To share and discuss a story

Key Stage 2

English

The Day the Crayons Quit - Persuasive writing

﻿Hello, and welcome to Lesson One of this unit. My name is Miss Bourke and I'm a teacher with the Oak Academy. I'm really, really excited about teaching you this unit, because we are going to be looking at and reading a picture book called "The Day The Crayons Quit". And we are going to be writing our own persuasive letter inspired by this book. I hope that you love picture books just as much as I do, and I hope you enjoy this unit just as much as I do too. Let's get started. Let's have a look at our agenda today. First, we will be making some predictions about the text. Then we will be reading the story and answering some questions. And finally, there is a short task for you to do. In this lesson you will need an exercise book or some paper, a pencil and your brain for thinking and answering all of those questions we're going to be talking about. If you don't have any of those things, pause the video and go and get them now. Okay, well done. Let's get started. First, let's make some predictions. This is the front cover of our book. I can see that the title is called "The Day The Crayons Quit", by Drew Daywalt, pictures by Oliver Jeffers. What do you think this story will be about? Hmm, I can see lots of pictures of crayons on the front. I'd like you to make a prediction. That means I'd like you to guess what you think the story will be about. I think the story will be about... Pause the video and say your answer aloud now. Wow! I wonder what you came up with. Well, let's not wait any longer. Let's read the story and find out what happens and what the story is about. "The Day The Crayons Quit" written by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers and read aloud with the permission of Collins/HarperCollins Children's Books. Here is the cover to our book, "The Day The Crayons Quit". "One day in class, Duncan went to take out his crayons and found a stack of letters with his name on them. Hmm, how curious. Here's the stack of letters that he found. Hmm. Duncan received some letters. What is a letter? Have a think. What is a letter? Hmm. I'd like you to pause the video and say aloud, a letter is... Okay, let's have a look. And letter is a form of written communication. So, it's a way that people communicate with each other. Before we had telephones and mobile phones, people used to send letters to their friends and family who lived away from them to share their news. And they also might have sent letters to arrange things like catching up or having a party. I wonder, have you ever written a letter? Pause and have a think. Have you ever written a letter? Hmm, have you ever received a letter? Has anybody ever sent you a letter? They're really exciting when you get letters in the post. Hmm, I wondering if you've ever received one. Think about a time that you've received a letter. Who sent it to you and what were they writing about? "Hey, Duncan, it's me, Red crayon. We need to talk. You make me work harder than any of your other crayons. All year long, I wear myself out colouring fire engines, apples, strawberries and everything else that's red. I even work on the holidays. I have to colour all the Santas at Christmas and all the hearts on Valentine's Day. I need a rest. Your overworked friend, Red crayon." Oh, so the first letter was from Duncan's red crayon. And there's a picture of the red crayon down here and everything that he's coloured in, or everything that they've coloured in. Okay. So we've just read the letter from the red crayon. I want you to think about how is the red crayon feeling? Which word or phrase in the letter tells you this? Let's have a read through of it again. "Hey Duncan, it's me, Red crayon. We need to talk. You make me work harder than any of your other crayons. All year long, I wear myself out colouring fire engines, apples, strawberries, and everything else that's red. I even work on holidays. I have to colour all the Santas at Christmas and all the hearts on Valentine's Day. I need a rest. Your overworked friend, Red crayon. Pause the video and answer my two questions. One, how is the red crayon feeling and two, how do you know which word or phrase tells you how he's feeling? Okay, let's have a look. I think the red crayon is feeling exhausted. My turn, exhausted. Your turn... Exhausted means really, really tired. And the words or phrases that tell me that are these. The red crayon has said, "I wear myself out." I know if you're worn out or you wear yourself out, that means you're very tired. The red craton has said, "I need a rest." We need a rest when we've been working very, very hard. And also he sees... The crayon has used the word "overworked". That means you've be working too much. When we've been working too much, we might feel exhausted. Let's look at who our next letter is from. Hmm, I can see a purple dragon and a purple wizard. I wonder who this letter is from. "Dear Duncan, all right listen, I love that I'm your favourite crayon for grapes, dragons and wizards hats, but it makes me crazy that so much of my gorgeous colour goes outside the lines. If you don't start colouring inside the lines soon, I'm going to completely lose it. Your very neat friend, Purple crayon." Hmm, we've got another letter now. Hmm, I wonder how you think this crayon is feeling? "Dear Duncan, I'm tired of being called light brown or dark tan, because I'm neither. I am beige and I am proud. I'm also tired of being second place to Mr. Brown crayon. It's not fair that Brown gets all the bears, ponies and puppies. While the only things I get are turkey dinners, if I'm lucky and wheat, and let's be honest, when was the last time you saw a kid excited about colouring wheat? Your beige friend, Beige crayon." Here is the beige crayon. Everyone show me how the beige crayon looks. Have a looked at the picture. How does the beige crayon look? Really good acting. How do you think the beige crayon is feeling if that's the way they're looking? Hmm. My question to you is, how is the beige crayon feeling? Which word or sentence in the writing tells you this? I'm going to quickly read the letter for you again. "Dear Duncan, I'm tired of being called light brown or dark tan because I am neither. I am beige and I am proud. I'm also tired of being second place to Mr. the Brown crayon. It's not fair that Brown gets all the bears, ponies and puppies, while the only things I get are turkey dinners, if I'm lucky and wheat. And let's be honest, when was the last time you saw a kid excited about colouring wheat? Your beige friend, Beige crayon." Pause the video and one, tell me how beige crayon is feeling. Two, which word or sentence tells you this. Okay, let's have a look. I think that beige crayon is feeling left out, maybe a bit lonely. And the words and phrases that tell me this is "I'm tired of being second place." So that sentence," I'm tired of being second place." tells me that they're a bit fed up with not ever being chosen. And, "It's not fair." Hmm, if something's not fair, that means it's not equal, doesn't it? "And the only things I get are turkey dinners." They don't sound very excited about only colouring in turkey dinners and boring wheat. So I think they're feeling a bit left out. I wonder what word you came up with to describe how beige crayon is feeling. Let's see who our next letter is from. Hmm, I can see some very big animals there. They're all coloured in... Oh, what colour is that? They're all coloured in grey. So, maybe our next letter's from the grey crayon. Let's find out. "Duncan, Grey crayon here. You're killing me. I know you love elephants and I know that elephants are grey. But that's a lot of space to colour in all by myself. And don't even get me started on your rhinos, hippos and hump back whales. You know how tired I am after handling those things? Such big animals! Baby penguins are grey, you know. So are tiny rocks, pebbles. How about one of those once in a while, to give me a break. Your very tired friend, Grey crayon." Hmm, so grey crayon is getting a bit tired because he always has to colour in big things. He's suggesting maybe, Duncan colour some smaller things in grey. Hmm, look, funny one. Can you see? There's not much on that page. It's just a white page. I wonder which crayon would write this letter. "Dear Duncan, you colour with me, but why? Most of the time I'm the same colour as the page you're using me on, white. If I didn't have a black outline, you wouldn't even know I was there. I'm not even in the rainbow. I'm only used to colour in snow or to fill in empty space between other things. And it leaves me feeling, well, empty. We need to talk. Your empty friend, White crayon." So white crayon doesn't think that they can be seen when they are being used. Let's see who the next letter is from. Oh, there's a big clue. There's our character in the middle of our book. I think it might be a black crayon. "Hi, Duncan. I hate being used to draw the outline of things. Things that are coloured in by other colours, all of which think they're brighter than me. It's not fair when you use me to draw a nice beach ball and then fill in that the colours of the ball with all the other crayons. How about a black beach ball sometime? Is that too much to ask? Your friend, Black crayon." And I can see in the picture black crayon has chosen to draw a picture of a black beach ball to show Duncan what it would look like and also cool black rainbow. Okay. Wow, that's a good... This picture, this is an exciting one. I can see lots of interesting animals. I can see some crocodiles and I can see a big dinosaur. This letter must be from the green crayon. "Dear Duncan, as green crayon I am writing for two reasons. One is to say, I like my work, loads of crocodiles, trees, dinosaurs, and frogs. I have no problems and wish to congratulate you on a very successful colouring things green career so far. The second reason I right is for my friends, yellow crayon and orange crayon, who are no longer speaking to each other. Both crayons feel they should be the colour of the sun. Please settle this soon because they're driving the rest of us crazy. Your happy friend, Green crayon." Here we have green crayon's pictures and his letter. How is the green crayon feeling? Hmm. Which word or sentence tells you this? So just like we did with the others, I'd like you to read through the letter again and then think. How has the green crayon feeling? Is it different to the other crayons? How do you know which word or phrase or sentence tells you? Let's have a quick read through of the letter again. "Dear Duncan, as green crayon, I am writing for two reasons. One, is to say that I like my work, loads of crocodiles, trees, dinosaurs, and frogs. I have no problem and wish to congratulate you on a very successful colouring things green career so far. The second reason I write is for my friends, yellow crayon and orange crayon, who are no longer speaking to each other. Both crayons feel they should be the colour of the sun. Please settle this soon because they're driving the rest of us crazy. Your happy friend, Green crayon." Okay. Pause the video now. And I would like you to say aloud, I think the green crayon feels, hmm, because... Off you go. Okay. Good job, let's see. I think the green crayon feels content. Content means happy or peaceful. Like you don't really want that many things to change. Now, he's not happy about the orange crayon and the yellow crayon, but here's content about his work because he says that, "I like my work. I have no problems and I wish to congratulate you." He's congratulating Duncan. That means they feel happy about it. So I think green crayon feels content. I wonder what word you chose to describe how green crayon is feeling. Okay, here we go. A letter from the yellow crayon. Look, there is the sun at the top and I can see that the sun is yellow in this picture. "Dear Duncan, Yellow crayon here. I need you to tell orange crayon that I am the colour of the sun. I would tell him, but we are no longer speaking. And I can prove I'm the colour of the sun too. Last Tuesday, you used me to colour in the sun in your happy farm colouring book. In case you've forgotten, it's on page seven. You can't miss me. I'm shining down brilliantly on a field of yellow corn. Your pal, and the true colour of the sun, Yellow crayon." Hmm, yellow crayon is really convinced that they are the colour of the sun. But what do you think orange crayon might say, 'cause I can see here at the top, look, that Duncan has used the orange crayon to colour the sun. "Dear Duncan, I see yellow crayon already talked to you, the big whiner. Anyway, could you please tell Mr. Tattletale that he's not the colour of the sun. I would, but we're no longer speaking. We both know I am clearly the colour of the sun because on Thursday you used me to colour the sun on both the Monkey Island and Meet The Zookeeper pages, in your "Day At The Zoo" colouring book. Orange, you glad I'm here. Ha, our pal and the real colour of the sun, Orange crayon." I wonder what you think. Do you think orange crayon or yellow crayon should be the colour of the sun? Or maybe you think that sometimes it should be yellow and sometimes it be should be orange depending on the time of day. Hmm, I wonder what you would choose to cover. Here we go. Here's our picture. And I can see down here a very, very short stubby little blue crayon. Hmm, I wonder why he's so short. "Dear Duncan, it has been great being your favourite colour this past year, and the year before and the year before that. I have really enjoyed all these oceans, lakes, rivers, rain drops, rain clouds and clear skies. But, the bad news is that I am so short and stubby. I can't even see over the railing in the crayon box anymore. I need a break. Your very stubby friend, Blue crayon." Hmm, blue crayon has worked so hard, there's almost none of them left. I wonder if they're feeling a bit anxious or worried about running out. Here we go. Look at this! I can see some dinosaurs and some monsters and some cowboys that have been coloured in using this, pink crayon and also a princess at here. "Duncan, okay, listen here, kid. You have not used me once in the past year. It's because you think I'm a girl's colour, isn't it? Speaking of which, please tell your little sister I said thank you for using me to colour in her "Pretty Princess" colouring book. Oh, I think she did a fabulous job of staying inside the lines. Now, back to us. Could you please use me sometime to colour in the occasional pink dinosaur or monster or cowboy? Goodness knows, they could use a splash of colour. Your unused friend, Pink crayon." Huh, so pink crayon wants to be used for some either colouring as well. Not just by Duncan's sister. Pink crayon wants to be used for dinosaurs and monsters and cowboys as well. That's interesting. And actually I think they look really cool coloured in pink. Okay. Let's look at this one. Hmm, this is an interesting picture. Can see, this crayon is still in the box and look over here. That looks like a wrapping that goes around a crayon. I wonder what happened. "Hey, Duncan. It's me, Peach crayon. Why did you peel off my wrapping paper? Now, I'm naked. I'm too embarrassed to leave the crayon box. I don't even have any underwear. How would you like to go to school naked? I need some clothes, help. Your naked friend, Peach crayon." Oh, no! Poor peach crayon. Their wrapping is peeled off. And now they don't have any clothes on. It's a little bit funny, but I do feel a bit sad for peach crayon. Okay. Well, look. Here are all those letters. "Well, poor Duncan just wanted to colour and of course, he wanted his crayons to be happy." And nuts gave him an idea. Have a think now. what do you think Duncan's idea is? What could Duncan do to make all of these crayons feel a bit happier, maybe a little bit less tired or less overworked. Maybe more welcomed into the group. Hmm. Maybe more used. What could he do? Let's have a look. Look at what Duncan has decided to do. Well, have a close look at this picture. Wow! What a beautiful picture. I can see lots and lots of different things in this picture. But let's have a bit of close look in a second. "When Duncan showed his teacher his new picture, she gave him a good work sticker for colouring and a gold star for creativity." Wow! So, Duncan was really creative in that final picture and his teacher thought it was so good that she gave him a sticker and a gold star. Wow! Wow! Let's have a look, a closer look at this beautiful picture that Duncan has drawn using all of the colours of the crayons from the book. Wow! How do you think the crayons are feeling now that Dunkin has used them to draw all of these different things? I wonder if you think they're feeling happier. If you'd like to have a bit more of a look at this picture and see what you notice, you can pause the video here. What do you think will happen next? Now that Duncan has drawn his beautiful picture and I think made the crayons feel much, much happier. What do you think will happen next? Pause the video and write down your idea. Good job. Let's have a look at our task. I would like you to write a sentence telling me how each of these crayons are feeling and why, using the joining conjunction "because". The Red crayon feels, hmm, because... The Beige crayon feels, hmm, because... And the Green crayon feels, hmm, because... I would like you to pause the video and write those sentences now. Well done. I wonder what words you used to describe how these characters were feeling. And I wonder what reasons you gave for them feeling that way. Here are my sentences. The Red crayon feels exhausted because they have to colour in apples, fire engines and strawberries every day. The Beige crayon feels left out because the Brown crayon always gets chosen first. And the Green crayon feels content because they enjoy their work and get to colour in fun things. I wonder what you wrote for your ideas. Well done. You have made some predictions. You have listened to the story and answered some questions about it. And you have completed your sentence using the joining conjunction "because". Really well done. Congratulations, you have completed your lesson. If you would like to, please share your work with a parent or carer.

To share and discuss a story

To share and discuss a story

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UnitEnglish / The Day the Crayons Quit - Persuasive writing

English