Lesson video

Hello, I'm Adam and this is Panda, and we are on Unit Two, Lesson Nine on our work with "bat learns to dance".

Let's see what's on the agenda today.

For our warm up, we're going to play a new game today, it's Panda's favourite, it's called "Clap a Word." And after that, we're going to do something amazing, and we're going to tell a story without speaking.

So all we're going to need today is ourselves.

No pencils or paper today.

Let's advance to the warm up.

So one of our favourite games is "Clap a Word", so we're going to listen to the name of the mini beast, and see if you can work out how many claps we hear in the name.

Let's try.

Butterfly, butterfly.

Butterfly.

We hear three claps.

Do you? Butterfly.

Butterfly.

I'll sing "butterfly", you clap it back: butterfly.

Butterfly.

Okay, we'll change it.

Let's have.

Spider.

Spider.

How many claps do you hear? Spider.

Spider.

Two! Let me sing, and you clap back.

I think you're really good at this, Panda.

Spider, spider.

Butterfly, butterfly.

Spider, spider.

Last one: slug.

Hm, we only hear one, don't we? Slug.

Slug.

Slug.

Slug.

All right, let's do the three together.

Ready? Butterfly, butterfly.

Spider, spider.

Slug.

Well done.

We'll play that game another day, with pictures and that'll be fun too.

All right, let's move on to the main challenge of today's lesson.

Well you can see that I'm standing up, but there's no need for you to stand up just yet.

I thought I'd stand up because it helps me use all my body to show the story.

So the first time, I will speak and I'll explain, when I do an action, what I'm thinking in my head.

And then I'll do it again, but without speaking.

And I'd really like you to try and follow it.

Okay.

when I do this, I'm thinking "once upon a time".

And when I do this, it should remind me there's a beetle.

What do you think it means when I do this? Yeah! The beetle is hungry.

Do you remember? He scuttled here, he scuttled there, he scuttled all around.

And then to his surprise, a friend he found.

So I like that bit of the story, so when I'm doing this and this, I'm thinking, "He scuttled here, he scuttled there, he scuttled all around." So when I do those actions, those are the words that are in my head.

First, this is a butterfly, so we'll do that for butterfly.

And remember, the butterfly teaches him how to slurp nectar.

Slurp! So I need to do that for nectar.

After that, he meets a millipede.

So I do that with my fingers to remind me.

Oh! I've also got to remember, haven't I? What did I miss out? What was this bit? Yeah, he scuttled here, he scuttled there, he scuttled all around.

This is a real challenge, this story.

I'm going to tell this story right from the beginning, now.

And I think you know enough to be able to follow the story.

Let's see.

Here it goes.

Were you able to follow that? I did make some mistakes.

Should I do it one more time? Let me do it one more time.

And then I will invite you to have a go.

Here we go.

Did I make any mistakes? I did, but I'm still practising , just like you.

Would you like to have a practise now? I'm going to pause the video, and you can have a go at trying to act out this story, mime this story without speaking.

Show actions for the slug, and for the millipede, and for the butterfly, and if you can remember the "slurp" slurping, "nom" chewing, and the munching actions, that would be fantastic! And don't worry if you make mistakes, I made mistakes too.

We're still practising and learning how to mime the story.

Okay, I'm going to pause the video now, and time for you to get to work.

So how was that? Was it hard trying to tell the story without speaking? Well, I hope you enjoyed it.

But remember, in your head, every word, quietly spoken, is still heard, and it's heard by you, and it's a really powerful way of practising our storytelling.

I use it all the time.

So, don't worry about being shy, or not finding it easy to speak.

You are still storytelling when you are acting out this story.

So, my challenge to you, for the next lesson, is to show somebody else your story.

And when we meet again in the last lesson of this unit, we are going to be telling that story with all the words all by ourselves.

But don't worry, we've still got lots of things to do to get us ready for that.

But how about we finish off this session with singing the mini beast song? Remember, we've got the butterfly, we've got the millipede, and we've got the big slug.

And we've danced this before, those of you that joined us in the last session, so I need to put my headphones on for this, so I can hear the backing track.

You will soon see what you have to do.

Here we go.

Are you ready to do the mini beast? To the mini beast.

Brilliant! Mini beast, to the mini beast, copy me, to the mini beast, good! To the mini beast.

To the mini beast, mini beast, yeah! To the mini beast.

So who's first? The butterfly! Whee! To the butterfly, to the butterfly.

To the butterfly, to the butterfly.

To the butterfly, mini beast, yeah! To the mini beast.

What was next? Oh, the millipede.

Whee! To the millipede, to the millipede, to the millipede, to the millipede, to the millipede, mini beast, yeah! To the mini beast.

It's the big slug! Here it comes, whee! To the big slug, to the big slug, to the big slug, to the big slug, to the big slug, mini beast, yeah! To the mini beast.

Brilliant! See you next time, bye bye.