To write an explanation text (Part 1)

Key Stage 1

English

Explanation: How birds fly

﻿Hello everybody. It is me, Miss McCartney, and I am super excited for today's lesson, because we are going to be applying the knowledge of our toolkit that we learnt in lesson seven. And we are going to be writing the introduction and the first paragraph for our explanation. I can't wait to help our reader to learn all about the world! For our lesson today, you will need a piece of paper, or something to write on, a pencil, or something to write with, and your wonderful, creative brain. You will also need your boxing up plan that we created together in lesson six. That will really support us when we are writing. It will remind us of our plan. If you need to go and get anything, pause your video now. Brilliant, now that we are prepared, let's have a little look at what we are going to be learning today. We are going to start with a spelling activity. Then we are going to remind ourselves about the relationship between cause and effect, and look at some subordinating conjunctions. We are then going to complete our shared write together, and edit our writing at the end, just like real authors. Let's get started with our spelling. Today, we are looking at the phoneme "ar", and it is spelt A, L, so it is a little bit confusing. You have an example in the word calm. Kh, aa, mm, calm. Can you see the "ar" spelling? How is the "ar" sound spelt? Can you whisper it to your screen? Brilliant, it is spelt with an A and an L. Now, today, we are going to play a little game. I have hidden some other words that have the phoneme "ar", spelt with an A, L, and I would like you to try and find them in the grid. Now, I'm going to give you some clues about the words. The first word is a tree that coconuts grow on. The second word is something that you put on your lips. The third word means the same as dividing by two. And the fourth word is a baby cow. Hmm, can you find all of those words, and the correct letters? Pause your video now to have a go. I could see such wonderful hunting for our phoneme "ar", spelt A, L. Let's have a look and see if you found all the words. And if you didn't that's okay, because we are going to learn them together now. So, your first word was palm, for a palm tree. Your second word, something that you put on your lips, lip balm. Fantastic. I saw lots of people find all the letters for number three. Number three was half, the same as dividing by two. And number four, a baby cow was calf. Well done if you found all of those letters, Give yourself some spelling shine. Fantastic learning everybody. We are now going to move on to our next activity. And we are going to remind ourselves about what cause and effect means. So, cause and effect is when something happens as a result of something else. So, one thing happens, and that causes something else to happen, and that is the effect. Now, we are going to use three subordinating conjunctions today to help us to really explain cause and effect clearly. Our conjunctions are when, if, and as. My turn, your turn. When, if, and as. Your turn. Brilliant. Now, we are going to think about flapping, gliding and steering, and you can use any of the subordinating conjunctions to explain cause and effect. I'll give you an example. I could use the subordinating conjunction "when" to explain, when a bird flaps its wings, it pushes down on the air, and then it is able to move upwards. That is Miss McCartney's cause and effect sentence. Pause your video now to say your sentence. Excellent. Move a little bit closer and tell me your favourite sentence that you created. Ooh, we have some wonderful ideas. One of our learners said, if the bird flaps its wings faster, then they are able to move upwards more quickly. Brilliant! Another learner said, as my dragon tilts its scales, it is able to steer. Fantastic use of a subordinating conjunction. We can now apply the skills that we have learned in our writing. I will see you in just a second. I am super excited to start our writing today. Okay, everybody, let's get started writing our explanation. The first thing we need to do is write our toolkit at the side of our piece of paper, to help us when we are writing. We can tick off the features as we use them. Remember, our toolkit for writing an explanation is, using technical vocab, so words about flying, making cause and effect really clear for our reader, using subordinating conjunctions, and the present tense. Can you pause your video now, and write down your explanation toolkit? Brilliant. Now, we are going to start with our introduction. So, I'm just going to have a little look at my boxing up plan. I am going to read my summary for my introduction. I would like you to pause your video and read your summary. Brilliant. So, I am going to start my writing with my hook question, and my hook question, from my plan, was, have you ever seen a ff, ll, eye, ing, flying unicorn? Okay, and I need my question mark, because I have asked a question. Can you whisper to your screen what your question to hook your reader is? Ooh, I can hear some great questions. Now, I'm going to explain what I am going to be writing about. So I am going to say, flying unicorns move through the air by, hmm, how do our animals move? By ff, ll, ah, puh, ing, flapping, gliding. I'm just going to make my piece of paper up a little bit. Gliding, and what's the final one? Well done, and steering. So, that is my introduction done. I have a hooking question, and I have explained how flying unicorns fly through the air. Just make my full stop a bit larger, fantastic. Let's get started with our paragraph about flapping. Now, I am going to talk about strong muscles first. Muscles is is a bit of a strange word, isn't it? I remember how to spell it, mus cles, muscles. I would like you to pause your video. What is the first thing you are going to describe about flapping? Brilliant, okay. I'm going to say flying unicorns. Flying unicorns, have, my present tense verb. Flying unicorns have, hmm. Strong, ch, eh, ss, tuh, chest muscles, mus cles, to help you remember. Okay. Flying unicorns have strong chest muscles. Now, I'm going to start talking about my cause and effect, using my subordinating conjunction. I'm going to start with the subordinating conjunction when. I wonder what subordinating conjunction you are going to start with. Pause your video now and write it down. Brilliant, some people are starting with if, and some people starting with as. Okay, I am going to start with when. When, unicorns, flap, my present tense verb, flap, their, going to go over here, 'cause I need a bit more space, flap their wings. Now I need my comma after my subordination clause. When unicorns flap their wings, the, wings, push, present tense verb, against, what do they push against? Push against the air, fantastic, and I need my full stop. Okay, I'm then going to say, this causes, what does this cause? This causes the unicorn to move upwards. Fantastic. Okay, I'm going to read my first paragraph. Flying unicorns have strong chest muscles. I'm going to give myself a tick for technical vocab, 'cause I've talked about their muscles. When unicorns flap their wings, okay, I have got more technical vocab with flap and wings. I've got the present tense for flap, and I'm talking about cause and effect, and a subordinating conjunction. Oh my goodness. When unicorns flap their wings, the wings push against the air. Now remember, there are a few different ways to spell their, but my wings belong to my unicorn, so I need to use their, to show possession. When unicorns flap their wings, the wings push against the air. This causes that unicorn to move upwards. Okay, I'm going to add a little bit more detail, now. I am going to say, if, I'm talking about the cause and effect, if the unicorn flaps faster, now, fast is a common exception word, sometimes, depending on how you speak, depending on your accent. If the unicorn flaps fast, er, there's my suffix. If the unicorn flaps faster, I need my comma, 'cause that's my subordinating clause. If the unicorn flaps faster, they move up quicker. Okay, fantastic. I'm really happy with that now. I'm going to read the whole thing through. Have you ever seen a flying unicorn? Flying unicorns move through the air by flapping, gliding, and steering. I think that's really clear. Flying unicorns have strong chest muscles. When unicorns flap their wings, the wings push against the air. This causes the unicorn to move upwards. If the unicorn flaps faster, they move up quicker. I think I have explained flapping really clearly. And now, it is your turn. Don't forget, you can have your plan right next to you, just like I did. I would like you to pause your video and write your introduction and your flapping paragraph. I can't wait to see them. It was so wonderful to see all of our storytellers working so hard on their introduction, and their flapping paragraphs, for their fantastical animal. Now, it is now time to edit our writing. But before we do that, I would like you to hold your writing up, so that I can have a little look. Wow. I can see so many learners have so many ticks next to their toolkit. Fantastic. That means that you have made your explanation really clear. Well done. Now, sometimes, when I have written a long piece of writing, I don't want to edit it, because I think I've already worked really hard, and my hand is tired, but editing is super important, because it is what real authors do to check their work is the best it can be. So, the first thing I would like you to do is check for your punctuation. If you used a hooking question, have you got a question mark? If you used sentences, have you got full stops? I know you've used both of those things. And have you got a comma after your subordinating clause, when you've used a subordinating conjunction? Check all of those things. Then you need to check to make sure that your writing make sense. Sometimes, when we're writing really fast, we might miss out words, or spell words wrong. If you would like, you could read your work out loud to me on the screen, or maybe to a teddy talk partner. Because when we read our work out loud, it helps us to really notice any small mistakes. The final thing you need to do is check your toolkit. Check that you've used technical vocab about flying. Check that you've made the cause and effect relationships really clear. Check you've used your subordinating conjunctions, when, if, as, and that. And finally, check that you've written your explanation in the present tense, with present tense verbs. I would like you to pause your video now, and edit your writing. Pause your video. Excellent, can you come a little bit closer, and tell me, either something you're really proud of, or something you have improved? Come a little bit closer. Mm. Okay, so, one of our learners said they improved their writing by adding some more detail. When they spoke about the flapping wings, they spoke about what happens if the wings flap faster, great extra detail. And another learner said they were really proud, because they had used lots of subordinating conjunctions to explain cause and effect. I think that is incredible. Give yourself some crown shine, make yourself a crown and you can be a king or a queen, and shine all around your wonderful storytelling brain. I would love to see some of your writing. If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and @TeachTMcCartney, that's me, #LearnwithOak. I will see you soon, in lesson nine, to continue our explanation writing.

To write an explanation text (Part 1)

To write an explanation text (Part 1)

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UnitEnglish / Explanation: How birds fly

English