Sentence Structure - Resources by Sophie Housam

New sentence; new colour

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:26:04 UTC

New word; new colour

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:26:23 UTC

For children who struggle to form just ONE main clause sentence, try one colour per word. Use a Pobble365 picture to create excitement. Use big rolls of paper in continuous provision or in writing books. This encourages children to think very carefully about EACH word. You could use an iPad to help children record their sentence to 'hold it'.

For KS1, this could be a SPaG warm up and/ or continuous provision activity.

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:28:41 UTC

Construct

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:29:39 UTC

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:31:05 UTC

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:32:37 UTC

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:33:25 UTC

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:33:34 UTC

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:33:47 UTC

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:34:03 UTC

Bookmark for Y4-Y6 (2 per page)

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:35:38 UTC

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:36:45 UTC

Create a sentence on big paper
Cut it up
Rearrange it
Check it makes sense
Dissect its structure - verbs, nouns, subject?
Is it an M, M+M, M+S or S,+M?
What does YOUR year group need right now?

Deconstruct!

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:39:33 UTC

Add a sentence to the very top of the sentence stacker. Ask children to then 'deconstruct' it until it is at its most raw form as a main clause.

Great for GD, particularly in UKS2.

Reading books

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:40:39 UTC

Utilise what is around you:

Ask children to FIND examples of different punctuation types in their reading books. Set them a 60 second timer to find an example of something and write it down on a post-it note.

Great for 'holding a sentence' and retention

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:43:04 UTC

Depending on your year group, SPEAK a couple of sentences. Use intonation and expression to help children work out where the sentence ends and what punctuation might be used. Great AfL to see if they understand sentence structure purely from HEARING someone say the sentences.

When to use?

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:45:41 UTC

Slow-writing is great for a whole-class SPaG warm up. It can be differentiated to allow for greater difficulty in each sentence number. You may have 6 sentence instructions but, by outcome, LAP children reach the 2nd, whereas your GD may reach the final sentence, which will be more complex.

For interventions, sentence instruction can be very carefully selected.

To provide more scaffold, suggest WHAT you might write about in each sentence. For KS1, you could use a little symbol next to each sentence, for example:

S1: M (ear symbol)

Outcome: Tom heard strange noises in the forest.

For Year 1...

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:50:04 UTC

This could be an oral activity.

You might print it on large paper.

You might complete it on rolls of paper.

You will need to model it and continue to model it until it is common place.

For the start of the year, Year 1 might have the:

Main clause -
Up-level vocabulary -

Word, phrase or sentence?

sophiehousam — 2021-12-15 21:51:33 UTC

sophiehousam — 2021-12-31 15:52:49 UTC

sophiehousam — 2021-12-31 16:28:55 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-01-11 14:58:23 UTC

This could be for fiction or non-fiction. Differentiation: different ability groups can be directed to certain boxes or LAP could choose 3, MAP choose 5 and HAP choose 7+. Every coloured sentences could be coded in each box for formative assessment purposes or simply crossed off. Great activity for autonomy, cohesion, movement of different sentences and generally adding in what targets are involved in your unit.

sophiehousam — 2022-01-16 20:42:29 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-01-18 14:14:09 UTC

A great activity to reason with the purpose of different conjunctions.
Same main clause; different conjunctions.

sophiehousam — 2022-01-18 14:19:57 UTC

Brilliant website for creating your own sentence structure activities. There are wheel spinners (who doesn't love them?!), quiz templates, the lot. You could deal the 'virtual pack of cards' to find a co-ordinating conjunction to write an M+M sentence from.
Free to sign up.

Word document to edit for sentence stacker starters

sophiehousam — 2022-01-24 19:28:55 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-01-24 19:32:30 UTC

Sentence types must be on display chalkboard. You could use the posters OR (even better) draw them. Write conjunctions around them! Write examples around them.

A4 version (Bottom row is there when you download!)

sophiehousam — 2022-01-24 19:47:11 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-01-25 14:53:11 UTC

Different main clauses; same conjunctions.
Focus on one (or two) conjunctions. Reason with their use and purpose.

sophiehousam — 2022-01-25 14:53:24 UTC

This could be an oracy task (especially for KS1)

Contrasting settings/ author's choice

sophiehousam — 2022-01-25 14:55:58 UTC

Split the class into two. One side of the room creates a positive setting description and the other side creates a negative description. They both start with the same main clause. Make sure to write examples created on the board after and pick apart which words in particular made you (as the reader) visualise the positive/ negative setting.

sophiehousam — 2022-01-25 14:57:09 UTC

You could make this very simple by using words in the bingo boxes.

Slightly more challenging - use the basic sentence types.

sophiehousam — 2022-01-30 14:20:08 UTC

Warm-ups each day should alternate between:

1) Sentence structure
2) Vocabulary growing
3) Toolkit activity

sophiehousam — 2022-01-30 14:21:28 UTC

M
M+M
M+S
S,+M

(There is no point teaching M+M if children do not have a secure foundation of an M sentence.)

sophiehousam — 2022-02-01 21:08:19 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-02-01 21:09:04 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-03-07 16:34:53 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-03-07 16:35:20 UTC

Y2

sophiehousam — 2022-03-30 09:08:05 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-03-30 09:08:18 UTC

Slow-write intervention

sophiehousam — 2022-05-25 14:10:53 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-05-25 14:13:26 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-06-30 15:43:59 UTC

Bookmark for Y2-3 (3 per page)

sophiehousam — 2022-09-04 09:36:24 UTC

Which ones should I have up and use?

sophiehousam — 2022-09-04 09:42:59 UTC

Nursery - who/ what
Reception - who/ what/ what doing
Y1 - who/ what/ what doing and can introduce where/when
Y2 - Y6 - all colours

sophiehousam — 2022-09-14 14:50:19 UTC

Four sentences on the board. 3 M+M and 1 M+S. Which sentence is the IMPOSTER? Why? Explain!

sophiehousam — 2022-09-26 15:37:37 UTC

sophiehousam — 2022-10-08 17:35:45 UTC

2 M sentences on one page

sophiehousam — 2022-10-08 17:36:06 UTC

This one is for children who are mastering the M but, when they write two sentences in context, struggle to break them up. Could print as A3 or A4 in a wallet or laminate.

sophiehousam — 2022-11-20 10:09:35 UTC

sophiehousam — 2023-02-07 21:17:41 UTC

sophiehousam — 2023-02-07 21:18:12 UTC

Widgit

sophiehousam — 2023-02-07 21:19:26 UTC

A great resource - we have a free subscription as a school. Consider it when supporting LAP with planning. (For KS1, it could be worth using all the time during planning.) See example

EYFS + Y1 colourful semantics flashcards

sophiehousam1 — 2024-03-10 19:44:01 UTC

Moving the flashcards around is essential!

Laminate them and get creating. :-)

24-25 Bookmark (page 2)

sophiehousam — 2024-07-03 13:58:18 UTC