Lesson 7

Watch the whole animation ‘Catch it’ from start to finish.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c88QE6yGhfM  

This week we are going to be retelling the animation into our own words, creating a storybook. However, the animation lasts for over 5 minutes therefore if we tried to write it all at once it would take a lot of time and we could end up missing key information. This means that we are going to write small chunks of the animation as we go along.  

Watch the animation again however, this time watch it until you get to 1.17. Whilst you watch it, I would like you to think about what is happening in this part of the animation. You might want to write some notes along the way.  
 
These are the notes that we made;

• The meerkats are asleep  
• They wake up, come out of their burrows and see a juicy fruit hanging from their tree.
• They all go and take a look at the fruit 

 
 Now that you have made your notes, I would like you to begin to retell this section of the animation, turning your notes into sentences.  Remember you must include;

• Descriptive writing (adjectives, adverbs)
• Conjunctions (if, so, but, because)
• Punctuation (speech marks, exclamation marks, question marks) 

 
Modelled example;

Far away in the middle of Southern Africa, underneath the desert land lay a tired, orange haired meerkat named Marty. As the sun rose over the dry deserted land, Marty woke up yawning, stretching and opening his eyes, adjusting to his surroundings. Although Marty had always been an early riser; he was very tired this morning. He fell out of the bed and brushed himself off, hoping that he didn’t wake the others and tip toed towards the exit of his burrow. As he poked his head out of his burrow, something sweet caught his attention, he closed his eyes and began to sniff the air around him. As he opened his eyes, he saw the most beautiful sight, a red, ripen berry glistening in the sunlight as it hung from a tree branch opposite him. The tree belonged to his family and it rarely ever produced fruit so when it did, it was a celebration.  He heard a rustling noise coming from nearby and turned his head sharply to see where it was coming from. To his left he saw Maddie, his next door neighbour peering back at him. “Good morning” Marty whispered.       “Good morning Marty” Maddie shouted at the top of her lungs. She always was extremely excitable and loud in the mornings and was always getting told off for waking up the others. This morning came as an exception as the meerkats had something to celebrate, their tree had produced a piece of fruit! “Guys wake up, the day has come!” Maddie began to shout, jumping up and down on the dry sand. Marty and Maddie made their way over to the tree, climbing the trunk and running along the thin, rough branches. Several minutes later, all of Marty’s and Maddie’s family had join them eagerly waiting to get a glimpse. Was this a dream? Marty thought as he began stroking the fruit and inhaling its wonderful scent. Each meerkat took it in turns, this was a rare occasion and they had to make the most of it.