Lesson video

Hello everyone, my name's Ms. Batt.

And today I'm going to be teaching you some vocabulary, which I hope is going to really help you in your persuasive letter writing.

Now, I know that you're choosing the theme for your persuasive letters, but that you're writing about something that you strongly disagree with.

For example, perhaps you might be writing in response to a decision to ban school uniform at your school.

Perhaps you're writing in response to a decision to have more homework.

Now, with any of these things that you are writing in response to, the feeling that you're going to have is that you're going to be shocked and surprised.

We don't want to keep saying though in our letters, "I felt very surprised to hear," or "I was very shocked to hear." So today we're going to be learning three different ways of showing that we feel surprised.

So we're going to be learning synonyms for the word surprised.

And I hope that these words are really helpful in your persuasive letters, but also I hope that you enjoyed broadening your vocabulary today.

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

First, I'm going to introduce the new vocabulary, one word at a time, and we're going to be looking at some quite funny images to help us understand 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 the words and how to use them appropriately.

And finally, we're going to apply these words in sentences and we're going to try to practise sentences that will be useful in your persuasive letter writing.

So right at the end of the lesson, you're going to need something to write on and something to write with.

And we're going to need our brains from the very beginning.

So, could you please pause the video now to make sure you've got the things that you need and to make sure you're focused and ready for your learning? Okay, 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 I'd like you to repeat it back to me just so I know you all engaged.

Synonym, word pair, adjective, noun.

Thank you.

So a synonym is a word that means exactly or the name the same as another word like merry and happy.

So today, if we're learning synonyms for the word surprised, we're learning other words that mean more or less the same thing as surprised.

Word pairs are words that often appear together.

So if we have the word bright, the word pairs that match with it might be bright sun or a bright moon.

An adjective is a describing word.

And today we're going to be learning three describing words.

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

So let's just get into the right frame of mind.

How might you look if you are really surprised? Can you act surprised for me right now? Well done, some great acting there.

Now you can see in this image that this character is being very surprised by their alarm clock.

They've left out of bed, their eyes are wide open and they look extremely shocked.

So let's take a look at our first surprised word.

Before I reveal the word, I'm first going to get you to look at an illustration.

So what is happening in this picture? What story do you think this picture is showing? And how would you describe how this character is feeling? Can you pause the video and you can either have a think about that in your head, or you can describe it out loud.

Well, it looks to me like this character is extremely shocked because they have won the lottery.

I can see that on their television screen, it says jackpot winning numbers and that the numbers that he's holding in his card match up.

Who knows how much money he's won that by the look on his face and by his body language, it looks like an awful lot.

This word is flabbergasted.

Flabbergasted.

It almost sounds like one of those made up words from something like Roll Dolls BFG.

It is not, it's a real word.

It's a real word that's an adjective meaning very surprised or amazed.

How you would feel if you won the lottery.

I'm going to read some words to you now, and some of these words are going to be synonyms of the word flabbergasted.

Remember that means they mean the same thing as flabbergasted.

The other words are word pairs.

As I read them, can you spot the three synonyms of flabbergasted? Astonished, by the news, by the view, by her reply, amazed, by his email, very surprised, by their offer, by her suggestion.

To help you, here's the word in the sentence.

The teacher was flabbergasted by the shocking reply from the students.

My goodness, what do you think the students said that shocked the teacher so much? Don't think I even want to know.

Can you pause the video and see if you can spot the three synonyms for the word flabbergasted? Let's see how you got on.

The synonyms are astonished, amazed and very surprised.

And that means that the rest of these words are word pairs which I'm going to read to you now.

So you might be flabbergasted by the news.

What kind of news might you be flabbergasted by, I wonder? Flabbergasted by the view.

Maybe if it was a really beautiful view.

Flabbergasted by her reply.

Flabbergasted by his email, if you read an email that completely shocked you.

Flabbergasted by their offer.

So imagine if you were selling something, someone offered you five times the amount.

You would probably be flabbergasted by their offer and flabbergasted by their suggestion or by her suggestion.

And when we learn new words, it's not actually enough that we just listened to them or even to read them.

What we need to do is we need to say them out loud.

This is quite a fun word to say out loud as well, flabbergasted.

I wonder if you could pause the video now and read all of these word pairs out loud just like I did.

And that way hopefully, this word will stick in your memories.

Well done, so before we move on, can you remind me what does this new word flabbergasted mean? Well done, it means very surprised or amazed how you'd feel if you won the lottery.

Let's take a look at our second illustration.

What's happening in this picture? What's this character feeling do you think? And why do you think they're feeling that way? Can you pause the video and have a think about that now.

This character to me looks again extremely shocked.

I think the reason they're feeling that way is because somebody has hung up on them.

That means that instead of saying, "Okay, bye," you just hang up.

And quite often people do that when they're being rude or when they're angry.

This character looks very shocked that this person's hung up.

So perhaps it's someone they would never expect to hang up on them.

Let's find out what the word is.

Speechless, speechless.

This is an adjective, meaning dumbstruck or lost for words, how you feel when someone hangs up on you, have you ever felt so shocked by something that you don't even know what to say? You'll notice that this word speechless has got the suffix, which is the end of the word, less in it.

Can you think of any other words with the word less in it? And then can you think about, do you know what the suffix less means? For example, if your speechless or your fearless, what might that mean? You can have a think.

If you want, you can pause the video.

So if you're fearless, it means you're without fear or helpless, you're without help.

Luckless, you're without luck and hopeless, you've got no hope, you're without hope.

So if you're speechless, it means or speechless, it means you're without speech.

You haven't got anything to say because you're so shocked.

So, let's take a look at some words.

And as I read these to you, can you spot the three synonyms of speechless? Utterly, almost, dumbstruck, temporarily, lost for words, practically, absolutely, totally, tongue-tied.

To help you, here's the words in a sentence.

He stood in silence, almost speechless at the results.

Can you pause the video and see if you can tell me the three synonyms. So the synonyms are dumbstruck, lost for words and tongue-tied.

Like your tongue is tied up in a knot and that means you can't speak.

And that means the rest of these words are word pairs which I'll read to you now.

You'll notice that these word pairs actually come before our main word, which is speechless.

You could be utterly speechless.

That means completely, almost speechless.

Perhaps you might be stuttering, but you can't just about speak, temporarily speechless.

That means for a moment you're speechless.

Practically speechless, absolutely speechless or totally speechless.

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

Okay, well done.

Before we move on, what does this new word speechless mean? Well done, it means dumbstruck or lost for words.

How you feel when someone hangs up on you.

Here is the final illustration.

So can you describe what's happening here? Off you go.

It looks to me like these twins, perhaps one of them is zapping the other one with some kind of gun that has meant that the other one has almost got some kind of electric shock and is completely frozen to the spot.

I wonder what this word could be.

Stunned, stunned.

So stunned is an adjective and it means amazed, dazed or stupefied, like being so surprised you instantly freeze.

So imagine feeling so shocked if you walked in and saw something that you almost felt like you just froze.

Let's take a look at some words that could be synonyms of stunned.

Dazed, surprise, amazement, crowd, disbelief, horror, amazed, look and stupefied.

Here's the word in a sentence.

The class looked on in stunned amazement as their teacher gobbled up a cake in 10 seconds.

Or it'd be a bit mean if your teacher ate cake right in front of you, if you didn't have any.

I think my class would definitely be stunned if I did that.

Could you pause the video and have a think about which words are synonyms. I've actually just showed you one.

So you may have seen one, so what would the other two be? Off you go.

So the synonyms are dazed, amazed and stupefied.

That means the rest of the words are word pairs, which I'll read to you now.

Stunned surprise, stunned amazement.

So you might say, "I stood there in stunned amazement." A stunned silence.

Perhaps if your head teacher announced something to you that was really shocking, like, "From now on, school is going to start at 5:00 a.

m.

"every day and finish at 10 o'clock in the evening." You might say the crowd was in stunned silence, or you might describe them as a stunned crowd.

Stunned disbelief, stunned horror or a stunned look.

Can you show me what a stunned look might look like? Very good.

Can you pause the video now and for the last time, can you read these word pairs out loud? Well done.

So now we've learned three new words that are synonyms for the word surprised.

Can you pause the video and see if you can remember what each word is.

Let's see how you got on.

So the first one was, begins with flabbergasted, well done.

The second one is speechless and the third one is stunned.

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

It doesn't need to be the exact definition that I read to you earlier, but it's always important to try and explain things in our own words.

So imagine that an alien lands on this planet and they'd never heard any of these words before, how would you explain to them what each word means? Can you pause the video and have a go at that now.

Excellent, well done.

So just to remind you, flabbergasted means very surprised or amazed how you'd feel if you won the lottery.

Speechless is dumbstruck or lost for words.

Remember that suffix less.

It means if you're speechless, you can't speak and stunned means you're amazed, dazed or stupefied.

Like when you freeze, cause you're so shocked.

So now we're going to have a look at putting these words in sentences.

I'm going to read the sentence to you.

And as I read, I'd like you to think about which word you think fits best in the sentence.

Now because these words are all synonyms for surprised, they probably all would work.

So it's just about choosing the one that you think sounds the best or fits the best in this context.

We were all by the news that you are thinking of cancelling our PE lessons.

Which word would you put in here? So I've gone for flabbergasted, but you could also say stunned by the news, or you could say we were all speechless after we heard the news.

So perhaps this is what some of you are writing your letters on about P.

E.

being cancelled.

Here's another example.

I have noticed that there are many schools that do not require their pupils to wear a uniform, which left me in disbelief.

Which words do you think fits in here? In flabbergasted disbelief, in speechless disbelief or in stunned disbelief? I think the best fit is stunned disbelief.

And finally, having heard about your decision to introduce daily homework, I was left almost.

Which word do you think would go here? I was left almost speechless.

So hopefully those three sentences have given you some good examples of the kind of sentences that you could write in your persuasive letters to make it sound really powerful.

How to really exaggerate how shocked you are at this news.

I'd like you now to have a go at writing your own sentences.

So you could either write one sentence or if you wanted to, you could write a sentence using each word.

So remember, the words we're trying to include in our sentences are flabbergasted, speechless or stunned.

Now it can be quite difficult just thinking of a sentence on the spot.

So here's a sentence scaffold to help you.

You could imagine that this is part of your letter.

"Since I have started working with children from schools "across the entire country, I have noticed that.

." So what could you say there? Now this is where you need to think of the context of your own letter.

What is your letter about? Is it about uniforms? Is it about P.

E.

? Is it about homework? This could be your leading sentence and then you could practise your next sentence, which could be about your reaction to this.

Perhaps you were left speechless.

Perhaps you are left stunned.

Perhaps the news may have left you flabbergasted.

So you can use this if you want as a springboard for an idea for your sentence.

Or if you want, you can come up with your own idea.

So pause the video now and have a go at writing one or two or three sentences.

And the important thing is to try and include these new words that we've learnt, good luck.

Excellent, well done.

I really hope that you've enjoyed learning these three incredible and ambitious new words.

I hope that you're able to use them in your persuasive letter writing, but I also hope that you might be able to use them in real life.

You've worked really hard and you should be really proud of yourself watching this entire lesson.

Thank you for watching.

And if you want to share any of your sentences you wrote, you could ask a parent or carer to take a picture and you can upload them on Twitter so that I can see the brilliant sentences you've written.

Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.

Bye.