To describe a setting

Key Stage 2

English

The Fate of Fausto - Narrative Writing

﻿Hello, everybody, it is Mrs. Hardisty here with your English lesson for today. In today's lesson, we're going to be thinking all about how we can use our senses to describe somewhere. So just for a moment, can you close your eyes and spot what you can hear? Can you smell anything? What does it feel like where you are? And then open your eyes. What can you see? Well, we're going to be using a lot of these senses in our descriptive writing today. So when you're ready, let's begin. This is what we're going to do in today's lesson. We're going to start by learning about prepositions of place and how to use them in our writing, and then we're going to use our senses to do lots of description. We're going to create a senses map, and then finally, we're going to do a little bit of sentence writing to put all of this into practise. So for this lesson, you will need some paper and a pencil, so please make sure you have those, and then we can begin. We'll begin with our prepositions of place. So what are prepositions of place? They describe where something or someone is. So I've got here lots of pictures of little circle and a cube, and I'd like you to, in a moment, pause your video and work out where the circle is in relation to the cube. But don't worry, because I've got some prepositions of place that you can use. So we've got the words beside, in, behind, on, between, next to, below, and above, and so what I'd like you to do is write out the numbers one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and next to each number, I'd like you to write the word, the preposition of place, that describes where the circle and the cube are. There are two that are really similar. Did you spot them? So beside and next to are really similar, and it doesn't particularly matter which of those ones you use if you think something is next to the cube, but all the others, it's really important that you get the right one. So pause the video now, and write down your answers. Lovely. Let's see what I put. So for number one, what did you put? I said it was beside the cube, it's beside the cube, the circle is beside it. Number two, I put behind, the circle is behind the cube. What about number three? Where is that circle? It is between the two cubes. And number four? Where is it? It's on the cube. It's not above it, because it's touching it. On the cube. Number five is next to the cube. So number one and number five, you could probably have used either of them. Beside normally means being a little bit closer, so that's why I think number one should be beside, but if you use next to, it's not too much of a problem. And number six? what did you think? Below. And number seven is in, actually in, poking out, but in the cube. And then lastly, number eight, above. And we're going to try and use these in our writing today. So how could we use prepositions of place to describe things in this picture? Well, we could say that the house and the tree are below the mountain, and that the mountain, in relation to the sea, is above the sea. And then those little frothy waves that you can see next to the boat, you could use the proposition of place, beside the boat. Frothy waves crashed beside the boat. What about in this picture here? What prepositions might you use to describe the sea, or perhaps what Fausto could see where he is from his boat? So perhaps in the distance, high above, or deep below. And did you notice? In these ones, we've got a comma at the end of each preposition of place, and that's because you can start a sentence with a preposition of place, but if you do that, you need to have a comma, so that's why each of my examples here, they have a capital letter at the start, and then a comma afterwards. So for this picture, I've now thought of some sentences that could describe what it looks like using a preposition of place, if you can spot them. So, Waves rolled gently around the boat. That's where the waves are. His reflection glistened in the water below. So you can you see, our propositions of place are really useful for our reader because they describe exactly where something is. They're really useful to us as a writer because we can be really precise. So now I'd like you to try and choose the correct preposition of place to go in each of these sentences. I'm going to read them out, and then I'd like you to pause the video, write out the sentence, and write the preposition of place that you think should go in the gaps. Number one: The engine roared mm his boat. Number two: Waves crashed mm the shore. Number three: Mm the morning sun shone brightly. And number four: Mm the horizon stretched for miles. So pause the video and choose the correct preposition of place for each of these sentences. Well done. Let's see the answers now. Number one: The engine roared in his boat, because the engine is in the boat. Waves crashed beside the shore, number two. For number three, I chose High above, the morning sun shone brightly. You might've done High in the sky. And then number four: In the distance, comma, the horizon stretched for miles. So just check your work and make sure that you have got prepositions of place that mean the same as the ones that I have chosen, even if they're different. Now we're going to think about how we can use our senses to describe somewhere. Have a look at this picture again. We've already looked at it, thinking about our prepositions of place, and I'd like you to pause the video in a moment and just think to yourself, what can be seen? What can you see in this picture? And then, what do you think you might be able to hear in this picture, thinking particularly about the boat and the sea? And what do you think you might feel, if you were Fausto on the boat, what might he be able to feel? So can you now pause the video and just think about what can be seen, what can be heard, and what can be felt, and I'll see you in a minute. This is what I thought could be seen. So I used our expanded noun phrase to describe the first thing, dark, comma, grey puffs of smoke. Can you remember why it's an expanded noun phrase? Because it's got two adjectives, and they're describing that noun. And then I thought about the water, and the fact that it's not completely still. As the boat's moving through it, we've got this foaming water. And then the mountain, a snow-capped mountain. Are these some of the things that you thought of, or did you look at some other thing? And then what can be heard? Well, the waves are crashing on the shore, aren't they? So I have crashing waves. And then this boat does have an engine, so I thought Fausto might hear the roaring engine as he sails out to sea. And then what can be felt? Well, I imagine, being on a sea, it's quite windy, but it doesn't look too windy. There aren't huge waves, actually, where he's sailing, so rather than wind, I thought of the word breeze, cool, fresh breeze, another expanded noun phrase. And then maybe a hot, blazing sun. So we're going to do the same with this picture now. I'd like you to pause the video and think about what could be seen, what could be heard, and what can be felt, and I'll see you in a minute. Okay, let's see what I put. This is what I thought could be seen. The deep, inky blue ocean. Ripples of water. We can see them in the picture, can't we, lots and lots of ripples of water? And perhaps gently rolling waves. They're not really stormy, are they? They're just gently rolling waves. What could you see? Maybe the vast horizon, or not a soul to be seen. Actually, it's just the sea, isn't it, and just Fausto? And then what can be heard? Well, at this point, he's probably stopped the boat from travelling, and he's just in the same spot in the sea, and so now the boat engine, rather than roaring by moving fast through the water, is probably just rumbling, just turning over slowly. And then I thought about the fact that the sea doesn't say anything to start with, and it's silent, and I once heard an author say that you can describe silence in different ways, so we could have an empty silence, or perhaps a confusing silence, because he doesn't understand why the sea won't reply to him. And then lastly, he might feel the crisp, clean air. Sea air is always really fresh. There's no other things. And then finally, he might've felt the crisp, clean air, sea air is always really clean, or the cold, swirling water, and we know that he's going to end up falling into it, isn't he? So now you are going to create your own senses map. So in the middle of your page, I'd like you to draw a quick sketch of the boat in the sea, or just the sea, or just Fausto on his boat, but just a simple picture in the middle, and then around it, you are going to write all those different ideas that we have come up with that describe what can be seen, and what can be heard, and what can be felt. And they don't need to be full sentences, they can just be these descriptive phrases, so, thick puffs of grey, dirty smoke, cool sea breeze. You don't have to write a full sentence. This is just so that we've got all these descriptive phrases that we can then use in our writing. So can you now pause the video and create your senses map? Well done. Now we're going to have a practise of using these in our writing. So here's an example that I've done. High above in the sky, comma, the hot, blazing sun shone brightly. So can you find the preposition of place that describes where this is happening? Can you point to it? High above in the sky. Well done. And because it starts my sentence, I need a comma afterwards. And then can you spot my expanded noun phrase? The hot, blazing sun. Lovely! And then that's still not a sentence, 'cause it doesn't have a verb in it, does it? So now we've got, High above in the sky, the hot blazing sun, shone brightly. So what was the sun doing? It was shining. Here's a different sentence that could still be written about this picture. Small puffs of dirty, grey smoke drifted above the boat as the engine rumbled and growled. Hmm, so what kind of sentence is this? Is it a simple sentence, a compound sentence, or a complex sentence? It's a complex sentence, isn't it, because it finishes with that subordinate clause, as the engine rumbled and growled. And then did you spot the preposition of place in the middle of the sentence? Did you spot it? Above the boat. So, Small puffs of dirty, grey smoke drifted above the boat, that's our preposition of place, as the engine rumbled and growled. Now here's a sentence about our other picture. A confusing silence surrounded Fausto on his boat when he tried to own the sea. Okay, did you spot the preposition of place again? Where was it? In the middle of the sentence. And what was it? On his boat. And then I've used some of my ideas from my senses map in that sentence. A confusing silence surrounded Fausto on his boat when he tried to own the sea. So now it's your turn. I'd like you to pause the video and write one sentence to describe the first picture, and another sentence to describe the second picture using prepositions of place, using your senses map ideas for those descriptive phrases, and if you can make one of them a complex sentence, even better. Pause the video, and write. Well done, everyone. What wonderful ideas you came up with. I'm sure they're going to make such a difference to our writing when we come to write our climax. I look forward to seeing you soon, bye-bye.

To describe a setting

To describe a setting

No lesson available

Lesson appears in

UnitEnglish / The Fate of Fausto - Narrative Writing

English