Lesson video

Hello, everyone, my name is Mr. Brown and I'm your English teacher for today's lesson, and we are going to be writing haikus.

This is a form of poetry that I think you're going to really enjoy.

So let's learn about and write our own haikus in today's lesson.

Let's go for it.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can understand what a haiku is and how to write one.

The keywords we will use are haiku and syllable.

Let's say those together, my turn and then your turn.

Haiku, syllable.

Fantastic.

A haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry consisting of three lines with a specific syllable pattern, five, seven, five, and we'll talk about that later in the lesson.

Often focusing on nature and capturing a special moment.

A syllable is a single sound or beat in a word that contains a vowel sound.

We will start today's lesson by understanding what a haiku is, and then we'll move on to writing a haiku ourselves.

In today's lesson, you will need to know what a syllable is.

Words are made up of different parts, and these are called syllables.

A syllable is a single sound or beat in a word that contains a vowel sound.

Every word contains at least one syllable.

In the word happy, there are two syllables, ha-ppy.

Both of these syllables contain vowel sounds.

Let's check our understanding.

Which of these words contains three syllables? Is it A: Monday, B: Friday, or C: Saturday? Which one contains three syllables? And what I suggest you do is say each word, counting the syllables as you go, and then decide which one has three.

So pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see how you got on.

Which of these words contains three syllables? A: Monday, B: Friday, C: Saturday.

So let's count them out.

A: Monday.

Mon-day, two syllables.

Friday.

Fri-day, two syllables.

Let's try C.

Saturday.

Sa-tur-day.

Three syllables.

So well done if you said C: Saturday.

Sa-tur-day, that is three.

There are many different types of poetry.

One type that we are going to learn about is called a haiku.

Now haikus are a type of short poem, and they originated in Japan.

And you can see Japan is on the east side of Asia.

Which Asian country do haikus originate from? Is it A: China, B: Japan, or C: South Korea? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Let's see if you remembered correctly.

Which Asian country do haikus originate from? It is B: Japan? Well done if you said Japan.

Now, haikus are recognisable because they follow a set of rules.

If we can understand and remember these rules, we will be able to identify a haiku and then write one ourselves.

So let's look as an example of a haiku and see if we can work out what the rules for writing a haiku might be.

So here is a haiku, and I will read it to you now.

"Gentle raindrops fall, Whispering secrets to Earth, Nature's lullaby." Okay, so that is a haiku.

Were you able to predict any of the rules for writing a haiku? Let's see if you spotted any of these.

Now, a haiku is three lines long.

There are five syllables on the first line, seven syllables on the second line, and five syllables on the third line.

Now, there is no rhyme scheme in a haiku.

Traditionally haikus are about nature.

So we have our "Gentle raindrops fall, Whispering secrets to Earth, Nature's lullaby." That's our haiku.

Let's have a look.

Does it have three lines? Is it three lines long? Yes, it is.

One, two, three.

Now a Haiku has five syllables in the first line.

Should we check it? Gen, let me count as I go, "Gen-tle rain drops fall." That's five.

Yeah, great.

Okay.

Seven in the second line.

Seven syllables.

Let's count.

"Whis-per-ing se-crets to Earth," That's seven, great.

And then the third line.

"Na-ture's lul-la-by" That's five.

Well done.

A haiku has five syllables in the third line.

Now, there are no rhyme schemes in haikus, so we don't have to stick to a specific rhyme scheme.

And traditionally haikus are about nature.

Is this one? Ah, yes.

It's about raindrops.

"Whispering secrets to Earth, nature's lullaby." So it's a haiku about rain.

Let's check our understanding.

Which of these statements about haikus are true? A: A haiku is three lines long.

B: A haiku has five syllables in every line.

C: A haiku is traditionally about nature.

Which of these statements about haikus are true? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you were right.

Which of these statements about haikus are true? Well, A: A haiku is three lines long.

And C: A haiku is traditionally about nature.

They are both true.

B: A haiku has five syllables in every line.

Well, it does in the first, it does in the third, but it does not in the second.

The second line of a haiku has seven syllables.

So well done if you said A and C.

Time for a task.

I would like you to read each poem aloud.

I'm going to show you two poems. You're going to read each one aloud.

Then consider the following elements: How many lines the poems have, the syllables, the rhyme, and the subject of the poem.

And you're going to identify which poem is a haiku.

So here are your two poems, which one is a haiku and which one is not? Read each one aloud and then consider the following elements: lines, syllables, rhyme, and the subject of the poem so you can decide which one is a haiku.

Pause the video and have a got at this task now.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? I hope you enjoyed reading those two poems. And did you spot which one is a haiku? Well, let's have a look.

So I will read them both to you now.

Poem one, "Hands tick and tock, Moving from number to number, Time passes by." Okay, poem two: "Golden sky ablaze, Painting evening's silent end, Day finally rests." Okay, let's have a look.

Here's an example of an answer that you might have given.

Poem one does not rhyme.

It follows a syllable structure of four, eight, four.

It's about a clock or watch and not about nature.

It is not a haiku.

So poem one doesn't rhyme, but then a haiku doesn't need to rhyme.

So it could still be a haiku.

It's the syllable structure, which tells us that it can't be a haiku.

A syllable structure of four, eight, four.

Well, that's not what a haiku is.

A haiku is five, seven, five.

It's also about a clock or a watch, and not about nature.

So it's not a haiku.

But what about poem two? Poem two does not rhyme.

It follows a syllable structure of five, seven, five.

It is about nature, about sunsets.

It is a haiku.

So well done if you spotted that poem two is the haiku.

Let's move on to writing a haiku.

Now we know the rules for writing a haiku, we are going to write one ourselves.

Deciding what to write your haiku about is the first step to take.

We know haikus are traditionally about nature and capturing a special moment.

We could write a haiku about a moment of change in nature.

For example, sunrises, sunsets, rain starting, flowers blooming or leaves falling from a tree.

These are all really good examples of moments in nature, of a change.

And that means it's interesting.

It's interesting to be a subject for a haiku.

Which of these could be a suitable moment to write a haiku about? A: The first flakes of snow falling on a winter's day.

B: A frog leaping onto a lily pad in a calm pond, C: A car engine loudly starting in a garage.

Which of these could be a suitable moment to write a haiku about? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Let's see if you were right.

Which of these could be a suitable moment to write a haiku about? Well, well done if you said A and B, the first flakes of snow landing on a winter's day and a frog leaping onto a lily pad in a calm pond.

Well, these are moments of change in nature.

So these are both really good subjects for haikus to be written about.

C: a car engine starting loudly in a garage.

Well, that is not anything to do with nature, and so therefore, not something that we would write a haiku about.

Let's think about some special moments in nature we could write haikus about.

In this unit, we are focusing on big and small things.

So we will write two lists of moments.

One for big objects and one for small objects.

Can you think of some examples of moments in nature involving small things? Hmm? What moments in nature involve something very small? Pause the video if you want to have a chat with the person next to you.

Okay, let's have a look at some examples.

Small things in nature.

So a raindrop falling onto a leaf.

That is a moment involving a very small thing.

I mean, a leaf is small, but a raindrop is even smaller.

A ladybird crawling up a tree, the first flower in spring, a bee collecting pollen and a pebble being dragged out to sea.

These are all moments involving small objects.

Let's read this example of a haiku.

"Raindrop hits a leaf, Tiny splash, a soft echo, Nature's gentle tap." What did you like about it? Well, this person liked how the poem makes the raindrop seem like a secret whisper, so small and delicate.

Let's look at another example.

"Busy little bee, Hopping from leaf to flower, Pockets full of dust." So again, I ask you what did you like about it? You may want to pause the video to have a longer discussion with the person next to you.

Let's have a look as an example answer.

"I love how the poem shows the bee working so hard collecting pollen.

It makes me appreciate the wonder of nature." Time for a check.

I would like you to now write a list of special moments in nature involving big things.

So we've looked at small things and a couple of examples.

So I now want you to write a list of big things that you could write a haiku about.

So big things in nature.

That's what we're aiming to write our list about.

So pause the video and write your list about a special moment involving a big thing in nature.

Please do this now.

Welcome back.

Let's see how you got on.

So here are some examples.

I wonder if you had any of these.

Big things in nature: a waterfall crashing onto rocks, the sun rising over a mountain, the moon illuminating a lake, a volcano erupting, an avalanche cascading down a hill, a rainbow stretching over a field after a storm.

These are all big things in nature that would make excellent subjects to write a haiku about.

Look through your lists and choose one moment in nature to write a haiku about.

It should be a moment you feel interested in and something you are passionate to describe.

For my haiku, I'm going to use the following moment to write about: I'm going to write a haiku about a volcano erupting.

So it's over to you now.

If you haven't already, choose your moment now.

Let's remind ourselves of the rules for writing haikus.

We know a haiku is three lines long and they are five syllables in the first line.

There are five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line.

There is no rhyme scheme in a haiku.

Traditionally, haikus are about nature.

So these are the things that we have to make sure we do when writing a haiku.

We can put these into a success criteria.

So we know that the haiku needs to have three lines long.

We know it needs to follow a syllable structure of five, seven, five.

We know that a haiku will be written without rhyming words, and we know that a haiku will be written about a special moment in nature.

So if you follow the success criteria, I have written a haiku that is three lines long.

I have written a haiku with syllables following the five, seven, five structure.

If you can do all four of these things, you will have written a successful haiku.

So it's now over to me.

I'm going to write a haiku about a volcano erupting.

I've got my success criteria there to help me, and we will check after I've written my haiku to see if I have done everything in my success criteria.

So my haiku about a volcano erupting.

The first line is quite simply, "Volcano erupts, Lava flows hot and bright red, Mountains roar with fire." So now let's check against the success criteria.

The first part of our success criteria says I have written a haiku that is three lines long.

So I've got "Volcano erupts," that's one line.

"Lava flows hot and bright red." That's two lines.

And "Mountains roar with fire." That's three lines.

Great.

So I can tick that part of my success criteria off.

Okay.

Now the trickier part, the syllables.

I know that we are following the five, seven, five rule, five syllables for the first line, seven for the second, five for the third.

Let's have a look and see.

Okay, "Volcano erupts." That's my first line.

It should be five syllables.

"Vol-ca-no e-rupts." Five syllables.

Good, okay.

Seven syllables for the second line.

"La-va flows hot and bright red." That's seven syllables.

Great, okay.

"Mountains roar with fire." "Moun-tains roar with fire.

" Perfect.

Okay, so that's my five.

So I can tick off that I've completed the five, seven, five rule.

I've written a haiku without rhyming words.

Yep.

There's no rhyming words there.

And then about a special moment in nature, well, a volcano erupting is an incredibly special moment in nature, so definitely can tick that there.

So now it's over to you.

It's time for you to write your haiku about a special moment in nature involving a big or small object.

Remember to complete everything in your success criteria and ensure that you read your haiku back to be able to check those syllables too.

Okay, it's over to you.

Pause the video and write your own haiku now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see how you got on.

Let's have a look at an example, and we'll use that to check against the success criteria.

So, ah, it's one about a ladybird climbing up a tree.

Okay.

"Ladybird climbing, Red and black moves towards sky, Tiny explorer." Lovely.

Okay, let's check.

I've written a haiku that's three lines long.

So we've got "Ladybird climbing, Red and black moves towards sky," and then "Tiny explorer." Yep, that's three lines long.

That can be ticked.

Okay, let's check those syllables.

"La-dy-bird climb-ing." That's five.

"Red and black moves to-wards sky." That's the seven.

"Ti-ny ex-plor-er." That's the five, good.

Okay, no rhyming words? No.

Add about a special moment to nature.

Yeah, A ladybird climbing up a tree is a special moment in nature.

Let's summarise the learning that we've done today.

A haiku is a type of poetry.

A haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry consisting of three lines with a specific syllable pattern.

And that pattern is five, seven, five, often focusing on nature and capturing a special moment.

A syllable is a single sound or beat in a word that contains a vowel sound.

Brilliant work today.

I hope you enjoyed learning about and writing haikus.

I will see you again very soon.