Building understanding

Comprehension: 'Autumn Fires'

Secondary

Communication and language

﻿Hello everybody. My name is Rae, and it's really good to see all of you. You might be thinking, why is this teacher wearing a raincoat? Well, today it's quite cold because it's autumn. And I think it might even rain. So I brought my rain coat to help me read a poem about the autumn with all of you. Now, in this poem, there are some autumn leaves which have changed their colour, and they've turned red. And they look like fire. How exciting. So let's have a think. What do you need at home to help you with this poem? Hmm, let's take a look. So before you run off and go and find all these things around your house, let me talk you through what we might need for this lesson. Now, these are all optional. You can read a poem, experience a poem, purely through voice and gesture and facial expression. So all of these are optional. However, to add to the sensory experience, it is really important to think about visually what's happening, what we can hear from these materials, different smells we could create and textures, the way things feel on our body as well. So what I've recommended here is that you might want to use relevant symbols, which I've got a few right here for you, relevant signs, which I will model and show you through the videos, some flowers to represent the summer season. And you might use plastic flowers, you might use real flowers, maybe some perfume, which would provide the scent of the flowers. You might cut them out of paper. You might meet them in advance with your child out of tissue paper or napkins that you find in the house. Entirely up to you. Whatever's there is totally valid. Some leaves to represent the autumn season, but also the autumn fires as the title of the poem, which of course is a metaphor that shows the leaves on the trees turning the colours of fire. So that might be made out of paper. It might be that it's autumn and you found some leaves outside, go and hunt for them and collect them together. It might be that you got some paper leaves or some silk leaves or some fabric leaves around the house. And it might be that you've gone to get the beetroot out of the crisper drawer in your fridge. And that's got a lovely pink colour to it. So again, anything is valid. Entirely up to you. I use in the video a little plastic candle that I can turn on and off to represent the columns of smoke in the fire. You might also use cotton wool to represent the smoke. You can get some fantastic liquid smoke from the supermarket that gives it that lovely barbecue, smoky bonfire smell if you drop it on. So that's a good idea too. You might use, if you can do it safely at home, a real candle. But all of these, again, optional, entirely up to you. It's really important to have that multisensory experience. But like I say, if you are using gesture and voice and proximity and passion, then you can experience a poem without any of these things as well. So press pause, go and find a few things from around the house. And next, we'll take a look at how to prepare the room so that we can read the poem as effectively as possible. Getting the room ready. Now, this is as much about providing the best environment to learn in, as it is preparing your child to be there to learn. Some children require a run around outside. Some children require something in the hands to keep their hands occupied. Some children require support with positioning in a chair or on a beanbag or on a wedge. Whatever you know is the best position, the best environment for your child, now is the time to create it. Maybe shut the curtain, make sure the tele's off, there's no radio in the background. Make sure the cat's in the other room. Whatever you know to be best, please take the time, do that now. And of course, the more excitement and anticipation you can bring to the lesson, to the experience, then the more curiosity the child will show. Why not have a look at the wonderful resources that you've collected from around the house? Or why not have a look at your hand? You know that they're going to be signing and making gestures. Take the time really to explore now and build the excitement for the lesson because very, very shortly, we're going to be reading that poem together. Pause the video now. Take the time to get ready. It's time to begin. So let's get ready. Look, listen, and let's learn together. Here we go. Are you ready? The first time, just watch and listen, and then we'll do it again altogether, verse by verse. Ready? Get my things ready. In all the other gardens, and all up the vale, from the autumn bonfires, the grey smoke trails. The pleasant summer is over, and all of the summer flowers. Mmm. The red fire is blazing, and the grey smoke towers. But sing a song of seasons. There's something bright in all. The flowers in the summer and the fire in the fall. Are you ready to read our poem together? Verse one. I will say the poem with our signs and our symbols and our props. And then we will pause and it will be your turn. Okay. Make sure your things are ready first. I have my symbols and my props ready. I've thought about the signs I'm using. Here we go. In the other gardens and all up the vale, from the autumn bonfires, see the smoke trail. I'm going to take a minute to have a look at the flame, and maybe the smoke coming from it. Verse two. Ready? The pleasant summer is over and all of the summer flowers. The red fire blazes and the grey smoke towers. Pause. It's your turn. Verse three. Sing a song of seasons. Something bright in all. The flowers in the summer and the fires in the fall. So this lesson has been a comprehension lesson. So really what we're looking for outcome wise for the children who are experiencing the poem is that over time with familiarity with these words and objects and symbols and signs, that we can then show that word recognition on a single word level or putting two words together. So we know that fire is fire. We know that tree is tree. We know that leaf is leaf. And the more abstract concepts like warm and cold and autumn and summer will come later. But then also beginning to bring those things together, maybe red leaf and red fire, and then maybe naming other red objects around the home. So the suggestions that I can make for furthering the understanding from this lesson is first of all, repetition will always make everything easier for the children. Drama and excitement makes it engaging. So make sure that the child is engaged and enjoying it. If they're not, try something different, by all means. Using the real objects and the symbols and the signs, that approach to communication where we're using absolutely everything we possibly can in our toolkit, again, will make life easier for the learner. If we're adding that challenge in there, then we might expect the child maybe to pair up a symbol with a real item, a real object or prop. We might identify the props by colour. Can we find the red leaves or can we group the orange leaves together? And then we're showing recognition of those two words together, orange leaf, red leaf, and we're starting to pair them, pair those two words. We might also say, can we find the same? Some children might use the language match or might be more familiar with the language match. I use find the same from choices of two or more. So can we find the same colour leaves perhaps? And then if you repeat that verse over and over, only when the poem becomes familiar might the children want to add in a word. So if you leave the final word of the verse out in that final verse, can the child then fill it in? Perhaps not necessarily the whole word, maybe just the sound there. But again, that shows the familiarity with the structure of the poem and the conventions of language. If you have all of those elements, then transfer this whole experience to a poem or a rhyme that your child might already know or find really interesting or be really engaged with. If your child really loves watching cars and buses out the window, maybe it's time to do a cars and buses poem. You might also want to do extra activities around the home or in your classroom where you're exploring the autumn concept, the autumn colours maybe a little bit more. Find a red basket maybe, and then go around and find all the red things in your house, or collect some leaves up perhaps. And if you can then pair those with the relevant signs and symbols, again, it demonstrates the comprehension, the understanding of the language. So it's just about furthering the experience so that we are furthering the learning. I really hope that you've enjoyed the opportunity here with the poem Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson. And I really hope that you join me again for some more learning. Thank you. Thank you all very much for joining me for today's video. I hope you've had a lovely, wonderful experience, as well as doing some excellent learning. I have no doubt that that's been the case. I hope to see you again soon. And until then, all that's left to say is if you wish to share your work, parents and carers, if you wish to share some work, please do so. And there is some information after this slide which will help you know where to do that. And I hope that the learning continues. Please have a look at the other suggested activities and give them a go. Bye for now. If you would like to share photos and videos of your child's work with us, then please share them via Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and tag us at Oak National and #LearnwithOak.

Comprehension: 'Autumn Fires'

Comprehension: 'Autumn Fires'

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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