolf fell prey to a hunter.

The duck and the mouse decided to help, and they scared the hunter away to protect their home.

The wolf was grateful and offered to grant the duck and mouse a favour in return.

They chose to stay living in his stomach.

Let's check your understanding now that we have recapped and summarised the story.

Which statement is the best summary of "The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse?" A, it tells the story of how animals eat each other.

B, it tells the story of how two animals work together to make the best of a bad situation with a wolf.

Or C, it tells the story of how a wolf, duck, and mouse all become best friends.

Pause the video and select your answer.

The answer is B.

Well done.

It tells the story of how two animals work together to make the best of a bad situation with a wolf.

A theme in a story is a big idea or lesson that the author wants you to explore and understand through reading the story.

Examples of themes you might notice in stories are: friendship, good v evil, teamwork, family, sharing, celebration, resilience, survival, discovery, love.

We can uncover and identify themes by searching for meaning behind character's actions in the story.

Readers can interpret themes and their importance differently.

"The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse" conveys important messages through exploring the following themes.

Collaboration, this is the action of working with someone to achieve something.

Optimism, this is the ability to see the positive side of things.

And resourcefulness, this is the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties.

We know that the duck and the mouse collaborated.

They worked together within their circumstances.

We saw the duck display great optimism.

Despite having been swallowed by the wolf, he was able to look at the positive side of being inside the wolf's stomach, and this enabled the mouse to see the positive too.

The duck and the mouse both showed resourcefulness as well.

They came up with clever ways to get the wolf to swallow the things they needed while inside his stomach.

Let's check your understanding.

Matched the theme to the correct definition.

For themes, we have A, collaboration, B, optimism, and C, resourcefulness.

The definitions are: the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties, the action of working with someone to achieve something, and the ability to see the positive side of things.

Pause the video and match these now.

Let's go over the answers together.

Collaboration is the action of working with someone to achieve something, optimism is the ability to see the positive side of things, and resourcefulness is the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties.

Well done for showing a great understanding of this vocabulary.

It's now time for a task, and it is a talk task.

Discuss what other themes could be interpreted from the story.

We've already identified collaboration, optimism, and resourcefulness, and discussed how these themes appear.

Consider the meaning behind the story and the character's actions, and see if you can identify any other themes within the story.

Pause the video and do the task now.

Well done for having great discussions and interpreting themes from the story.

Let's take a look at some of the themes you identified.

Teamwork.

The duck and the mouse certainly demonstrated teamwork throughout the story.

They worked together living inside the wolf's stomach and making it to their home, and they worked together to defend it.

Friendship.

The duck and the mouse formed a great friendship out of their circumstances.

Positivity.

Both animals were able to show positivity, which is the same as optimism, for their circumstances.

Survival.

Even though they'd been swallowed by the wolf, the story is about their survival.

Home.

The story explores the meaning of home, and how you can create it in many places.

Resilience.

Both the duck and the mouse showed resilience under difficult circumstances, and found a way to enjoy living together inside the wolf stomach.

And nurturing, which means taking care of something.

The duck and the mouse were very good at taking care of each other.

Well done for discussing and identifying themes within the story.

It's now time for the second part of our lesson where we will be exploring the theme of collaboration.

We are going to focus on the theme of collaboration within the story of "The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse." What does collaboration mean? Let's remind ourselves.

Collaboration is the action of working with someone to achieve something.

Collaboration is an important skill as it can help us achieve outcomes that might be difficult or impossible to achieve alone.

Collaboration also promotes positive relationships with others.

How did the duck and the mouse collaborate at different points within the story? Pause the video and discuss with your partner.

Let's look at some of the ways that we saw the duck and the mouse collaborate.

They cooked and ate together, creating a home for the two of them inside the wolf's stomach.

They celebrated, had fun and danced together, forming a friendship which they both enjoyed.

They worked together to trick the wolf and enjoyed a feast.

And they scared away the hunter in order to save the wolf and protect their home.

Their collaboration benefited both their physical and emotional wellbeing.

It protected their home inside the wolf's stomach, which kept them physically safe, and their friendship had a positive impact on their emotional wellbeing too.

Let's check your understanding.

How did collaboration benefit the duck and the mouse? A, they created a home which gave them physical safety.

B, they worked together to protect their home.

C, they worked together to create an escape plan.

D, they formed a friendship which benefited their emotional wellbeing.

Pause the video and select all of the correct answers now.

The answers are A, B, and D.

We know that collaboration benefited the duck and the mouse in a variety of ways.

They created a home which gave them physical safety, they worked together to protect their home, and they formed a friendship which benefited their emotional wellbeing.

Well done.

Collaboration is a crucial part of human life, and this is a skill which we learn and practise.

Here are some examples of how we learn collaboration.

We learn to play with others from a young age, which helps us develop key skills.

We learn how to solve problems through talking to and working with other people, and we learn new academic skills through collaborating in school with teachers and classmates.

Let's check your understanding.

True or false.

Collaboration is a positive skill which we learn and practise.

Pause the video and select your answer now.

That is true.

Well done.

It's now time for your final task, and it is a talk task.

Your question is, can you think of a time when collaboration positively benefited you? Discuss with your partner.

Let's remind ourselves of the definition of collaboration.

It means the action of working together to achieve something.

Consider any time that you worked with somebody else and it felt like a positive experience.

For example, Aisha said, "I collaborated with my class to put on a play for our assembly." I had so much fun and I also learnt important skills like projection, control and expression." This is a fantastic example.

Aisha chose a learning experience where she had collaborated with others, and it had developed her own skills and brought her joy.

Pause the video now to discuss this question with your partner.

Welcome back.

It was wonderful to listen to your discussions and it was really clear to see how collaboration has positively benefited all of you in a variety of ways.

I'm now going to share a few of the examples I heard.

"I collaborated with my dad to bake a cake.

I wouldn't have been able to do it alone and I learnt so many new skills from him." This is a great example of how you can learn skills from somebody else through collaborating.

"I am part of a football team which involves a lot of collaboration.

When we work well as a team, we are more likely to succeed." This is a wonderful example of how collaboration is a key part of team sports.

And, "I collaborated with my friend to start a petition for recycling bins in our classrooms. Working together helped us get even more support." Because there was more than one person fighting for this cause, they had more chance at gaining support from others.

This is a great example of how collaboration can lead to positive change.

We've now come to the end of our lesson, so let's go over a summary together.

A theme is a big idea or lesson that the author wants you to explore and understand through reading the story.

Readers can interpret themes and their importance within a story in different ways.

"The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse" explores the themes of collaboration, optimism, and resourcefulness.

Collaboration is the action of working with someone to achieve something.

And collaboration is a skill that we learn and practise, which has a variety of positive impacts on us.

Well done for all of your hard work in today's lesson.

You have done a fantastic job at exploring the theme of collaboration and considering how important this skill is in your own lives.

I really enjoyed teaching you.