Lesson video

Hi there.

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

In today's lesson, we're going to continue to look at the opening of how to train your dragon the film version.

We're going to build on previous lessons where we generated lots of precise vocabulary to describe the setting.

And in a previous lesson, we started one of three parts to write the setting description.

And today's lesson is the second of three lessons to write the whole setting description.

So I'm really excited to get writing with you, and let's start.

Off we go.

Let's have a look at our agenda for today's lesson.

So we're going to start with a writing warmup, thinking about sentence types.

We're going to move on to reviewing and recapping the part of the scene that we're going to write today.

So watching it again and thinking about what we're going to be writing about.

Then we're going to think about what's going to make our writing successful.

So counting in our steps of success.

And then finally, we get to write 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, and you'll need your brain thinking.

You'll need to be ready to focus and ready to try your best.

If there's anything that you need to go and get in order to be able to do this lesson, please pause the video and go and get it now.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

So hopefully, we are ready to go.

So for our writing warmup today, we're going to be looking at different types of sentences.

In order to do that, we have to think really carefully about what phrases and clauses are.

So my turn, your turn phrase, clause.

Fantastic.

So there's one really important difference between a phrase and a clause.

A phrase is a group of words without a verb and a clause is a group of words that contains a verb.

So that has a verb inside the group of words.

Can you remember what a verb is? A verb is a doing or being word.

If you do it or you are it, then the word is a verb.

So verbs describe actions and they describe being words.

So I am, you are, he is, I'm a, and is are all being words.

So a clause contains a verb, a phrase does not.

So I'm going to give you some examples of phases and clauses.

Below the village is a phrase because it doesn't have a verb in it.

It's a prepositional phrase because it's telling me where something is happening.

The innocent sheep, above the crashing waves.

Again, prepositional phrase, 'cause it's telling me where something's happening, but it does not contain a verb.

To crash is a verb, but crashing is an adjective because it's describing the waves.

The raging fires burned is a clause because burned is what the fires are doing.

So it's a verb.

The village huts stood sturdily on the hill, a clause, and the sheep grazed on the grass, another clause.

Do you think that you can spot whether these four groups of words are phrases or clauses? The first one says, "The flickering lanterns." The second one says, "The powerful ways crashed on the cliffs." The third one says, "In the distance." And the final one says, "The eerie fog hovered above the water." I like you to pause the video and have a think about whether those groups of words are phrases or clauses.

You can just simply write down one and if you think it's a phrase you put a P, and if you think it's a clause you put a C.

And then do the same numbers two to four.

Pause the video and get started.

Okay, well then let's check our answers.

So the flickering lanterns was a phrase.

There is no verb in that group of words.

The powerful waves crashed on the cliffs is a clause.

The verb in that was crashed.

Well done if you spotted that.

In the distance is a phrase, there is no verb in that group of words.

And then the final one was a clause, the eerie fog hovered above the water.

Can you point to the verb in that sentence? It's hovered.

Well done.

So building on that knowledge, when we think about different sentence types, we think about how many clauses they contain and what type of clauses they are.

So a simple sentence is just one main clause, one main idea that makes sense on its own.

Remembering that a clause is a group of words that contains a verb.

A compound sentence is two main clauses put together, joined by a coordinating conjunction.

And we often think, and, but, and all are our coordinating conjunctions that make compound sentences.

But when I say two main clauses, that means two clauses that make sense on their own.

So for example, I went to the park and I played football.

Both of those makes sense on their own, but if we join them together with the coordinating conjunction and, it becomes a compound sentence.

And then finally, we have complex sentences.

Complex sentences have one subordinate clause and one main clause.

Now the difference between a subordinate clause and a main clause is that subordinate clause doesn't make sense on its own.

So it's the helper for the main clause to give a little bit more detail, but it doesn't make sense on its own.

I have got three sentences on the screen.

Each of the sentences matches one of the three sentence types.

So I want you to look really carefully at each of the sentences and think what type of sentence it might be.

Use what we've just talked about, thinking about the main clauses and subordinate clauses, and trying to identify if there are any coordinating conjunctions.

So pause the video and have a go at doing that task me now.

Fantastic.

Let's check our answers.

So the first sentence, the village villages built the hut and they were skilled fishermen.

The villagers built the huts and they were skilled fishermen.

So we have two main clauses that make sense on their own, and they are joined by a coordinating conjunction, in this case and.

So this is a compound sentence.

The next sentence, while the sheep munched on the succulent grass an unknown danger lurked in the sky above them was a complex sentence.

One part, the main clause made sense on its own, an unknown danger lurked in the sky above them.

That makes sense on its own.

But the other part, while the sheep munched on the succulent grass, does not make sense on its own.

It's not a full sentence on its own.

So it is a complex sentence, with the subordinate clause first.

So finally, our third sentence, suddenly, the sheep was snatched from where it stood, is a simple sentence.

It has one main clause, one idea that makes sense on its own.

Really well done for trying.

So now we're going to review and recap the scene that we're going to be writing today.

So we're going to have a look at the writing that we came up with together in a previous lesson, then we're going to look once more at the video clip from the opening of how to train your dragon and think about what we're going to be writing today.

So here is the writing that we wrote together in a previous lesson.

I'm going to read it out loud, but you can definitely join in and follow with your finger while I'm reading.

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

It floated just inches 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 mouth as raging seeds crushed violently against the jagged rocks below.

I hope you joined in.

So this is what we wrote last time.

So in our lesson today, we're going to move on to the next part of our opening.

We're going to be writing about zooming in from the distance into the village, seeing the sheep on the hillside, seeing the huts on the mountainside, and then finally zooming into the sheep grazing on the grass.

So now's the time that we're going to rewatch the whole of the opening, but while you're watching, think about these three scenes in particular, because these are the ones that we're going to be watching today.

Okay, let's watch.

This is Burke.

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 sun sets.

The only problems are the pests.

You see most places have mice or mosquitoes.

We have- Dragons! Lovely.

I hope you enjoyed rewatching the whole of the opening scene and focused in particular on these three different events that happened in the opening scene.

So in previous lessons, we thought really carefully about what we could see.

And in one of the previous lessons we thought about the S features.

So the sounds and the setting, and we thought really carefully about what we could see in this section as well.

And these are some of the ones that we came up with.

And then in a following lesson, we thought about precise verbs and adverbs.

And we didn't get onto describing the village and the sheep, so I've made a little word bank here thinking carefully about verbs and adverbs to describe the village and the sheep.

So if you have your plan and your notes from the previous lessons, where you talked about the sounds and setting, I'd like you to pause the video and go and get those now.

If you don't have any notes from the previous lessons, that's absolutely fine, but I recommend that you pause the video and you have a little go at looking at which, looking at the words that you can see in front of you and choosing some of them that you'd like to use in your writing today.

So pause the video now, and either go and get your notes or copy downs and extra notes.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

So hopefully, we've got lots of ideas of vocabulary that we can include in our writing.

Well done.

So today, just like in our previous writing lesson, we're going to think about what is going to make our writing successful.

There are three sections, as I previously mentioned that we're definitely going to include in our writing today, and our aim is to write at least one sentence for each of these points, but you might want to challenge yourself even further and write a couple of sentences for each one or a couple of sentences for one and one for another.

So we're going to write a description of the sheep on the hillside.

We're going to describe the huts as well.

And then finally, we're going to describe the sheep grazing unaware of the threat that is flying above them, which we all know is dragons.

Well done.

So we talked in the previous lesson about our skills for successful writing, making sure that we're always checking to see that we've included a capital letter and a full stop, all the relevant piece of information, perhaps an exclamation mark, but we're always checking to see that we started our sentence correctly and finished our sentence correctly as well.

Where are we saying our sentence first, then writing it and reading it, which really helps us to make sure that we've kept the idea that we initially started with.

And then finally, it's always a good idea to think about, can I improve this sentence? Can I make it even more precise and exciting? Today, we're going to aim to include really precise adjectives.

So thinking about the sounds and thinking about the setting and being really precise in our description, we're going to include precise verbs and adverbs thinking about the action that is happening and building on our writing warmup.

We're going to try and include a range of sentence types.

So you can include some simple sentences.

Remember one main clause, some compound sentences with two main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction or some complex sentences with a subordinate clause that helps us add a little bit more detail, but that doesn't make sense on its own.

So let's start the fun part.

We're going to write our sentences.

We're going to take it in turns.

It's going to be my turn to write a sentence while you watch and listen carefully and perhaps it might give you some ideas and then it will be your turn.

And we'll take it in turns for each of the three images and then at the end we'll read it through all in one go.

Right, let's start.

So our first sentence is going to be about the sheep in the distance on the hillside.

And I think that we should start with a prepositional phrase describing where they are, and I think on the hillside is an appropriate one.

So I'm going to start with that, remembering my capital letter.

So on the hillside, because I need a comma after my friend who did adverbial, my prepositional phrase.

So on the hillside, I want to describe what I can see.

And I think that this is a really nice image because it shows the sheep almost like dots.

And I think I'd like to compare it to white dots on a painter's canvas, for example.

So I'm going to go with white fluffy sheep stood out like dots on a green canvas.

And when I'm using my like comparison, I'm finding a simile.

So I'm comparing sheep to something else.

So let me resay my sentence before I write it.

On the hillside white fluffy sheep stood out like dots on a green canvas.

Okay, my time to write.

So on the hillside, white, fluffy sheep stood out like dots on a green canvas.

And a canvas is what a painter uses to paint on.

And actually instead of finishing my sentence there, because I know that one of my targets for today is to use a range of sentence types, I'm going to extend that sentence with a subordinating conjunction as so that I can make it a complex sentence.

So I need to think of what is happening at the same time as we can see them, what is happening.

So I'm comparing them to what they look like.

And I'm going to say what they're doing at the same time.

So on the hillside, white fluffy sheep stood out like dots on a green canvas as they roamed freely on the wild island.

So that's how I'm going to extend this.

So my subordinating conjunction as, so as they rose, which means they walked around freely, which is my adverb.

It describes how they're doing that.

They don't seem to have any fences holding them in and so they're free to roam around as they roamed freely on the wild island.

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

You can reread it start to finish, to make sure that I'm happy with it.

On the hillside, white, fluffy, and I've got my comma to separate my two adjectives, really important.

White, fluffy sheep stood out like dots on a green canvas as they roamed freely on the wild island.

Now it's your turn to write your sentence about the mountain side, with the sheep dotted in the distance.

You've got everything that you need to remind you of what we're trying to include in this sentence.

Perhaps you'll want to do a context sentence like me or you want to do, you might want to do a different sentence type.

So pause the video to write your sentence and press play when you're ready to move on to the next one.

Really good job.

Well done.

My next sentence describes the Viking huts in the settlement.

And when we watched the video, Hiccup told us that they were really strong, that they've been around for a long time, they were really strong.

So I think to describe them, I'm going to choose the adjective sturdy.

If something is sturdy, it means that it's strong and it's going to stay in place it's built really well.

So sturdy wooden huts.

And I want to describe the way that they're sitting on the hillside and they're all built quite closely together.

So I think I'm going to use some personification, which means that I'm going to give these huts some characteristics that we normally give to people.

And I'm going to use a verb that we'd use if lots of people stood really closely together, which is huddled.

And I'm going to use that verb to this huts, even though they're not people, because I think it gives a nice idea of them all being packed really closely together and it makes me think of a warm village and huddled together.

So steady wooden huts huddled together on, and I need to think of describing the landscape.

And I'm going to describe it as craggy.

'Cause if something is craggy, it's uneven and it's bumpy and this doesn't look like it's a smooth hillside.

So let me say that sentence again.

Sturdy wooden huts huddled together on the craggy landscape.

Okay, I'm going to write it.

So I need my capital letter, sturdy, my comma between my two adjectives really important, the sturdy wooden huts huddled, the class to get close together, huddled together on the craggy landscape.

And actually instead of putting my full stop, I'm going to go for my second type of sentence.

So we write a complex sentence in the previous picture, and I'm going to write a compound sentence.

So I'm going to extend my sentence using the coordinating conjunction and.

So what I might describe is the lights, the lights that I can see.

So sturdy wouldn't hurt, huddled together on the craggy landscape and they're warm flickering lanterns glowed in the dark night.

I think I'm going to talk about them glowing because I can look at that picture and the lanterns are almost the most obvious thing that you can see and they really do look warm and inviting.

So sturdy wooden huts huddled together on the craggy landscape and they're warm, flickering.

So I can imagine them to be flickering, their warm flickering lanterns glowed in a dark night.

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

I'm going to read it through all in one go.

Sturdy, wooden huts huddled together on the craggy landscape and their warm flickering lanterns pillowed in the dark night.

Fantastic.

So we've done a complex sentence and now we've done a compound sentence.

Now, it's your turn to write your sentence about the wooden huts.

Remember, you might want to write a compound sentence like I did, but you might want to write a different type of sentence.

Just make sure that you're including lots of precise vocabulary.

So precise description with your adjectives and really precise verbs and adverbs to describe the action.

You've got everything that you need on the screen for you to remind you how to be successful.

Off you go.

Great.

Two sentences done.

So let's move on to our third sentence.

Our last sentence for today is going to be the zoomed in sentence about the sheep grazing on the grass.

And I'm going to start with a preposition of place saying where they are.

And I think because I talked about the flickering lanterns inside the huts in my last sentence, I'm going to use the preposition of place outside to start my sentence.

capital O to start me off.

Outside comma.

So now I want to describe these sheep and I want to describe what they're doing.

And I think when I choose my adjectives for the sheep, I'm going to think about the fact that they don't realise that there are dragons circling just above them.

So I'm going to describe them as unsuspecting, means they don't suspect anything and innocent.

So outside unsuspecting, innocent sheep, and what are they doing? They're eating the grass.

So they grazed happily.

My adverbs to describe how they're doing it, grazed happily on the lush green grass.

And that adjective lush means grass that's really juicy for the sheep, really green and something that they really love to eat.

So outside unsuspecting, innocent, comma innocent sheep.

And then we said that they grazed happily.

That's my verb and adverb.

I've got my plan here, helping me choose these words.

Grazed happily on the lush green grass.

Can you see what type of sentence this is? You guess, three, two, one.

You're right, it's a simple sentence.

It's got one idea.

I've added lots of detail, but it's one main idea to simple sentence.

Okay, now it's your turn to write your sentence about the sheep grazing.

Remember, it might be fun to let your reader know there's something else going on.

So the sheep are grazing happily, but there's something else happening above.

And we can tell our reader that by describing our sheep as innocent or describing them as unsuspecting, or perhaps you might include an additional sentence, you might challenge yourself to tell your reader that they don't quite know what's coming next.

So pause the video to write your sentence and press play when you're ready to review your whole piece of writing Off you go Okay, fantastic.

So we've written our three sentences that we were aiming or more, perhaps you've written more than three that we were aiming to write today.

So next, it's a really good idea to read our writing through, from start to finish so that we can enjoy all the hard work that we've put in, but also so that we can get a real sense for what the reader would feel when they're reading our writing and also to make sure that it all makes sense and that we haven't missed anything out.

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

On the hillside, white fluffy sheep stood out like dots on a green canvas as they roamed freely on the wild island.

Sturdy wooden huts huddled together on the craggy landscape and their warm flickering lanterns glowed in the dark night.

Outside, unsuspecting, innocent sheep grazed happily on the lush green grass.

And I've put a picture there of our Mrs. Wordsmith picture the word lush.

Remember I said, it's really green, really juicy healthy grass.

So it's your turn now to read your writing through, from start to finish.

So pause the video and do that now please.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

Great.

I hope you've enjoyed reading your writing through.

We've completed all the sections of our lesson today and you should be really proud of how hard you've worked.

So really well done.

If you'd like, you can share what you've learned with your parent or carer.

And in the next lesson, we're going to have a go at finishing off our opening.

So it will be the third of three parts writing our opening.

So I'll see you soon.

Bye.