Lesson video

Hi, there! I'm Mrs. Howley and this is Cedric.

Yes, I will tell them about our journey, Cedric.

We've been on a special journey.

I wonder if you can guess where we've been.

So, first of all, what could we hear? We could hear insects buzzing, tropical birdsong, animals howling.

What could we smell? A sweet perfume of flowers and fruit.

What could we feel? We could feel the hot sun on our skin.

Can you guess where we've been? Yes, we've been to the forest of Africa in our story of Awongalema.

In this lesson, we're going to practise describing using all of our five senses.

We're going to start with some spelling.

Then we're going to retell our story of Awongalema.

Then we're going to explore with our senses, and then we're going to create a poem together.

For this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some paper, a pencil or a pen, and your brilliant brain.

If you need to collect any of those items, pause the video now, and then press play when you're ready to go.

Cedric and I have been playing a game.

We've been imagining that we're sitting next to a big window.

I wonder if you could create an imaginary window.

What can I hear? I can hear seagulls calling and waves crashing.

What can I feel? A warm breeze tickling my skin.

What can I smell? Fish and chips.

What can I taste? The salty sea air.

What can I see? The golden sand with the sun reflected in it.

Can you imagine where I am? I think I'm by the seaside in my imaginary window.

I wonder where you could go exploring the senses.

Did you notice we used all five senses? Hearing, sight, taste, smell, and touch.

In this unit of work, we're working on describing using all of our senses to make the description really vivid for the listener or the reader.

We've got a song all about using our five senses.

It goes like this.

♪ Seeing, hearing, touching things ♪ ♪ Smelling and tasting, too ♪ ♪ I can use my senses, use my senses ♪ ♪ You can use them, too ♪ Should we try that again? So it starts with seeing, hearing and touching things, then smelling and tasting, too.

Let's have a go.

♪ Seeing, hearing and touching things ♪ ♪ Smelling and tasting, too ♪ ♪ I can use my senses, use my senses ♪ ♪ You can use them, too ♪ When we're practising our spelling it's important to use our sense of hearing.

And in this part of the unit, we're looking at a letter string, E-A-R.

And sometimes it makes one sound.

Sometimes it makes a different sound.

So we're got to have to listen really carefully aren't we Cedric? Pear.

Oh, I could just eat a juicy pear.

This one, rhymes.

It's a bear.

Could you be a bear for me? Bear! Wear.

Hm, would you like to wear today? Now, in those three words, the E-A-R letter string all makes a air sound.

Pear, bear, wear.

Those words rhyme.

Now, in this word, you don't need to be afraid of it, Cedric.

It makes an ear sound.

Fear.

Ear, fear, tear.

A tear rolled down his cheek.

Tear.

And clear.

It's a clear day.

Let's see if we can choose the right words to fit in these sentences.

He ate a juicy.

Which word do you think is? A juicy pear.

Remember it's going to have that E-A-R letter string.

The bear had sharp claws.

The bear had sharp claws.

What rolled down his cheek? He was so sad, a tear.

Now, don't forget even though it makes a different sound, it still has that E-A-R letting string.

A tear rolled down his cheek.

The sky was bright and clear.

Clear, E-A-R letting string.

Pause the video now and have a go at writing down the missing words.

Don't forget to use that letter string.

Press play when you're ready for the next part of the lesson.

There are so many moments in our Awongalema story that we can explore using our five senses.

I can't wait to get to that forest.

I'm going to have a go at retelling the story now, using my story map.

Cedric's going to help me as well.

If you've got your story map handy, you might want to go and collect it now.

I've got my story map handy.

I've got my helper and I've got my hat for a little bit of magic.

So, I'm going to give it a try.

You follow along with your story map if you've got one.

Once upon a time in the forests of Africa, there had been no rain.

What did it look like? The land was dry and brown.

How did it feel? The hot sun was burning the animal's skin.

They gathered under a huge Acacia tree.

The lion stepped forward.

"This tree will give us all the fruit we need.

If we can remember its name.

Can anybody remember its name?" The animals all shook their head.

"Who will go and learn the name from the mountain spirits?" said the owl.

Cheetah stepped forward.

"I'll go," he said.

So, cheetah set off up the mountain.

What did it taste like? Oh, the path was dusty.

And there was a bitter taste in his mouth as he ran and he ran and he ran as fast as the wind until he got to the top of the mountain.

And he said, "Mountain spirits, talk to me.

Tell me the name of the old, old tree." How did it feel? Suddenly there was a cold wind.

What could he hear? A howling whispering sound and then he heard the mountain spirits.

"Awongalema," they called.

"Awongalema," he said.

And he set off back down the mountain.

He ran and he ran and he ran.

He ran as fast as the wind until crash! He hit an anthill and was bitten all over.

"Ow!" He yelled.

Everybody could hear that, Cedric.

How did it feel? A burning, itching pain, all over his body.

And as he brushed off the animals, off the ants, he realised he'd forgotten the name of the tree.

He set off back down the mountain.

And when he got to the animals, they said, "What's the name?" "I've forgotten," he said.

What did he look like? Oh, he hung his head and slumped his shoulders.

"Who will go now and learn the name from the mountain spirits," said Owl.

Lion stepped forward.

Oh, he looked brave and proud with his big bushy mane.

"I will go," said Lion.

And he ran and he ran and he ran as fast as the wind, his mane blowing in the wind.

And when he got to the top of the mountain, he called out, "Mountain spirits, talk to me.

Tell me the name of the old, old tree." And the mountain spirits called back, "Awongalema." "Awongalema," said Lion.

And he ran back down the mountain as fast as he could.

As fast as the wind until crash! He hit an anthill.

There was a big cloud of dust, Cedric, and he got bitten all over.

The ants could be seen all over his fur.

As he brushed them off he realised he'd forgotten the name of the tree.

When he got back to the animals, the owl said, "Who shall we send now?" This time they decided to send the jaguar.

The jaguar stepped forward.

The animals cheered, "Hurray!" And he set off up the mountain.

And he ran and he ran and he ran as fast as the wind until he got to the top of the mountain and he called out, what did he call out, Cedric? Could hear his cry across the mountain top.

"Mountain spirits, talk to me.

tell me the name of the old, old tree." And the mountain spirits called out, "Awongalema." "Awongalema," said the jaguar.

And he ran and he ran and he ran as fast as he could until crash! An ear splitting sound as he hit an anthill and got bitten all over.

"Ow!" He screamed.

And as he pushed off the ants, he realised he'd forgotten the name.

When he got back to the animals, they asked him and he said, "I've forgotten." And he purred softly.

"Who shall we send now?" Said Owl.

"We'll have to send a slow animal." Tortoise slowly stepped forward and off he went.

What could we hear when tortoise was going up the mountain? Plod, plod, plod.

It was a peaceful journey.

The dusty path glistened as he took each step forward.

Plod, plod, plod.

And when he got to the top of the mountain, he called to the mountain spirits, "Mountain spirits, talk to me.

Tell me the name of the old, old tree." And the mountain spirits called back, "Awongalema." And he went plod, plod, plod, all the way back down to the bottom of the mountain to the huge Acacia tree.

The animals asked him for the name and he said, "Awongalema." And at that moment, you could hear the gasps of the animals as the tree filled with the most delicious looking fruit, some was smooth, some was rough.

And you could hear the thud as the fruit drop to the ground.

The animals run forward.

And feasted on the delicious fruit.

Yeah, Cedric, the juice dribbled down their fur, and you could see this smiles as they sat, happily eating the fruit under the huge Acacia tree.

Thanks, Cedric.

You really helped me add description using the five senses.

Let's take one moment from that story now and explore it in more detail.

Let's think about the start of the story.

The moment they are all sitting underneath the Acacia tree.

They're so hungry.

Let's have a think about what that scene would be like.

I'm going to draw a picture of that scene to help me think about it.

Okay, so I'm going to start with the Acacia tree.

The huge tree that's the centre of this scene for these animals.

Remember it's dry, it's got no fruit.

I'll draw the ground.

What should I draw next? The sun, that's so important in this scene.

Making everybody's hunger and thirst so much worse.

And then I'll draw one of the characters.

I'm not going to draw all of them, but I'm going to draw some so I can focus on how they might be feeling, what they might look like and sound like.

So, I'm going to draw the cheetah.

I'm not great at drawing animals, but that doesn't matter.

Remember, this scene is for you, this drawing is for you, to think about what you'd experience.

I'll draw another one of our characters.

I'll draw the tortoise at the bottom of the tree, waiting for somebody to come back or waiting for somebody to give them some food.

He's looking fed up.

Then what else do I want to include in my picture? What else is happening? The ground is dry and cracked.

Nothing's growing.

I can think about what that looks like.

What else might we see? Owl sitting in the tree.

Think about any sounds he might be making and what he might look like perched up in the top of that tree.

I've got insects buzzing around in the heat.

Oh, that cheetah's tummy is rumbling.

He's so hungry.

He's drooling.

He might even be shedding a tear because he's so fed up with being so hungry.

Pause the video now to draw a quick sketch of that scene, thinking about what you might see, hear, taste, smell, and feel.

Pause the video and then press play when your picture is ready and you're ready for the next part of the lesson.

Now we've got our scene drawn out.

We're going to do some descriptive zooming.

We're going to zoom in to one part of your picture.

I've chosen one part of mine.

And we're going to imagine we're there seeing that scene using all of our senses.

What might we hear for this part of the scene? What might we smell and taste? What might we feel? What might we see? I'm going to create a sensory grid now, thinking about this zoomed in moment.

Okay, so when I create my sensory grid, I'm going to draw a line down the centre of the page and a line across the centre of the page.

And then I'm going to draw a picture for each of the senses that I'm focusing on.

So, I'm going to draw an eye for when we focus on all the things we might see in this scene.

I'm going to draw an ear for everything we might hear.

I'm going to draw some lips for what we might taste.

And actually I'm going to put smell in with taste in this scene.

And then I'm going to draw a hand for what we might feel for the sense of touch.

All right, let's think about this scene.

Imagine you're there, what might you see? We're going to see the dry, cracked earth.

Dry.

Cracked.

It's a past tense verb, it's going to end in ed.

Crack, double consonant, ed.

What else might we see? We're going to see one of the animals and they are so hungry.

What do you think they might be? Oh, they're drooling.

Drooling, they're dribbling, they're so hungry.

I love that word drooling.

And then we've got the hot sun.

Of course you'd see that and the bright colours it creates.

What might we hear in this scene? We might hear flies buzzing.

Flies buzzing.

Buzzing.

Flies buzzing.

What else might you hear? The animals are so hungry you might hear tummies rumbling.

Tummies rumbling.

I'm going to draw a picture now of one of those really hungry animals.

Just like the one in my zoomed in picture.

What might we hear that animal doing? As well as their tummy rumbling, you might hear them groaning with hunger.

Animals, animals groaning.

Groaning.

Animals groaning.

What do you think in this scene you might taste or smell because they don't have any food or drink? But it's a dusty plain, I think they might taste the bitter taste of the dirt.

Maybe even a salty taste from their tears because their mouths are so dry.

Might smell that dusty air.

What do you think they might feel? What they might be able to touch.

They're going to feel on their skin, the burning sun.

Burning sun.

Burning sun.

They also might be able to feel something in their bodies.

They might feel aching bellies.

They're so thirsty, they just need some fruit.

Oh.

So, I'm going to draw a picture to remind me of their dry throats.

I'll just lift that up for you, sorry.

Their dry throats.

So, now we've got our sensory grid.

Have a go now at creating your own sensory grid using the senses to explore a zoomed in moment on your picture.

Pause the video now, have a go at your grid, and then press play when you're ready to carry on.

I can use that sensory grid later in the unit when we're doing some descriptive writing using all the senses, but I'm also going to use it now to create a quick poem.

So I'm going to create a three, four, three, four poem.

It's a very simple format.

It has three words, then four words, then three words, then four words.

I love poems because you can just choose the best words.

So, let's have a look at my sensory grid.

Hm, I think I'm going to start with the burning sun.

Now, I want three words.

So, sun burning skin.

Now, I loved the idea of the mouths drooling.

I want to put across the idea of that hunger.

So, mouths drooling and stomachs rumbling.

Mouths drooling, stomachs rumbling.

Now, I want to describe that earth.

So, maybe just cracked dry earth, cracked dry earth.

That's another three.

And then for my four.

Hm, I love the idea of that bitter salty taste of the earth.

So, bitter salty.

Hm, hunger pains.

Bitter salty hunger pains.

Let's have a look at my finished poem.

Sun burning skin.

Mouths drooling, stomachs rumbling.

Cracked dry earth.

Bitter salty hunger pains.

Just using those words, I've created a sensory poem.

If you'd like a challenge and you'd like to create a poem using your sensory grid, pause the video now and give it a go.

Wowzers, we've used our senses in so many different ways, Cedric.

Oh, Cedric said he liked the poem.

I liked zooming in to my descriptive picture.

There's so many different ways we can explore the senses.

Before our next lesson, keep your eyes open for what you can see, pay attention to what you smell and taste, to what you can hear and what you can feel.

And we'll carry on exploring our senses in the next few lessons.

We'll see you soon.

Bye.