Lesson video

Hello everyone, my name is Mrs. Riley, and I'm here today to do some reading with you.

In our lesson today, we're going to be focusing on a book called "Yoshi the Stonecutter." So before we start our lesson, could you all please make sure that you have a copy of this book in front of you? You'll need the 2011 Oxford University Press edition of "Yoshi the Stonecutter," written by Becca Heddle and Meg Hunt.

Could you pause the video now and make sure you have your copy ready, and then we can begin.

Okay, amazing, now I know we've all got the book to hand, we can begin our lesson.

The outcome of our lesson today is to make a prediction about how a story might end.

These are the keywords in our lesson today, that means these words are really important.

The first keyword is fiction.

My turn, your turn.

Fiction.

Well done.

Fiction are stories created by authors that feature made-up characters, places, and adventures that did not happen in real life.

So any made-up story is a fiction story.

The next keyword is prediction.

My turn, your turn.

Prediction.

Well done.

A prediction is making a guess using what we already know.

The next keyword is greed.

My turn, your turn.

Greed.

Well done.

Greed is an intense and selfish desire for something.

And finally, we have the word theme.

My turn, your turn.

Theme.

Well done.

And a theme is a big idea, topic, or message that appears in a story.

So don't worry if you don't feel completely comfortable with what one of these words means yet, because we are going to talk about them a lot in our lesson today.

Now in our lesson today, we have two learning cycles.

In the first learning cycle, we will be looking at the introduction to the story, so we'll be introducing the story of "Yoshi the Stonecutter." And in the second learning cycle, we will be making connections.

So let's start by introducing the story.

I would like you to, first of all, look at the front cover of this book.

It is called "Yoshi the Stonecutter." It's a traditional tale.

Here are some others.

"The Three Billy Goats Gruff." "Anansi the Clever Spider." "Jack and the Beanstalk." And "The Three Little Pigs." All of these are traditional tales.

What are they? That's right, they're traditional tales.

What do all these stories have in common? Don't worry if you don't know them all, just think about the ones you know.

So perhaps you might know "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "The Three Little Pigs," what might they have in common? I'd like you to pause the video and talk now with your talk partner.

Okay, well done.

I heard you doing some really good talk partner work there, and I loved the way you were looking at your partner as they were talking.

So traditional tales are very old stories that have been passed down from a long time ago and they've been told again and again.

Traditional tales are fiction, so they're made up, so that might have been one of the things you just spoke about when you spoke about what was similar with those stories, you might have said they're all made up or they're all fiction.

This means that the story did not happen in real life.

The plot and the characters have just been made up.

So the giant in "Jack and the Beanstalk" or the troll in "Three Billy Goats Gruff," these characters have been made up, they aren't real.

However, traditional tales can be set in real or fictional places.

This story, "Yoshi the Stonecutter," is set in Japan, and Japan is a real country.

So even though this story is a made-up story, it's a fiction story, a fictional story, the country it is set in, Japan, is a real place.

So let's check your listening, is it true or false? Traditional tales are about real people, places and events.

Pause the video now.

Well done, it is false.

Traditional tales might be set in real places, like Japan in "Yoshi the Stonecutter," but they are mainly about made-up places, made-up people and made-up events.

They are fictional.

Knowing that "Yoshi the Stonecutter" is a traditional tale can help us to make a prediction, there's that keyword, about the story, because we know that it is likely to have fictional characters and events, magical elements, a theme, a moral, which is like a lesson.

These are all features of traditional tales.

So all of those examples we just looked at, like "Jack and the Beanstalk," all these traditional tales have fictional characters and events, magical elements, a theme, and a moral.

So we're going to now look through the book to help us make predictions.

Remember, a prediction is like a guess using what we know.

And then we'll use the illustrations, and the illustrations are the pictures on the pages, to read and understand the story.

So I'd like you to start by looking at the title and illustration on the front cover, so we're just looking at the front covers of our books.

I'd like you now to think, what do you think this story is going to be about? So you're going to in a second pause the video, look at the front cover, look at the title and the illustration, and then discuss with your partner what do you think this story is going to be about.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

I heard some really lovely discussions there.

Now we're going to walk through the book and look at the illustrations.

So let's start by looking at the illustration or the picture on page two.

Could you pause the video now and look at the illustration on page two and see if you can use that illustration to make a prediction about what is happening.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

You might have seen that there is a person working hard to make something, and you could use your knowledge of the book to make a prediction.

"I predict that this person is Yoshi the Stonecutter because that is the title of the book and this person looks like they are working with stone." That's what you might have said when you looked at that picture and used the picture or the illustration to make a prediction.

What can help us make a prediction about "Yoshi the Stonecutter"? A, the author.

B, the title.

C, the illustrator, so the name of the person who drew the pictures.

Or D, the illustrations, which are the pictures.

Pause the video now.

That's right, we can use the title, "Yoshi the Stonecutter," and the illustrations, or the pictures, to help us make a prediction about the story "Yoshi the Stonecutter." I'd now like you to look at the illustration on page three.

Now I'm going to do this activity first and then it's going to be your turn to do the same thing.

So first of all, it's my turn, so I need to look at the illustration on page three.

I will tell you what I can see and what this makes me think.

Okay, so let me just look at my book.

I'm looking at page three, okay.

I can see that Yoshi looks tired and stressed.

I can see a magical-looking genie watching him from the clouds.

I predict that the magical person will help Yoshi and make him feel happier.

So that's what I've looked at the picture, the illustrations on page three, and I'm using them to make that prediction.

So now it's your turn.

You're going to look at the illustrations on pages four and five.

What pages are you looking at? That's right, four and five.

You'll tell me what you can see and what this makes you think.

So you might say, "I can see hmm, and I predict hmm." Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Perhaps you could see that Yoshi had gone to a quite nice-looking house and there's another man in that house.

I can see the genie is watching him and I predict that Yoshi is maybe jealous of this man.

Maybe you had a similar idea.

Now I am going to look at the illustrations on pages six and seven.

I will tell you what I can see and what this makes me think.

Let me look, six and seven, oh okay.

I can see that Yoshi is now dressed in smart clothes and his house looks smart too.

I predict that he must have made a wish and the magical person must have granted him his wish.

Now it's your turn.

You're going to look at the illustration on pages eight and nine.

You will tell me what you can see and what this makes you think.

Again, you might say, "I can see hmm, I predict hmm." Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Well, maybe you saw in that illustration that Yoshi is now being carried about in a carriage and it looks like people are looking after him very nicely, he's being shaded by umbrellas.

And again, the magical person is kind of watching over him.

So I predict that this magical person maybe helping him to get what he wants, but I also predict that maybe Yoshi's becoming a bit greedy because he keeps wanting more things.

I wonder if you agree.

So now it's time for your first task.

In this task, you are going to continue looking through the rest of the illustrations in the book, but I want you to stop at page 21.

I want you to stop at page? That's right, page 21.

You're going to use the information you know to make a prediction about what might happen in this story.

Remember, we're not reading the story now, we are just looking through at the illustrations and then stopping at page 21 and then predicting what you think will happen next.

Pause the video while you complete this task.

Okay, well done.

Here are some examples of some predictions that you might have shared.

You might have said, "I predict that Yoshi will realise his old life was not that bad, but he will run out of wishes so it'll be too late to make any changes." You might have said, "I predict that Yoshi will keep wanting more but it won't necessarily make him happy." Or you might have said, "I predict that people will begin to dislike Yoshi and he will ask the magical person to return him to his life as a stonecutter." These are all ideas of what you might have predicted.

So now we've introduced the story and looked at some of the illustrations, we're now going to focus on making connections.

Let's look at the illustrations on pages 22 and 23.

I'll just give you a moment to go to pages 22 and 23.

Okay, well done.

What do you think happens to Yoshi at the end of the story? I would like you to pause the video and discuss with your partner what do you think happens to Yoshi at the end of the story from looking at the pictures or the illustrations on pages 22 and 23.

Well done, now you might have noticed in those pictures or those illustrations that at the very end of the story Yoshi returns to being a stonecutter once more.

So he's gone all the way round doing different jobs and then at the end he ends up how he started, as a stonecutter.

Now some of us predicted this ending, some of us predicted a different ending.

We know that predictions are just guesses using what we know.

So based on the illustrations, which of the following is the most likely ending to "Yoshi the Stonecutter"? A, Yoshi becomes ruler of the land.

B, Yoshi returns to his old life as a stonecutter.

C, Yoshi gets stuck as a cloud forever.

Pause the video and decide which the answer is.

Well done, the correct answer is B, Yoshi returns to his old life as a stonecutter is the most likely ending because that's what we can see in the illustration.

We can make predictions based on our knowledge of other stories and recognising patterns.

Some of the characters and events that take place in "Yoshi the Stonecutter" might remind you of other well-known stories.

For example, this story reminds me of "Cinderella." Yoshi is like Cinderella.

He's poor and unhappy at the beginning, but then he becomes rich and happy.

And the magical character is like the Fairy Godmother who makes Cinderella's wishes come true.

So there's a connection that I have made.

I have said that this story, "Yoshi the Stonecutter," reminds me of another story and I've explained why.

I would like you now to think about other stories you have read.

Does "Yoshi the Stonecutter" remind you of another story? Pause the video and talk with your talk partner now about whether "Yoshi the Stonecutter" reminds you of any other stories you've read.

Okay, well done.

I heard somebody saying that "this story reminds me of 'Aladdin' because the magical character grants wishes just like the Genie." Yeah, you're right, it does, it reminds me of that a bit as well.

You might have said, "This story reminds me of 'The Magic Porridge Pot' because both stories show how magic can cause problems you didn't expect." At the start of the story, the illustrations tell us that Yoshi is greedy for money and power.

He's not content, that means happy, so he's not happy or content with what he has and he always wants more.

One of the main themes in this story is greed.

That was one of our keywords, wasn't it? A theme is one of the main ideas that the author wants to focus on in the book.

A story often has more than one theme.

Themes often lead us to morals.

A moral is a lesson that can be learned from the story.

I would like you to identify a theme in "Yoshi the Stonecutter." A, Yoshi; B, fairness; C, mountains; or D, greed.

Which of these is a theme in "Yoshi and the Stonecutter"? Pause the video now.

Well done, the correct answer is D, greed.

We can learn so much from books and link them to our own feelings and experiences.

Themes, lessons, and morals teach us and can make us think about how we would act if we were the character and what we can do in our own lives.

We only get to learn from books once we have read and understood them fully.

Greed can come in many forms. Different people can want different things.

Let's have a look at all the different things you might be greedy for.

You might be greedy for food.

I know I sometimes am a bit greedy for food and if I've had one piece of delicious cake or something, I might think, "Oh, that was so nice and I probably have had enough, but I want more because it's so delicious." We might be greedy for attention, so we want everyone looking at us.

We might be greedy for power.

We might be greedy for knowledge, we want to know more and more and more.

We might be greedy for success.

We might be greedy for love.

Or we might be greedy for money.

So all of these things can be associated with greed.

Do you think greed is good or do you think greed is bad? Could you pause the video and chat with your talk partner now? Wow, I heard some really good discussions there.

I heard some of you saying that you think greed is bad because it's bad if you eat too much food or if you want all the attention on you.

But I also heard some people saying that they think greed could be good because if you were greedy for knowledge, then you would become really knowledgeable and clever.

So I heard some different ideas there, well done.

Now Yoshi is greedy for two things.

Is he greedy for love and attention, or toys and food, or money and power, or fame and success? Pause the video while you decide your answer.

Okay, well done.

Yes, Yoshi is greedy for money and power.

Greed is an intense and selfish desire for something.

It's selfish because it's something that pleases you or helps you, it doesn't help or serve other people.

It's often involves wanting more than you need and often at the expense of others.

It doesn't make us a bad person to have felt greed for something.

Oh, phew, that's lucky, because as I said, I feel greedy sometimes, like when I want an extra piece of cake.

But however, it is how we act that is important.

So let's go back to my cake example.

If everyone at a party has been given a piece of cake on a plate and I've eaten mine, it was so delicious, and my friend has gone to the loo and they've left theirs on their plate, it's okay for me to feel greedy and think, "Oh, I wish I could eat their piece of cake." But what's important is how we act.

So if I want their cake but I don't eat it because it belongs to them, that's fine.

But what would be bad is if I felt greedy and I wanted to eat it and then I did eat it and my friend came back from the loo and they said, "Oh no, where's my cake gone?" Because that wouldn't be very fair, would it? So here's another example of when I felt greedy.

I felt greedy for more time with my mum when my little brother was born, because it made me feel a bit left out and lonely.

I told my mum how I was feeling and she made sure we had some time together every day.

So it was okay that I felt a bit greedy, but I just did the right thing by talking and explaining how I felt, and then I got spend a bit more time with my mum.

I would like you now to tell your partner about a time when you have felt greedy for something.

How did it make you feel and what did you do about it? And here's a sentence scaffold.

"I felt greedy when hmm.

It made me feel hmm." So could you now pause the video and tell your partner about a time when you felt greedy for something, how it made you feel, and what you did about it.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Here are some examples of answers.

You might've said, "I felt greedy for my friends' new toys.

It made me feel jealous and upset because I wanted them for myself.

I wrote a list of all the lovely toys I had already and then thought about things I would like to ask for for my birthday." You might have said, "I felt greedy to win every game of football.

It made me feel angry with myself when I didn't win.

I told my coach how I felt and decided to change my focus to be happy for my friends when they won, and this helped me feel better about myself." So they're just some examples of what you might have felt.

Now let's summarise what we've learned today.

We've learned that traditional tales can be set in real or fictional places.

For example, they could be set up in the clouds in a magical castle or they could be set in a real place.

Illustrations, which are the pictures in stories, can be a way to help us to predict and understand a story.

We can read the illustrations in a book by looking carefully at them.

Predictions can be made based on making connections and pattern seeking, like when I made that connection between this story and "Cinderella." Making links to our own experiences is a way to help understand the actions of a character, like how we looked at how Yoshi felt greedy and we thought about times when we felt greedy.

Greed is one of the main themes of "Yoshi the Stonecutter." Well done for working so hard today.

I hope you're enjoying learning about this book with me and hopefully I'll see you for some more learning another time, bye.