Lesson video

Hello.

My name is Ms. Johnson.

And I'm going to be teaching you English today.

In today's lesson, we're going to be reading and analysing the ending of the last section of "Hansel and Gretel" by Anthony Browne.

If you haven't watched the previous lessons, then you should pause this video and go back and watch those first.

If you have, then let's get started.

We're going to start today's lesson by reading the end section of Anthony Browne's version of "Hansel and Gretel." And then we're going to do a text analysis.

And a text analysis is where you explore a text in greater detail, and we're going to really unpick some of the reasons, the motives of some of the characters today.

So I'm really looking forward to this lesson, actually.

And then we're going to respond to the text.

So what are your thoughts? I'm going to pose a really big question at the end of the lesson, and maybe you haven't even thought about it yet whilst we've been reading.

In the lesson today, you're going to need an exercise book or paper, a pencil or a pen, it doesn't matter which one, as well as your brain.

As I said before, you're going to have to do lots of thinking today.

You're going to have to be making links between your reading.

You're going to have to be predicting.

So today's lesson is all about you interpreting and thinking about the text and the story of "Hansel and Gretel." Now is a good time as well if there's any distractions in the room, to sort those out.

For instance here, if the TV's on really loud, perhaps turn it down.

If there's a window open, perhaps go shut the window if it's noisy.

So pause the video here and just make sure your room is ready for you to do your work in.

Well done.

So let's get started now.

We're going to start by reading the end section.

So we skipped out parts of the story, and I'm going to fill you in on what happens, but I really recommend you reading the whole book at some point.

So during the story so far, we left Hansel and Gretel where they had returned home.

The next day, the same thing happens again.

The stepmother plans to abandon them in the forest.

This time, instead of taking pebbles for his trail, Hansel takes some breadcrumbs for his trail.

Then the next morning they wake up, okay? And I'm going to jump into the story here.

"When the moon rose, they set off, but there were no breadcrumbs." Now, remember the breadcrumbs had been laid down in the path so that Hansel and Gretel could find their way home.

"There were no breadcrumbs, for the birds who lived in the forest had eaten them all.

'Cheer up,' said Hansel, 'we'll soon find the way.

'" He's talking to Gretel here.

We know he looks after her.

We know he's a protective character.

"But they could not.

They walked all through that night.

And the next day, unable to get out of the forest, they were very hungry, but could find only a few berries to eat.

The children became so tired that they can go no further.

They laid down under a tree and went to sleep.

It was the third morning." So three days since they had left home.

"And still they walked on, deeper and deeper into the forest." Ooh, if you look at the trees here, the forest has got really dark.

And I love Anthony Browne's drawings in this section of the text.

"If help did not come soon, they would perish." Which means they would starve and die.

So the story's getting a bit sad here.

You're getting a little bit worried about Hansel and Gretel.

The reader is on the edge of their seat.

So this suggests to me this is the climax of the story.

"At mid day, they saw a beautiful snow white bird perched on a branch and singing so sweetly that they stopped to listen.

After a while, it flew away, and they followed it until they came to a little house, where the bird perched on the roof." And you can see the bird has moved to the roof.

Wow.

Look at that house.

It looks delicious.

I can see cherries.

It's like a cake.

I can see baguettes.

"When Hansel and Gretel went closer, they could see that the house was made of bread.

The roof was cake, and the window panes," which is the glass, "were clear sugar." So like sweets.

Mm.

I wonder if you can think what they might do next.

Pause the video here and shout out what you think they do next.

Yeah, I reckon they're going to enter as well.

They might do this because they're really hungry.

"'Look at that,' said Hansel, 'a feast! I'll try a piece of the roof.

You can eat some of the window.

' He stretched up and broke off a bit of the roof to see how it tasted.

Gretel stood by the window and nibbled it.

Then a low voice called from inside the house.

'Nibble, nibble little mouse.

Who is gnawing at my house?' The children answered.

'Only the wind.

The Heaven-sent wind.

' And they went on eating.

Hansel pulled down a huge piece of the roof, while Gretel took out a whole window pane and sat down to enjoy it." So they're really destroying the house, aren't they? "From another window, an old woman watched them.

Suddenly, the door opened, and she hobbled out.

Hansel and Gretel were so terrified that they dropped the food.

But the old woman shook her head and said, 'Well, my dear children, who brought you here? Come in and stay with me.

No harm will come to you.

' She took them both by the hand and drew them indoors." I wonder if you'd do the same.

Would you enter the house? "A meal of milk, pancakes, and sugar, apples and nuts were spread out on the table.

After they had eaten, Hansel and Gretel was showing two pretty little beds where they lay down and thought themselves in Heaven.

The old woman's kindness was only pretence, but she was really a wicked witch who lay in way wait for the children." Hmm, now I'm not sure what pretence means.

So I'm going to pause here, and I'm going to jump in with a strategy to show you what pretence means.

So if I'm not sure on a word, then I need to do a vocabulary check to help me.

So my vocabulary check, 'cause I don't want to just forget this word, I don't want to move on, because I think it's quite key here to the meaning of the text.

So I'm going to have a go at skipping out the word in the sentence.

"The old woman's kindness was only , for she was really a wicked witch who lay in wait for the children." So it sounds like a noun, 'cause it's a thing.

So I wonder what it is.

Now I'm going to have a go at reading around the word.

So it says she was a wicked witch, and it says that her kindness.

Hmm, so it's telling me she's not kind, perhaps.

And that she's actually a wicked witch.

So perhaps I can try and replace this word.

It's trying to tell me here that she's not as kind as she seems. So maybe I could say the old woman's kindness was fake because she was really a wicked witch who lay in wait for the children.

So we know here that she'd been waiting for them.

So she's being kind to them, but she's just tricking them.

So let's jump back into our story now that we know what pretence means.

So let's go back to exactly where we found pretence.

"The old woman's kindness was only a pretence, for she was really a wicked witch who lay in wait for children.

She had built the bread house in order to lure them," that means bring them, "to her, and when a child fell into her power, she would kill it, cook it, and eat it, and make a great treat for the day.

Witches always knew when humans are near, for although they are red-eyed and short-sighted, they have a keen sense of smell, like an animal.

The witch was up early in the morning before the children were awake.

And when she saw them sleeping so sweetly, she muttered to herself, 'Mm, that will make a tasty dish.

' She seized Hansel in her skinny hand, dragged him outside to a little cage, and locked him in.

He screamed and screamed as loud as he could, but it was no use.

Then the witch went to Gretel, shook her awake, and shouted, 'Get up, lazy bones.

Fetch some water and cook something nice for your brother.

He's outside in the cage and has to be fattened.

When he's fat enough, I shall eat him.

' Gretel began to cry, but all in vain.

She had to do what the wicked witch told her." And so then what happens in this story is Hansel starts to trick her.

So he's fed some food, and he has a little bone left over.

And so each day, the old witch goes and feels his arm.

Now, she can't really see very well.

So instead of holding out his arm, he holds out a little bone.

So she thinks he's too thin to eat.

And so days and days passed, and now we jump back in.

"Early next morning, Gretel had to get up, light the fire, and fill the kettle." So this has when the witch has said she's actually bored of waiting.

She's just going to eat Hansel.

"The witch said, 'We will bake first.

I have heated the oven and kneaded the dough.

' She pushed Gretel towards the oven, saying, 'Crawl in and see if it's hot enough to put the bread in.

' She meant to shut the oven door when Gretel was inside, and roast her and eat her as well.

But Gretel saw what the witch had in mind and said, 'I don't know how to do it.

How do I get in?' 'Stupid girl,' said the witch, 'the door is easily big enough.

See? I could get in myself.

' She climbed onto a stool and put her head in the oven.

Then Gretel gave her a great push, which sent her right in, banged shut the iron door, and locked it.

Gretel ran straight to Hansel, opened his cage and cried, 'Hansel, we're free, the old witch is dead!' He rushed out, like a bird set free, and they hugged and kissed each other with joy." Okay, so this is the end of our reading.

We're now going to have a go at analysing the text and thinking about it all in a little bit more detail.

And always bearing in mind that this is a fairy tale.

So often, as a reader, we know what's going to happen next, because we've read other fairytales before, and we're making these associations and links between what we've read.

When we answer the questions today, we're going to try and follow a bit of a strategy.

And this is a way to be really successful when you're answering and retrieving and inferring information from the text.

So it's always good to underline the key words in the question, skim and scan the text for any key information, and search for hidden clues in the text.

Today, we're really searching for the hidden clues in the text.

Sometimes in a text, the answer is between the lines.

So it's not actually what we read.

It's what we think about the text.

It's what we know ready about fairytales and the character, and it's our own kind of response to the text.

And that's one we're really looking at today.

So the first question is this.

This is one where you're going to have to find the answer in the text, so track the answers to do that.

I'm going to read the extract to you first, and then I'd like you to pause the video and have a go at answering the questions.

So, "When the moon rose, they set off, but there were no breadcrumbs, for the birds who lived in the forest had eaten them all." This is my question.

Why were there no breadcrumbs left? And why were the breadcrumbs important? So the first question, the answer is in the text.

The second question, you need to think about what you can remember from the rest of the story to help you answer it.

So pause the video here and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

So here is my answer.

I said that the reason why the breadcrumbs were eaten is because the birds had eaten them all.

And we can see that the answer is in the text.

Now, I remembered that the breadcrumbs were important, because they were their trail home, so without them, they could not get home.

Okay.

Question two.

Look at the picture.

And why did the children go towards the house? What do we know about the children that made them more likely to go? So I want you to think about why.

What is interesting about that house? What would you do? Do you think you would go? And what do we know about the children that make them more likely to go? What is it about them that perhaps means that they're desperate to go there? So press pause, have a go at answering the questions, and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

So I said it's because it was made out of food.

This is no ordinary home.

If I stumbled across it, I would definitely look at it.

I would definitely be interested by it.

And we know that Hansel and Gretel were starving, there was a famine, and that they'd been on their own for three days.

They were desperate.

So no wonder they were tempted to go towards the house.

And we now know that it's a trick, don't we, that the old witch perhaps has a house that looks amazing to lure children into her home.

Well done.

So question three.

As a reader, do we know there is danger, and what makes you feel that way? Would you have eaten the house? So this is about our reader expectation.

Now, in fairytales, we know there is danger ahead often, because that's how the plot usually turns out.

So we also know there are lots of tricks in this book.

So what would you do? How do you know this might be dangerous, that this house is not as good as it seems? And would you have eaten the house? Would you have been tempted to? Or would you have been nervous? And if you had seen the old witch in the window, how would you have reacted then? So pause the video and have a go at answering these questions for me, and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

So I think, yes, you think there is danger because in fairytales, there is often a twist where good things are actually evil.

And I think this is a really good example of how fairytales often like to trick their reader.

And so to answer this question, what I was doing is making links between what I already know about fairytales and applying them to this example of one.

And that's really important in our reading to bring what you already know about things to your reading of texts that you are presently reading.

Then I also say that the old lady looks intimidating, which means scary.

So I would not have been tempted.

If I had seen her in the window, I think I would have run away actually, but perhaps we know that Hansel and Gretel were so hungry that even the danger didn't stop them.

What would you have done, I wonder.

I wish I could hear what you say.

So question number four is a summary question.

As a reader, when you read this, how did you react? Was this fairytale successful in making you feel nervous at all? Were you on the edge of your seat, and were you worried that Hansel and Gretel might not escape from the old witch? Why or why not? Now, as I said before, I want you to bring your knowledge of fairytales to answer this question, as well as your understanding of the book so far.

What have we learned in the story up to this point that might show us the Hansel and Gretel will escape? So pause the video here and have a go at answering the question.

Well done.

So I would say, and I'm not really going to show you an answer for this one, because I really want for this to be your thoughts, but my idea would be that, yes, I wasn't that worried.

I always thought they would escape.

And the reason for that is that fairytales often end with a happy ending.

And this was a happy ending, where the evil is overcome by the good.

And I also thought that I know Hansel is really cunning.

He's really inventive with his plans.

And so by the fact he even tricked to the witch already with the little bone out the cage, I thought that he definitely would be successful in escaping again.

But it's really nice that it's actually Gretel that comes to save the day, because in the rest of the story, it's always been Hansel.

Whereas I really like it that it's Gretel who tricks the witch in the end and gets her to go into the roasting pot.

So, or the oven.

We're now we're going to think about our final response to the text.

What do we think with our final response to the text? So true or false.

The witch is the stepmother.

I want you to think about what I might be trying to suggest.

Do you think the witch is the same person as the stepmother? Now I want you to think about how Anthony Browne has created maybe these links in the images that he's done.

And we are going to look at this more closely in the following lessons.

But had you thought of this before? Had you already made this link? What do you think? So I'd like you to write down, "I think because." So press pause here, and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Okay, so I'm not actually going to ask you to tell me about this one.

I want you hold onto your ideas with this answer because we're going to explore it over the next few lessons.

And I'm going to show you how perhaps Anthony Browne presents links to the images that he had in "Hansel and Gretel." In his version of "Hansel and Gretel." So I'm really looking forward to the next few lessons just to explore that in a little bit more detail.

So congratulations, you have now completed your lesson today.

I would like you just to pause the video here and tell me perhaps your favourite part of the story of "Hansel and Gretel." So pause the video, shout out your favourite part, and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

So fantastic lesson today, and I look forward to seeing you in all the future lessons.