Post on 28-Apr-2023
How do we teach grammar
at Chesterton?
• Grammar is embedded within all lessons on a daily basis.
• Key vocabulary is displayed within the classroom.
• Learning objectives are linked to explicit skills.
• Grammar interventions for those who need extra support.
• Y6 additional grammar sessions weekly.
• Y6 booster group for selected children.
• We use past SATS papers for assessment purposes.
Key terminology…
Nouns
• Nouns: A person, animal, place, thing.
• Proper nouns: A particular person, place or thing – has a capital letter. (e.g. William, Tesco, England)
• Common nouns: Name given to an ordinary thing (E.g. supermarket, mouse, ball, desk)
• Collective nouns: A collection of things taken as a whole (E.g. swarm, pack, crowd, bunch, flock)
• Abstract nouns: Refer to ideas, feelings, occasions or time – they cannot be touched (e.g. love, happiness, bravery, health, afternoon.)
• Pronouns: Replace a noun within a sentence for variation (e.g. he, she, they, it)
Key terminology…
• Adjectives: Describes the noun (blue, large, tiny, sparkly)
• Verbs: An action word (run, cry, walk, laugh)
• Adverbs: Adds more detail to the verb – how, when, where, how often
(quickly, slowly, yesterday, usually, everywhere, here, there, out)
• Prepositions: Explains position in relation to something else (e.g. next to,
above, under, over, beside)
• Conjunctions: Links sentences together (and, so, but, is, yet)
Main and subordinate clauses
• Main clause makes sense by itself.
• Subordinate clause relies on the main clause.
While I was playing outside, it started to rain.
It started to rain while I was playing outside.
It started to rain –while I was playing outside – so I ran to get cover.
Punctuation Pyramid
Full stop, question mark, comma, exclamation mark, ellipsis, inverted commas, apostrophe, colon, semi-colon, brackets, dash, hyphen.
Resources to support at home
• www.grammar-monster.com – KS2 grammar games
• www.sentenceplay.co.uk – KS2 writing & grammar
• http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-site/expert-help/grammar-
punctuation-and-spelling-made-easy Videos to support parents with
grammar terminology
• Book suggestion: ‘Help your kids with spelling and grammar’ by Carol
Vorderman
How can you support
spelling at home?
• Use the Look, Cover, Write, Check approach.
• Practise words at random – use timers etc.
• Play spelling games & use online resources.
• Encourage as much writing as possible at home in every day life (e.g.
shopping lists, keeping a private diary, writing your to-do list etc.)
How can you improve
your child’s writing?
• When putting spellings into sentences for homework encourage and praise
independent work which has been edited.
• Improve sentences step by step (drop in where? How? What kind of ?)
• Talking is key – verbally rehearse the sentence. Say it, say it again.
• Encourage reading out loud to check it makes sense.
The focus is on basic skills…
• Spell high frequency words.
• Use capital letters and full stops consistently.
• Use the correct tense.
• Use question marks and exclamation marks correctly.
• Joined, neat handwriting – letters regular in size.
• Writing in paragraphs.
• Writing stamina.
How can you improve your
child’s reading?
• Use a dictionary together to find the meaning of unknown words and then
find synonyms.
• Skim-reading in a set time and summarising.
• Scanning as a detective – who can find this word in the quickest time?