To explore a theme

Key Stage 2

English

King of the Sky by Nicola Davies

﻿Hi there. My name is Mr Byrne-Smith. And today we're going to be doing some reading together. Now this is the first lesson in the unit, and I'm really excited because I love reading. I love books and this book is fantastic. It's called "King of the Sky" by Nicola Davies. And it's a picture book, which is beautifully illustrated by Laura Carlin. So a combination of two absolute experts. I can't wait to show you the book and discuss it with you. So let's make a stop. Here's the agenda for today's lesson. First, we're going to introduce the author and the book. Then we're going to explore theme. That's going to be the bulk of today's lesson. And we'll read texts before finally summarising what we've learned. In this lesson, You'll need an exercise book or paper, a pencil and of course your brain. If you need to get any of these things, pause the video now. Okay. Let's introduce the author and the book. This is the front cover of the book we're studying in this unit. It's called "King of the Sky" by Nicola Davies. And it's illustrated by Laura Carlin. Now I'd like you to look at the cover of this book very closely. What clues does the front cover give you about the story? Pause the video now and have think. Okay. So this front cover. I think perhaps these characters are going to be main characters in the story. We have what looks like an old man. He looks old because he's got grey hair and he has a stick. He's got a slightly bent back, which suggests to me that maybe he's not very well. And there's young child who's reaching out and stroking a bird in old man's hands. And maybe the child and the bird against the characters, or maybe just one of them. That's my guess. Now, obviously at this point, we don't know. So we're just using the clues to have a few educated guesses. Let's think about Laura Carlin. Now Laura Carlin is the illustrator of this book. So Laura Carlin has worked really closely with Nicola Davies, who's the author of the book to put together some images, which they both believe represent the story perfectly. Here's some examples, the types of images that we'll find in this book today. Now Laura Carlin is a very accomplished illustrator. In fact, as an artist she produces a variety of work, some illustrations. But also she produces some artwork out of ceramics. So she makes, statues. She illustrates sometimes, other people's books or books written by other people in this instance written by Nicola Davies. She's actually worked with Nicola Davies on another book called "The Promise". She's also done illustrations for "The Iron Man" by Ted Hughes, which is a very well-known children's book. And sometimes she writes and illustrates her own books. So she does both the illustration and the writing. So a very accomplished illustrator, who has lots of experience in children's literature. Nicola Davies is the author of this text. Now Nicola Davies has written lots and lots of books. Dozens in fact. Nicola Davies is actually also a zoologist, which means she's an animal expert. And if you look at her books and read them carefully, you'll notice the animals often feature. So it's clear that she takes inspiration from her other area of expertise in writing. Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin have worked together to produce the text. We're looking at this unit, "King of the Sky". Okay, time for us to explore a theme. The theme we're looking at today is home. Now home is a theme which features often in stories in books. And it's an interesting one because it's very personal. So everybody has a slightly different interpretation of what home is and what home means. Now, when you think about the term home, you sometimes think about a place. But what we'll discover today is actually, home is about more than a physical place. You'll notice I haven't written house, I haven't written flat. I haven't written building. That's not really what we're looking at and thinking about. As you'll discover today, your home is about lots more than a physical place. Everybody's notion of home is different. So home is different for each of us. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you a mind map I've created, which represents home, for me. Now this mind map includes things which remind me of home, of my home, make me feel at home. In a second, you're going to do the same thing for yourself. I've chosen to use my childhood home. So what I considered to be home, the things that made me feel at home when I was a child. Because I think that will help you, think about some of the ideas and choices you might make in this lesson. First thing is a strange one, it's the sound of pigeons. Growing up, there were pigeons lots of pigeons outside my house. And the noise they made was very distinctive. Very distinctive cooing, very kind of peaceful and deep cooing. And I've noticed that the pigeons elsewhere, they don't make quite the same sound. Now as a grown up, I have a different home. And the pigeons around me, they don't make quite the same sound. When I visit my childhood home, I hear and recognise this sound and straight away it makes me feel at home. It makes me feel so at home. I'm calm and peaceful as though I belong. To sound of pigeons, I know it's strange but for me that's a big deal that's important. My siblings, I associate my siblings. I have two brothers and one sister, with home. Certainly as a child, they were always there making noise, chatting to me, playing with me, fighting with me sometimes. So I have a very strong association between my siblings and my sense of home. Sound of music. So again, the sound of music is something I associate with my feelings home. And this means to me, this means home. Because growing up there was always music of some sort in the background. People listening to music or playing music or singing. So the sound of music is something that I really associate with home. More so than I do with anything else. Roast dinner, something that happened each weekend. Something which I really tied very strongly to my sense of belonging, my sense of being home and at home. And even now if I visit my childhood home where my parents still live, roast dinner at the meeting, that's part of it. That's an important part of it. Finally, personal space. For me home is and always has been, somewhere where I can find some sorts of personal space for myself. Somewhere where I can have a type of peace. Not suggesting I was always peaceful at home. But a type of peace, a bit of space for me to think for myself. A bit of space for me to spend some time with myself, personal space. Okay. I'll let you to make a mind map of your own. What characterises home for you? So what represents for you, home? Now you can represent this however you like. You can do it like I've done with typical looking mind map. Or maybe you prefer to list some ideas. I don't mind how you create this mind map. I'd like to have a go, very carefully. What characterises home? Pause the video now. Okay. So we're going to take this notion of home and we're going to build on it. Using this phrase 'at home'. This is a phrase which often accompanies this notion home. You might talk about and describe things that make you feel at home. Make yourself at home. There's a phrase you often hear. Perhaps you go round somebody's house and they really want you to feel comfortable. So they might use the phrase, "make yourself at home". I like you to have a think about what that means. When somebody says that to you, what did they expect you to do? How do they expect you to behave or change your behaviour? I'll let you to pause the video and have a little think. So often when people use this phrase, they want you to feel more relaxed. They want you to feel calm and as though you belong. So perhaps you've gone around to somebody's house and you're paying them a visit they say, "Make yourself at home", have a seat, have a drink, take care of yourself, relax. I want you to feel as though you're in a calm space where you belong. She used to go round to her friend's house every day after school. As soon as she walked in the door, she felt at home. This is interesting because in this instance, she's feeling at home in a different house, and this is not her own house. She's getting this feeling of being home elsewhere. Which is interesting. Let's see if we can work with that. Where else do you feel at home and why? I'm going to go first. I'll give you an example. I am a teacher, of course and I feel home at school. The school I work in, I've worked with for quite a long time. And I'm familiar with the people around me and I'm familiar with lots of the children. When I'm here, I feel like I have a great deal of trust in people around me. I feel lots of comfort. I feel as though I'm comfortable. And as though I can relax because I'm in good company, I'm in safe hands. And also I feel a sense of belonging. I feel as though the people around me want me to be here. And so I'm where I want to be. Where else do you feel at home and why? It could be a friend's house. Could be a favourite location. It could be a relatives house. It could be your imagination. Pause the video now and have a think. Okay. Let's imagine for a second that you're moving to a new home. So you're moving from the place you currently live, somewhere else. Now I'd like you to take your mind map and I'd like you to look at everything on that. And have to think about what would change that you're going to a new home. What's likely to change? What's likely to stay the same? So are there any things that you could bring with you to your new home? Or we'd all have to stay where it was? Let's look at mine. Look at mine we'll get a feel for what this question is asking and then you have a go. Here's my mind map. Now if I think carefully about these things, I reckon, these are things which would stay the same. I actually have a perfect example. I have the home I grew up in and as I grew up and I tend to grown up, I moved out of that home and now I have a new home. I have actually tested this. And these are the things which have come with me. These are the things which has stayed the same. I still have this personal space which I consider really important. That's come with me. I still have the roast dinners that hasn't changed. And the sound of music. My home, my current home has lots of music. So those things have been able to come with me. The siblings aren't there, siblings live elsewhere. And the pigeons, of course, as I explained the pigeons, they don't sound the same anymore. Not where I live at the moment, I now live in a big city and the pigeons behave slightly differently. So, which are the things on your mind map, do you think would change if you moved and which would stay the same? Pause the video now and have a think. Okay. Now let's look at the things that have been highlighted. The things that are going to stay the same no matter where you move. If you have to pick the main thing that makes you feel as though you belong, what would it be? I'm looking at the three I've highlighted and I'm going to go for this. The sound of music, music is something which makes me feel relaxed and calm and safe because I associate it with places that make me feel relaxed and calm and safe. I associate it with where I grew up. I associate it with where I work. I associate it with where I live now. And those are places that I call home, in which I have over the years called home. So I think for me, the main thing, makes me feel like I belong is that, sound of music. I'll let you to have a go with the things on your mind now. Pause the video now. Okay, finally we're just going to look at this phrase, "Home is where the heart is." This is a really interesting phrase, which comes up again and again and again in life. So you're going to hear this lots now. Now you've heard it once. You're going to hear it lots. I'll let you to have to think about what this might mean. Home is where the heart is. Home is where the heart is. Pause the video now and have a think. Okay. So my interpretation of this phrase, is that home is wherever you have given your heart, whatever you love, whatever you trust and have faith in and have love for. That is what you can call your home. Now sometime that's a place. Sometime that's a group of people. Sometimes that's a physical location. But actually the fact that it's where your heart is suggests it can move. So your home might be where you grow up. Or it might be your granny's house where you feel comfortable. Or maybe it's your friend's house. Or maybe it's in the company, the people that you love whoever those people are. I think the suggestion here is that, home is not necessarily one distinct place. It's wherever you take your heart and wherever you love and feel comfortable and safe. Perhaps you had a different interpretation of that, which is fine. I'd love to hear them. Okay. We're going to read the text. So, "King of the Sky" by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Laura Carlin. Now these are the end papers. So these are the pages at the very, very beginning of the book. Very beginning, just inside the cover. And I really wanted to show you these 'cause I think they're such an important part of the story. They don't really fall part of the narrative, but they've been included for a reason. The illustrator knowing fully, chosen carefully and thought carefully about including these. So I thought, well, it's important that you see them. And then inside one page more, we have the title page, "King of the Sky" Nicola Davies illustrated by Laura Carlin. It rained and rained and rained, little houses huddled on the humpbacked hills. Chimneys smoked and metal towers clanked. The streets smelled of mutton soup and cold dust. And no one spoke my language. Chance for you to look at these pictures. If you need to pause at any point in the story, to look at the pictures in more detail, please do. Do not hesitate to pause. All of it told me, this is not where you belong. Just one thing reminded me of home, of sunlight, fountains and the vanilla smell of ice cream in my granny's shop It was Mr.Evans's pigeons in their loft behind my house, cooing as if they strutted in St. Peter's Square in Rome. Mr. Evans's face was crumpled and he could hardly walk. But when his birds flew, he smiled like springtime. I stood beside him and watched as his pigeons soared above the chimneys and the towers up to where the sky stretched all the way to Italy. Again, if you need to pause, please do. A lifetime down the mine had taken Mr. Evans's breath away. So he spoke soft and slow. Slow enough for me to understand. "I like to see them fly", he whispered, "After so long underground." Every day I came to see the pigeons. "I'm training them to race", Mr. Evans said, "And this one's going to be a champion." He put a pigeon in my hands. I felt it's small heart racing underneath my finger and the push and power of its wings. Its head was whiter than a splash of milk. It's eye blazed fire. "Name him and he's yours", the old man said. I didn't have to think. "Re del cielo!", I replied, "King of the sky". Mr. Evans showed me how to catch the birds and slip them in a basket. Then we'd wheel it to the station on a barrow. "How far today then Mr.Evans?", the railway man would ask. My friend would name a station up the line, five miles, 10 miles, 20 miles away. A little further every time. "They don't need a map like we do", Mr. Evans told me. "They're born knowing how to find their way. All they want is a bit of practise." Back at the loft we'd wait, eating Mr. Evans's welsh cakes and squinting up into the light. "Look out now", Mr. Evans would say. "Keep those young eyes of yours well peeled." It never took them long from places far away, places that they'd never seen. The pigeons flew home straight and fast as arrows. But the pigeon, the milk-white head was always lost. Still. Mr. Evans said he'd be a winner. "He's a hero", the old man wheezed, "like the pigeons in the war, carrying messages even when they were shot. Just you wait and see." And we going to pause there. Wow. Beautiful story. Even so far, I haven't even finished. So I'm sorry to interrupt a story like that. But we're going to pause there, and summarise what we've learned today. And you will hear the rest of the story I promise next lesson. So let's summarise what we've learned so far. First of all, what next? I'd like you to think about what might happen next. Now we're only about halfway through, so actually almost anything could happen. Let's just try using a bit of imagination to think about what that could be. Pause the video and have a think. Okay, well done. Congratulations. At the end of the lesson. Today, we've introduced the author in the book, we've explored the theme. We've read the text and we've summarised what we've learned and what we've read. You've done a really good job on that. The first lesson of the unit. Well done for your hard work, you've completed your lesson.

To explore a theme

To explore a theme

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UnitEnglish / King of the Sky by Nicola Davies

English