Lesson video

Hey everybody Miss Gardner here.

Welcome to lesson 13 of our unit writing a non-chronological report on pandas.

I'm really excited for today's lesson because we get to do some writing, which is one of my favourite things to teach.

So I really hope you enjoy it as well.

Let's get started.

So today's lesson objective is going to be to write the diet and habitat paragraphs of our non-chronological report.

For this lesson, you're going to need an exercise book or paper, pencil and the plan from our previous lesson.

Now's your chance to pause the video.

If you need to go and get any of this stuff.

And if you think you could find a quiet and calm space to do this.

On the agenda today, we're going to start with a writing warm-up.

We then going to re-cap our plan before we write our diet paragraph and then our habitat paragraph.

We'll be doing a modelled write to us to look at the expectations we have for the kind of writing you can produce.

So the writing warm-up you'll need a pencil and some paper.

Can you write a sentence about this picture using a relative clause? Remember a relative clause has a relative pronoun, which, who or that.

And it's almost like a parenthesis.

It gives extra information.

One of the most important things to remember about a relative clause is that you can take out the sentence and the rest of the sentence that remains will still make sense.

So for example, in the sentence below.

Bamboo, which makes up 99% of a panda's diets, lacks nutritional value.

If you take out the relative clause, which you can see has got commas on either side of it.

If you take that out and leave the rest of the sentence, does it still make sense? Bamboo lacks nutritional value? Yeah, it's a simple sentence.

It totally makes sense.

But by adding the relative clause, you're adding extra information for the reader and you're just showing a really great skill in writing.

So now's your chance to pause the video and have a go writing a relative clause sentence about the picture below.

Of you go.

Welcome back.

Now 'cause you're not at school with a teacher to mark this for you.

This is a really great opportunity for you to do a bit of self assessment and to mark.

Look back through your sentence and check you've got everything you need.

So let's check if you've got the correct punctuation and are your words spelled accurately? Do you think? So I'll show you how I would be marking my sentence.

I've got my which relative clause.

Pandas spend up to 14 hours a day eating the bamboo plant, which takes up 99% of their diet.

The relative cause is coming at the end of the sentence instead.

I know I said earlier that relative clause comes in between two commas.

That's only if it's in the middle of a sentence.

Here, it's the last clause in the sentence.

So it's finished by a full stop.

I haven't used a capital letter after the comma which is good.

Your which shouldn't start with the capital letter but I have got a capital letter at the very beginning of the sentence.

So I've gone through and I've checked that I've got all my punctuation I need.

I haven't got any incorrect capital letters, so I am happy.

So you now need to do the same.

Okay.

Hopefully you have looked through your sentence and are happy with it now.

So we are going to re-cap our plan that we made in the previous lesson.

Where we gathered and kind of collected and organised the information we had about the diet and the habitat.

Make sure you've got your plans with you.

Have you got an intro sentence? Have you got the key facts that you want to talk about? Have you thought of different ways you could refer to the panda to refer to them in different ways and a variety of sentence starters.

And then that all important linking sentence to create flow within the text.

You should also have a habitat one.

Again, if you haven't filled it in now, that's not a problem.

You can always go back to the previous lesson, have a watch.

So you're feeling confident for the writing.

Now is your chance to sort the plans out and get everything ready for writing.

So we're now going to do a modelled write.

A modelled write is when a teacher writes their own version of an example, piece of writing to show the children what kind of sentences they're expecting to show.

What kind of language they should be using.

What punctuation.

And it's just a really great opportunity for the children to create, map some ideas and see the kind of things the teacher wants them to do.

So we're going to do that for both paragraphs the diets and the habitats.

So what should we include in our writing? Like previous writing lessons, I've included a success criteria, which I'll be referring back to in the modelled write.

The things that we could include in this writing to make it successful on the success criteria below.

So the first one I have used subject specific vocabulary.

That is vocabulary that is specific to the text that you were writing.

We're writing about the diet and the habitat.

So in the planning lesson we generated vocabulary that's specific to those two paragraphs.

Hopefully you'll have some of these in your plan which you can refer to and use.

I've used a range of sentence starters.

This is a script where you're writing, but more interesting and varied.

So not every sentence is starting with, pandas do this, pandas do that.

Instead, your having to think of different ways to begin the sentence to create variety within the paragraph.

Third one, I've used a range of formal 'and'/ 'but'/ causal conjunctions.

We've looked at these conjunctions quite a few times throughout the unit.

Formal and things like in addition to this, furthermore.

Things that build on to form sentences.

But conjunctions, but formally.

So things like, however, on the other hand, despite this and then causal conjunctions, which when two formal clause gives a reason to another clause.

For this reason, or consequently or as a result.

Great things to be including in a non-chronological report, which is filled with information.

And then finally I've referred to the nouns in different ways.

So we are not always calling pandas, pandas pandas pandas throughout the texts.

We're referring to them as different ways, maybe mammals, species, bears, animals.

Things that we hopefully would have jotted down in your plan from the previous lesson.

So you can see I've put my success criteria at the top of my page.

I can constantly refer back to it as I'm writing.

As an overall picture, this is what my paragraph Diet look like.

We're going to look at it a little bit more closely a sentence at a time.

So I start with my subheading underlined, or you could do it in bold or italic, but at the top of the paragraph.

I then have my introductory sentence.

Kind of general statement about the diet of the panda.

Just to begin the paragraph.

It will then become more specific as I go through.

So, a panda's diet it's predominantly made up of bamboo.

In fact, it makes up 99% of what they eat.

The things I have highlighted are the apostrophe for possession.

A panda's diet.

Showing a really good punctuation skill there.

And then in fact is a different type of sentence stash.

In the numbered second row of the success criteria is to use a range of sentence starters.

In fact the great on to use in a non-chronological report where you're actually just giving lots of facts.

Don't forget the comma after it though.

And it doesn't need a capital letter after either.

The mammals demolish all of the plant: the stem, the roots and the leaves.

What is in bold here, the mammals, because I've referred to the noun in a different way.

Number four, the fourth one on our success criteria.

So we can take that.

And then I've got a colon and I've used the colon to introduce the list of the parts of the plant.

Demolish.

I just think it's a verb a bit more interesting than eat.

Despite this bamboo provides little nutritional value and energy so pandas need to eat 38 kilogrammes a day to get enough fuel.

Despite this and comma is in bold, is an example of a formal conjunction, a formal but conjunction.

And then I've got another conjunction.

I wonder if you can spot it later on in the sentence.

That's right.

That's a great complex sentence, we've included here.

And a fact 38 kilogrammes a day.

I don't know if you remember from the previous lesson, but often I say to spot the facts, you just look for the numbers.

Interestingly, pandas have carnivorous teeth and do sometimes prey on small mammals, such as mice.

What's in bold here? Is my viewpoint word at the beginning of the sentence, interestingly.

When you're giving your point of view about the rest of the sentence, you could use fascinatingly, incredibly, remarkably, all of those would be great.

And then you've got later the such as mice.

Such as just offering that extra information.

However, scientists speculate that they eat bamboo as they do not have to fight with other animals to eat it and because there is so much bamboo where they live.

So what if I highlighted here, however, formal conjunction and other formal but conjunction followed by the comma and the final clause.

Because there is so much bamboo where they live.

I just think back about at the kind of the checklist of what we wanted to include in the paragraph.

Yeah.

That's our linking sentence, isn't it? It's going to lead really nicely onto our next paragraph, about habitat.

Because there is so much bamboo where they live and that will lead us really nicely on to talk about the fact that they live in bamboo forest.

So it's a great way to close that paragraph.

So you are now going to pause the video to complete your task, and you're going to use the success criteria to help you and the checklist where it says to use an introductory sentence, two or three general facts and a linking sentence.

All of these, what on your plan from the previous lessons.

You just need to be referring back to that.

If you'd like to take off your success criteria as you go along.

So you're keeping check of what you've included and what you need to still include.

Pause the video and then resume once you are finished.

Welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed writing the paragraph on diet.

We are now going to be looking at modelled write of the paragraph on habitat.

Following paragraph.

Again, I've got my success criteria in the top left corner so I can keep referring back to it as I write.

So I scan, I start with my subheading.

There's a key features of non-chronological reports.

Underline it.

My first sentence is a general introductory sentence to the paragraph.

What about habitat? These creatures are typically located in the bamboo forest of the mountains in central China.

These creatures is in bold, why? That's right because I've referred to the noun in a different way.

I haven't started by calling them pandas again.

Don't forget when you're writing China, you've got that capital letter, 'cause it's a proper noun.

These forests, which are high up on the mountains, are wet and cold, yet the pandas spend most of the year there.

Quite long complex sentences.

Let's pick it apart.

Which are high up on the mountains, that is our relative clause.

And you can tell because of the which relative pronoun.

Because it comes in the middle of the sentence.

You need the comma at the beginning before which and after mountains.

Yet the pandas spend most of the year there.

Yet is a formal conjunction, a formal version of but.

And it builds on to that sentence and gives a contrasting idea.

Unlike other bears, pandas do not hibernate in winter: instead they migrate lower down the mountains for a warmer climate.

Let's just see what I've put in bold.

Unlike other bears comma.

I'm like looking up at my success criteria and I'm thinking I can definitely take the third one because that is another formal conjunction a formal but conjunction.

Unlike other bears.

And again, I've called them.

Unlike other bears, pandas do not hibernate in winter: Again, I used a colon earlier.

I think that's just brilliant.

And I've actually used it in a different way.

Not this time to use it to introduce a list but to separate two clauses within a sentence.

It links the first clause with that second clause without having to use a conjunction.

Instead they migrate lower down the mountains for a warmer climate.

Giving the reason.

And the second clause, migrate is in bold because it is a great example of subject specific vocabulary.

Pandas that are not found in the wild are in breeding centres or zoos.

Where they are often the most popular attraction.

Breeding centres an example of subject specific vocabulary.

I think this is a really great closing statement, which finishes the paragraph off really nicely and will then lead us on to our conclusion in the next lesson.

So now I'm going to ask you to pause your video to complete the task.

It is time for you to write your habitat paragraph.

Use the checklist and the success criteria to help you.

The checklist.

You need to include an introductory sentence to start the paragraph.

Two or three general facts about where they live and then the linking closing sentence.

Use your success criteria to help you.

Have it in front of you or on the screen so that you can go through your work as you're writing to check your being as successful as you can be.

Press play once you're done.

Okay, welcome back.

I really hope you've enjoyed writing these paragraphs.

It's been a great lesson.

We do writing warm-up.

We recapped our plan and then you have gone off and written a paragraph from the diet and habitat of pandas.

After watching a couple of modelled writes.

Congratulations, you have completed the lesson.

If you'd like to, I'm sure your parents or carer would love to see your work.

If you'd like to share it with them.

And if you're really happy and would like to share it on social media, please ask your parent or carer to share it on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @Oaknational and the #LearnwithOak.

Well done for brilliant lesson everybody and see you soon.