Lesson video

Hello, it's me again, Mrs Smart, welcome to today's English lesson.

In today's lesson, we're going to be writing our diet paragraph of our non-chronological reports about tigers.

We're going to use all of our research from our last lesson.

I can't believe we're on lesson 13 out of 15 in this unit.

You are all doing so well, and I hope you're really proud of everything that you've achieved so far.

Right, if you're ready, let's get started.

In this lesson, you are going to need an exercise book or some lined paper, a pen or pencil, and your notes from our last lessons, you're going to need the diet research that we did to help us write our diet paragraphs.

If you don't have any of those items, just pause the recording and go and get them now.

So in our lesson today, we are going to start with a recap of the features of non-chronological reports, which I'm sure you all know really, really well by now.

Then we're going to remind ourselves some of the research that we did about tigers' diets.

We're then going to do a piece of writing together.

So I'm going to model to you and you're going to write in sections and then your independent task could, of course, be to write your full diet paragraph.

Right, I'm sure you are all very, very familiar with this slide by now, but let's just remind us one more time.

What is a non-chronological report? Pause the recording and remind yourself.

A non-chronological reports is a type of non-fiction text.

It provides factual information about a subject, person or event.

We are, of course, going to be writing about tigers to feature in this National Geographic book.

It includes formal, subject-specific language, often sounds quite scientific.

And it is not written in time order.

So we've been grouping our paragraphs in terms of themes, and we wrote one paragraph about parents, and today we're going to be writing about diet.

I'm sure you remembered all of that, well done.

What is the purpose of the main paragraph.

So we've written one main paragraph already about the tigers' appearance.

We're now going to be writing another main paragraph about the tigers' diets.

What can you remember about the purpose? What does it need to include? Pause the recording and remind yourself.

So, a main paragraph needs to provide general information to begin to begin with, so if you remember that opening sentence gives very general information and then it's going to be more specific information about the tiger's diet.

So we'll give specific details about exactly what it eats.

In our paragraph, we're going to expand on our points and add details.

We're not going to have a list of information, we're going to expand on things, and we're going to link our ideas with those formal conjunctions.

We also need to link to our next paragraph.

So our next paragraph is actually going to be our last paragraph or closing.

And in that paragraph, we will talk about the tigers' habitats and some of the dangers that tigers are facing.

So we need to make sure that our last sentence links onto our closing.

Right, our success criteria today, this is very similar to our success criteria that we had for our appearance paragraph.

So we need to include an opening and a linking sentence.

You all did that really well last time.

We need to include a relative clause, brackets.

And this is slightly different, a colon to add extra information.

We're going to use those formal conjunctions and subject-specific vocabulary to give our writing that formal scientific tone, and refer to nouns in different ways.

Now, let's remind ourselves.

So there's different ways that we can refer to tigers that we're not using tiger all the way through our report, because that might be a bit boring for our reader.

Pause the recording and write down as many ways as you can remember, that you could refer to the tiger.

Okay, how many did you get? Two, three, four, more? Wow, well done.

Okay, I've got tiger, of course.

Animal, mammal, feline, creature and species.

How many have I got there? Six, did you manage to find or remember all six from your memory? Well done, if you did.

Right, let's remind ourselves some of the information that we learned when we carried out our research about tigers' diets.

So we know the main component or the main part of their diet is these large-bodied mammals.

In particular, they like deer and they like wild pigs.

If we have a look at some of the notes I made, hopefully you've got your notes in front of you as well to remind yourself what you learnt.

We can see that we learned that the tigers like to eat wild animals, they prefer large-bodied prey, or those large-bodied mammals, like deer and wild pigs.

They also take cattle or cows from farms. Sometimes they commandeer kill from other animals.

So that means they take, or they steal prey that other animals have caught.

They also sometimes eat carrion, which is a scientific word for dead animals.

So possibly if an animal has died of natural causes or a predator has killed an animal, but then left it for some reason, tigers will sometimes eat that if they can't find and catch their own prey.

Sometimes tigers do attack and eat humans, but not very often.

And usually, that's for a specific reason.

So it might be that a human has encroached, has gone into a tiger's territory, which is increasingly happening as the human population is growing.

Humans are taking over areas of land where tigers used to inhabit.

It can also happen if a tiger is unwell or very old, or perhaps protecting the cubs.

We also learned about maternal training being essential for killing prey.

So tigers don't just know how to kill animals instinctively, or naturally when they're born, they actually get taught by their mothers, which is why tigers that are raised, that means tigers that grow up in captivity.

So, for example, in zoos, they wouldn't fare very well in the wild, so that means they wouldn't do very well in the wild because they wouldn't know how to catch animals because they hadn't had that maternal training or that practise when they were young.

Also, very surprisingly, tigers are really good swimmers and they'll happily swim across water to get to prey, which is quite unusual in cats.

So let's remind ourselves of our success criteria again, before we start writing.

So we need to increase an opening and a linking sentence.

So our opening sentences, of course, going to go at the beginning and give general information to start.

Our linking sentence is going to go at the end of our paragraph and link to our next paragraph, which will be our closing.

We need to include a relative clause, brackets and a colon to accept extra information.

That's a new feature, we haven't included a colon before.

So I'll be showing you how to do that when we do the piece of writing together.

And then using formal conjunctions and subject-specific vocabulary, and referring to nouns in different ways, that you're all doing really well at already.

But it's really important when you're writing to say your sentence out loud.

So think through your whole sentence before you write it down and often saying it out loud, can be really helpful.

Then you're going to write it down, read it back and check, and that will make sure and help you to be really accurate with your writing.

Right, I hope you are ready to start writing, make sure you've got your pen or your pencil, your lined paper, and those notes from your research at hand, ready to help you with your writing that we're going to do now.

So let's think about our opening sentence.

Remember it needs to be general information about the tigers' diet.

So I'm not going to start with specific details about the fact that they like eating deer and wild pigs.

I want to tell my readers something very general.

So I think I need to tell them, I need to tell my reader that tigers are carnivores.

That's really, really important, a key bit of information about the tigers' diets.

So tigers are carnivores, full stop.

It's a bit of a short, simple sentence, isn't it? Maybe I could add a little bit more detail.

Maybe I could use a conjunction and add a bit more.

What could I add? Now, my reader might not know that what a carnivore is, we know, you definitely know, but our reader might not know what a carnivore is, so maybe I should tell them tigers are carnivores.

I'm going to use the conjunction, so, one of my subordinating conjunctions, so their diet consists, that means includes, solely meat from animals.

So solely means just only meat from animals, they don't eat anything else.

Let's read that back and check it makes sense.

Tigers are carnivores, so their diet consists solely meat from animals.

Oh, I think I'm missing a word there, what word am I missing? Can you tell me? Well done, yeah, I'm missing the word of, I always miss little words, silly me, but at least I'm reading back and I can make sure I put them in.

So let's just check one more time that it now makes sense.

Tigers are carnivores so their diet consists solely of meat from animals.

Yeah, that's much better.

Now, what else could I tell them? What other general information? I think they need to know that tigers are predators.

That's really key about their diets and that sort of similar information to the fact that they're carnivores.

So I think I could use a but, not a but conjunction, so I'm adding more information.

I'm going to use a formal and conjunction there.

Also don't forget my comas.

So, furthermore, I'm going to use, I want tell my reader that tigers are predators, so I'm going to say, they are predators.

Now, what is a predator? Maybe I need to tell my reader.

We know, you definitely know, what a predator is, but maybe my reader won't.

So maybe I could use a relative clause here and tell them.

So furthermore, they are predators.

I know, I could say which hunt and, or I could say hunt and eat a range of prey.

Let's read that back.

Furthermore, comma, they are predators, comma, which hunt and eat a range of prey.

I can use eat, but actually I know a more scientific word for eat.

I'm going to use the word consume, that's a good one to use.

Okay, so I've written my first two opening sentences.

I've given some general information about the tigers' diet to my reader.

Let's have a quick look at my success criteria.

See how I'm getting on.

Yep, so I've got my opening sentence there and I've actually managed to include my relative clause already in my first two sentences.

Wow, I'm doing pretty well! Okay, I want you to pause the recording now and write your first two sentences giving general information to the reader.

Pause the recording now.

So you should now have your first two sentences giving some general information to your reader.

It's now time to give some more specific details about what exactly tigers eat.

So I'm going to start by saying a main part of these, now, I've said tigers already, I've said animals.

What other word could I use instead of those two nouns? Give me one of the ones you wrote on your list earlier.

Yeah, I could use that one.

I'm going to say these felines.

So a main part of these felines diets are large, hyphen, large-bodied mammals, double M in mammals, full stop.

So let's read that back.

I've got, a main part of these felines diets are large-bodied mammals.

Now actually, rather than saying a main part, I know a more formal way of saying that I'm going to say an integral component, perhaps a more formal way of saying the main part of these felines diets.

Have I missed some punctuation? Can you spot it? Well done, yeah, I've done it again.

I've forgotten to my apostrophe to show that the diets belong to the felines.

And actually, because this is plural or more than one feline, I'm going to put my apostrophe after the S there.

So let's read that back one more time to make sure it makes sense.

An integral component of these felines diets are large-bodied mammals.

Now, I know, and you know, that these large-bodied mammals mainly are deer and wild pigs.

So this is a perfect opportunity to use my colon.

Now, it's really important when I'm using a colon that I have a full sentence before the colon.

I'm now going to list off some of the large-bodied mammals to add more information for my reader.

So I'm going to put my colon there, that's like two dots, one on top of the other.

And I'm going to list of deer, comma, wild pigs.

And I also know they really like eating buffalo.

So I'm going to add that to my list as well, and then I put my full stop there.

Excellent, so I've managed to use my colon.

Now, I know that mainly they like eating these large-bodied mammals, however, or, I brought conjunction, however.

Sometimes I know they actually eat some other things as well, so I know that when this type of animal is not available, so they can't catch their wild pigs or buffalo, they eat, now, what did they eat? Sometimes they eat smaller creatures.

They eat smaller creatures.

Sometimes I know that they are the predators' prey.

So I'm going to say, smaller creatures, other predators' prey, put my apostrophe in that time, and I'm going to say, what was that word for dead animals? Sometimes they ate animals that were already dead.

Can you remember? That's it, carrion, and carrion, I'm going to put in there.

Okay, let's read that back.

However, when this type of animal is not available, the eat smaller creatures, other predators' prey and carrion.

Now, I think maybe I could add some more information to this smaller creatures in brackets.

I know that some of the smaller creatures, they like to eat, are lizards and they actually sometimes eat birds as well.

So I'm going to write, such as lizards and birds.

I also read that they even eat termites, tiny, tiny, little animals like ants.

I can't believe that sometimes they eat elephants and then sometimes they eat termites.

Those are really varied diets.

Okay, so I've got my two sentences now about giving a bit more detail about exactly what the tiger eats.

And to check my success criteria, here we go.

So I did my opening sentence already.

I've got my relative clause, I've now added my brackets and my colon, so I can completely tick that feature off.

I've used one or two formal conjunctions.

I think I've got an and a but so far.

Lots of subject-specific vocabulary, and I've referred to nouns in different ways already.

So I'm doing pretty well.

You need to have a linking sentence at the end.

But other than that, I've got all of my features.

Can you pause the recording and now write your next few sentences, going into a bit more detail about exactly what tigers eat.

Pause the recording now.

We're now going to write the very last sentence of your diet's paragraph.

Now, you might notice that I've zoomed ahead a little bit and I've added in one more sentence, as I'm just going to read to you, and then we're going to write our final linking sentence to our closing.

Due to a reduction in food available, tigers are occasionally forced to kill cattle from farms. So occasionally is a more formal word for sometimes.

So I'm now going to have my linking sentence to my closing.

Now, I know my closing is going to discuss the tigers' habitat and some of the dangers in the tigers' habitats.

So I thought a good link would be humans often kill tigers.

Now, what was that word for when humans get tigers back for coming into their land? Can you remember? It started with an R.

That's it, retaliation or retaliate.

So humans often kill tigers and then say, in retaliation, that's like getting them back.

They retaliate from tigers coming in and maybe killing their cattle or their livestock from their farm, so they then kill them.

Now, actually that'd be quite a good place to use an as a result or a causal conjunction because it's saying, due to a reduction in food available, tigers are occasionally forced to kill cattle from farms or the effect of them killing the cattle in farms is that humans then kill the tiger.

So I'm going to say as a result, or I could say consequently or therefore, actually maybe I'll use therefore 'cause I think I've used as a result quite a few times.

Therefore, comma, now the lower case h for humans.

Therefore, humans often kill tigers in retaliation.

Now, I know that links quite well to my closing because my closing is going to discuss some of those dangers that tigers face in their habitat.

And one of those dangers is, of course, humans killing tigers for various reasons.

Let's check my success criteria one last time then.

So I've got my opening sentence.

I've now got my linking sentence so I can take that one off.

I have my relative clause, my brackets and my colon to add extra information, I use formal conjunctions.

I think I managed to use all three in that paragraph.

I had my and conjunction, my but conjunction and my causal conjunction, so I'm going to tick that one off.

And I have referred to nouns in different ways.

I know I definitely used felines.

I think I used animals as well.

So it is now your chance to finish off your diet paragraph.

Remember to include that linking sentence at the end, that links to your closing.

Pause the recording and off you go.

It is now time for you to complete your task.

So today's task is to write the diet paragraph of a non-chronological report about tigers.

Remember the name features in the success criteria.

Now, you may already have written your paragraph if you've done it as we've gone along.

But if you haven't, then this is your opportunity to do so.

If you have written your whole paragraph already, well done, and this is your chance to read it back, check it will make sense, and make any changes.

Think about the editing lesson that we did a few lessons ago to help you.

Now, I just want to remind you one more time of the features I want you to try and include in your diet paragraph.

So I want you to include an opening and a linking sentence, a relative clause, brackets, and a colon.

See if you can get that colon with a list and that's a new feature we've added today.

Then we've got formal conjunctions and subject-specific vocabulary, you're already good at that.

I'm referring to nouns in different ways, you've done that really well so far as well.

Congratulations, you've completed your lesson day.

If you would like to please share your work with your parents or carer, I'm sure they would be super-impressed to see your diets paragraph.

I'll see you in our next lesson.

Goodbye.