Lesson video

Hello.

My name is Miss Vincent and I'm going to be teaching you today for this writing lesson.

In today's lesson we're going to be looking at the opening of the film "How to Train Your Dragon." Which is based on a book by the same title, by the author and illustrator, Cressida Cowell.

We're going to watch the opening one more time and we're going to do our first of three lessons, where we write the opening, thinking really carefully about building on our learning from previous lessons to make our sentences really exciting and really precise.

Let's get started.

Let's have a look at today's agenda.

So, we're going to start with a writing warmup, looking at prepositions.

Then, we're going to think about the scene, then we're going to write today and we're going to recap it so it's really clear in our minds.

Then, we're going to move on to planning in our steps for success and finally it will be time for writing our sentences.

In this lesson you'll need an exercise book or a piece of paper to write on.

You'll need a pencil or a pen to write with and of course, you'll need your brain switched on, ready to focus and try your best.

If there's anything that you need to go and get for this lesson, please pause the video and go do that now.

Fantastic.

So, hopefully, we're ready to go.

So, let's start with our writing warmup today.

And I've mentioned already that we're going to look at prepositions.

But, what is a preposition? I want us all to have a little moment to think about that.

Have you ever heard that word before? Have you ever seen a preposition? Would you be able to describe what a preposition is? Let's have a think.

What do you think? What is a preposition? Let me tell you.

A preposition tells us where or when something happens in relation to something else.

So, the prepositions that tell us where something happens are called prepositions of place.

My turn, your turn.

Prepositions of place.

Good job.

Now, some examples of some prepositions of place are, on, beside, next to or under.

So, they describe where one thing is compared to something else or in relation to something else.

And then we've got some prepositions that tell us when something happens.

And those are called prepositions of time.

My turn, your turn.

Prepositions of time.

Well done.

And some examples of prepositions of time are, before, after, at, and in.

And at, I want you to imagine, at 10:00 the lesson starts or in 10 minutes it will be break time.

So, those are our prepositions of time.

In today's warmup we're going to focus on prepositions of place and this is because prepositions of place are really important when we're doing a setting description because they help our reader to imagine where each part of our setting is compared to the other parts.

So, here are some examples of some prepositions of place.

You can see that the apple is located in relation to other objects, like, boxes and books and we can see some chairs and some tables.

So, prepositions such as, between, in front of, behind, those are prepositions of place.

So, if we look at the top row, we can see that the first image is showing the apple between two boxes.

The next image is showing the apple in front of a book.

We're going to have a go at looking at some images of an apple as well, of an apple in relation to a box.

And it's your job to think of what the preposition of place might be.

Let's go.

So, how could you describe the location of the apple? Say it out loud.

Three, two, one.

It's above the box.

How about this one? Three, two, one.

Inside the box.

Well done.

How about this one? Three, two, one.

In between the boxes.

Fantastic.

I've got an image here of a very messy room.

I wonder if your bedroom looks like this.

And inside the room there are lots of different things and this image is fantastic to help us come up with prepositions of place.

So, as an example, I've looked at the globe, which is sitting on the desk.

And I've written, the globe is behind the rubber duck.

So, I want you to have a go at coming up with as many different descriptions of the objects in the room, describing their location in relation to another object.

So, I described the globe by telling you where it is in relation to the rubber duck.

There are lots and lots of different things, so I'd like you to pause the video and have a go at coming up with some descriptions of where some objects are compared to other objects, using prepositions of place.

Off you go.

Okay, fantastic job.

I wonder how many you found.

I'm going to share with you some other examples that I found.

I found the shell is on the shelf.

The umbrella is in front of the violin.

And then finally, the medal is between the chair and the bag.

There are endless possibilities, so really well done for finding lots and lots of them, hopefully.

Now we're going to move on to reviewing and recapping the scene.

So, in this section of the lesson, we'll watch the opening scene again and then we'll think really carefully about the parts that we're going to write today.

In today's writing, we're going to focus on the first three things that we see in the opening scene.

We're going to focus on the eerie mist that hangs in the air just outside the island.

We're going to focus on the two tall watchtowers that guard the island and we can see the little village in the distance.

And then finally, we're going to focus on the crashing waves to describe the really powerful seas to our reader.

So, before we move on to do any description, we're to think about our plan.

We are going to look very carefully at the opening one more time.

Let's watch.

This is Berk.

It's 12 days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death.

It's located solidly on the meridian of misery.

My village, in a word, sturdy.

And it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new.

We have fishing, hunting and a charming view of the sunsets.

The only problems are the pests.

You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes.

We have dragons.

I hope you enjoyed watching the opening scene one more time.

I always find it so exciting.

The Island of Berk looks really mysterious and somewhere where I want to find more about.

So, in previous lessons we had a go at coming up with lots of different vocabulary to talk about this section of the narrative.

In the first lesson we started off by thinking about what sounds we could hear and by thinking about the setting.

So, describing what we could see.

And you could see here some examples of some of the key vocabulary that we came up with together.

In the following lesson we talked about precise verbs and adverbs to describe the mist and to describe the waves.

Now, if you have your notes from these two previous lessons, can you please pause the video and go and get them now.

If you don't have any notes, then now is the time to pause the video and take down some notes and some words that you're really intrigued by and that you'd like to use in your writing.

So, pause the video and either go and get your notes or copy down some noted now.

Pause the video.

Okay, fantastic job.

So, I've got my plan in front of me to do some writing and hopefully you've found your plan or you've had a go at copying some words.

These words, these verbs, adverbs, these sounds and these things that we can see are going to be really useful when we come to do our writing to help us with ideas, but also, to help us remember really precise vocabulary that's going to make our writing really, really ambitious and really exciting.

Now, I'm going to talk to you about our steps for success.

So, these are our success criteria.

The things that we need to do to make sure that our writing is really successful and really precise.

I'm going to talk to you about skills that make your writing successful always and then kills that we're going to try really hard to include into this lesson.

So, what should we try and include? I want you to have a think about this.

What should we try to include in our writing? What are successful skills for writing? What do we always try to do our writing? Have a little think to yourself and I'm going to as well.

I wonder what you think.

Well, let me tell you my thoughts.

So, I think for a successful piece of writing, we have to be checking for somethings always.

So, something that children all the way up to year six and also in secondary school find a little bit tricky is remembering their capital letters and full stops.

So, it's really important that we do a two finger check for our capital letters and full stops to make sure that we've included them.

When I say a two finger check, that means put one finger on our capital letter, read the sentence, find our full stop and if I found both of those, I've done my two finger check.

Our next skill that's really important is using say, write, read.

So, it's really important to think of our whole sentence first, say it out loud, then we can write it down and then finally, it's really important that we read it through, just to check that it says what we want it to say.

And then, the really, really key skill, what authors are really good at, to edit and improve our writing.

So, authors don't just write their books all in one go.

They write their book and then they look back over it and then they edit it.

They change things to improve it, to make it even better.

In today's lesson we're going to use all of the skills that we've practised in previous lessons.

So, we're going to try really hard to use precise adjectives to describe the setting.

We're going to use those precise verbs and adverbs that we came up with to describe the action.

And then finally, we're going to use the skills that we practised in our writing warmup to include some prepositions of place to help the reader know where everything is happening and where everything is compared to everything else.

You don't need to make any notes of today's aims. Every time it's your turn to write, I will put these aims and these success criteria on the screens so that you can have them when you're writing.

In today's writing we're going to write at least one sentence for each of these sections.

We're going to do a description of the mist.

We're going to write a description of the watchtowers and then finally, we're going to describe the crashing waves.

Okay, let's get onto the fun part.

Let's write our sentences.

Today when we're writing it's going to be my turn, your turn.

So, I'm going to have a go at writing a sentence first and then I'll tell you to pause the video and you'll have a go.

Then, it'll be my turn, then it will be your turn again.

Let's get started.

So, in this part of the lesson I'm going to write my sentences and I want you to listen really carefully, so that when it's your turn to write you have some ideas for your own writing.

You won't see my face, but you'll see the words pop up as I type them.

So, in this sentence we're describing the mist and I think I want to describe it as a thick blanket of mist and I want to describe where it is and I think it's hanging in the sky.

So, I'm going to use a past tense verb, hung.

So, a thick blanket of mist hung in the sky.

Let me write that in.

I need my capital letter.

A thick blanket of mist hung in the sky.

Full stop.

I think it's a really good start, but I think actually I'd quite like to add in some adjectives.

I think I'd like to describe the mist.

So, a thick blanket of something, something mist.

With some precise adjectives.

And I think I'm going to go for eerie and silver.

So, a thick blanket of eerie, silver mist hung in the sky.

And I've put a comma between those two adjectives because we need to use a comma to separate our two adjectives when we write them side by side.

And I'd also like to add in two adjectives to describe the sky.

And I'm going to go for ebony, which means really, really dark, almost black and midnight.

So, a thick blanket of eerie, silver mist hung in the ebony, midnight sky.

Ebony, comma and then midnight sky.

So, that's my first sentence.

Now, that's a really fantastic start and remember I said at least one sentence for each picture.

But, I'm going to challenge myself a little bit further because I want to describe where the mist is in relation to the water and it's just above the water, isn't it? So, I'm going to say that it floated just above the water and I want to give a little bit more detail about the island behind it.

So, I'm going to start my sentence with, it floated just above the water, but then extend it using the coordinating conjunction and so that I can give more information.

So, I'm going to say, it floated just above the water and almost entirely covered the view of the island behind it.

So, I need to start my sentence with a capital letter.

It floated just above the water and almost entirely covered the view of the island behind it.

Okay.

So I think I could extend it even further.

We'll be a little bit more precise by including an adverb to describe how it's floating.

And in a previous lesson, we talked about floating elegantly, like a dancer dancing just above the water, it floated elegantly just above the water.

Just above the water and almost entirely covered the view of the island behind it.

I'm going to take this word, covered and I'm going to change it for a more precise word.

I'm going to change it for the word obscured, which means completely blocking out the view, almost completely blocking out the view of the island.

Okay, so I've written my two sentences.

I'm going to read them through one more time.

A thick blanket of eerie, silver mist hung in the ebony, midnight sky.

It floated elegantly just above the water and almost entirely obscured the view of the island behind it.

Well done for following really carefully.

Now, it's your turn to write a sentence about the mist.

You've got your steps for success on the board.

You should have your notes about the sounds and the setting and the verbs and adverbs in front of you.

So, pause the video.

Write your sentence and press play when you're ready to move onto the next sentence.

Really well done.

Let's move on to the next sentence.

Our next sentence is about the watchtowers and the village that we can see up ahead in the distance.

And I'm going to start my sentence with a prepositional phrase describing where the watchtowers are and where the village is.

And I'm going to go for the prepositional phrase, in the distance, and I need a comma after my prepositional phrase because it is a fronted adverbial describing where something is.

So, in the distance can see those watchtowers and I'm going to chose some adjectives that we thought about in previous lesson, thinking about our Mrs.Wordsmith adjectives.

I'm going to describe them as colossal and looming watchtowers.

And I think they're almost like, although they're watchtowers and they're statues, I'm going to use some personification, which means I'm going to give them some characteristics of people by saying that they're guarding, even though that the rock isn't guarding, they are standing like two big Vikings guarding the Viking settlement.

So, in the distance, colossal, looming watchtowers guarded a Viking settlement.

And I think I can expand that even further by adding in some adjectives.

So, I'll do that in a moment.

So, in the distance, colossal, looming watchtowers guarded I'm going to add in, small, rickety Viking settlement.

And a settlement just means where a group of people live.

And I've written the word Viking with a capital letter because it is the name of a group of people from history.

And I went for the adjectives small and rickety because the huts are wooden and it's sort of all up and down on the hillside and it doesn't look very neat.

So, it's all put together in a bit of a rickety way.

Okay, I'm going to reread my sentence.

In the distance, colossal, looming watchtowers guarded a small, rickety Viking settlement.

Well done for following carefully.

I've written my sentence and now it's your turn to write your sentence about the watch towers in the village up, behind.

You've got your steps for success on the board.

You've got your notes in front of you.

Off you go and press play when you're ready to move on to the next sentence.

Really good job.

Fantastic, well done.

Let's write our next sentence.

For our final sentence we're going to describe the crashing waves.

And I want to describe the waves crashing in the base of the watchtower.

And I think in order to do that, I'm going to write an as complex sentence.

So, I'm going to think about what's happening at the bottom of the tower, so the crashing waves and compare it to what's happening at the same time at the top of the top of the tower.

So, at the top of the tower we've got some fires glowing in the the watchtower's mouths and then we've got the raging sea crashing against it at the bottom.

So, I'm going to start with my description of the fire above.

So, I'm going to go with amber fires glowed in their mouths and I need my capital letter.

So, amber fires glowed in their mouths And I can write that because my previous sentence is about the watchtowers.

So, it tells my reader that I'm still talking about the watchtowers.

And then I can extend it with, as, to talk about what's happening at the same time below.

So, amber fires glowed in their mouths is my main clause.

And I've got my subordinating conjunction, as, which starts my subordinate clause that gives more detail about what's happening at the same time.

So, amber fires glowed in their mouths as and I'm going to describe it as the raging sea because it's very, very angry and I can see that it's very powerful.

So, the raging sea crashed violently against the jagged rocks below.

So, at the top we put the fires glowing as the raging sea crashed violently against the jagged, which means they are not smooth, they're sort of bumpy and sharp rocks, the jagged rocks below.

And I need my full stop to finish off my sentence.

All right, I'm going to read it through.

Amber fires glowed in their mouths as the raging sea crashed violently against the jagged rocks below.

Okay, I'm happy with that.

Fantastic listening.

So, this is our third and final sentence.

So, it's your turn now to write your sentence about the waves crashing against the cliffs and the different watchtowers and rocks.

So, you've got everything that you need on the screen.

Well, you should have some things in front of you to help you, as well.

So, pause the video.

Write the sentence and press play when you're ready to move on with the lesson.

Well done.

So, I our final step is to read our whole piece of writing through in one go.

Why do you think it might be important that we read the whole piece of writing in one big go, as well as sentence by sentence? I want you to pause the video and just write down some notes of why you think it's important to ready your work through right at the end.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

I wonder what you thought.

Well, I think first and foremost, it's important to read our writing through, so that we can enjoy all of the hard work that we've put in, really, really important.

And then also, to put ourself in the position of the reader and think really carefully about what the reader can see and what they might feel when they're reading our opening scene and also to check that there isn't anything that we've missed and to make sure that we've got everything that we've wanted to include.

So, let's move on to read our writing.

I'm going to read mine and then I'm going to ask you to pause the video so that you can read yours.

A thick blanket of eerie, silver mist hung in the ebony, midnight sky.

It floated elegantly just above the water and almost entirely obscured the view of the island behind it.

In the distance, colossal, looming watchtowers guarded a small, rickety viking settlement.

Amber fires glowed in their mouths as the raging sea crashed violently against the jagged rocks below.

Okay.

Pause the video and read yours and then press play when you're finished.

Great job.

So, we've completed all of the sections of our lesson.

Really well done.

You've worked really, really hard.

You should feel very proud of the sentences that you've written down.

If you'd like to, please share with your parent or carer.

I'll be back soon for another lesson on "How to Train Your Dragon," where we can finish off our opening to this fantastic story.

See you soon, bye.