Lesson video

Hello everyone, my name is Ms. Butt and today I'm going to be teaching you some vocabulary for you to use in your writing on The Wind Rush.

At the moment, you're preparing to write a letter from the perspective of somebody who has arrived in the UK, having migrated there and found out that things weren't perhaps quite as they thought they would be.

So today we're going to be learning some words to describe feeling hopeful so that in the letters that you write you can write about how hopeful you had been and therefore how much your hopes have been dashed since arriving in the UK.

Hopefully these words will be really useful for your letter and enjoy the lesson.

Here's what we're going to do today.

First, I'm going to introduce the new vocabulary to you one word at a time and we're going to be looking at Mrs. Wordsmith pictures which will illustrate what these words mean.

Then we're going to look at word pairs and synonyms for each word, which will give us a deeper understanding of what these words mean and how we can use them in all kinds of different contexts.

And finally, we're going to apply these words and sentences and it right towards the end of the lesson, I'm going to get you to write your own sentence.

And these will be sentences that will be linked with your unit on Wind Rush.

So for the end of the lesson you will need something to write on and something to write with.

So perhaps you could pause the video now to make sure that you've got those things ready and also to make sure that you're calm and focused, ready to start your learning.

Great, let's get started.

Here's some key vocabulary we're going to be using today.

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

Synonym, word pair, adjective, noun.

A synonym is a word that means exactly or nearly the same as another word.

For example, the word merry means nearly the same as the word happy.

Word pair is a word that often appear together.

So if you took the adjective bright, it's word pairs might be a sun, a moon, or a light.

An adjective is a describing word and today we're going to be learning three adjectives because we're going to be describing feelings of feeling hopeful.

And a noun is a person, a place or a thing.

So I'd like you to have a look at this picture as a little starter to warm us up.

And I'd like you to pause the video and tell me, do you think this glass is half full or half empty? Now the reason I've shown you this is because people often use this as an example to show whether you're somebody who looks on the bright side of life, in which case you might've said it's half full, or whether you look on the gloomy side of life and say that it's half empty.

I wonder which one you said.

So today we're going to be learning hopeful words.

And as I mentioned earlier, when all of the travellers were travelling to the UK, most of them will have felt very hopeful about the life that they were going to lead and unfortunately, when they arrived in the UK, lots of their hopes were dashed because they realised that things weren't quite as they seemed.

So, take a look at this first illustration.

What's happening in this picture? How would you describe this character? And what story is this telling? Can you pause the video and either have a think or say out loud what you see? This looks like a very typical British picnic.

As quite often we go out for picnics, even though the weather forecast might be bad, and said, oh, it's going to brighten up.

It's going to brighten up.

Quite often it does turn out to be rainy.

And we can see that this character is not giving up their hopes.

They've got their rug out.

They've even got their sun cream out as if they're going to need it.

They've got a drink.

They've got their sunglasses on.

And they still look very positive despite the rain and the wind that I can see lashing down.

This word is optimistic.

Optimistic.

This is an adjective, meaning hopeful or positive; like being certain that the weather is going to get better.

Do you know what the opposite of optimistic is? I wonder if you could tell me.

It is pessimistic.

So some people are very optimistic and they always think that things are going to turn out really good, or some people might be pessimistic and think things will always turn out to be bad.

I wonder, do you think you're more optimistic or more pessimistic? So I'm going to read some words to you now and as I read them, I'd like you to see if you can identify the synonyms of the word optimistic.

Remember that synonyms are words that mean the same thing.

Any words which aren't synonyms will be word pairs which we'll read out later.

Attitude, forecast, mood, view, tone, positive, outlook, hopeful, note and cheery.

Here's the word in a sentence.

I have always had such an optimistic outlook on life.

Can pause the video now and see if you can tell me the three synonyms of optimistic? So the synonyms are positive, hopeful and cheery, which means the rest of these words are word pairs, which I'll read to you now.

An optimistic attitude, optimistic forecast, optimistic mood, optimistic view, optimistic tone, optimistic outlook and an optimistic note.

When we learn new words, it's really important that we actually see that out loud.

So can you now pause the video and read these word pairs out loud just as I did.

Excellent, well done.

Can you very quickly remind me what does optimistic mean? Well done, it means hopeful or positive.

Let's take a look at our second illustration.

So what's happening in this picture? What story is this picture telling and how do you think you would describe this character? Pause the video and have a think about that now.

It seems like this character is a leader and that they look very relaxed.

They've kicked back and they're taking a nap because it seems like they think they have achieved world peace.

Let's find out what this word is.

Idealistic.

Idealistic.

This is an adjective, meaning very optimistic or believing in perfection, like someone who dreams of creating a perfect world.

And you might notice that in this word, you can spot the word ideal.

So if something's ideal, it's perfect.

And that's where we can see this adjective idealistic, someone that believes in perfection.

So let me read some words to you and as I read them see if you can spot the synonyms of idealistic.

Politician, very optimistic, youngster, revolutionary.

Now a revolutionary is a person who advocates or engages in political revolution and revolution is when you completely change something.

So revolutionary can be a noun, a thing, and it's a person who advocates change.

A notion, which is a concept of believing about something.

Visionary.

So again, a visionary is someone who has a vision.

A dream, a view, philosophy, which is like a theory and believing in perfection.

Here's the word in a sentence.

My idealistic vision could not have been further from the reality.

Can you pause the video now and see if you can tell me the synonyms of idealistic? So the synonyms are very optimistic, visionary, and believing in perfection, which means the rest of the words are words pairs.

An idealistic politician, idealistic vision, an idealistic youngster, an idealistic revolutionary, and idealistic notion, an idealistic dream, an idealistic view or an idealistic philosophy.

So for example, if you had an idealistic view on the world, you might say that you think that everyone is always kind to each other and no one would ever do or say anything to hurt someone's feelings.

Now that would be ideal, perfect, if that were true, but it perhaps might be an idealistic view.

It might not necessarily be a reality.

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

And before we move on, very quickly, can you tell me what does idealistic mean? It means very optimistic or believing in perfection.

Let's take a look at our third illustration.

So what's happening in this picture? How would you describe this scene? How would you describe this little baby? What's happening? Pause the video and have a think now.

Despite being very small and being a baby, this baby seems to have created its own rocket to launch its teddy bear up into the air.

Let's find out what this word could be.

Promising.

Promising.

Promising is an adjective, which means hopeful or having potential like a baby rocket science scientist.

I think if you went and saw, if you went to get your baby off her nap and it had invented its own rocket, you would definitely say, well, that's a promising sign.

It must have a great future ahead of it.

So how has this meaning of promising, which is an adjective, linked to the verb, to promise? What do you think? How would you say those two words are connected? The adjective promising and the verb to promise as in, if you promise to do something for someone.

So they both refer to something positive that should happen in the future, so long as it's that it's a positive promise, not a nasty one.

So for example if you say, oh I promise I will, I promise I'll let you have a play date week.

I promise I'll give you that money tomorrow.

It relates to usually something that's positive that's going to happen in the future.

Just in the same way that promising is a positive word.

So can you spot the synonyms of promising? Hopeful, youngster, student, sign, encouraging, results, future, career, having potential and appearance.

Here's the word in a sentence.

I thought I had a promising future ahead of me, but now I see how naive I was.

If you were naive, it's another way of saying you're ignorant or you didn't know what was going to happen.

You kind of perhaps thought it was going to be one way and then you realised it was actually, you maybe, perhaps didn't know enough about it.

So could you pause the video now and see if you can tell me the synonyms of promising.

Let's see how you got on.

The synonyms are hopeful, encouraging and having potential.

Which means the rest of these words are word pairs.

A promising youngster, promising student, a promising sign, promising future, a promising results, a promising career and a promising appearance.

Could you please pause the video now and read these word pairs out loud.

Well done.

So we've now learned off three adjectives to describe feeling hopeful.

Can you pause the video and tell me what each word is? So the first one word we learned was optimistic.

The second word was idealistic and the third adjective was promising.

I'd now like you to come up with your own definition for each word.

It doesn't need to be the same as the definitions that we went through earlier, but it helps when you try to explain something in your own words, it helps you to understand and remember what it means.

So imagine that you were talking to somebody who had no idea what these words meant.

How would you define them? Can you pause the video and do that now? Okay, so just one recap, see how you got on.

Optimistic means hopeful or positive.

Idealistic means very optimistic or believing in perfection.

And promising means hopeful or having potential.

So here's a sentence.

And here, this is a sentence that you could use in your letter writing.

So as I read this to you have a think about which adjective you think would fit well in this sentence.

I feel foolish that I had such an mmm view of England.

How wrong I was.

Now there's a bit of a clue here because it says, an, so I know it could only be optimistic or idealistic because there are the two adjectives that start with a vowel and that's when we use the word an instead of a.

So can you pause the video and see which adjective you decide would fit best in the sentence? So I've gone for idealistic.

I feel foolish that I had such an idealistic view of England.

That means that they had a view of England that was probably as if it was going to be complete perfection and now they realise how wrong they were.

Here's another sentence.

What we have been told sounded so mmm that we all had very little doubts about migrating.

Which fact adjective do you think would work well in this sentence? There is more than one option but I've gone for the adjective, promising.

What we had been told sounded so promising that we all had very little doubts about migrating.

And finally, some people were anxious on the journey, but I felt mmm about what life had in store for me.

Which words do you think would fit well here? Some people were anxious on the journey, anxious means nervous, but I felt optimistic about what life had installed for me.

So I'd now like you to write your own sentence and you can either use the word optimistic, idealistic or promising.

If you want to really challenge yourself, you could even try to write three sentences and include each new adjective that we've learned.

It can be difficult just thinking of a sentence off the spot so try to think about the context of your letter that you're going to be writing and here are some sentence starters that might also help you.

So you could start your sentence with, when we were on the boat, comma, and then you could complete that with the main tools to make a complex sentence.

You could start your sentence with, having realised that, and then complete that laws and then a comma, and then do your main clause.

Or you could start your sentence with, I feel foolish that I ever mmm.

Remember, it's really important when you write these sentences to try include one of the new adjectives that we've learned.

Take your time.

If you want, you can even say your sentence out loud a few times before you write it.

And then after you've written your sentence, you could go back and edit it, check it, read it through, all of those parts of writing are really important parts of the writing process.

So pause the video and have a go at writing your sentence or sentences now.

Brilliant, well done.

If you wants to share the sentences that you've just written, you can ask a parent or carer to take a photo and upload them on Twitter so that we can all have a look at the brilliant work you've done.

I hope that these words are really helpful when you come to writing your letter later on in the week.

And I hope that you enjoyed learning them.

Thank you so much for working so hard and I hope you enjoyed the lesson.

Bye.