Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name's Mrs. Riley, and I'm here today to teach you some new vocabulary.

In our lesson today, we'll be focusing on words that are associated with dark and rainy weather.

But as we'll see as the lesson progresses, these words are going to be useful in lots of other contexts as well.

So let's get started.

The outcome of today's lesson is to use the words dreary, ominous, and splattered effectively in multiple contexts.

These are our key words for today's lesson.

Before we think about what they mean, let's practise saying each one out loud.

My turn and then your turn.

Are you ready? Noun, adjective, synonym, word pair, and a bit of a tricky one, etymology.

Let's say that one one more time.

Etymology.

Well done.

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

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

For example, if I picked a flower, that would be a noun 'cause it's a thing.

And then I might smell the flower and describe it.

The scented flower.

The scented would be the adjective which would describe it.

A synonym is a word that has the same or similar meaning to another word.

So if I took that adjective, the scented flower, I might also say the fragrant flower.

Scented and fragrant might be synonyms for each other 'cause they have a similar meaning.

And word pairs are words that often appear together.

Finally, etymology is the study of the origin of words.

Origin means where they've come from and the ways their meaning have changed over time.

Now, that sounds quite complicated, but what it just means is that we're looking at the history of a word.

We're going to take a word and we're going to find out the history of it.

Where has that word come from and how has its meaning changed over time? So in our lesson today, we have three learning cycles.

And in each learning cycle, we're going to learn a new dark and rainy word.

So let's get started with our first one.

Now, this is actually one of my favourite Mrs. Wordsmith pictures of all time.

I'd like you to have a look closely at what this picture, what's happening in this picture.

This is Bearnice.

Describe what's happening.

Describe how you think she's feeling and why.

Now you can either pause the video and just have some thinking time, or if someone's close by, you could maybe have a discussion and describe out loud what you see.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

In this picture, Bearnice looks like she's working in a factory, a teddy-making factory.

And these teddies are coming along the conveyor belt, and all Bearnice is doing is pulling a lever, and the head of each teddy bear is popping onto the body of the teddy bear.

It looks like a really boring and repetitive task, doesn't it? And you can see that there's a poster in the background saying, "Hang in there and smile," to try and keep Bearnice feeling more positive about this quite boring, repetitive job.

So let's find out what this word is.

Dreary.

My turn, your turn.

Dreary.

Dreary is an adjective.

It means boring or miserable, like a dull job, doing the same thing over and over again.

So the etymology of this word, it's from the Old English.

Now I'm gonna struggle to say this word, dreorig, I hope I said that right, which means sad or sorrowful.

So we can see it used to mean sad or sorrowful, dreary.

Now it means more boring or miserable.

So we can see how the meaning is similar, but changed a little bit.

These words are synonyms of dreary, so they have a similar meaning.

Drab, boring, miserable.

The dreary task nearly sent Bearnice to sleep.

These are word pairs of dreary.

That means if you found the word dreary in a book you were reading, it might be paired with one of these words.

A dreary winter, dreary weather, a dreary afternoon, a dreary night, dreary work, a dreary dungeon and a dreary place.

So we can see it can describe the weather, for example, the dreary weather.

It can also describe a time in the day, like an afternoon or the night or even the whole winter.

But it also could describe a place or a specific place like a dungeon, or it might describe a work or a task, like we can see in this picture here.

So we can see straight away with this word, it's not just useful to describe the weather, but it can be used in lots of other contexts as well.

Could you pause the video now and just practise saying those word pairs out loud just like I did? And that way, hopefully, this word and its word pairs are going to really stick in our memory.

Off you go.

Excellent.

Well done.

So let's check what we've just learned.

Which of these words is a synonym for dreary? A, spinning, B, hopeless, or C, boring.

Pause the video while you think about your answer.

Well done.

The correct answer is C, boring and dreary are synonyms. They have a similar meaning.

Okay, so for your first task of today, I would like you to look at this word map, which has the word dreary in the middle.

Around the word dreary are either synonyms or word pairs.

First, I would like you to circle the synonyms, and then I'd like you to draw lines from the word dreary, either up or across or down, to each word pair.

And as you do that, perhaps you could practise saying them out loud.

If you're a bit unsure if a word is a synonym or a word pair, have a look at this sentence.

The dreary task nearly sent Bearnice to sleep.

And then if it's as a synonym, you might be able to replace it with word dreary in that sentence.

For example, if I take the first word in the top left corner, drab, I could say, "The drab task nearly sent Bearnice to sleep." Now, I think that sounds right, so that means that that drab might be a synonym.

But if I did the next one down, dungeon, "The dungeon task nearly sent Bearnice to sleep." that doesn't sound right.

That makes me think that must be a word pair.

So that's a little trick that you can use if you are unsure.

Pause the video now while you complete this first part of your task.

Well done.

Let's look at the answers together.

The synonyms are drab, boring, and miserable.

The word pairs are dreary work, dreary weather, dreary afternoon, dreary night, dreary winter, dreary place, dreary dungeon.

For the next part of your task, I'd like you to write a sentence using the word dreary and use the word pairs to help you.

There they are.

They're gonna help you to use this word really appropriately.

So have a think about who you're going to write your sentence about.

What kind of atmosphere do you want to create? Is it going to be a kind of spooky atmosphere in a dreary dungeon, or is it just going to be a really boring atmosphere, maybe dreary work? How can you exaggerate how dreary something is? So just think you write your sentence.

Maybe you could go back and think, have I really exaggerated how dreary something is? And how could I add some more detail to really exaggerate how dreary something is? So these are all things that you can think about when you write your sentence.

So can you pause the video now while you have a go at writing your own sentence using the word dreary? Well done.

Let's look at an example together.

As the dreary winter months passed by, Yin longed to feel the warm sunshine on his face and go to the park with his friends.

So let's just check.

Does this sentence use dreary correctly? And is it an effective sentence? Well, straightaway, I can see the word pair winter, as the dreary winter months passed by.

So I know I've used this word correctly, but I can also see this extra detail to show that it is an effective sentence.

Yin longed to feel the warm sunshine.

If you long for something, you really, really, really want it to happen, and that's how you would feel if you'd had dreary winter months.

It shows how desperate he is.

So maybe just check, how effective is your sentence? Is there a detail you could add to make it even more effective and really show or emphasise how dreary something is? Okay, let's look at one more example sentence together.

The prisoner sighed in the dreary dungeon and wished there was something to do.

So again, does this sentence used dreary correctly? Is it an effective sentence? Well, straightaway, I can see my word pair, dungeon, the dreary dungeon.

I've got this extra detail, this verb, the prisoner sighed.

That's what the prisoner did.

And he wished there was something to do.

So both of these actions of the prisoner sighing and wishing there was something to do show me it kinda exaggerates how dreary this dungeon is and how bored he is.

Okay, so we're going to look at our second new dark and rainy word.

Our first one was dreary, which was an adjective.

I wonder if this is going be an adjective too.

Ooh, what's happening in this picture? This is Armie, the armadillo.

What's happening here? How is Armie feeling and why? Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Well, in this picture, Armie looks like he is racing away from a giant tornado that is following him.

This tornado looks very big and very dark, and it looks.

I mean, if this tornado was following me in my car, I think I'd be feeling extremely scared.

So let's see what this word means.

Ominous.

My turn, your turn.

Ominous Now, ominous is an adjective.

It means scary, threatening, or menacing.

So sometimes when I say ominous to help me remember what it means, I say it like this.

Ominous! Can you say it like that? Well done.

Kind of scary, or threatening, or menacing, like a huge, dark tornado spinning towards you.

So again, the etymology, which means the history of a word, this word comes from the Latin ominosus.

Again, I might be saying that wrong.

Ominosus, I hope that's right, which means full or foreboding.

Foreboding is a feeling that something bad will happen.

So if you were full or foreboding, it would be like you would have this feeling in the pit of your stomach that something bad is going to happen, and we can see how therefore the meaning of this word now, ominous, has kind of changed over time.

It now means scary, threatening, or menacing.

So these words are synonyms of ominous.

They have a similar meaning, threatening, menacing, or eerie, which means kind of spooky or scary.

The dark, ominous tornado loomed above Armie menacingly.

These are word pairs of ominous.

Ominous clouds, so let's just think about that for a second.

If you were sitting in the park and there are a few little, white, fluffy, wispy clouds in the sky, they wouldn't really be ominous because they don't look like they're gonna cause many problems. But if you were sitting having a picnic and some dark clouds started rolling in maybe a rumble of thunder that they looked really dark, like they were going to just suddenly burst and there was gonna be a heavy downpour or a thundery storm, you might describe them as ominous clouds.

An ominous sign.

So perhaps if you were someone superstitious, that means if you are superstitious, you believe you get bad luck if you walk under a ladder or smash a mirror.

If you were really hoping, let's imagine, you were gonna give a big speech at work or at school and you were a bit nervous about it, and then that morning you broke a mirror, you might say, "Oh no, I think that's an ominous sign." That's a bit like that thing foreboding, the feeling that something bad will happen.

An ominous warning, so a menacing or scary warning.

An ominous shadow.

So again, a shadow that you see, that you think, "Oh, that looks a bit scary or threatening." Could you pause the video and read these four word pairs out loud? Well done.

Let's take a look at some more word pairs.

Ominous tone.

So if somebody spoke with an ominous tone, it might be a little bit threatening or a little bit scary.

An ominous silence.

Again, a silence that might feel a bit threatening or scary.

An ominous message and an ominous look.

And we can turn this word ominous into ominously, which would turn it into an adverb which describes an adjective or a verb.

For example here, the shadow loomed ominously over him.

In this sentence, loomed is the verb, that's the action, the thing the shadow is doing.

The shadow loomed over him.

But I've added that detail, it loomed ominously, menacingly, or scarily over him.

So we can see that this is a word that's helpful and useful in lots of context, but also that we could turn into an adverb.

So we've kind of learned two words here, ominous and ominously.

Okay, which of these words is a synonym for ominous? A, eerie, B, stinky, or C, feathery.

Pause the video while you think about your answer.

Well done.

The correct answer is A.

Eerie is a synonym for ominous.

Okay, so another word map, this time with ominous in the middle.

First, could you circle the synonyms and then draw lines to the word pairs? There's a sentence here to help you.

Remember there's that trick that you could try to replace that word with one of the synonyms. Pause the video while you have a go at this task.

Well done.

Let's go through the answers together.

The synonyms are eerie, menacing, and threatening.

The word pairs are ominous clouds, ominous sign, ominous warning, ominous look, ominous shadow, ominous tone, ominous silence, and an ominous message.

So it's now time for you to write a sentence using the word ominous.

Use the word pairs to help you.

When you have finished writing your sentence, read it back carefully and see if you can improve it.

Here are some things you might be able to improve.

You might be able to check your spellings.

You might be able to check your punctuation if you've got capital letters, full stops, commas where you need them.

You might be able to add a little bit more detail.

So where you've put a full stop, you could cross that out and extend your idea, or where you've got a noun, you might be able to add in an extra adjective or a verb.

You might be able to add in an adverb to describe the verb, or you might be able to extend an idea.

So those are all ways that you can improve your work.

So start off by picking a word pair, for example, ominous shadow, then think about what your sentence is gonna be.

Practise saying it, write it down, and then carefully read it back and see if you can improve it.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

Let's look at an example sentence together.

The spaceship cast an ominous shadow over the city.

So let's just picture that, a spaceship cast an ominous shadow over the city.

If you were in a city and suddenly there was a gigantic shadow from a spaceship above you, it would feel ominous, wouldn't it? Scary or threatening.

Now, let's improve this together.

There was panic in the streets as the spaceship cast an ominous shadow over the city.

So I've actually turned this sentence now into an adverbial complex sentence.

I've added in a main clause, there was panic in the streets, and then I've turned what was my main clause before into a subordinate clause by using the subordinating conjunction as.

There was panic in the streets as the spaceship cast an ominous shadow over the city.

There's kind of two things happening in this sentence, the panic and the shadow.

You can see how I started with a sentence, and it was a good sentence, I was pleased with it, but then I have added in some extra detail to make it even more effective.

So we've got there my word pair shadow.

Panic is how you might feel to see something ominous.

Okay, let's look at another example sentence.

Stax stepped on stage to ominous silence.

"This is going to be bad," he mumbled to himself.

So again, we've got here, let's think if we use this correctly, we've got my word pair, silence and ominous silence, and the silence is making him feel nervous.

If you were in a play and you kept hearing the audience applauding, and if you looked out, they all looked really happy, you would feel quite confident going on stage because you think, "Oh, everyone seems to be having a good time." But if there was an ominous silence, if everyone in this audience was completely silent, it might make you feel really nervous.

The silence, the ominous silence might feel a bit threatening or a bit scary.

Okay, so our first word was dreary, an adjective.

Our second word was ominous, which is also an adjective.

Let's find out what our third word is.

What is happening in this picture? This is Oz.

What's happening here? What's the rain doing here? Pause the video now.

Well done.

In this picture, Oz is doing a painting using an easel, but, unfortunately, the rain is coming down on the painting and it's kind of making it all smudge and smushed, and it's ruining her painting, and she looks quite upset about it.

So let's see what this word is.

Splattered.

My turn, your turn.

Splattered.

Well done.

Splattered is an adjective.

It means splashed or sprinkled like a painting that has been ruined by heavy raindrops.

These words are synonyms of splattered, sprinkled, drizzled, splashed.

Oz watched as the splattered raindrops destroyed her painting.

These are word pairs of splattered.

Splattered water, splattered paint, splattered ink, splattered mud, splattered droplets, and splattered grease.

Maybe if you were cooking, there might be splattered grease on the tiles if there were tiles behind where you were cooking, if it's kind of bubbled up and boiled and splattered onto the walls.

Could you pause the video now and read these word pairs out loud? Well done.

So which of these words is a word pair of splattered? A, mud, B, warning, or C, silence.

Pause the video while you think about your answer.

Well done.

The correct answer is A, splattered mud.

So for your final word map of the day, you have splattered in the middle.

Could you first circle the synonyms and then draw lines to the word pairs? Again, there's a sentence there to help you.

Pause the video now.

Well done, let's go through the answers together.

The synonyms are drizzled, splashed, sprinkled.

The word pairs are splattered water, splattered paint, splattered ink, splattered mud, splattered droplets, splattered grease.

So we're now going to write our last sentence of the lesson, this time using the word splattered.

The word pairs are there to help you.

Pick a word pair that's gonna help you to use this word correctly.

Then there's a challenge.

Can you write a relative complex sentence? In a relative complex sentence, We have a main clause which we interrupt with a relative clause.

A relative clause starts with which or who, and it's got commas either side of it.

So you might have a sentence.

You might think who your sentence is going to be about, or it could be about a person, or it might be about a thing.

Let's say if I chose a thing, I'm gonna choose a car, and I said something like, the car was in desperate need for a clean.

There's my main clause, the car was in desperate need for a clean, but then I'm going to add in some relevant information about the car with my relative clause.

Now, the car isn't gonna be who 'cause it's not a person.

I'm gonna use which, the relative pronoun which.

So I'm gonna say the car, comma, which was splattered with mud, comma, was in desperate need for a clean.

So I've added in that relative clause, which was splattered with mud.

Either side of it, I've got comma to separate it from the main clause.

So there's your challenge as this is the final sentence we're going to write in today's lesson.

So pause the video now and good luck.

Okay, well done.

Let's look at an example sentence together.

Oz watched as the splattered raindrops made spotty patterns on the pavement.

So if the pavement was all dry, be it sort of nice pale colour 'cause it was dry, and if there were raindrops that splattered, they would make spotty patterns on the pavement.

Does the sentence use splattered correctly? Well, I can see there the word pair raindrops.

So let's look at another sentence.

Plato's Apron, which he had just washed, was now splattered with grease from the burger grill.

Again, does this use splattered correctly? Well, let's see.

I've got the word splattered.

I've got grease as my word pair here, so I know I've used it correctly.

And also, you may have noticed in this sentence, I've got a relative clause.

The main clause is Plato's apron was now splattered with grease from the burger grill.

That's the main idea, but I've added in some extra or relevant information about the apron.

Plato's apron, comma, which he had just washed, comma, was now splattered with grease from the burger grill.

I'm just adding some more information that's going to help my reader to see that this is really annoying that Plato's apron is splattered with grease because he's just washed it.

So, hopefully, that's a little trick you can use in your writing.

Okay, it's our last task in today's lesson.

You've got three sentences and you need to fill the gaps with either the word dreary, ominous, or splattered, which are the three words we've learned today.

So here are your sentences.

After driving through the wet fields, Grit's truck was, mm, with mud.

They were enjoying their picnic, until they saw an, mm, dark cloud slowly getting closer and closer.

Mrs. Wordsmith dreamed of escaping England's, mm, weather for a holiday in the sun.

Can you pause the video and decide which word fits best in each sentence? Well done.

Let's look at the answers together.

After driving through the wet fields, Grit's truck was splattered with mud splattered.

Splattered.

They were enjoying their picnic, until they saw an ominous dark cloud slowly getting closer and closer.

There was a bit of a clue there because it's an ominous dark cloud.

If it was dreary or splattered, it would just be a.

but if we've got an, it shows that the following word starts with a vowel, A, I, E, O, or U.

Mrs. Wordsmith dreamed of escaping England's dreary weather for a holiday in the sun.

I feel a little bit like that now.

It's been a long dreary.

There's been lots of rain recently, and I would like to escape for a holiday in the sun after all the dreary weather.

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

Dreary, it means boring or miserable, like a dull job doing the same thing over and over again, like Bearnice in that picture Ominous is an adjective meaning scary, threatening, or menacing, like a huge dark tornado spinning towards you.

And splattered is an adjective meaning splashed or sprinkled, like a painting that has been ruined by heavy raindrops.

I hope you have enjoyed learning with me today, and I hope that these words could be really useful in your speaking and in your writing.

Thank you so much for working so hard.

You should feel very proud of yourselves.

Hopefully, I'll see you for some more learning another time.

Bye.