Lesson video

Hello everyone, I'm Ms. Saab.

Welcome to lesson number six in our BFG unit.

So today we are going to generate vocabulary for character description.

Here is the plan.

So first we're going to look at a common rule, then we're going to generate some ambitious vocabulary, and then finally, we're going to describe our characters.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil, and your brains to be switched on.

So can you pause the video now to grab your pencil and your paper.

Great.

You are now ready.

So let's get started with our lesson.

Okay.

So we're going to start by revising a comma rule.

I have written a sentence about this picture.

I have said, "The brave curious girl edged towards the window." To edge means to creep or move gradually and slowly.

But I am missing a comma somewhere in my sentence.

Can you point to where you think the comma should go? Point to the screen.

The comma was meant to be between the two adjectives, brave and curious.

Brave and curious are two adjectives that are describing the girl.

They're telling us more information about the girl.

Now, whenever we have two adjectives describing a noun, we need to put a comma in between them.

Now let me tell you something.

Adjectives love to describe a noun.

And they always are compete.

They are always competing to be the best adjective to describe the noun.

So if we have two or more adjectives, we need to separate them from each other to stop them from fighting and saying, "I'm the best adjective.

No, I'm the best adjective." So, to stop them from doing all of this, we put a comma in between them to tell them, "Hey, you're both great adjectives, stop fighting." So that's how I remember it.

When you have an adjective, adjective noun, we call that an ENP or an expanded noun phrase.

And now we're going to learn some new vocabulary, some new words.

I have got three Mrs. Wordsmith words up on the screen.

I want you to look at the pictures and have a think, what do you think these Mrs. Wordsmith words mean? So I've got colossal, gargantuan, and towering.

So pause the video now to say what you think each word means.

Okay.

Let's have a look together.

So, I have got the words again, and I've got the definitions for you.

And I would like you to make a clever guess to match each word with its definition, okay? So look at the picture for some clues.

So pause the video now to say which definition matches which word.

Okay, let's check.

So, towering means extremely tall, like a mountain looming over you.

Gargantuan means huge or enormous, like a giant who towers above you in the air.

So I'm looking at a gargantuan monster above me in the air.

And then colossal means massive or gigantic, like a huge statue that makes you feel really tiny in comparison.

Would you use these adjectives to describe Sophie or the figure? Who would we say is colossal, gargantuan, and towering? Point to the correct character.

Is it Sophie or is it the figure? It's that figure? Yes.

So we can use those adjectives to described the figure that Sophie spotted during the witching hour, okay? So remember those adjectives, we will need them later on in our lesson.

But now we're going to move on to describing our character.

We are going to focus on generating adjectives to help us describe the characters in the opening.

So those are Sophie and the figure.

We are going to think of adjectives to describe their appearance, so that means what they look like on the outside, and their personality.

That means what they are like on the inside.

So we're going to start off with the figure.

I would like you to draw a table like this on your piece of paper.

If you've got a ruler, then it will make it even neater.

Okay, so can you draw a table like this and write the figure on top of the table so you know that this table is all about the figure.

So can you pause the video now to draw your table.

We are going to think of, first, different ways to refer to the figure.

So instead of saying, "The figure was outside.

The figure was holding a suitcase.

The figure was lurking in the street." That gets a little bit boring in our writing.

So we need to think of different ways to refer to the figure instead of saying.

Instead of repeating the figure, the figure, the figure each time.

So, how else could we refer to the figure? So, I thought we could say, "The giant was outside." He is a giant, we don't know if he's a big friendly, giant just yet, but he is a giant.

So I could say the giant was outside instead of saying the figure was outside.

So can you now think of two other ways of referring to the figure? So we could say, "The.

was holding a suitcase.

The.

was lurking in the street.

And I would like you to write down giant and the two other ways that you come up with in the different ways of referring to it column of your table.

So can you pause the video now to have a go.

So, I thought we could say, "The creature was holding a suitcase." We don't really know what sort of creature is hiding underneath this black cloak.

It could be any creature that comes out during the witching hour.

And then I said, "The silhouette was lurking in the streets." A silhouette, it's a little bit like a shadow.

So a dark outline of a body against a lighter background.

So I would like you now to be a word thief and steal the words that you like and put them in your different ways of referring to it column of your table.

So then you've got lots of ideas to use when you're doing your writing.

Okay, so pause the video now to steal the words that you want to use in your writing.

Great work team.

Now let's think of some adjectives to describe the figure.

We can describe its appearance, but we don't really know much about this figure just yet because we only see them very.

We only see the figure very briefly at the very end of our opening scene.

So we don't really know much about his personality.

So we cannot really describe his personality.

We're going to focus on generating some adjectives to describe the figure's appearance.

That means what it looks like on the outside.

So I thought we could say the figure is tall, that is an adjective to describe what the figure looks like.

You can also use the adjectives that we came up with in our vocabulary section earlier on in the lesson.

So I would like you to pause the video now and write as many adjectives as you can in your adjectives column to describe the figure's appearance.

That means what it looks like on the outside.

So pause the video now.

I wonder what you thought of.

Here is what I came up with.

So I used the adjectives that we looked at earlier in our vocabulary section.

So I said, "The figure is colossal.

It is towering.

It is gargantuan." And then I thought we could say, "The figure is mysterious," because we don't know much about him.

We cannot really see exactly what he looks like because he's hiding underneath his black cloak.

So there's a bit of mystery there.

He's mysterious.

He's quite thin and black.

It's very dark.

It's black.

And it's enormous.

Now, you might've thought of different adjectives to describe the figure's appearance.

There are lots of adjectives that we could have used to say how tall and how big this figure is.

You might've maybe said massive, gigantic, huge, there are lots of words and lots of adjectives that you could have come up with, okay? But here are the ones that I came up with.

And it's now time for you to be a word thief again and to steal as many adjectives as you would like to put in your table so then you can use them for your writing lesson.

Okay, so pause the video.

Amazing.

Let's move.

We are now going to write a sentence about the figure.

We're going to put together all of the adjectives and the nouns that we came up with to make an ENP in our sentence about the figure.

So, remember an ENP is an adjective, for a comma, another adjective, and a noun.

So it's adjective, adjective, noun.

So here's my example sentence.

I wrote, "A mysterious, colossal silhouette appeared in the dim streets." Okay, so now it's your turn to write a sentence about the figure.

Make sure that you include an ENP.

So an adjective, adjective noun.

So pause the video now to write your sentence.

Super effort everyone.

So we've finished with describing the figure.

Now we're going to describe Sophie.

I would like you now to draw another table, just like the one you did for the figure earlier but now for Sophie.

So you will need to have an adjectives column and a different ways of referring to her column, and write Sophie on the top of your table so you know that that these words are all for Sophie.

Okay, so pause the video now to draw your table.

Fantastic.

We're now ready to fill those tables with ambitious adjectives and nouns.

So let's think of different ways that we can refer to Sophie.

So we're trying to fill the blue column of our table.

So instead of saying, "Sophie tiptoed towards the window.

Sophie looked at the owl.

Sophie got out of bed," instead of repeating Sophie, Sophie, Sophie, Sophie, which can get quite boring, we need to think of different nouns, different ways of referring to Sophie.

Instead of saying, "Sophie tiptoed towards the window," I thought I could say, "The girl tiptoed towards the window." So, now it's your turn to think of two other ways of referring to Sophie.

And you need to write them in your different ways of referring to her column of your table for Sophie.

So pause the video now to have a go.

Okay, let's go through it together.

So I said, "The orphan looked at the owl," because I know that, sadly, her parents have passed away, she lives in an orphanage, she's an orphan.

And then I wrote, "The child got out of bed." So I would like you now to steal those words and write them down in your different ways of referring to her column of your table, okay? So pause the video now to write those three words down.

Girl, orphan, and child.

Fantastic.

Let's move on.

So now we're going to think of some adjectives to describe Sophie's appearance and her personality.

So we're going to watch the opening scene again, and I would like you to write down as many adjectives as you can to describe Sophie's appearance and her personality on the inside.

And you need to write those adjectives in the adjectives column of your table, okay? So when we watch the opening scene, think of what Sophie is doing and what that can tell us about her personality.

No.

Who is that out of bed? Sophie, miss.

You get back in the morning.

Yes, miss.

So here is one adjective that I thought of to describe Sophie.

I said she was young.

So she's a young girl.

I would like you now to pause the video and finish writing any adjectives to describe Sophie's appearance and her personality.

And you're writing them in your adjectives column, okay? So pause the video to finish off.

Here are the adjectives that I came up with.

So I said she was curious because she wants to find out more about the witching hour.

And for that reason, she got out of bed.

Another word for curious is inquisitive.

Can you repeat that after me? So my turn, inquisitive.

Inquisitive.

Great.

So inquisitive and curious mean the same thing.

They mean you want to find out more.

And in Sophie's case, she wants to find out more about the witching hour.

I said she was little because she's a little girl.

She has a fiery red hair.

So her hair is so red, like fire, so I said fiery.

She's polite.

The matron asked, "Who is that out of bed?" And Sophie was really polite.

She said, "Sophie, miss." So I thought we could use that word to describe her personality.

She's a polite person.

She's determined.

So even though Mrs. Clonkers, the matron, told her to go back to bed, she was determined to go to the window and find out what was going on outside.

So if you are determined to do something, it means you are focused on it.

You are not going to give up and you won't let anything stop you.

She's brave because even though she was afraid of getting into trouble with Mrs. Clonkers, she still went to the window instead of going back to bed.

And she has some freckles.

So I said, brown freckles.

So it's now time for you to be a word thief and steal as many words, as many adjectives as you would like, and put them in your table so that you can use them in your writing later on in our unit.

So pause the video now to steal the words you like.

Great.

You have collected so many words to describe the figure and Sophie.

I'm sure your writing is going to be so descriptive later on in the unit.

I cannot wait to see your pieces of writing.

You are now going to write a sentence about Sophie using the adjectives and the nouns that you came up with.

You've got all of those in your table.

And we want to use our adjectives and our nouns to make an ENP.

So that's adjective, adjective noun.

Here was my example sentence.

So I wrote, "The young, inquisitive orphan with brown freckles tiptoed towards the window." So I used an ENP, young, inquisitive orphan, and I chose to add extra information by using with.

So I said with brown freckles.

So you can do that as well.

You could say with fiery red hair, with glasses.

So you can also challenge yourself to add more information to your ENP.

Pause the video now to write your sentence.

Super effort with your sentence writing.

So that's the end of our lesson.

Let's recap all of the things that we have learned today.

So first we revised a comma rule and we learned that we needed a comma to separate the adjectives in an ENP, an expanded noun phrase.

So we need to, so say it with me, we need to do adjective, adjective noun.

And we need the comma in between the two adjectives to stop them from fighting and arguing about who is the better adjective.

Then we learned three new Mrs. Wordsmith words in our vocabulary section.

Can you remember what they are? They were colossal, gargantuan, and towering.

Excellent.

And then finally we thought of some adjectives to describe our characters' appearance and their personality in the last section.

Today you collected so many adjectives and different ways of referring to the characters, and I cannot wait to see you putting all of that descriptive language into your writing later on in the unit.

Well done everyone.

Bye bye.