If you are a parent of a child in primary school, you will probably be becoming aware of the increased focus on grammar and punctuation contained in the new National Curriculum. Your child’s school may have provided information about the new English grammar, punctuation and spelling tests which Year 2 and Year 6 children will be taking next summer. Depending upon when and where you went to school, you may find the information coming from school (and the terminology being used by your child) challenging. Whether you are bewildered by the terminology used or just want to know a little more to support your child, I hope you will find this blog useful. You can click on the Parent’s Start Page to link to information about different areas of grammar and punctuation. Alternatively, enter a term in the search bar or click on a word in the cloud of labels. If you have further queries, get in touch and I will try to help where I can.

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Update to Happy Families present and past progressive card game

Apologies to those of you who have downloaded the Happy Families game already.  I realised overnight that the singular past progressive cards needed to include 'I' as well as 'he/she/it'.  The cards are now revised.

Also, the final column should contain the words 'past progressive', not 'present progressive'.  I was a little over-enthusiastic with my copy and paste buttons when putting these together and will endeavour to proof read a little more carefully in future!

Tuesday 26 January 2016

What are the present progressive and past progressive forms of verbs?

Progressive forms of verbs (sometimes referred to as ‘continuous’ forms) are used to indicate continuation of an action or state of being.

The present progressive shows that the action or state of being is continuing at the present time, e.g. He is running; she is getting stronger.

The past progressive shows that the action or state of being was continuing at the time being referred to, e.g. He was crossing the bridge; she was feeling sad.

Progressive forms are constructed by using a form of the verb ‘be’ + the present participle of a verb, which ends in –ing. 

The present progressive is detailed below, giving some examples of use with proper nouns (names), common nouns (the robot/the children) and pronouns:
  • I am writing
  • Jack/he is writing
  • Amy/she is writing
  • The robot/it is writing
  • You are writing
  • We are writing
  • The children/they are writing

You can see that the form of the verb ‘be’ is different for ‘I’ (am), ‘he/she/it’ (is) and ‘you/we/they’ (are) so, when using the present progressive, children need to choose the correct form of ‘be’ to match the person or pronoun.

The past progressive is formed using the past tense of the verb ‘be’:
  • I was writing
  • Jack/he was writing
  • Amy/she was writing
  • The robot/it was writing
  • You were writing
  • We were writing
  • The children/they were writing
With this form of the progressive, only ‘was’ and ‘were’ are used.

If we just write the present participle (-ing verb) in a sentence, we cannot tell whether the action is in the past or the present and the sense will not be complete, so it is the verb ‘be’ (am/is/are/was/were) that indicates whether we are writing in the past or present.

The dragon flying.  (doesn’t make full sense; we cannot say present or past tense)
The dragon is flying. (present tense) 
The dragon was flying. (past tense)

To use Standard English, children need to match the correct form of ‘be’ to the pronoun, so it is important to know when to use am, is, are, was, were.  The ‘Happy Families’ game (link below) helps children get used to the different forms of ‘be’ and how they should be used to make the present and past progressive.  The verbs are all used in the context of a sentence.  

Happy Families: present and past progressive verbs

The object of the game is to collect as many families of progressive verbs as possible (groups of 5 cards that belong together because they have the same –ing verb).

You can enlarge and print the cards and cut them into sets.  If you want to add pictures to make the cards more appealing, use clipart before you enlarge them, but make sure all cards are the same size when cut so they can be shuffled and dealt easily.

  • Deal all the cards so that each player gets an equal number of cards.
  • The dealer starts by asking another player for a card needed to complete a family. If the other player has the card he must give it to the player asking.
  • The player continues asking for cards until someone does not have a card to hand over. When that happens, the player who was asked for his card takes his turn to request cards.
  • The new player can retake the cards taken in the previous round.
  • When a player successfully collects a family, he must put the 5 cards on the table in front of him. The player who collects the most sets is the winner.  When laying the cards on the table, encourage your children to choose one of the pronouns and say a full sentence for their set, e.g. 'We were feeling happy.'

Using the template cards, children could make their own card games, with verbs and pictures selected to reflect their interests.

I
am feeling
happy.


present progressive
He/she/it
is feeling
happy.


present progressive
You/we/they
are feeling
happy.


present progressive
I/he/she/it
was feeling
happy.


past progressive
You/we/they
were feeling
happy.


past
progressive

I
am going
to the shops.

present progressive
He/she/it
is going
to the shops.

present progressive
You/we/they
are going
to the shops.


present progressive
I/he/she/it
was going
to the shops.

past progressive
You/we/they
were going
to the shops.


past
progressive

I
am skating
on ice.
  

present progressive
He/she/it
is skating
on ice.


present progressive
You/we/they
are skating
on ice.


present progressive
I/he/she/it
was skating
on ice.


past progressive
You/we/they
were skating
on ice.


past
progressive

I
am driving
the bright red tractor.

present progressive
He/she/it
is driving
the bright red tractor.

present progressive
You/we/they
are driving
the bright red tractor.

present progressive
I/he/she/it
was driving
the bright red tractor.

past progressive
You/we/they
were driving
the bright red tractor.

past
progressive

I
am reading
a book.


present progressive
He/she/it
is reading
a book.


present progressive
You/we/they
are reading
a book.


present progressive
I/he/she/it
was reading
a book.


past progressive
You/we/they
were reading
a book.


present progressive

I
am eating
cake.


present progressive
He/she/it
is eating
cake.


present progressive
You/we/they
are eating
cake.


present progressive
I/he/she/it
was eating
cake.


past progressive
You/we/they
were eating
cake.


past
progressive

I
am sleeping.


present progressive
He/she/it
is
sleeping.


present progressive
You/we/they
are
sleeping.


present progressive
I/he/she/it
was sleeping.


past progressive
 You/we/they
were sleeping.


present progressive

 I
am smiling.



present progressive
 He/she/it
is smiling.



present progressive
You/we/they
are smiling.



present progressive
I/he/she/it
was smiling.



past progressive
 You/we/they
were smiling.



past
progressive

I
am singing
in the choir.


present progressive
He/she/it
is singing
in the choir.


present
progressive
You/we/they
are singing
in the choir.


present progressive
I/he/she/it
was singing
in the choir.


past progressive
You/we/they
were singing
in the choir.


past
progressive

I
am playing
football


present progressive
He/she/it
is playing
football.


present progressive
You/we/they
are playing
football.


present progressive
I/he/she/it
was playing
football.


past progressive
You/we/they
were playing
football.


past
progressive

I
am swimming
in the pool.

present progressive
He/she/it
is
swimming
in the pool.

present progressive
You/we/they
are swimming
in the pool.


present progressive
I/he/she/it
was swimming
in the pool.

past progressive
You/we/they
were swimming
in the pool.

past
progressive

Tuesday 19 January 2016

Prepositions

Prepositions are words that express a relationship between things or beings in a sentence, very often relating to ‘where’ or ‘when’.  They are usually a single word, but sometimes consist of more than one word.

Some common prepositions are contained in the table below.

on
in
at
into
onto
over
under
before
after
between
beyond
because of
until
by
since
like
through
along
of
with
near
from
on top of
past
round
beside
for
towards
off
across
above
below
up
down
inside
about

Prepositions can be used with a noun or noun phrase to create a prepositional phrase:
  • beyond England
  • across the sea
  • by teatime
  • until 10 o’clock
  • along the riverbank
  • like a cheetah
  • with a friend
These prepositional phrases can be used:
  • to extend noun phrases, providing information after the main noun in the phrase (The small girl with the pigtails played the recorder.)

or
  • to fill the adverbial slots in sentences, giving information about where, when, how or why things happen.  (The rabbit disappeared down the burrow.  At that moment the man slipped on the banana skin.  She shivered because of the cold.  The fish darted like silver arrows.)

Sometimes we use prepositions with verbs to extend or alter the verb’s usual meaning.  For example, the verb ‘take’ means something different to the verb ‘take off’.

Although children use prepositions and prepositional phrases from an early age to describe where, when, how or why things happen, they will not usually be taught the term ‘preposition’ until Year 3.  Children will be encouraged to create and use prepositional phrases in their writing to provide their readers with more detailed information.

You can use the following activity to help your child use prepositions to create prepositional phrases describing ‘where’ the action happens.

Make preposition cards from the table below.  Using this picture (or one of your choice) ask your child where a small character, like a mouse, could hide or run.  Turn the cards over and see if you can use each one to create a prepositional phrase.  You can provide part of the sentence at first, but encourage your child to experiment with different ideas, changing the character and actions. 
  • The tiny mouse hid   (inside the wall, behind the plants, up the chimney, etc.)
  • The mouse ran … (over the wall, across the roof, through the drainpipe, etc.)
  • The ant crawled
on
in
onto
into
up
over
under
before
after
between
beyond
down
along
by
inside
through
off
near
of
across
above
beside
on top of
past
round
below
from
towards


You can discuss prepositional phrases that you notice when reading and also create them when you are out an about.  For example, past the shops, over the bridge, towards the church.  Try to remember your journey so that you can write these phrases down on strips of paper when you get home.  Children can then experiment with creating a prepositional poem, putting the strips of paper in the correct order.  

Here's my example of a sequential journey to give you the idea!

My journey to work
Down the lane,
Across the bridge,
Along the road,
Into the village.
Through the lights,
Past the church,
At the roundabout,
Out of the village.
Up the hill,
Under branches of trees,
Over the top
on Woodbury Common.
Between farm shop and fields
Beyond pubs, parks and houses,
Exeter!

It could be fun creating a poem of a shopping trip in the supermarket: above the sugar, below the carrots, behind the beans.  

Or alternatively, use a picture of a pirate map and ask children to describe their journey to the treasure!  Search 'pirate maps for kids' online for some great examples.