Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

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

In our learning today, we're focusing on vocabulary that's associated with hard work.

So we'll be thinking of different ways of describing hard or tiring tasks, and also thinking about how that might make us feel.

So by the end of today's lesson, we're going to have six really ambitious new words for us to use in our speaking and our writing.

So let's get started.

The outcome of today's lesson is to effectively use the words gruelling, tedious, and other rich vocabulary associated with hard work.

These are our key words we'll be using today, so these are the words that are really important for our learning.

Let's start by saying each one out loud, my turn, your turn.

Noun.

Adjective.

Adverb.

Synonym.

Word pair.

Well done.

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

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

An adverb is a word that can describe a verb or an adjective.

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

Word pairs are words that often appear together.

So in our lesson today, anything that we're describing that might be difficult, like a task, would be a noun, that would be a thing.

If we're describing a task, we're using an adjective, which is a describing word.

And when we learn new words, it's really helpful to look at synonyms, words that have a similar meaning, to help us to understand exactly what the word means, but also to learn word pairs so we know how to use these new words appropriately and correctly, and what context we can use them in.

So all of these things will be really important in our learning.

We have three learning cycles today.

In the first two learning cycles, we'll be looking at one word in each, and in the final learning cycle, we'll be looking at four words grouped together.

So by the end of today's lesson, we will have six new words.

Let's start with our first hard work word.

Now, before I tell you what this word is, I'd like you to look closely at the picture.

This is Bearnice being carried by Oz and Armie.

But can you look at all the little details in this picture and describe exactly what you see? Pause the video now.

Well done.

Well, Bearnice looks like she's having a lovely time in this picture.

She's leaning back, and it looks like she's some kind of Egyptian pharaoh or something in the clothes that she's wearing.

And she's got her feet up, she's eating some pizza, she's got some other lovely food there on the side, and poor old Armie and Oz are carrying her, and they look extremely tired.

I can see they're sweating.

They're kinda stooped over like the weight is too much for them.

So let's find out what this word is.

Gruelling.

My turn, your turn.

Gruelling.

Gruelling is an adjective, it's a describing word.

It means difficult or draining, like the effort of carrying a huge bear.

We could also add an LY onto this word to make it into an adverb.

Gruellingly.

Adverbs can describe adjectives or verbs.

So we've got the adjective gruelling and the adverb gruellingly, and we'll look at both of those in a sentence on the next slide.

So these words are synonyms of gruelling, they have a similar meaning.

Exhausting, draining, and difficult.

Carrying Bearnice in the searing heat was gruelling work.

So there we can see the word gruelling, the adjective describing the noun of work, and then here we could change it to an adverb.

Carrying Bernice in the searing heat was gruellingly hard work.

These are word pairs of gruelling.

Gruelling work, gruelling climb, gruelling schedule.

A schedule is a plan or a list of activities that need to be done at a specific time in the day.

So if you had a gruelling schedule, you would probably have not a single second to relax, there would just be activity after activity.

A gruelling journey, a gruelling process, a gruelling race.

Perhaps it might be a marathon, a gruelling race, a really, really long race.

So it's really important that we practise saying these words, not just listening to them or reading them.

So I would like you now to pause the video and read these word pairs out loud, just like I did.

Off you go.

Okay, well done.

Which of these words is a synonym of gruelling? A, difficult, B, tired, or C, heavy? Pause the video while you think about your answer.

Well done.

The correct answer is A.

Difficult is a synonym of gruelling.

Okay, so for your first task in today's lesson, you have a word map with the word gruelling in the middle.

Around the word gruelling are either synonyms or word pairs.

First, I'd like you to circle the synonyms. Then I'd like you to draw lines from the word gruelling to each word pair.

As you do it, say them out loud.

Now, if it doesn't sound right, it probably means it's not a word pair, it's a synonym.

For example, gruelling schedule, gruelling draining.

Now, that doesn't sound right, which makes me think draining must be a synonym.

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

Carrying Bearnice in the searing heat was gruelling work.

Now if you think the word is a synonym, you could always take out the word gruelling in that sentence and replace it with the synonym, for example, draining.

Carrying Bearnice in the searing heat was draining work.

That- It doesn't always sound perfect when you replace the word with a synonym because they're not always interchangeable, but it gives you an idea, and actually, draining did work in that sentence, which makes me think draining is a synonym.

So, could you pause the video while you complete this task? Excellent, well done.

Let's go through the answers together.

The synonyms are exhausting, draining, difficult.

The word pairs are gruelling work, gruelling climb, gruelling schedule, gruelling journey, gruelling process, and gruelling race.

Let's look at our second new hard work word.

What's happening in this picture? This is Armie the armadillo.

What's he doing here and how do you think he feels? Pause the video now.

Well done.

Well, Armie here looks like he has piles, and piles, and piles of paper stacked up, and books surrounding him.

And it looks like he's doing, I don't know what kind of work he's doing, but it looks like he's doing some kind of work, and he looks so bored by it all.

He looks so bored, like he's almost just become like a robot doing it.

Let's find out what this word is.

Tedious.

My turn, your turn.

Tedious.

Well done.

Tedious is an adjective.

It means boring or dull, like having to work through an endless pile of tiresome homework.

Can we turn tedious into an adverb? Have some thinking time.

Remember to, usually we add LY to turn an adjective into an adverb.

What do you think? Thumbs up or thumbs down.

That's right, tediously is an adverb, so we could have the adjective tedious or the adverb tediously.

So if we had a verb like stacked, Armie tediously stacked, the piles of papers.

Stacked is the verb, it's the action that he's doing, and tediously describes how he did it, in a boring, dull way.

So these are synonyms of the adjective tedious.

Dull, boring, dreary.

The paperwork, paperwork was so tedious that Armie could barely keep his eyes open.

I wonder if you could quickly think of something you've done recently that you might describe as tedious.

Just have some thinking time.

I wonder what you thought of.

These are word pairs of tedious.

Maybe these might match up with what you just thought of.

Tedious paperwork.

Tedious process.

A tedious journey.

Tedious job.

A tedious task.

And tedious time.

You might say, "I had a tedious time." Again, could you now pause the video and read these word pairs out loud? Well done.

Okay, which of these words is a synonym of tedious? A, journey, B, relaxing, or C, dreary? Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Let's go through the answer.

It is C.

Dreary is a synonym of tedious.

So now we have another word map.

This time tedious is written in the middle.

Could you circle the synonyms and draw lines to the word pairs? Here's a sentence to help you.

The paperwork was so tedious that Armie could barely keep his eyes open.

Now remember the trick, if you could replace the word, it might be a synonym.

So pause the video now while you complete this task.

Well done.

Let's go through the answers together.

The synonyms are dull, dreary, and boring.

The word pairs are tedious process, tedious journey, a tedious job, tedious paperwork, tedious time, and tedious task.

Now we're going to write a sentence using either of these new words, gruelling or tedious.

Use the word pairs to help you.

Here are the words pairs for gruelling, and here are the word pairs for tedious.

So start by picking which word you are going to use, perhaps you might choose tedious, then pick your word pair, for instance, a tedious task, and then you might think, okay, what would be a good example of a tedious task? Maybe it might be counting grains of sand, or maybe it might be putting the toys away, or maybe it might be writing hundreds of thank you letters.

So think of a tedious task, and then have a go at writing your sentence.

And I want you to be as ambitious as possible when you write your sentence.

So if you've written your sentence, stop and think, could I improve it? Could I add more detail? Is that the best sentence I can write? We're only writing one sentence in this lesson today, so let's make it count.

So pick gruelling or tedious, pick your words pair, think of a sentence, and then keep trying to improve it.

Pause the video while you do that now.

Well done.

I hope you're really pleased with your sentence.

Let's look at an example together.

Does this sentence use tedious correctly? Stax played dance music to make doing his tedious chore more interesting.

Thumbs up or thumbs down, does that use tedious correctly? Yeah, I think it does.

We've got a word pair, chore, tedious chore, and it makes sense that if you were doing a tedious chore, you might listen to some music to make it more interesting.

There's our word pair, chore.

But I think we could improve this sentence a little bit by adding some detail.

Stax played dance music to make doing his tedious chore, counting grains of sand, more interesting.

So what I did there is I've added a non-finite clause.

It's got an ING verb, counting.

The main clause is Stax played dance music to make doing his tedious chore more interesting, but I've sort of interrupted my main clause with a non-finite clause, which just gives more information, it tells me what the tedious chore is.

To make doing his tedious chore, comma, counting grains of sand, comma, more interesting.

It's almost like having it in brackets, but instead, we've got commas around it, and that just tells us how boring it was and really showing you how tedious that job is.

So perhaps you could just quickly check how effective is your sentence.

Is there anything you could do to improve it, or maybe you might even spot a mistake you could correct? So pause the video while you just quickly check your sentence one more time.

Okay, well done.

We're now onto our final learning cycle, looking at the final four words.

So this time I've got all four pictures there for you.

As I describe each picture, maybe you might even be able to predict what some of them might be.

So the first one, we've got Brick, and he is having to push in a giant boulder uphill, and he's sweating and gritting his teeth, and it looks like a lot of hard work.

In the second picture, Armie is carrying so many things stacked on top of that surfboard.

I can see there that it looks like there is a deck chair, it looks like, is that a jet ski? An umbrella, it looks like there's some kind of music system, and all of that weight is just crushing down on poor Armie, so I wonder how we would describe that weight.

How would that feel? In a similar scenario, in the third picture, poor old Stax the giraffe is bent over, doubled over carrying Bearnice in an armchair, who looks very nice and relaxed.

And Stax again is gritting his teeth, and he looks like that is really hard work for him.

And then the final one is a bit more, a bit different to the others.

We've got Grit the dog sort of slumped over his desk, he's spilling his coffee or his tea, his eyes are bloodshot.

He looks really, really tired.

So let me tell you what each of these words are.

Maybe you have already thought of them.

The first one is laborious, an adjective meaning difficult or exhausting, like the job of pushing big, heavy boulders uphill.

The second one is overwhelming, an adjective meaning overpowering or immense, like having to carry a busload of beach equipment on your shoulders.

The third one is backbreaking, an adjective meaning exhausting or crushing, lifting something so heavy it feels like your back will break.

And finally we've got exhausted, an adjective meaning worn out or very tired, when you're so tired, you sleep deeply for hours and hours.

Let's just say each of those words.

My turn, your turn.

Laborious.

Overwhelming.

Backbreaking.

Exhausted.

Well done.

Okay, so there are our adjectives, all four of them.

Can you pause the video and see if you can match them to the correct image? Okay, let's go through the answers.

So laborious is just above.

The laborious task of pushing that boulder up the hill.

Exhausted is Grit feeling so tired at his desk.

Overwhelming is that overwhelming weight or pressure of all those things piled on Armie.

And backbreaking is that backbreaking task of carrying Bearnice.

Now, we can also turn these adjectives into adverbs.

I'm gonna show you how to do the first one.

Laborious is an adjective.

Laboriously is an adverb.

Could you pause the video and see if you can work out what the other three adjectives would be as adverbs? Okay, let's see if you were right.

Exhaustedly, overwhelmingly, and backbreakingly.

So all of these words we've learned today, we've learnt the adjective form, but they can be adverbs, too.

So actually, we've almost learned 12 new words today instead of six.

Okay, so for each of our four words, there's a word map.

We're going to go through these a bit more quickly now because we've done them before.

You know that in each one, you need to first circle the synonyms. That's gonna help you to deepen your understanding of what the word means.

And then you are going to draw lines to the word pairs.

And as you do that, try reading them out loud so that these words sink into your memory.

For each one, there'll be a sentence to help.

Carrying Bearnice around was backbreaking work, and Stax was exhausted.

Now, we haven't gone through the synonyms and word pairs for these four words, so it might be a little bit more tricky than the previous ones were, but I think you're gonna do a really good job.

So can you pause the video while you complete this word map? Okay, let's go through the answers.

The synonyms are tiring, exhausting, and crushing.

The word pairs are backbreaking work, backbreaking day, backbreaking task, backbreaking burden.

A burden is something heavy or difficult to carry, either physically heavy to carry, or it could be emotionally, but could be an emotional burden, so backbreaking burden would probably be a physical, something heavy physically.

A backbreaking chore, which is like a task or a job, and a backbreaking effort.

Okay, the next one is overwhelming.

The overwhelming pressure was almost too much for Armie to take.

Circle the synonyms, then draw lines to the word pairs.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

The synonyms of overwhelming are overpowering, immense, and enormous.

The word pairs are overwhelming evidence.

So if you were a member of a jury deciding if somebody was guilty or not guilty of doing something, if you said, "I decided that they were guilty because there was overwhelming evidence," it means that there's enormous evidence to say that they had done whatever they were accused of.

Overwhelming pressure.

Perhaps somebody's job might be putting overwhelming pressure on them, or immense pressure, or overpowering pressure.

And overwhelming urge.

Sometimes if I'm in a really serious scenario, like if I was in a really quiet room and everyone was being really quiet, I might have an overwhelming urge just to shout out something silly.

An overwhelming temptation.

Maybe you have given something up and you have an overwhelming temptation to do it again.

An overwhelming majority.

That just means most of the people or things in a group.

So if you did a vote for who was going to be maybe like the school counsellor, if you said there was an overwhelming majority for a certain person, that means that it wasn't close, it was one person had, if it was overwhelming, they had basically most of the votes.

And overwhelming emotion.

If you were feeling overwhelming emotion, because it would be so overpowering or enormous, you probably wouldn't be able to hide it.

Okay, so let's look at the final- Actually, no, there's two more.

Laborious.

After a long day of laborious jobs, Brick could barely move.

So again, can you pause the video, circle the synonyms, and draw lines to the word pairs? Okay, well done.

The synonyms are slow, exhausting, and difficult.

The word pairs are laborious chore, laborious process, laborious job, laborious undertaking, that's just something that you've taken on, laborious method, and a laborious task.

Okay, the final word map is exhausted.

No amount of coffee could keep the exhausted Grit awake.

Pause the video while you complete this final word map.

Okay, so the synonyms of exhausted are weary, fatigued, and drained.

The word pairs are exhausted sleep, exhausted mother, perhaps if they've, you've got lots of children running around or if you've got a baby that doesn't sleep at nighttime, you might have an exhausted mother.

An exhausted voice.

It's a voice that sounds very tired or drained.

An exhausted team, an exhausted body, and exhausted troops may be in an army because they have been fighting for so long, they are exhausted.

Okay, so we've got our final task in today's lesson.

I'm going to read six sentences to you, and in each sentence, there is a gap missing.

You need to fill those gaps with either the word gruelling, tedious, overwhelming, backbreaking, laborious, or exhausted.

So as I'm reading these sentences, listen carefully and see if you can start spotting where each word goes.

The word pairs will help you, so you could always refer back to your word maps if you're unsure.

The baby's mother was mm after listening to him cry all night.

Filling the swimming pool one spoonful of water at a time was a mm job.

Gosh, imagine that, one spoon at a time.

Armie began the mm task of moving all the boxes of heavy, hard-back books into his new house.

Yin had an mm urge to topple Yang's toy tower over.

Mrs. Wordsmith didn't have a moment to relax because of her mm schedule.

Oz leaped out of the car, glad that the mm journey was finally over.

So if you're unsure of any of these, then my advice would be leave it blank, go to the ones that you feel confident about, and then return to the other, return to the ones that you weren't so sure, because by then, you'll have less choices to choose from, so it hopefully will be easier.

The other thing you can do is look at your word maps that you've produced, because they will have the word pairs each word, and that will really help you.

So good luck with this final task.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

Let's go through the answers.

The baby's mother was exhausted after listening to him cry all night.

Filling the swimming pool one spoonful of water at a time was a laborious job.

Now, you might have written, you might have chosen tedious.

That could have worked there as well, so if you chose tedious or laborious.

Armie began the backbreaking task of moving all the boxes of heavy, hard-back books into his new house.

You might have also written the gruelling task of moving them, because gruelling could also work there.

Yin had an overwhelming urge to topple yang's toy tower over.

Now, actually, overwhelming is the only option that would work there, because we've got the article an instead of a, and we know that when we have an, it's because the following word starts with a vowel, A, E, I, O, U.

Oh, sorry, it could have been overwhelming or exhausted.

They're the two adjectives that start with a vowel, but we wouldn't say Yin had an exhausted urge, that wouldn't sound right, so overwhelming urge.

Mrs. Wordsmith didn't have a moment to relax because of her gruelling schedule.

Oz leaped outta the car, glad that the tedious journey was finally over.

So you might have had a little bit of variation in those words because lots of these words have a similar meaning, but those are the ones that I think fit.

Those are the choices that I think fit the best.

Okay, well done.

Let's summarise what we've learned today.

We have learned six new words associated with hard work.

Gruelling is an adjective meaning difficult or draining, like the effort of carrying a huge bear.

Tedious is an adjective meaning boring or dull, like having to work through an endless pile of tiresome homework.

Laborious is an adjective meaning difficult or exhausting, like the job of pushing big, heavy boulders uphill.

Overwhelming is an adjective meaning overpowering or immense, like having to carry a busload of beach equipment on your shoulders.

Backbreaking is an adjective that means exhausting or crushing, lifting something so heavy it feels like your back will break.

And finally, exhausted is an adjective meaning worn out or very tired.

When you are so tired, you sleep deeply for hours and hours.

So I hope that you didn't find this learning today too gruelling, or tedious, or overwhelming, and I hope you're not feeling too exhausted at the end of the lesson, but hopefully these words will be really useful in your speaking and in your writing.

Well done for all your hard work today.

You should feel very proud of yourselves.

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

Bye.