Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Johnson and I'm going to be teaching you reading today.

In today's lesson, we're going to read the opening chapter of "The Firework Maker's Daughter" by Philip Pullman.

For this lesson, you will need a pen and paper or a pencil, as well as your brain to make sure that you are thinking throughout this lesson.

Okay.

So when you're ready, let's get started.

We're going to start by introducing the author and discussing the context of the book.

It's always important that we think about the author whenever we read a book.

This helps us to know that if we enjoy a book, we might want to look for other books that they have written.

It also helps us to think about links between our reading.

Then we're going to discuss the context.

By this I mean, we're going to look at the setting of the story and perhaps some of the key characters.

Then we're going to actually do some reading of the text.

I'll do some of that with you and then you can have a go at doing some independently as well.

Then we're going to look at the language that we come across in our reading.

And we're going to think about words in particular that we come across.

And then we're going to be summarising everything that we know about the plot so far.

So in today's lesson, you're going to need an exercise book or paper, pencil or pen, and I also want you to bring your brain today.

It's really important that you're thinking throughout this lesson and you're not just listening to what I'm saying.

So we're going to start today by introducing the author.

"The Firework Maker's Daughter" is written by Phillip Pullman.

Phillip Pullman has written lots of books for children.

He's also written some books that adults enjoy as well.

A book that I've always really enjoyed of his was called "His Dark Materials" and I read it when I was younger.

And since then I've been a fan of Philip Pullman.

What I really like about his stories is he tends to set them in imaginary worlds.

And his characters are always really independent and resilient, which I really like.

So I hope that by sharing this story with you today, the opening chapter, that you might want to finish this book, but that you also might want to read some other stories that he has written.

So we're going to think today, first of all, about the setting and the key characters.

So, what clues does the front cover give you about where this story is set? So I want you to pause the video, and I want you to just look carefully at what drawings you can see, perhaps look very closely on what is in that front cover.

Can you spot any clues that might tell us where the story is set? So pause the video and have a go.

And then when you're ready, press play.

Okay, so I wonder what clues you could find.

If I was to look at this picture here, I would look at the volcano.

That's the first thing that really strikes me when I look at this picture.

And then I look closely even more closely, I can see there's also mountains and there's also some trees around.

So I know that this is quite an unfamiliar terrain to where I would be.

So I think this could be set somewhere far away.

I also can tell that the character here is dressed in.

clothes that perhaps resemble elements of an Asian culture.

And so I would imagine that this story is set somewhere in Asia.

Okay, so if we look at the very first opening words of "The Firework Maker's Daughter", we are told where the story is set.

And I'm going to read this to you now.

"A thousand miles ago, in a country east of the jungle and south of the mountains, there lived a Firework Maker called Lalchand and his daughter Lila." Now, if I was to look back at this front cover, I would imagine that the character I can see there is called Lila.

What really I find interesting about this opening section is that it says a thousand miles ago.

Usually stories will start with a thousand years ago and they'd set us in time.

But this story sets us in distance and location.

And I find that really interesting.

So it's a place miles away and in the past, perhaps.

It's also in a country east of the jungle, but we don't know which jungle, and south of the mountains.

And again, we don't know which mountains.

So I would imagine that this is actually not a known location.

We can guess, but we can't be sure.

And actually it's perhaps an imaginary world that Philip Pullman has thought of.

By the looks of it, it also looks like this character is going on a journey.

She's obviously journey, going across unknown lands.

And so I would imagine this story is a quest story in which the main character goes on a journey, learns a new skill or learns something about themselves.

So let's pause the video and let's have a think about what you can remember from everything I've just said.

So I want you to say whether these statements are true or false.

So the main character is a girl, true or false? The exact location of the story is known, true or false? The story is a quest narrative, true or false? So pause the video and then press play when you're ready.

So I wonder how you got on.

Let me show you the answers.

So did you remember that the main character is a girl? Can you remember her name? Her name is Lila, so that is true.

And, as I said before, the exact location of the story is actually not known.

We can make a guess, but we can't be sure, the exact location is never told to us.

So that is false.

And, as I said before, it looks like from the front cover, that Lila is going on a journey.

So the story is a quest narrative and that is true.

I wonder how you did.

Okay, so before we do any reading of the opening chapter, there are some words that you might come across that you just need to know.

Okay? The words are maybe quite specific to the text.

So I'm just going to tell you what those words mean.

And then when you come across them in your book when I read, you can just remember what those words are.

Okay, you're going to say them after me.

The first word is cradle.

And that is a baby's bed or cot.

It's a noun and here is an image next to it, so you can see what it looks like.

Cradle.

The next word that we might come across, it's gunpowder.

And that is an explosive mixture.

This story is called "The Firework Maker's Daughter".

So gunpowder is used in the fireworks.

And there is an image of one of the fireworks.

And then the last word, which is a verb, is alarmed.

And that's a feeling of sense or danger, it's feeling a sense of danger.

So, perhaps you were alarmed by something, you were a bit worried by it.

So when you come across those words today, I want you just to try and remember them and know that it doesn't matter if you're not quite sure what they mean.

These are words I'm just going to tell you.

And I'll remind, I'll do that as I read as well.

So now I'm going to read the text.

This is going to work, you can either pause the video here and you can read the page before I read it.

Or you can listen to me read it, and then you can press pause and go back and read it yourself.

Before we start though, I would just like to say if a word has a capital letter and it is in the middle of the sentence, don't worry if you don't know what that word means.

If it's got a capital letter and it's in the middle of the sentence, it is often just the name of a place or a person.

And there are lots of words, there's names of fireworks in this opening chapter that are quite difficult to read and quite difficult to pronounce.

And actually it's okay if we don't know what they mean, because we just have to remember that they're a name.

So I'm going to read you now the story.

So sit back and I hope you enjoy listening to the opening chapter of "The Firework Maker's Daughter" by Philip Pullman.

Chapter One.

A thousand miles ago in a country east of the jungle and south of the mountains, there lived a Firework Maker called Lalchand and his daughter Lila.

Lalchand's wife had died when Lila was young.

The child was a cross little thing, always crying and refusing her food, but Lalchand built a cradle for her in the corner of the workshop where she could see the sparks play and listen to the fizz and crackle of the gunpowder.

When she was out of her cradle.

Remember what cradle means? That's a baby's cot.

She toddled around the workshop laughing as the fire flared and the sparks danced.

Many a time she burnt her little fingers, but Lalchand splashed water on them and kissed her better, and soon she was playing again.

When she was old enough to learn, her father began to teach her the art of making fireworks.

The art is just how you make fireworks, it's the skill of making fireworks.

She began with little Crackle-Dragons.

Oh, that's got a capital letter in it, so it must be a name.

Six on a string.

Then she learned how to make Leaping Monkeys, Golden Sneezes, and Java Lights.

Soon she was making all the simple fireworks, and thinking about more complicated ones.

One day she said, "Father, if I put some flowers of salt in a Java Light instead of cloud-powder, what would happen?" "Try it and see," he said.

So she did.

Instead of burning with a steady green glimmer, it sprayed out wicked little sparks, each of which turned a somersault before going out.

"Not bad, Lila," said Lalchand.

"What are you going to call it?" "Mmm.

Tumbling Demons," she said.

"Excellent! Make a dozen and we'll put them into the New Year Festival display." The Tumbling Demons were a great success, and so were the Shimmering Coins that Lila invented next.

As time went on, she learned more and more of her father's art, until one day she said, "Am I a proper Firework Maker now?" "No, no," he said.

"By no means.

Ha! You don't know the start of it.

What are the ingredients of a flyaway powder?" "I don't know." "And where do you find thunder-grains?" "I've never heard of thunder grains." "How much scorpion oil do you put in a Krakatoa Fountain?" "A teaspoonful?" "What? You'd blow the whole city up.

You've got a lot to learn yet.

Do you really want to be a Firework Maker, Lila?" "Of course I do! It's the only thing I want!" "I was afraid so," he said.

"It's my own fault.

What was I thinking of? I should have sent you to my sister Jembavati to bring you up as a dancer.

This is no place for a girl, now I come to think of it, and just look at you! Your hair's a mess, your fingers are burned and stained with chemicals, your eyebrows are scorched.

How am I going to find a husband for you when you look like that?" Lila was horrified.

"A husband?" "Well, of course! You don't imagine you can stay here forever, do you?" They looked at each other as if they were strangers.

Each of them had had quite the wrong idea about things and they were both alarmed to find it out.

So Lila said no more about being a Firework Maker, and Lalchand said no more about husbands.

But they both thought about them, all the same.

Okay, so that comes to the end of the chapter that we are going to read or the section of the chapter that we're going to read.

If you want to now, you could pause the video and you could rewind and you could read the story yourself.

What I'd like you to do now, is I'd like you to pause the video to complete a task.

The task I'd like you to do is just to think about what your initial response to the story is.

So do you like it or not? Do you like the main character or not? Is there anything you'd like to know more about? So are you interested or intrigued by anything that you heard in the opening? And I'd like you to write or say a sentence.

And you can start with these sentence starters.

I enjoyed it because.

I did not enjoy it because.

And I would like to know.

But make sure you give me a reason for why you enjoy it or you don't enjoy it.

And then you can just press play when you're ready.

Okay, so now what we're going to do is we're going to pick out a few of the key words that were in that story.

And we're going to think about how we would work out the meaning of them if we're unsure.

The first word that we're going to look at is called, is toddled and it's a verb.

I know it's a verb because it's in the past tense, and it's got an -ed ending so that really helps me to spot verbs.

It's a doing verb.

It's something that you do.

And that really helps me straight away.

This is where it is in the text.

"Once she was out of her cradle".

We know what a cradle is, that's the baby's cot.

"She toddled around the workshop, laughing as the fire flared and the sparks danced." Now, you all might already know what this word is.

But even if you do, I'd like you to listen to how we might work out an unfamiliar word.

So my strategies are these.

The first thing that I always do when I come across a word in my reading that I'm not sure of, is I pause and I think.

I could just carry on reading, but then I'll never know what the word means.

And I might not understand the meaning of the book.

So it's always important that we stop and we think about what the word might be.

And this is how we learn what new words are.

So I always stop and I skip out the word in the sentence.

So I'm going to show you now.

This is the first thing I do.

"Once she was out of her cradle, she around the workshop laughing as the fire flared and the sparks danced." Now I know this is a verb and by skipping out that word I can think of it as a verb.

Then that's still not really helping.

I don't really know what that word means yet.

So the next thing I do is I try and replace this word with another word.

So let's try now.

"Once she was out of her cradle," that's a baby's cot, "she around the workshop." Now I'm told that she's around, which suggests she's maybe moving around the workshop or perhaps she is walking around the workshop.

I know she's out of her cradle.

So if I was to now read around that word, I know she's out of her cradle, which suggests to me she perhaps is now walking.

But she's only just out of her cradle, which is that baby's cot.

So perhaps she's not walking that steadily.

And perhaps she was more of a toddler.

Oh, and toddled actually is similar to the word toddler, isn't it? I wonder if they are linked.

And by that, I'm starting to work out what this word might mean.

And this word does mean to move with short or unsteady steps.

And so those are the three steps I always do when I'm trying to work out an unfamiliar word.

So I wonder if you could have a go now with this word, glimmer.

It's a noun.

I'm going to tell you what it is.

So "Instead of burning with a steady green glimmer.

." So that's a noun, that's the word class.

So I've done step one for you.

"It sprayed out wicked little sparks, each of which turned a somersault before going out." Now, what you can do is you can read the sentence and skip out the word.

You can replace the word or you can think about the word class and how that might help you as well.

Or read around the sentence.

So I would like you to have a go now, pause the video and have a go at trying to work out what this word might mean.

And then press play when you're ready to find out.

Okay, so I would look at this and I think a steady green glimmer, I'm describing something and it's linked to the word burning.

So I know instead of doing it, it sprays out wicked little sparks.

So I think it's going to be really similar to that.

It's steady.

So if I was to read back in the sentence, I can see that it's a steady green glimmer.

And that word "steady" is really important, isn't it? Steady means something is.

If a car is steady, it's moving at a similar pace.

So I think steady means it's perhaps just.

Perhaps quite a faint light.

And it's just the same level of light.

It's not getting brighter at any point.

And that would help me now to work out what this word might mean.

So this word does mean to shine faintly, okay? So the light gave out a faint green light.

And that would really, that kind of shows me what a glimmer might be.

Well done.

I wonder if you actually worked out the meaning of that word as well.

Okay, so we're going to finish today's lesson by summarising what we know already about the plot and the opening of "The Firework Maker's Daughter".

Let's see how much you can remember.

So, I'd like you to pause the video to complete your task and answer the true and false statements below.

So Lalchand is Lila's father, true or false? Lila and Lalchand disagree, true or false? Lila wants to find a husband, true or false? Let's see which ones of those you can remember.

And remember when you do this, it's always good to explain.

So this statement is true because.

And this statement is false because.

And it's always nice to give a reason and explain through so that we know that you're basing your answer on evidence from the text.

It's also really important to know things like whether Lalchand is Lila's father, because that places characters in the text for us.

Otherwise we won't recognise the characters or how they act as they come through the story.

So pause the video now and see how you get on.

And then press play when you're ready to play again.

I wonder how you got on.

Let's see how well you did.

Don't worry if you couldn't remember, that's why we do this.

We're doing this just to check your understanding before we go any further.

So answer the true and false statements below.

Lalchand is Lila's father.

That is true.

Okay? And that is just factual, so perhaps there's not a reason for that one.

Lila and Lalchand disagree.

That's also true.

I wonder if you gave me the reason for why they disagree.

So they disagree because Lila wants to be a firework maker.

And Lalchand actually just wants her to be a wife and to find a husband.

So Lila wants to find a husband is false, because we actually know she wants to be a firework maker.

And that's why she's disagreeing with Lalchand.

Okay, congratulations.

You have completed this lesson.

Before we finish, I'd like you to do one more thing for me.

I'd like you to write down three things that you've learned from this lesson.

It could be the words that you've learned.

It could be the plot or the key characters, facts about the opening story.

It could be a fact about the author.

So just tell me three things.

It's up to you what they are that you have learned from this lesson.

And you can jot them down or you can say them out loud.

And well done for completing the lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it.

And I hope you enjoy the rest of your lessons today.