Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

My name's Mrs. Riley and I'm here to do some learning with you today.

I'm really excited for today's lesson because we are going to be learning some new and exciting vocabulary.

Let's get started.

The outcome of today's lesson is to use the words blundering, bumbling, and butterfingered effectively in multiple contexts.

Here are our key words for today's learning.

I'm going to say each word and I'd like you to repeat it back to me.

My turn, your turn.

Noun.

Adjective.

Synonym.

Word pair.

Well done.

Let's look at the definitions.

A noun is a naming word for people, places, or things.

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

A synonym is a word that has the same or similar meaning to another word, like happy and merry.

Word pairs are words that often appear together.

So when we are learning our new words today, we'll be learning some new adjectives, some new describing words, and to help us learn these words, we will look at synonyms for those words and word pairs for each word.

So today we're focusing on vocabulary associated with clumsy or silly words.

So by the end of today's lesson, we are going to have three new ways of describing someone that is clumsy or silly.

We have three learning cycles and we'll be learning three new words.

So let's take a look at our first new clumsy word.

Have a look at what is happening in this picture.

It's a Mrs. Wordsmith illustration and it is going to illustrate what the first word we are learning is.

So I want you to look at it very closely and be a detective and tell me what's happening in this picture.

Pause the video while you do that now.

Well done.

So in this picture, we have got Bogart, the fly, and Oz.

Now, I don't know if they're friends or perhaps they're even on a date, but they have gone bowling together and it's Bogart's turn.

Instead of throwing his bowling ball forward, however, he seems to have accidentally thrown it backwards and it's landed on Oz's foot.

She looks like she's really in quite a lot of pain and poor Bogart is pulling a face as if he is feeling very embarrassed about what's happened.

So let's find out what this word is.

Blundering.

My turn, your turn.

Blundering.

Well done.

Blundering is an adjective.

It means goofy or clumsy, like a friend who accidentally hurts you.

Do you have any blundering friends who are a bit clumsy and always accidentally hurting you? I wonder.

These words are synonyms of blundering.

They have the same or a similar meaning.

Clumsy, goofy, and here's the word in a sentence, the blundering fool threw a bowling ball backwards by mistake.

These words are word pairs of blundering.

So if you found the word blundering in a book, it would often be paired with one of these words.

A blundering attempt, a blundering fool, a blundering buffoon, blundering efforts.

Now, could you pause the video and read these word pairs out loud? Because really, when we're learning new vocabulary, the way that we're going to commit these words to memory is by saying them ourselves.

So pause the video now while you read these word pairs aloud.

Well done.

Here are some more word pairs.

A blundering excuse.

Perhaps you are trying to come up with an excuse and your words are all getting jumbled up and you are not able to say something very clearly.

It might be a bit of a blundering excuse.

A blundering oaf and a blundering manner.

Pause the video while you read these word pairs now.

Well done.

Here's a check for understanding.

Which of these words is a synonym for blundering? Is it a, goofy, b, bossy, or c, sly? Pause the video while you think about the answer now.

Okay, well done.

The correct answer is a, goofy is a synonym for blundering.

Here's your first task for today's lesson.

You have a word map with blundering in the middle.

Around the edge of blundering, you have got different options that could be synonyms or word pairs.

I would like you to first circle the synonyms and then draw lines from blundering to the word pairs, saying them out loud as you go.

Here's the word in a sentence to help you.

The blundering fool threw a bowling ball backwards by mistake.

Now, if the word is a synonym, you should be able to take out the word blundering in that sentence and replace it with a synonym.

So that trick might help you if you're a bit unsure.

Pause the video now while you complete this task.

Okay, well done.

Let's go through the answers.

The synonyms are goofy and clumsy.

The word pairs are a blundering attempt, a blundering fool, a blundering buffoon, blundering efforts, a blundering excuse, a blundering oaf, and a blundering manner.

Now, it's worth pointing out at this stage in the lesson that some of these word pairs are actually a little bit unkind words to use.

For example, calling someone a fool, or a buffoon, or an oaf.

They might be good if we were using them in our writing.

Perhaps we were going to describe, if we were describing an ogre, we might say that he was a blundering buffoon or something like that.

But it's not necessarily something that would be very kind to use to other people.

So, for example, if somebody called me a blundering oaf, I might be a little bit offended.

So whilst these are really good word pairs for this word, just think about the fact that they are a little bit unkind and we perhaps wouldn't want to refer to any one of our friends in these ways.

I'd now like you to write your own sentence using the word blundering.

Here are the word pairs to help you.

If you use one of the word pairs, then you know you are going to be using the word really appropriately.

I always think it's very important to say your sentence out loud before writing it down, and always go back to read and check it carefully.

Try to be really ambitious with your sentence.

Off you go.

Okay, hopefully you wrote some funny sentences using the word blundering, because I think it is quite a funny word.

Okay, here are some examples of some sentences.

Brick's blundering efforts to tidy up only made the mess worse.

Oz entered the quiet room in a blundering manner, knocking over a vase and causing an unexpected commotion.

Bernice's blundering excuse for being late to class was met with a stern look from the teacher.

A stern look is a sort of strict or serious look.

You might notice there are two apostrophes.

An apostrophe is like a comma that's floated up.

Could you point at the apostrophes for me? Yes, well done.

One of them in the first sentence, Brick's blundering efforts.

The blundering efforts belong to Brick, and the second apostrophe was in the third sentence, Bernice's blundering excuse.

Again, the blundering excuse belongs to Bernice, and therefore I've had to use an apostrophe to show possession.

Let's take a look at our second new clumsy or silly word.

What's happening in this picture? This is Grit, the dog.

Can you describe what you can see and how you would describe Grit? Pause the video and complete that now.

Grit is fishing in this picture.

He's trying to throw his fishing rod forward, but whilst he's flung it back, he has got it caught on his own trousers.

He looks also like, because he's got caught up in his fishing rod, he's about to fall into the water.

So I can definitely see that this word is going to be related to clumsiness.

Let's find out what it is.

Bumbling.

Ooh, another word beginning with a B.

My turn, your turn.

Bumbling.

Bumbling is an adjective.

It means awkward, clumsy, or useless, like a fisherman who gets tangled up in his own fishing rod.

These words are synonyms of bumbling, clumsy, useless, and awkward.

Here's the word in a sentence.

The bumbling buffoon got caught in his own fishing rod.

These words are word pairs of bumbling.

Bumbling buffoon, a bumbling fool, a bumbling burglar.

It wouldn't be very good to be a bumbling burglar, because they would probably make a big cluttering sound and they would wake everyone up if everyone is asleep, and then they would get caught.

A bumbling detective and a bumbling sidekick.

Now, a sidekick is if you had, for instance, Batman and Robin, Robin is Batman's sidekick.

So imagine if you had a bumbling sidekick.

Perhaps the main superhero or the main person might be a little bit irritated 'cause they wouldn't be very helpful.

Could you pause the video and read these word pairs out loud? Off you go.

Well done.

Let's do a check for understanding.

Which of these words is a synonym for bumbling? Is it a, awkward, b, devious, or is it c, bulky? Pause the video while you think of the answer now.

Well done for giving that a go.

The correct answer is a, awkward is a synonym for bumbling.

Here's another task.

Just as before, you have a word map with bumbling in the middle.

I would like you to first circle the synonyms and then draw lines to the word pairs.

Here's a sentence to help you.

The bumbling buffoon got caught up in his own fishing rod.

Pause the video while you complete this task.

Well done.

Let's go through the answers.

The synonyms are useless, awkward, and clumsy.

The rest of the words are word pairs, bumbling buffoon, bumbling fool, bumbling burglar, bumbling detective, and a bumbling sidekick.

I'd now like you to write your own sentence using the word bumbling.

Here are the word pairs to help you.

Pause the video while you write your sentence now.

Well done.

Let's look at some examples.

"You bumbling fool," cried Mrs. Wordsmith when Plato accidentally smashed a window.

Police discovered the bumbling burglar stuck in the catflap of the house he was trying to rob.

The superhero's bumbling sidekick slipped and fell straight into the villain's shark tank.

So you may notice in my first sentence here, I've got some speech marks.

The thing that the person is saying, the thing that Mrs. Wordsmith is saying is, "You bumbling fool," And I'm showing that that's the speech by putting the speech marks around it.

I have a 66 and a 99.

That's what we often call, is often a good way to remember speech marks, because it looks like a tiny 66 at the beginning and a tiny 99 at the end.

It's really important when we have speech that we always have a piece of punctuation inside the closing speech marks, or inside the 99.

And I've got an exclamation mark here because "You bumbling fool" is something that Mrs. Wordsmith cried.

I imagine she said this quite loudly.

So the word pairs I've used are bumbling fool, bumbling burglar, and bumbling sidekick.

And we can see that bumbling and blundering not only sound quite similar, but they also have very similar meanings.

Let's take a look at our final new clumsy or silly word.

What's happening in this picture? This is Brick.

What's he doing? How would you describe him? Pause the video while you think about that now.

In this picture, brick is sitting at a table with some butter on it and it looks like he has got lots and lots of corn on the cobs on his plate, but his fingers look like they are also covered in butter, and it's made his fingers so slippery that his plate and all the food has fallen on the floor, and he looks quite shocked by that.

So again, I can see that this is linked to clumsiness.

Let's see what this word is.

Butterfingered.

My turn, your turn.

Butterfingered.

Butter fingered is an adjective meaning clumsy or accident-prone, like someone who constantly drops things.

It's quite easy to remember what this word means, because it's literally like, imagine if you got some butter and you smeared it onto all of your fingers, you would become very clumsy and accident-prone.

You would constantly drop things because your fingers would be all slippy and slimy.

These words are synonyms of butterfingered, clumsy, sloppy, accident-prone.

Here's the word in a sentence.

The plate slipped from the butterfingered waiter's grip and crashed to the floor.

If you were a waiter, you would not want to be butterfingered because you would always be dropping all the plates as you took them to the tables.

These words are word pairs of butterfingered, butterfingered waiter, a butterfingered catcher, so imagine in perhaps a game of cricket, if you were a butterfingered catcher, you would probably drop the ball.

A butterfingered buffoon, a butterfingered cook, and a butterfingered goalkeeper, and a butterfingered clown.

Okay, could you pause the video and read those word pairs out loud? Off you go.

Well done.

Now it's time for a check for understanding.

Which of these words is a word pair of butterfingered? Is it a cook, b, clumsy, or c, accident prone.

Pause the video while you answer that now.

Well done if you got the answer a, cook, you could have a butterfingered cook.

Clumsy and accent-prone are both synonyms. For your next task, you have another word map with butterfingered in the middle.

Just as the four, could you please circle the synonyms and draw lines to the word pairs? Here's a sentence to help you.

The plate slipped from the butterfingered waiter's grip and crashed to the floor.

Remember, if the word is a synonym, you should be able to take out the word butterfingered and replace it with the synonym.

Pause the video while you complete this task now.

Well done.

Let's go through the answers.

The synonyms are sloppy, accident-prone, and clumsy.

The word pairs are butterfingered waiter, butterfingered catcher, butterfingered clown, butterfingered buffoon, butterfingered cook, and a butterfingered goalkeeper.

I'd now like you to write your own sentence using the word butterfingered.

Perhaps you could use one of these word pairs to help you, and maybe as I used, we went through speech rules in the previous sentence for bumbling, perhaps you could try and include some speech in this sentence.

That's just a little challenge if you want to.

So could you pause the video now while you write your sentence using the word butterfingered? Off you go.

Excellent.

Well done.

I hope you are feeling really proud of these sentences that you are writing.

Let's take a look at some examples.

As the butterfingered cook texted his nan, he dropped his phone in the soup.

That's an example of an adverbial complex sentence.

It starts with a subordinating conjunction as.

As the butterfingered cook texts his nan, comma, that's my subordinate clause, and then I've got my main clause after the comma, he dropped his phone in the soup.

These are two things that are happening simultaneously, at the same time.

Oh, here's my speech.

"You butterfingered clown," growled Grit as Brick dropped the heavy bowling ball on his foot.

So again, I can see here I've got my 66 and 99 around the thing that the person is saying, and I've also got that exclamation mark inside my 99.

And here I've got another adverbial complex sentence, but this time my main clause comes first.

"You butterfingered clown," growled Grit.

There's my main clause.

My subordinate clause is as Brick dropped the heavy bowling ball on his foot.

Again, it's two things happening simultaneously, or at at the same time.

But in the first sentence, I started with my subordinate clause, and in my second sentence, the subordinate clause came after the main clause.

And another adverbial complex sentence, this time using the subordinating conjunction when.

When the butterfingered buffoon walked into the room, comma, he dropped the entire birthday cake on the floor.

For your final task today, I would like you to fill in the gaps with either the word blundering, bumbling, or butterfingered.

I'm going to read the sentences to you, so listen carefully and start to think about which word fits best in which sentence.

And because we said that bumbling and blundering were very similar, you might find that those could be used in, they could be interchangeably used.

Let's have a look.

The catcher was so mm that he dropped a ball he was already holding.

The mm detective never caught a single criminal in his whole career.

The mm oaf tripped over his shoelaces, then stepped on a snail.

Pause the video while you fill the gaps now.

Well done.

Let's go through the answers.

The catcher was so butterfingered that he dropped a ball he was already holding.

The bumbling detective never caught a single criminal in his whole career.

The blundering oaf tripped over his shoelaces, then stepped on a snail.

So bumbling means more being a bit useless, whereas blundering, I'd say is more clumsy.

However, you could have had these two the other way around as they have a very similar meaning.

So if you've got those two the other way around, that's still a correct answer.

Let's summarise what we've learned today.

We've learned some rich vocabulary associated with being clumsy or silly.

So next time, if you were writing a story and you had a clumsy or a silly character, you could use one of these words, and I'm sure anyone who read your story would be seriously impressed.

We learned that blundering is an adjective meaning goofy or clumsy, like a friend who accidentally hurts you.

Bumbling is an adjective, meaning awkward, clumsy, or useless, like a fisherman who gets tangled up in his own fishing rod.

And butterfingered is an adjective meaning clumsy or accident-prone, like someone who constantly drops things.

Well done for all your hard work today, and hopefully I'll see you again another time.

Bye.