Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

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

The words we'll be learning today are associated with dark and rainy weather.

Quite often when we read a story or when we watch a programme or a film, the weather is dark and rainy when it matches the mood.

So when something sad or maybe a bit scary or eerie is happening.

So these words will be really useful when you're telling stories, either saying them or reading or writing them.

These words will be really helpful if you want to kind of create that sort of negative atmosphere and a dark and rainy day.

So let's get started.

The outcome of today's lesson is to use the words bleak, downpour and drab effectively in multiple contexts.

These are our keywords for today's lesson.

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

Are you ready? Noun.

Adjective.

Even louder now, ready? Synonym.

Word pair.

Oh, that's lovely and loud, well done.

Let's find out what these words mean.

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

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

So you might look around the room and find either a person or a thing, or you could describe a place in the room and then you could describe it with an adjective.

For example, the dark corner or the smiley friend.

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

For example, if you described that corner as dark, you might also describe it as gloomy.

They have a similar meaning.

And word pairs are words that often appear together.

So if you were going to take, for example, the word dark, there would be words that it would often be paired with, for example, a dark night.

In today's lesson, we have three learning cycles, and in each learning cycle, we'll be learning a new dark and rainy word.

But as you'll see, as the lesson goes on, these words are really helpful to describe dark and rainy weather, but actually they can be used in lots of other contexts as well.

So these words are going to be extremely helpful for us to have in our vocabulary toolkits to use in our speaking and in our writing.

Let's take a look at our first new dark and rainy word.

Take a look what's happening in this picture.

You might find it a little bit funny.

This is Grit, the dog, what's happening here? How do you think he feels? Could you pause the video and either have some thinking time or describe out loud what you see now? Well done.

Well, Grit here is looking extremely upset, isn't he? I can see he's looking up the sky like he's almost saying, "Why would this happen to me?" And I can see tears pouring from his eyes.

And if we look closely, if we're detectives, I can see that there's a box, a pink box, and it says in the side, fresh donuts, but the box is empty and there's a little Post-it note which says IOU, which means I owe you, as in I've eaten your donuts, sorry, I owe you some more.

I'll give you some more back another time.

And Grit was probably really excited about these donuts.

And he's opened the box to see they're all gone and he's feeling really fed up.

So let's find out what this word is.

Bleak.

My turn, your turn.

Bleak.

Well done.

Bleak is an adjective.

So it's a describing word.

It means gloomy or depressing, like a miserable day when all your donuts have been eaten.

So if we think about the opposite to a bleak day, maybe it might be the summer holidays and you might have some exciting plans.

The sun might be shining.

If we then think about a bleak day, maybe the weather outside was really grey and overcast.

Maybe you were feeling a bit rubbish, maybe you were feeling a bit unwell.

Maybe you had no exciting plans.

You might describe that as bleak, gloomy, or depressing.

So these words are synonyms of bleak.

That means they have a similar meaning.

Hopeless, dreary, and gloomy.

Here's the word in a sentence.

Things had gone from bad to worse for Grit on this bleak day.

These are word pairs of bleak, bleak day, bleak future, bleak picture, bleak outlook.

An outlook is either a person's point of view or general attitude to life.

For example, you might say he had a positive outlook on life, or you could say he had a bleak outlook on life, a kind of depressing, gloomy outlook.

Or it can just mean like a view.

So for example, you might look out your window and say there was a bleak outlook, a bleak view.

What you saw was bleak.

Okay, so could you pause the video now and read these word pairs out loud? Great, well done.

It's really important that we practise saying these words and saying them with the word pairs.

Hopefully will remind us to use this new word appropriately.

So here are some more word pairs.

Bleak reality, a bleak place, a bleak landscape, and a bleak chance.

So in that last example, you might say, let's, for example, imagine you were going to a running race and if you had a bleak chance of winning, it would be quite a sort of depressing, gloomy chance of winning because it probably would be very unlikely that you would win.

So could you again pause the video and read these word pairs out loud? Well done.

Let's check what we've just learned.

Which of these words is a synonym for bleak? A, thin, B, gloomy, or C splashed.

Which is a synonym for bleak? Pause the video now.

Well done.

The correct answer is B, gloomy is a synonym for bleak.

Well done if you spotted that.

Okay, it's time for our first task of today.

In this task, you have a word map with the word bleak written in the middle.

Around the edge or around the word bleak, you have got different words, which are either synonyms or word pairs.

First, I would like you to find the synonyms and I'd like you to circle them.

And then I'd like you to draw lines to the word pairs.

So you'll draw a line from bleak up or across or down to each word pair.

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

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

Things had gone from bad to worse for Grit on this bleak day.

Now, if you're unsure if a word is a synonym or a word pair, you could try taking out the word bleak in that sentence and replacing it with the word.

If it works, that could mean it's a synonym.

So there's a trick to help you if you are unsure.

So pause the video now while you complete this task.

Let's go through the answers together.

The synonyms are hopeless, gloomy and dreary.

The word pairs are bleak future, bleak day, bleak picture, bleak landscape, bleak outlook, which is a view, bleak chance, bleak reality, or a bleak place.

It's now time for you to write your own sentence using the word bleak.

I'd like you to use the word pairs to help you.

Here they are.

Have a think about who you're going to write your sentence about and what kind of atmosphere do you want to create? Are you trying to create a bleak atmosphere in your sentence? And if so, what details could you add to really exaggerate the kind of atmosphere you're trying to create? Using those word pairs is going to help you to use this word really accurately.

So you might start off by picking a word pair and then think about who your sentence is going to be about.

So pause the video now while you write your own sentence using this new word bleak.

Well done.

I hope you're really pleased with your sentences.

Let's look at an example sentence together.

Armie couldn't spot even a single speck of colour in the bleak landscape.

So let's just think, does this sentence use bleak correctly? And is it an effective sentence? Well, straightaway, I can see I've got the word landscape, which is a word pair.

And the fact that I've got that detail, there's not a spot of colour, kind of backs up this idea that this is a bleak landscape.

I wonder if you could check how effective your sentence is.

Perhaps you might want to pause the video while you check your sentence now.

Well done.

Let's look at another sentence.

When Brick saw the empty box, he accepted the bleak reality that there was no pizza left.

Again, does this sentence you bleak correctly? Is it effective? Well, I can see the word pair of reality.

He accepted the bleak reality, and I can see this detail, there was no pizza left, which explains why it was bleak.

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

So as we can see with our first word, bleak, it could describe the weather or a day, but it can describe lots of other things as well.

So let's see if we can say the same for our second new dark and rainy word.

Oh, have a look what's happening in this picture.

This is Grit, the dog.

What is happening to Grit here? How would you describe this weather or this rain? Pause the video now.

Well done.

This word is downpour.

My turn.

Your turn.

Downpour.

Well done.

Maybe let's say it with an action.

Downpour.

Well done.

Downpour is a noun.

It is a heavy rainstorm, a big burst of rain that soaks you to the skin.

I wonder if you've ever been in that situation before.

I know I have where you've been outside and you haven't got an umbrella or anything to keep you dry like a waterproof coat and suddenly, there is a downpour and it makes you completely soaked.

So this word is a noun.

It is not an adjective like bleak was, which describes something.

It is a thing.

A downpour is a thing.

So if this word is a noun, what do you think the synonyms and word pairs will be? Have a little bit of thinking time.

First of all, what will the synonyms be? The synonyms are words that have a similar meaning.

That's right.

They'll be nouns too.

And the word pairs will be, maybe you could shout out to me what you think.

Well done if you said adjectives because last time bleak was an adjective so all the word pairs were nouns because they were describing nouns.

But this is a noun, so our word pairs will be adjectives.

Okay, so these words are synonyms of downpour.

They have a similar meaning.

Rain, deluge and rainstorm.

These are all nouns as well.

Grit's clothes were drenched by the heavy downpour.

These words are word pairs of downpour, heavy downpour, torrential downpour.

That's like another way of saying it's really heavy.

Tropical downpour.

That might be we often associate rain with sort of cold weather, but actually, you could be somewhere that's really hot and there could be a tropical downpour.

So the rain might feel actually quite nice to cool you down.

Incessant downpour.

If something is incessant, it means it's continuing without pause or interruption.

It's just going on and on and on.

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

We've got three more word pairs.

And as we can see, these word pairs are adjectives.

Heavy, torrential, tropical, incessant.

They're all describing words.

Thundery downpour, steady downpour.

So it's not fluctuating, it's not heavy and then dies off a bit.

It's just steady.

It's staying the same.

And occasional downpour.

So perhaps there might be a day where the weather's pretty nice, but there's an occasional downpour.

Every now and again, there's this heavy rain and then it stops again.

Again, pause the video now and read these three word pairs out loud.

Well done.

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

Which of these words is a synonym for downpour? Is it A, rain, B, cloud, or C, deluge? Pause the video while you think about your answer.

Well done if you got the answer C.

Deluge is a synonym for downpour.

A deluge is like a heavy burst of water.

Okay, so the same as our task earlier, we have a word map this time with downpour in the middle.

I'd like you to circle the synonyms and then draw lines to the word pairs.

And as you do that, could you read them out loud? Here's the word in a sentence to help you.

Grit's clothes were drenched by the heavy downpour.

And remember, there's that trick that you could try and replace the word downpour and if it is a synonym, then you should be able to replace in that sentence.

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

Okay, well done.

Let's go through the answers together.

The synonyms are rain, deluge, and rainstorm.

They're all nouns.

They're all things, naming word for things.

And these are all word pairs.

These are all adjectives.

Heavy downpour, torrential downpour, tropical downpour, incessant downpour, just going on and on, never stopping.

A thundery downpour, steady downpour and occasional downpour, happening every now and again.

I'd now like you to write a sentence using the word downpour.

And again, use these word pairs to help you.

When you have finished writing your sentence, I'd like you to 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 the spellings, you might be able to check punctuation, things like capital letters, full stops, commas.

Maybe you might be able to add more detail.

So where you've put a full stop, you might take that out and instead extend your sentence.

Or perhaps there might be a noun where you could add an adjective or a verb where you could add an adverb.

You could extend an idea.

So these are all different ways we can improve our work.

And it's just as important as the part where we write our sentence.

All the parts of writing a sentence are as important.

The part where we think about what we're going to say and practise saying it out loud, the part where we write it, and then the part where we go back and check and improve it.

So could you pause the video now while you write a sentence using the word downpour? Okay, well done.

Let's look at an example sentence together.

The incessant downpour of rain showed no signs of stopping.

So does this sentence use downpour correctly? Well, I can see here incessant downpour, that adjective, which means it just continues without pause.

So straightaway I can see I've got a word pair.

Showed no signs of stopping.

Now, that's an extra bit of detail that kind of backs up that this is an incessant downpour.

I could have just said there was an incessant downpour, but instead I've said the incessant downpour of rain showed no signs of stopping.

It shows how heavy it is.

Here's another sentence, oz's clothes were drenched when she got caught in the torrential downpour.

So again, I can see my word pair, torrential, the adjective torrential.

And I can also see that this word drenched, that describes her clothes and that shows that they are drenched, means soaking wet.

So that shows how heavy the rain was.

Okay, our first word was bleak.

Our second word, which was a noun, was downpour.

And our third word is what we're going to focus on now.

So what's happening in this picture? Can you see what Oz is doing? How do you think she's feeling? How would you describe the outlook when she looks out of her window? Pause the video and have some thinking time or describe what you see now out loud.

Okay, well, in this picture, Oz's body language looks, she's sort of drooped over, isn't she? She's hunched over.

She looks just generally quite deflated and quite fed up.

She doesn't look like she's bursting with enthusiasm.

And I think the reason why is because she's dressed up in some, it looks like some sort of clothes you might wear to the beach.

And I can see there's a yellow surfboard there.

Perhaps Oz was hoping to go out surfing or have a fun day at the beach, but she's looked out the window and it looks very gloomy, very bleak.

There's no colours, there's no sign of sun.

It just looks very sort of boring, doesn't it? So let's find out what this word is.

Drab.

My turn.

Your turn.

Drab.

Drab is an adjective like bleak.

It means dull or grey, like a dark, gloomy day.

These are synonyms of drab, colourless, so no colours, dull and dreary.

Oz looked out at her drab surroundings and sighed.

These are word pairs of drab, drab day, drab sky, drab existence.

Existence is living or existing.

So you might, for example, say the company had been in existence for 100 years.

That mean it had existed for 100 years.

So if you said somebody had a drab existence, it would just be a very dull existence.

Nothing much, nothing very exciting would happen in their life.

And a drab uniform.

Just imagine that for a second.

Imagine what a drab uniform might look like.

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

Right, you've got four more.

Drab colour, drab building, drab town, and drab surroundings.

So again, just picture a drab colour.

The wall in that house where Oz is quite a drab colour.

Imagine a drab building.

Perhaps there wouldn't be anything.

No pictures on the walls or no nice, comfortable, bright furniture.

A drab town, perhaps quite a sort of gloomy dull town.

And then drab surroundings.

So can you pause the video and say those word pairs out loud? And as you do each one, try to picture what you are saying.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

So which of these words this time is a word pair of drab? A, uniform, B, rainbow, or C, silence.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

The correct answer is drab uniform.

A rainbow is kind of the opposite of what we would describe as drab because a rainbow is very colourful and we know that a synonym for drab is colourless.

So a drab uniform is the correct answer.

Okay, our last word map of the day.

You know how to do this now.

First circle the synonyms, then draw lines to the word pairs.

There's your sentence to help you.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Let's go through the answers together.

The synonyms are dull, dreary, and colourless.

The word pairs are drab day, drab existence, drab sky, drab uniform, drab colour, drab town, drab building, and drab surroundings.

So just as we've done before, I would now like you to write a sentence this time using the word drab.

Again, use the word pairs to help you.

There's a challenge in this 'cause it's your last sentence that we're going to write today.

Can you write a relative complex sentence? Here's a scaffold to help you.

When we write a relative complex sentence, we have a main clause that we interrupt it with a relative clause that starts with the relative pronoun which or who.

So you might think of your main idea, your main clause.

For example, Oz looked out at her drab surroundings, and then you can think, right, Oz, now I'm going to add some relevant information about her.

Oz, now would I say Oz which? No 'cause I'd use that for a thing.

I'd say Oz who, so I might something like Oz, who had been so excited for her holiday, looked out at her drab surroundings.

I'm adding in some extra relevant information about Oz, and we have a comma either side of our relative clause to separate it from the main clause.

So there's your challenge.

Pause the video now while you write a sentence using the word drab.

And remember to start off by picking a word pair to help you.

Okay, well done.

Let's look at an example together.

The drab sky covered the town like a heavy blanket of dark, grey sludge.

Does this sentence use the word drab correctly? Well, we can see the word pair sky, the drab sky.

We've also got a simile, which is when we compare something using like or as.

The drab sky covered the town like a heavy blanket.

So I think this sentence, we've used drab effectively here.

Let's look at another example.

Oz, who was feeling fed up, heated her drab existence in a boring office.

So again, does it use drab correctly? I can see existence, which is a word pair.

Remember, existence is like living or existing.

So she hated her drab existence.

That's the main clause.

Oz hated her drab existence in a boring office.

But we've got the relative complex sentence, our relative clause is there.

Who was feeling fed up? Commas either side of it.

The relative pronoun who starts it off.

Oz hated her drab existence in a boring office.

I've added in Oz, who was feeling fed up, hated her drab existence in a boring office.

And that means I've written a relative complex sentence.

Well done if you managed to do one of those as well.

Okay, our final task of today is a gap filling task.

You've got three sentences and each sentence has a gap in it.

I would like you to fill the gap with either the word bleak, downpour, or drab.

Here's the first one.

Bogart quit the army because he didn't like the mhm uniform.

Grit lit a cosy, warm fire to try to cheer him up on the mhm day.

There was the occasional mhm during Plato's holiday, but it was mostly sunny and dry.

Can you pause the video now and decide which of those words you're going to fit in which in each sentence.

Well done, let's go through the answers.

Bogart quit the army because he didn't like the drab uniform.

Must be very dull, very colourless.

Grit lit a cosy, warm fire to try to cheer himself up on the bleak day.

Drab actually would've worked in that sentence as well, but we couldn't have described a uniform as bleak.

So hopefully if you did drab first, drab uniform, you would then have known that bleak was the other option left.

And there was the occasional downpour during Plato's holiday, but it was mostly sunny and dry.

Well done if you manage to put those words in the correct gap.

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

We've learned three new words that are associated with dark and rainy weather, but also can be used in lots of different contexts.

Bleak means gloomy or depressing, like a miserable day when all your donuts have been eaten.

A downpour is a noun.

It's a heavy rainstorm, a big burst of rain that soaks you to the skin.

Drab is an adjective, meaning dull or grey, like a dark gloomy day.

I hope these words are really useful in your speaking and your writing.

Thank you so much for all your hard work in today's lesson.

You should all feel very proud of yourselves for working through this lesson and writing through amazing sentences.

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