Lesson video

Hi, everybody.

It's Ms. Gardner.

I really am glad you've come back to join us for lesson four of our non-chronological report unit on the portia spider.

I've been so impressed with all the hard work everyone has done already in this unit.

I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's plans in today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Welcome to our fourth lesson on our unit, Non-Chronological Report about the Portia Spider.

Today, we're going to be planning our first themed section.

So our outcome today is, "I can plan the appearance section of a non-chronological report about portia spiders." Let's have a look at our keywords.

We're going to do My Turn, Your Turn.

Subject-specific vocabulary.

Plan.

Notes.

Let's have a look at what these mean.

Subject-specific vocabulary is vocabulary used when writing about a particular subject.

A plan is a framework that writers create before they write a section or a whole text.

We're going to be creating a plan today.

And notes are written out of full sentences.

Note form is not full sentences.

So there are two sections for our planning lesson today.

The first section is preparing to plan, and then our second section will be writing the plan itself.

Let's start with preparing to plan.

A non-chronological report can be structured into four sections.

The first is our introduction, which we've already written, then you have your first theme section about a specific idea, then a second theme section about a different specific idea, and then, finally, the conclusion.

In today's lesson, we are going to be planning section one on the portia spider's appearance, which is what the portia spider looks like.

So subject-specific vocabulary is words that are specifically related to the portia spider.

So let's have a look at some examples.

An arachnid, that is a group of invertebrate animals.

Spiders are a group, a type of invertebrate animals, so they can be called arachnids.

A predator is an animal that eats other animals.

And a prey is an animal that is eaten by another animal.

These are all words that are going to be appearing in your non-chronological report on the portia spider.

So let's think now about the vocabulary that is really subject specific, the vocabulary that we want to use in our non-chronological report about the portia spider.

Here are some options.

Poisonous, danger, outdoors, rainforest, animals, arachnid.

Which of these words would we find in a non-chronological report on the portia spider? Let's have a look.

Definitely poisonous.

We know the portia spider has poisonous fangs to kill.

Rainforest.

It is found in rainforests all over the world.

And arachnid, because a spider is a type of arachnid.

It's your turn now.

Have a look at these six words and think about which of these words are most subject-specific for the portia spider.

Predator, nature, leaf, camouflage, fangs, and features.

Pause the video now and have a think.

Okay, let's go through them.

Definitely predator.

The portia spider is a predator because it eats other animals.

Camouflage because it is able to camouflage in its surroundings.

And fangs because of those poisonous fangs it has.

Well done, everyone.

So let's look now at some facts about the portia spider's appearance, so what it looks like, and how these features have helped it survive.

The portia spider has eight eyes.

It is known for its superb vision.

It has fantastic eyesight.

In fact, it can map its world in 3D.

You might recognise that word from your maths lessons, three-dimensional.

And this helps it when it's scanning for prey.

Let's check for understanding.

True or false? The portia spider has poor eyesight.

Pause the video here.

That is false.

Can you use a or b to justify your answer? a, the portia spider has superb vision.

It has eight eyes, and it can map its world in 3D.

Or b, the portia spider is unable to see clearly.

Pause the video here.

That is correct.

It is a.

The portia spider is famous for its amazing vision.

Let's look at its fur.

The portia spider has brown, prickly fur.

Because of this, it is able to camouflage in its natural surroundings, so it can hide amongst the twigs and the leaves of the rainforest.

This helps the portia spider to attack its prey because it can hide and then attack out of surprise.

Let's check for understanding here.

The brown, prickly fur means the portia spider can, a, camouflage in its surroundings, b, be visible to its prey, or c, attack its prey out of surprise.

Pause the video here.

That is correct.

It is a and c.

It's definitely not b because the point of the portia spider is that it can hide away from its prey so they don't see it.

Let's have a look at the fangs.

The portia spider has two poisonous fangs.

That means they're filled with poisonous venom.

They use their fangs to attack their prey by impaling their abdomen with a fang.

So they use their fangs to basically stick through the prey's stomach.

These venomous fangs are only able to kill other insects, not humans, don't worry.

Let's check for understanding.

True or false? The portia spider cannot use its fangs to attack humans.

Pause the video here.

It is true.

Can you use a or b to justify your answer? a, the portia spider uses its fangs to attack and kill other spiders and insects, or b, the portia spider uses its fangs to poison humans.

Pause the video here.

That is correct.

It is a.

The portia spider only attacks other spiders and insects.

It does not attack humans.

The portia spider is tiny.

It's minuscule.

It is approximately half a centimetre long.

However, and this is pretty amazing, I think, it is able to jump up to 50 times its own body length.

Let's check for understanding.

How long is the portia spider? Is it a, half a metre long, b, approximately half a centimetre long, or c, two to three inches long? Pause the video here and have a think.

It is b.

It is approximately half a centimetre long, or 0.

5 centimetres long.

Well done, everybody.

Now, it's time to match the feature to its purpose.

So there are three features here of the portia spider we're going to look at, its eight eyes, its brown fur, and its two venomous fangs.

Can you match that with its purpose? Either attack and eat other spiders, map its world in 3D, or camouflage in its surroundings.

Pause the video here and have a go.

Let's go through it.

The portia spider has eight eyes so it can map its world in 3D.

The portia spider has brown fur so it can camouflage in its surroundings.

The portia spider has two venomous fangs so it can attack and eat other spiders.

Really well done, everyone.

It's time for task A, where we are going to be preparing to plan.

You need to fill in the blanks with the words below.

The word bank is at the bottom of the page, and your words to choose from are vision, 3D, camouflage, fur, eight, humans, and fangs.

I'm going to read the sentences now, and I'll say blank when there is a missing word for you to fill in.

The portia spider has superb blank.

It has blank eyes and it can see its world in blank.

The portia spider has brown, prickly blank so it can blank in its surroundings.

The portia spider has two poisonous blank to attack its prey.

Spiders cannot attack or kill blank.

Pause the video now and fill in the blanks with the words from the word bank.

Okay, well done, everyone.

I hope you all got on okay with that.

Let's go through the answers.

The portia spider has superb vision.

It has eight eyes and it can see its world in 3D.

The portia spider has brown, prickly fur so it can camouflage in its surroundings.

The portia spider has two poisonous fangs to attack its prey.

Spiders cannot attack or kill humans.

Well done, everybody.

It is now time to move on to writing our plan.

So when we write a plan, we use notes.

Notes are concise, and that means short, and they capture key vocabulary and information.

The purpose of notes is to help the writer to organise information easily for future use, so for when they're writing their report.

And we use bullet points when note-taking.

They look like this.

Bullet points are a really useful way to take notes, so I really recommend you use them when making a plan.

So let's check for understanding.

What is in a plan? Is it a, bullet points for notes, b, full sentences with capital letters and full stops, c, subject-specific vocabulary, or d, unnecessary information? Pause the video here.

Okay, it is a, bullet points for notes, and c, subject-specific vocabulary.

It's definitely not b.

We do not need to worry about writing full sentences in our plan.

And there's no point putting in unnecessary information because that's not necessary in our plan.

We just want the most important key points.

It's time to write our plan.

It's task B.

The first section of task B is writing all about the portia spider's eyes.

And we're going to do that using subject-specific vocabulary.

To help you, there is a word bank below.

The words in the word bank for this section are eight, 3D, scan, and prey.

I'm just going to first show you an example of how we can use the word bank to help us write a bullet point note.

Because remember, when we write bullet points, we don't need to write full sentences.

So the first point I want to make is that the portia spider has eight eyes.

I don't need to write that as a full sentence, saying, the portia spider has eight eyes, with a full stop.

I'm just going to write in my bullet points eight eyes.

Now, it's your turn to go and write two to three facts about the portia spider's eyes using the words in the word bank.

Pause the video now and off you go.

Well done, everybody.

Let's go through what I've put on my plan.

Yours might look exactly the same.

It might look similar.

But I wonder if you have included all the words from the word bank.

So my first point was eight eyes, my next fact was maps its world in 3D, and finally, helps scan for its prey.

Well done, everyone.

The next section of our plan is giving facts about the portia spider's fur.

Again, there are some subject-specific vocabulary in the word bank below.

These include brown, prickly, camouflage, and prey.

Now, pause the video and write two to three facts about the portia spider's fur in the bullet point section below.

Well done, everyone.

Let's go through the bullet point notes I made.

Brown, prickly fur, camouflages in its surroundings, and hides from its prey to attack.

I wonder if you got similar facts about the portia spider's fur.

Now, let's write two to three main facts about the portia spider's fangs using subject-specific vocabulary.

The words in the word bank are venomous, poisonous, attack, and humans.

Pause the video now and write two to three main facts about the portia spider's fangs.

Off you go.

Okay, well done, everyone.

Here were the facts about the portia spider's fangs I wrote using the words from the word bank.

It has two venomous/poisonous fangs.

You can choose which adjective you use, venomous or poisonous.

You don't need both because they mean the same thing.

Uses to attack other spiders.

Cannot kill humans.

Well done, everyone.

We're now going to move on to the final section of our plan.

Here, we need to fill in the table with the following, three formal fronted adverbials and two viewpoint fronted adverbials.

We looked at these in the last lesson, but just to recap, there is a word bank for you to use.

So the fronted adverbials you'll need to sort are in addition, amazingly, also, additionally, and interestingly.

You need to choose three formal fronted adverbials and write them in the section under formal fronted adverbial title and then two viewpoint fronted adverbials.

Pause the video now.

Off you go.

Well done, everyone.

Let's just go through how I sorted the formal fronted adverbials and the viewpoint fronted adverbials.

So the three formal fronted adverbials I used were in addition to this and also as my and formal fronted adverbials.

They build on a point from the previous sentence.

And however, which is a but formal fronted adverbial and introduces a contrasting idea from the point in the previous sentence.

My two viewpoint fronted adverbials were interestingly and amazingly, and they come at the start of the sentence and give the reader, show the reader the writer's point of view about the fact in the sentence.

It's the end of the lesson, so here is a summary of everything we have learned in this lesson.

Plans are written in note form with bullet points, full sentences are not needed in plans, key vocabulary and linguistic features should be logged in a plan, and finally, the portia spider's appearance includes significant features that have adapted to help it survive.

Well done for a fantastic lesson.

Make sure you keep your plans safe so you can use them when we're writing this section in the next lesson.

Well done, everybody.