Lesson video

Hi everyone, how are you doing today? It's really nice to see you, for our next Highwayman lesson.

I hope that you're feeling comfortable, hope you're feeling confident and ready to learn.

This is going to be a great lesson because we get to read a little bit more of the poem and think about some of the vocabulary that's used.

So, shall we get started? Off we go.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some paper, a pencil or something else to write with and your brain.

If you haven't got everything that you need, pause the video and go and collect everything and I'll see you in a second.

Today, we'll start off with our writing warm up, then we will recap what's happened in the story so far, we'll read aloud the next couple of verses and we'll do a vocabulary check.

And we'll finish with some sentence writing practise.

So let's have a look at what our writing warm up is today, it's all about prepositional phrases.

Should we say that? Prepositional phrases.

Well done.

So prepositional phrase tells us where something happens and they have a preposition in them.

Now, just before I show you some examples, can you remember what we mean by a phrase? A phrase, hmm.

Something about a verb.

Do phrases have verbs or not? No, so phrases, are groups of words that do not contain a verb.

A phrase is a group of words that does not contain a verb.

So, let's look at a prepositional phrase example.

Here's one: in the sky.

And I've got the preposition in as my preposition there.

The next one says below the window.

And finally, we've got, at the side of the road.

So these are really useful phrases for telling your reader, where something happens.

So your task is to match the prepositional phrases to the sentences.

These are the prepositional phrases, I'm going to read them aloud to you.

Beside the road, high above the land, on the cobbles.

And these are the sentences with the missing words in.

So number one says, dark clouds swirled, we need to think about where they swirled.

Number two says, he caught sight of the inn, where did he catch sight of the inn? Where was it? And number three says, the horse's hooves clattered.

Where did the horses hooves clatter? You need to pause the video and I would like you to write down the full sentence, please.

That includes the correct prepositional phrase.

Pause the video now.

Let's check.

Are you ready? So I think that the dark clouds swirled high above the land.

Now, that tells the reader exactly where those dark clouds were.

What do you think for number two? Let's say the sentence together.

He caught sight of the inn beside the road.

So that means that number three is, the horse's hooves clattered on the cobbles.

Well done.

So, let's recap on the story so far.

We've read the first two verses of the poem and wrote the opening and that was absolutely fantastic writing.

We read the third verse of the poem and we wrote part one of the build up, so today, we're going to read extracts from the fourth and fifth verses, which will help us write part two of the build up.

By extracts, I mean, we're not going to read the whole of the verse, we're just going to read the important bits.

So listen aloud, as I read the next verse to you and then we will talk about the vocabulary in it.

And that's the extract from the next verse.

I would like you to pause the video now and write down any words that you're not sure about.

And then we can have a think about what they mean.

Pause video now.

Are there any words that you're not sure about? Okay, have you had a go at that? So these are the ones that I picked out, stable wicket, I think we need to know what that means.

I also wasn't really sure about the word ostler, I haven't heard that word before, so we need to have a look at that.

And then this was an interesting description that I think we need to go into more detail about, hollows of madness, his eyes were hollows of madness, that's a funny thing to say isn't it? And then I also want to make sure we know what the word robber means.

So, let's start off with this.

I'm going to say this line and you're going to say it after me.

And in the dark old inn-yard, a stable wicked creaked.

Your turn.

Well done.

So a stable, looks a bit like this.

You might have heard of the word 'stable' before, it's a place where horses live and sleep.

And a stable wicket just refers to the door, so the stable door.

Can you see that picture of the horse? The horse's head, he's peaking over the stable door.

So a 'stable wicket', is another word for a stable door.

And as we know, stables are places where horses sleep.

So, why were there stables at the inn? Hmm, if you go to a hotel now, would you normally see stables there? With horses in them? Would you? Or wouldn't you? I don't think I would.

But back then, when the highwayman was around, they had to have stables in the inns.

I wonder why that was.

Do you know? Oh, it's because they travelled around on horses, they didn't use cars, did they? So they had to have somewhere to put the horses, when the people went to go and stay the night in the inn, in the rooms, the horses had to be looked after in stables.

So, here are some more thinking time questions.

Let's look at that first one.

Was the stable door still or moving? Was it still or moving? How do you know? Let's read the next word after 'stable-wicket'.

A stable-wicket creaked.

Can you make a creaking noise? That was my creaking noise, can you make one? Well done.

And normally, if a door creaks, it's because it's moving very slowly.

So I think it's moving.

Why do you think it was moving? Hmm, who was there? Did we have a mention of a character? We did didn't we? Tim, the ostler was there, so he was behind the stable door, so maybe he was moving it very slowly, to try and listen to what the highwayman was saying.

So that brings us nicely onto this next line.

I'll read it aloud and then it'll be your turn.

Your turn to read it aloud.

Well done.

So 'ostler', that's a really funny word.

We don't have that word around anymore but it just means someone who looks after horses in a stable.

So, Tim the ostler, his job is to look after the horses in the stable.

The horses of the travellers that are staying in the inn overnight.

Ostlers were employed by the inn, so that means they earned money for their work and it's a very, very old word.

I don't think we would use that now.

What do we know about Tim's face? There are two words in that line that tell us a bit of description about it.

What's the first one? We've got 'white'.

Why do you think his face was white? Hmm, so it's another way of saying he had gone really pale.

Ah, okay.

And then the other word we've got is 'peaked'.

And that means that he was really exhausted.

So 'peaked' is another way of saying really, really tired.

The next line is quite a fun line to say.

So it's going to be my turn, your turn, to say it out loud.

Your turn.

Well done.

So 'hollow' is another way of saying empty.

What's 'hollow' another way of saying? Empty, well done.

And madness, you might have heard of that word before, it's another word for crazy.

So it's like the poet is saying he had crazy eyes.

And what else do we know about his appearance? Hmm, what's his hair like? We know his eyes are like hollows of madness and his hair is like mouldy hay.

Now that's really interesting, 'mouldy hay'.

That makes me think of hay that horses would have in the bottom of their stables.

Do you think it makes his hair sound like it's really neat? And smart? Or very scruffy? I think very, very scruffy, very messy and because it's described as being like hay, and hay is quite a light colour, we must think he's probably got blonde hair, very light coloured hair.

And here are some pictures just to help us have a think about that.

There's a picture of some hay, on the floor of the stable and here is an interpretation of what Tim might have looked like.

Can you point to his scruffy hair? There it is, all straggly and scruffy and messy.

And can you point to his eyes? His crazy eyes, his eyes were hollows of madness.

So he listened and heard the robber say.

What's a robber? Hmm.

So a robber is someone who steals things and we know that the highwayman stole valuables and jewellery from rich travellers.

So we could say that the highwayman was a robber and there's a little picture there to help us think about that.

What others words could we use to refer to the highwayman? We got highwayman, we've got robber, any other ways of referring to him? What else could you call a robber? Hmm.

Could you say something like a thief? What else? Have you got another one? Tell me.

You could say a villain.

Someone who does something really wrong or you could say an outlaw or a bandit.

And we had those couple of words in the opening when we were thinking about describing the highwayman.

So, I'm going to read an extract from the fifth verse now.

Can you pause the video now, and write down any words that you're not sure about.

Pause the video now.

Have you had a go? These are the ones I picked out: bonny sweetheart, prize to-night and yellow gold.

And we're going to be having a look at those things and their meanings.

So 'bonny sweetheart', that's a way of referring to Bess.

The highwayman is saying, one kiss, give me a kiss my bonny sweetheart.

Bonny, is another word for beautiful and it was a very popular word at the time, a popular way for describing someone who is beautiful.

Why does he call her sweetheart? It's a very affectionate name, isn't it? So why does he call her sweetheart, I wonder.

Do you think that they love each other? Or not? I think they love each other, don't they? And that's a very affectionate name to call someone.

So, this bit here, 'I'm after a prize to-night'.

So knowing what we know about the highwayman, knowing what he goes around the countryside doing, what do you think he means by this? I'm after a prize to-night, I'm after a prize to-night.

Do you think that it means, he wants to win a competition? Or do you think it means, he wants to steal something? What do we know about the highwayman? What does he go around the countryside doing? Hmm, shall we say it together? I think it means, he wants to steal something.

Ah, okay, so he's telling Bess that he's going off to go and steal something valuable from a traveller in the countryside.

I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light.

So he's promising her, that he'll come back to the inn, with the yellow gold, before the morning light.

What does he want to steal? What do you think he wants to go and steal? What could it mean by yellow gold? So I thought it could be some jewellery, or it could be some coins and that's what he means by yellow gold.

So let's have a quick recap.

Have we been introduced to another character? Hmm, so remember in the first bit, the opening, we had the highwayman.

Then we were introduced to Bess, when he whistled up to her window and who should be waiting there but Bess, the landlord's daughter.

So, in this bit that we've just read, have we been introduced to another character? Show me with your thumb if you think we have, or haven't.

One, two three.

We have, haven't we? What was his name? Tim.

Well done.

Does the highwayman speak to Tim? Now, we know he does speak in this verse, does he speak to Tim? Hmm.

One, two, three.

He doesn't speak to Tim, he only speaks to Bess but Tim is listening to what the highwayman is saying to Bess.

Does the highwayman promise to see Bess later? Does he promise to see her later? Do you think yes, do you think no? One, two, three.

He does, doesn't he? He promises to come back before the morning lights, so before it's sunrise, before it's dawn.

Does the highwayman give Bess a gold necklace? Yes or no? Should we do it together? One, two, three.

No, but he does promise to bring some yellow gold back and we don't know what that means, it could be a gold necklace or another piece of gold jewellery Let's practise writing some sentences for our final part of the lesson.

So, we're going to use some of our vocabulary from today, to write sentences starting with a prepositional phrase.

For example, from behind the stable door, Tim listened intently to the highwayman.

So what's the prepositional phrase in that sentence? Let's say it together.

One, two, three.

From behind the stable door, okay.

And I've underlined stable door because that was one of our words that we learnt earlier.

My next example to show you: from below her window, the highwayman told his bonny sweetheart he would be back when he'd stolen some coins.

What's the prepositional phrase in that sentence? One, two, three.

From below her window.

Can you see a piece of punctuation that I've got, after the prepositional phrase? What have I got? Can you point to it? Point to the other one.

It's a comma.

So if you're starting a sentence with a prepositional phrase, you have to have a comma after it.

So it's your go to write two sentences, please.

My example is there, from behind the stable door, Tim listened intently to the highwayman.

And I would like you to pause the video and write down your sentences.

Well done, great work! You had a really good go at the writing warm up, where we learnt about what prepositional phrases are, we recapped the story, we did some reading aloud and we did a vocabulary check.

We learnt lots and lots of new words and then you finished by writing some fantastic sentences.

Really well done.

If you'd like to, you can share you work with your parents or carer and I'm really looking forward to seeing you for our next lesson.