To explore the middle of a story

Key Stage 1

English

The Bird and the Forest Fire: middles

﻿Hello and welcome. My name is Mr. Santhanam. And today, our LO is all about exploring the middle part of our incredible story about "The Brave Little Bird" and the forest fire. In the last lesson, I asked you to come up with three words, to describe the little bird's feelings at the end of the story. And I promised I would share mine with you. You go first. What were your three words to describe the little bird's feelings? Wow, I'm so blown away by your amazing vocabulary. Now I'm going to share my three words. So I thought the little bird might be feeling, triumphant. My turn, your turn. Triumphant. Fantastic. Triumphant means that you've achieved something or accomplished something really amazing. And you might feel proud of yourself and you might feel like you can rule the world. The next word I used to describe her feelings are, melancholy. Even though the little bird managed to survive and save her tree, all her friends have left her and her amazing forest that she's loved all her life so much has been destroyed. Even though there are new shoots coming up and a new forest is growing. She might feel sad to say goodbye to her old one. So my turn, your turn. Melancholy. Great work. The last word I used to describe the little bird was, hopeful. My turn, your turn. Hopeful, great job. She might be hopeful because even though the forest is gone and black and destroyed, those little green shoots keep rising up and she knows that, it will grow into an amazing new forest eventually. So she's feeling a lot of hope. The story ends on a positive note. How did you do with your words? This lesson, we'll be looking at lots of vocabulary later on, so they might help you. Okay in this lesson, you will need, a pair of scissors, an exercise book, or some paper, a pencil or pen, and your brilliant brain. Pause those things, while you go and get them now. Great job, let's begin. So here's the agenda for today. The first thing we're going to do is do our spelling activity. Then we're going to recap our story map that we created, after that, we're going to do a hot seating activity to really start to understand the character of the little bird. And finally, we're going to do an activity where we create some vocabulary towers, ordering the power of words. We'll find out more about that later on. First, it's time for our spelling activity. Earlier on, we were looking at the spelling suffix, -tion. Now I know that a suffix comes at the end of a word. So we use, tion, for words like, train station, solution, portion, operation, fiction, and imagination. I know that I can use a strategy check where I can look at the word, say it in a sentence, write the word and then check the spelling. Today, we're going to have a look at another way that you can help yourself to remember the spelling of these words. Let's have a look. I know that my spelling's are, station, solution, portion, operation, imagination, and fiction. Over here, I'm going to do my spelling pyramid. I want to always make sure that the, tion part, is always at the bottom. The other words, I'm always going to make the pyramid. So for instance, if I wanted to do station, I would start with my S, next, my T, then my A and at the bottom, I would always do my, tion, showing that my suffix, tion, is always at the bottom, always at the end. Next I can try my, solution. S, O, l, u, tion. Making my next pyramid. Next I can try portion, P, o, r, tion. I know those. That suffix always going to come at the base of my pyramid. Okay, we've come to the part in the lesson where we're going to review our story map that we made last time. So make sure you've got that handy so we can reference it later on. Let's compare the middle parts of these stories. Think about what is the same, what happens in the middle part of the "Three Little Pigs?" Maybe tell a friend if you're with a friend or you could tell a family member that you're with instead. Okay, so I know that the three little pigs build their houses and the wolf tries to blow each of them down. The first little pig tries to build their house out of straw. and the wolf blows that one down. Then the next one tries to build their house out of sticks. And the wolf blows that one down. And then the last one builds his house out of bricks. And the Wolf tries to blow that one down. So I can see that each time it's building and building and building. In "Goldilocks," she goes from bowl to bowl and the chair to chair and room to room, trying to find the right one until... What happens? So again, that tension and that drama is building and building and building and building until and finally in "Little Red Riding Hood." She finally reaches her grandmother's house and notices that the wolf has very big eyes, very big ears, and very big teeth. So again, each time she notices that body part, that drama and that tension is building and building and building and building until . Fantastic, so I wonder if our story is going to be like that as well. Let's have a look at our story map together. Okay, now that we've had a look at some other stories and their middle parts, and we've seen how that tension and that drama builds and builds and builds and builds. Let's have a little look at our middles toolkit. Now we know that middles are all about building drama. Sometimes they might have new events and setbacks. Sometimes they might slow down time. And that really builds up anticipation, which leaves us wanting more. Sometimes they use vagueness or hinting. They hint at what's going to happen. They give us some clues, they might use empty words like it or something. And that makes it very mysterious for us as the listener, we want to know more. And it also gives us questions to think about such as, Hmm, is this little bird brave enough? Can she really put out the fire? Everyone's doubting her. Maybe she can't put out, will she, who knows? And it also uses uncertainties and expectations of characters to build drama. So it's uncertain whether or not that little bird can put out the fire on her own, we don't know. And we want to find out we're rooting for her. We want to find out what's going to happen. And the only way we're going to find out is if we wait till the end to find out. So that's what's really clever about the middle part. It keeps us wanting more and it keeps our suspense building and building and building. So we're waiting for the answers. Pause your video now and have a look at your story map, of the story from the other lesson and think about which parts are the middle part. Where do you see that tension and drama building and building and building, pause the video now, while you circle the drawings in your story map that are the middle part of the story. Okay, here you can see in my story map, I have really thought about which parts I think are the beginning part of my story and which parts are the end. That means the middle part of my story is what we're going to be focusing on today. And I've circled all the drawings that I think are the parts of the middle. This is because, this is where the tension builds and builds and builds. And in this story in particular, I know that the little bird gets abandoned by her friends. And she shows courage by saying, "No, I want to stay and save my forest." She then tries to do something to put the fire out and she keeps going back and forth, back and forth. And each time she does that, she gets more and more exhausted, but more and more determined to put out the fire. Then comes the part where the gods starts to laugh at her and they doubt her, but that doesn't stop her. She's still brave and still tries to carry on. Then the eagle god, who is her helper comes down to help her and speak to her. And he doubts her too. And he says, "No, you can't do this, you're too small. You need to leave, otherwise you'll get hurt." And she still says how much she loves her forest and wants to protect it. And she's still being brave and courageous, even though, all these people don't believe in her, she has still shown that she is brave. And that's how the tension builds in the middle part of this story. Okay, now we're going to "Hot Seat," our main character, the little bird. And we're really going to think about that middle part of the story and how she's feeling. Hot seating can be a really helpful way to really understand a character's feelings or perspective. And it can really help us understand their intentions, what their personality is like, how they talk, how they think. And it's really fun to do as well with your friends. If you could, what would you ask the little bird? We're really going to focus on that middle part of the story. So don't forget to have your story map with you to help you. So some example questions. You could ask, how did you feel when...? Why did you...? What would you have done if...? Why do you...? Why do you think...? And, what was it like when...? So I want you to write down some questions that you would like to ask little bird and pause your video there. You can play this with a family member, or you can play this with someone in your class. If you've got some friends with you or with your teacher. One person is going to pretend to be the little bird. And one person is going to ask the questions. The person who's pretending to be the little bird has to really try and pretend that they are the little bird and talk as if this little bird would talk and think about what that little bird would be saying in response. So, pause your video now, while you're trying to think of some questions to ask the little bird. Okay, I'm going to model to you now, how to play "Hot Seat." So I'm going to pretend to be the little bird, and some questions are going to pop up, down there. And they're going to ask me about how I felt in that middle part of the story. As you're listening to my answers, if you hear any adjectives that tell you how I'm feeling, you can write them down. Then when you go to play "Hot Seat," if you hear any other adjectives that tell you about the characters and emotions, you can write them down too. Okay, are you ready? Here's the first question. How did it make you feel when your friends ran away? Okay, I'm going to get my little bird hat on now. So I'm the little bird. Well, at first, when my friends ran away, it made me feel hopeless and alone. I felt very abandoned. Once they left, I knew that I had to keep trying. It made me feel even more protective over my forest. I had to keep going. Next question. What made you keep trying to put out the fire? I'm little bird right now. Well, when I saw how big and scary the forest was, I was terrified, but I knew I had to keep trying. If I wasn't going to put out the fire, then no one would, so that made me feel even more determined. And each time I went to go and pour water out and I heard that hissing and fizzing, I felt even more empowered. I knew that I had to keep trying, even though I was only little, one person can make a difference. Or in this case, one bird can make a difference. I had to persevere. Okay, once you've listened to the little bird's story and you've written down all the adjectives that describe her feelings in the middle part of the story, I would like you to write them down and get your scissors and cut them out. Here, you can see that I've got a whole collection of words that I've written down and then cut out. Pause the video here while you do that. Okay, it's now time for us to create our vocabulary towers. So you should have your collection of adjectives that describe the little bird's feelings in the middle part of the story. Here, I've got all my adjectives that I have written down after listening to the little bird's story, talking about the middle part of the story. Now, what I could do is I could match those words to the middle part of the story, or I could also order them in showing how she felt, the things that she did. So, first of all, alone, I could put, alone, here. When all her friends ran away from her, I could also put, alone, here when she was going back and forth from the fire and the water, trying to put the fire out. About terrified, I could put, terrified, here, when her friends left her alone. I guess I could put, terrified, here as well. When she was on her own in the dark, trying to put out the fire. Maybe hopeless, could go here. When the gods were all laughing at her, maybe she felt that no one believed in her. Maybe, empowered, might go here. When she was talking to the eagle god about how much she loved her forest and how she really wanted to save it. Maybe determined, might go here. When the animals had said to her, "runaway runaway, don't stay in the forest, you'll get burned." Maybe she felt determined when she said, "No, I will not. I love my forest." Maybe this part, she might have felt abandoned as well when she was being left by her friends. And protective, might come here when she was trying to put out the fire, or maybe even protective here, when she was talking to the eagle god. So those are the different parts I can link those words to in the story, into the middle part of the story, but I could also order them here. So I think at first, she felt abandoned. I think after she felt abandoned, she might feel very alone and that might make her feel terrified. She then, might feel protective over her forest and know that she has to do something about it. Because she feels protective, She might feel empowered then, when she's very powerful and she can do something if she wants to. She might feel hopeless when the gods were laughing at her. But she might persevere and then feel determined. So as we can see, as time goes on, her feelings build and build and build. And so does the tension in our middle part of the story. Okay, we've done so much today. Not only have we thought about our story map and reviewed it and thought about what the middle parts were and thoughts about how that tension builds and builds within the middle part. We've also hot seated the little bird and come up with questions for her to understand her feelings in that middle part a little bit more as well. Then we've tracked her emotions by using vocabulary towers. And we've also thought about our middles toolkit. So well done, everyone. Good job, I can't wait to see you next time. And before we go, I've got a little joke for you. When should you buy a bird? You know the answer, I'll tell you next time. Bye bye.

To explore the middle of a story

To explore the middle of a story

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UnitEnglish / The Bird and the Forest Fire: middles

English