This is now the original 40 grammar dice games (a 145 page word document containing 40 fun grammar games) and also 38 more grammar games. Unlike a lot of sellers, my work is a Word document, so you can edit-and-adapt to make it work in your classroom. All of these games have been tested in class and adjusted if needed. They have a real impact on learning. For each grammar skill there is: a child friendly explanation of the concept; printable rules and resources for a lively dice game; suggestions to challenge or support learners; suggestions for application of the skill in written work. For some grammar games there is also a lesson plan and a presentation. Some of the games included are: 1. Mission Control - Write commands, questions and statements 2. Mythical Six 3. Simple or Compound 4. Adverb Sea Monsters 5. How many proper nouns? - Use proper nouns in a sentence 6. Castle of Nouns - Classify different types of nouns 7. The Memory Test – contractions 8. Apostrophe abductions - Identify possessive apostrophes and contractions 9. Synonym racers (adjectives) - Use more adventurous adjectives 10. Unplanned Story - Use sentence variety 11. Whose side are you on? - Learn the language of argument 12. Whose side are you on? (advanced) - Use extended arguments in a balanced discussion 13. Sentence Extenders - Extend simple sentences in a variety of ways 14. Battle of the complex sentences - Create complex sentences 15. Simple, compound or complex - Create simple, compound or complex sentences 16. Explanation game - Use causal connectives 17. Fronted adverbials - Use a variety of fronted adverbials 18. Warrior swords - Vary the length of fronted adverbials 19. Score my speech - Punctuate direct speech accurately 20. Score my interrupted speech - Interrupt direct speech by dropping a reporting clause in 21. The relative clause team game - Drop a relative clause into a sentence 22. Will you or won’t you? - Use modal verbs in sentences 23. ‘Time’ or ‘Place’ - Classify prepositions into two groups 24. Add a prepositional phrase - Add a prepositional phrase to a main clause 25. Punctuation show-offs - Use dashes, brackets and semi-colons 26. Plural planets - Explore 6 rules for making plurals 27. Battle words - Use this for any spelling rule! 28. Determiners ‘Point or show quantity’ - Learn all about determiners 29. Determiners ‘Introduce the noun’ - Classify and use determiners 30. Unstressed vowel race - spell unstressed vowels 31. Follow the rule/break the rule - spell ‘ie’ and ‘ei’ words 32. Creepy crawly colon sentences - Colons to explain 33. Colons to introduce lists ...and more!!!

Massive 3 week writing unit, planned in detail and fully resourced and differentiated. It is pitched at Year 4, but would work equally well in Year 5 or 6 (please see the key skills covered below). For most sessions, there are resources to extend high attainers and resources to support SEN learners. This unit is ready to go! Three weeks of differentiated resources is a lot of files, so you can’t see it all in the preview. When you buy, please use the zip folder. The contents of the zip are organised into weeks and then into individual lessons (the other files are only there so that people can preview the unit!) . The zip will enable you to navigate your way through the plan and related resources with ease. All resources are PowerPoint and Word, so you will have no issues opening anything - and you can edit to suit your own needs - no PDFs! There are many, many resources included. Here are a few key examples: model text (short and long versions); a story map; drama activities; story boards; cold task/assessment task; reading comprehension activities; conjunctions activities; scavenger hunt; paragraphing activities; pronoun activities; noun phrase activities; fronted adverbial activities; tool kits; idea gathering resources; planning grids; peer assessment resources; and many more! The key objectives covered repeatedly throughout the unit are: Reading: • increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally • asking questions to improve their understanding of a text • drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence Vocab/grammar/punctuation • I can use a wide range of subordinating conjunctions (when, if, because, although) • I understand the term ‘adverbial’ and I can use fronted adverbials (with a comma) • I can choose a variety of nouns and pronouns (to avoid repetition) Composition • discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar • organising paragraphs around a theme Evaluate and edit by: • assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements These have been broken down and written in ‘child speak’ within the planning.

Orally rehearse the language of persuasive writing and balanced discussion before writing using these dice games, model texts, planning frames and toolkits. Throughout Key Stage 2, children are expected to take part in debates and compose one-sided arguments or balanced discussions. To be successful at this, children need plenty of opportunities to use the language of argument. Connecting phrases such as ‘it is obvious that’, ‘other people claim that’ and ‘opponents of’ need to be orally rehearsed as children do not encounter them regularly in their daily lives. This fully planned session, complete with a presentation and a fun dice game, will give children the experience of using the language of argument in a purposeful way. Use this session prior to any ‘argument’ style writing and it will give children the tools to be successful. *I have now added ‘Whose side are you on? Advanced’. This version is for 4 players and enables children to create full balanced discussions orally. The patterns they use exactly mirror the structure of a written balanced discussion. **I have also added a model text, a planning frame and a self assessment sheet for persuasive writing and a model text, a planning frame and a self assessment sheet for discussion writing. ***I have also added: a one sided model text in favour of Victorian style child punishment (for children to argue against!) a one sided model against mobile phones in school for children to argue ‘for’ a mobile phone fact or opinion sorting activity a one sided model for animals in circuses for children to argue against a one sided argument against computer games for children to argue ‘for’ a computer games counter argument activity a computer games fact or opinion sorting activity a for and against sorting activity linked with space a for and against sorting activity linked with aliens

Lesson plan, presentation and two dice games (the main game is differentiated 3 ways) included. Ready to go! Apostrophes! Why do so many of us get them wrong? This is a carefully planned lesson about apostrophes for Years 4, 5 or 6. It would also be an ideal revision tool for the Year 6 Grammar Test. First, children are given the chance to revisit prior learning through the fun warm up game ‘The Memory Test’. Following that, they will learn about possessive apostrophes and common misconceptions during the presentation. When they are ready, the two player game ‘Apostrophe Abduction’ will provide them with plenty of challenge or support, depending on the version you give them. I have included three versions of the game : A ‘support’ version - this game uses a very short text, with only 10 highlighted apostrophe words to focus on. An ‘on track’ version - children have to hunt for plurals, possessive apostrophes and contractions. A challenge version - the same as the ‘on track’ version, but across a full story - quite a challenge to find every plural, contraction and possessive apostrophe.

From Year 2 onwards children are expected to understand and compose statements, commands and questions as part of their understanding of grammar and punctuation. Bring this dry subject matter to life by playing 'Mission Control'. Why should a fun games-based approach only be used in mathematics? This resource has everything you need: full lesson plan with differentiation; PowerPoint to support direct teaching; fully resourced game. Just add 1-6 die and you are ready for blast off. 10...9...8...7...

Drama! Talk! Poetry map! Scavenger hunt! Reading skills! Team work! Creative writing! 13 resources included! This is a seven day poetry unit exploring Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘The Kraken’. It has been planned in a lot of detail and is fully resourced. There is clear guidance all the way through, so if you’re in a rush, you can pick it up and use it! There is also a one-symbol-per-line story map to help children learn the poem off-by-heart with help from picture cues. All of the tricky words are also defined. The unit begins with children performing and learning the poem through drama and then moves on to explore the imagery in the poem, including comprehension questions. Children then begin to use imagery of their own. They work collaboratively (using a’ jig-saw’ approach, explained in the plan), use language playfully and finally write their own poem. It is a very enjoyable unit, which inspired some superb writing in my class. It could work with Year 4, Year 5 or Year 6. Sessions cover these objectives: 1. I can recite one line of a poem from memory. (Drama) I can recite a whole poem from memory. I can find meaning within the puzzle of a poem. 2. I can understand wide range of imaginative and ambitious vocabulary. (Definitions scavenger hunt included) I use a wide range of imaginative and ambitious vocabulary accurately and precisely. 3. I understand the term imagery. (14 comprehension questions included) I can find examples of imagery in poem. I can suggest reasons why a poet has used certain imagery. 4. I know what the terms metaphor and simile mean. (Group work activities creating new Kraken imagery) I can use simile and metaphor (imagery) and magic! I can play with the order of words to add impact. 5. I can draft a poem and develop my ideas by ‘magpie-ing’ from other writers and drawing on poems that I am reading. (Supportive writing frame included) 6. I can evaluate, edit and improve my own writing. I hope your class love it and create some incredible poems.

This resource is 15 fully resourced sessions exploring the Anglo-Saxon legend Beowulf. Everything you need - models, PowerPoint slides, activities - is included in the ZIP file. The previews you can see show snippets of the first five sessions. It has been created for Year 5, but could be used in other KS2 classes. The unit draws on many versions of Beowulf. The model text harnesses the rich language used in Beowulf: dragonslayer by Rosemary Sutcliff. Each session has been carefully sequenced. The unit begins with immersion into the story through images and drama. There are also reading fluency and comprehension activities. Children in engage in short burst writing activities to learn and apply new skills. They also explore the key features of legends through a tool kit. Towards the end of the unit, children pick from a wide range of hot tasks, choosing the one that excites them most. Finally, children create their own legends, making use of planning grids and storyboards. This unit is ready to go. Creative teachers (and children!) will enjoy getting stuck-in to this one. Please also check out my other units, including ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’. with every lesson creatively planned in detail and many sessions resourced for SEN, EXP and GDS. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/theseus-and-the-minotaur-3-weeks-of-detailed-planning-fully-resourced-and-differentiated-11914692

Three weeks of creative and fully resourced Year 2 Talk for Writing planning involving drama, reading skills (information retrieval and then inference), poetry, grammar skills, drawing, diary writing and story writing. Only a few of the lessons and outcomes are shown in the preview. Each lesson is fully resourced and differentiated - there is also a focus on greater depth opportunities. To get the most from this writing project, it would be useful if the class had access to a copy of ‘The Tear Thief’ by Carol Ann Duffy - a magical picture book. If you buy this unit, PLEASE USE THE ZIP FOLDER - everything you need is in there. Each session is organised into a separate folder. The other files are simply there as a preview to show some of the resources included. Over the three weeks, the following Y2 objectives are thoroughly covered: Grammar • I can say and write a sentences with a capital letter and a full stop • I can use different joining words (conjunctions) to join my ideas • I can use carefully chosen adjectives/expanded noun phrases • I can use an apostrophe to show ownership Reading • I can spot meaning breakdowns • I can visualise a character from a story • I can find information in a story • I can read like a detective (inference) Composition • I can retell a story in sentences • I can add a new part to a story I know • I can create a character • I understand how a story can be organised • In my own writing, I can use words and ideas from a story I have read • I can write a story (using the skills I have been learning) This unit could be easily adapted for use in other year groups.

Fun dice activity exploring causal connectives, also warm-ups and model texts Explanation writing is one of the trickier non-fiction genres in the primary curriculum. Although we rarely explain sequences using formal language, we often explain things in every day terms. How do you complete that level of the game? How do you do that magic trick? How did you solve that problem? There is a group of words and phrases that can help explain cause and effect more precisely. These can be called ‘causal connectives’. This is not a strictly defined group of words – more collection of conjunctions, adverbs and other cohesive devices that can be useful for this genre of writing. Try the dice activity ‘Explain yourself’ and watch your class get comfortable using these connectives aloud as they explain diverse subjects including ‘how to take the perfect selfie’ and ‘how the digestive system works’. When they are ready, they can write some of their favourite explanations, using causal connectives with accuracy. I have added 4 simple oral warm up activities. These encourage to children to rehearse useful vocabulary (consequently, as a result of this, so, so that, therefore, however) and add brackets to explanation sentences. Try that tricky language aloud before you get into any writing! I have added an ‘eco-explanations’ activity. I have also added 9 model explanations to give some ideas of things to write about.

This is a terrific descriptive writing lesson. Children contrast the inside of a tent (at night) to the outside. Lesson summary: 1. Vocabulary/simile sorting activities for 'meaning breakdown' and then for inside/outside 2. Release high attaining (AMA) writers to do indoor/outdoor writing independently 3. Shared (teacher led) writing of ‘indoor’ for everyone else 4. Rest of class use word bank (developed during part 1) for independent ‘outdoor’ writing It would work well from Y2 upwards - I used it in Y3, but I can imagine older writers enjoying this activity. Children use images and word banks to create wonderfully rich descriptive writing. You are buying: a detailed lesson plan and presentation, with inside/outside image word banks tasks suggested shared writing Enjoy!

This is a 3 week KS2 writing unit based on an extract from ‘Varjak Paw’. Each of the 16 sessions has a clear and detailed lesson plan, presentation slides and differentiated activities (greater depth, on track and support) complete with resources. It’s all here! For a large chunk of this unit, children explore a wonderful extract from chapter 21: Varjak discovers a toy shop and meets a toy cat. Using this passage for inspiration, children create short bursts of writing whilst learning and applying new skills. These short bursts are eventually combined to create a diary entry. When you open the zip, you will find a folder for each session - everything is organised in a user-friendly way. As with all of my resources, all files have been created using PowerPoint and Word, so you can edit and adapt as you wish. I have aimed this unit at Year 4, but it could be used in any KS2 setting - I would happily do this project with Year 6 pupils. This unit has been very carefully sequenced and builds towards quality writing outcomes. It is packed with talk, reading, vocabulary, grammar and composition skills. Unit Overview Session 1 Prewriting activity – I can visualise a story setting Session 2 Cold task – What do you already know about diary writing? Session 3 I can notice and define adventurous words and phrases Session 4 I can reuse adventurous words and phrases Session 5 Reading activity: I can read like a detective Session 6 I can use prepositions to show where something is (in relation to something else) Session 7 I can use preposition phrases to organise a paragraph Session 8 I can describe how a character is feeling using their body language Session 9 I can punctuate direct speech correctly (sentence level) Session 10 I can punctuate direct speech correctly (text level) Session 11 I can use ‘but’ to change direction in an unexpected way Session 12 I can write sentences using adventurous vocabulary and prepositions Session 13 I can pick out the key features of diary writing Session 14 I can use the key features of diary writing Session 15 I can plan a diary entry independently Session 16 Independent diary writing. Children have the opportunity to demonstrate their new skills and knowledge.

Adverbs are one of the trickier word classes, so let's start off with the basics and learn in a playful way. From Year 3 onwards, children are expected to understand the term 'adverb' and use adverbs in sentences. From Year 4 onwards, children are expected to be able to open sentences with adverbs. In this fully resourced lesson (including lots of engaging activities), complete with lesson plan, presentation and a lively dice game, children will learn to understand the term 'adverb' as well as exploring some of the functions of adverbs. They will also have plenty of opportunities to use adverbs in sentences orally - though if desired, they could record their learning as well. There is also more challenging task for your talented writers and I have included the game cards so that you can edit them to match your class text. This lesson would also be an ideal revision tool for the Year 6 Grammar Test.

How many times have you taught your class about the rules for setting out direct speech? Worksheets are not the answer! How about trying a playful approach? Working in pairs children roll dice, create sentences and score them. They have to look closely at punctuation and think carefully about reporting clauses to be successful at the game. This game can also move more able writers on because players often need to add further chunks (or phrases and clauses) onto the end of the direct speech sentence. If they apply this skill in their writing, it can add depth. I have also added a more advanced version of the game, teaching children to interrupt direct speech by dropping the reporting clause into the middle of the sentence. As with all of my resources, everything is included (teacher/child friendly explanation of key concepts, score cards, rules, dice guides) apart from the dice and the paper!

This is a 3 week English unit on myth writing. If you buy this, just use the zip folder - the other resources are just there to preview. I have used this myth many times and developed it each time. It always gets fantastic writing from children, regardless of their attainment. The model text follows the pattern of a ‘warning story’, and it is flexible enough allow young writers to create their own unique myths. I have adapted it for use in Y4, 5 and 6. I am sure it would work in other year groups too. Within the zip you will find: detailed and creative planning to a high standard; a very short version of the traditional story the Asrai, to be used as a model text; a tool kit (or set of success criteria); planning sheets (differentiated); peer assessment sheets (differentiated); some of my dice grammar games that can be used during the unit; writing prompts; comprehension questions. I am sure you could quickly adapt this for use in your own class - it is ready to be used! I hope your class enjoy writing some incredible myths, using the simple pattern of ‘The Asrai’.

I have edited the National Curriculum into a word document that just shows the grammar content to be introduced in each year group (and the glossary). I find this useful for staff training purposes - hope you find it useful too.

Word and PDF both included Assessment focus I can build solid sentences Explanation We teach a lot of grammar in primary schools, but many children still struggle to see how it all fits together. There are plenty of children in upper KS2 who cannot compose grammatically correct sentences. Whilst it is true to say that reading, story-telling and listening to stories are the best ways to build awareness of sentences, it may also be helpful to give children some basic sentence patterns to use. If children can internalise these basic patterns, they may be able to use them in infinite different ways. Ultimately, we hope that children feel confident enough to move away from the patterns we give them and onto creating patterns of their own. Who is this for? On Track (ARE) The ‘4 brick’ version of this activity is for writers who could be at age related expectation if they could create grammatically correct extended sentences. Support There is also very simple ‘3 brick’ version of the activity for learners who are not able to write in simple ‘one clause’ sentences. Going deeper Children who are already confident at writing in accurate sentences can try the ‘Follow the dice’ activity (included). These learners will focus on using sentence variety.

Children are expected to capitalise proper nouns from Year 1 onwards, but many children in Key Stage 2 find this tricky to remember. Often, children do not understand the difference between common and proper nouns. This lesson, complete with presentation and an dice game, will give children experience of using a wide variety of proper nouns, from book titles to shop names. Classes about to undertake the Y6 Grammar Test would find this a useful refresher on common and proper nouns. Make missing capital letters a thing of the past by playing: ‘How many capital letters?’

Two dice games for KS2: ‘Point or show quantity’ pupils explore the two basic functions of determiners. ‘Introduce the noun’ pupils add determiners to noun phrases and sort determiners into groups. Both games have a competitive element but are tightly focused on the following objectives: I know that determiners have two jobs: ‘pointing’ or ‘showing quantity’ I can use determiners accurately in sentences I can use a wide variety of determiners to introduce nouns I can sort determiners into groups Determiners can get a little confusing for primary school aged children when you get beyond simple ‘a’ or ‘an’ activities. How far you go with your class is best judged by you (of course!). Through the presentation (which you may wish to simplify, depending on how far you wish to go with determiners) and engaging dice games, children will use lots of talk, and really engage with this tricky-to-define but important group of words.