It's simple really: English grammar can be a very dry subject, but this need not be the case. For a few years now, I have been developing a games-based approach to teaching important grammar concepts. It is amazing how the introduction of dice takes the learning into a new place - the element of chance making it seem less like work and more like play. Because I test my games extensively in the classroom, I get a feel for what works. Dump your boring worksheets and start dicing with grammar.
It's simple really: English grammar can be a very dry subject, but this need not be the case. For a few years now, I have been developing a games-based approach to teaching important grammar concepts. It is amazing how the introduction of dice takes the learning into a new place - the element of chance making it seem less like work and more like play. Because I test my games extensively in the classroom, I get a feel for what works. Dump your boring worksheets and start dicing with grammar.
Many teachers love the Talk for Writing approach but do not find it easy to organise all of Pie’s brilliant ideas into a unit of work. It is a challenge! I have been following the TfW approach for many years, and I have spoken at a few of Pie’s national conferences. Over the years, I have organised Pie’s ideas into a three week planning grid. The planning frame attached is not supposed to be prescriptive; it is designed to ‘hold your hand’ while you put a unit together. It is invaluable for teachers new to this approach, but even old-timers like me find the prompts helpful. This planner has been taken on in many schools and you may adapt it for your own use.
This work is designed to support teachers using the TfW approach.
Key Stage 2 nouns
A fun game for 2 players exploring proper, common, concrete, abstract and collective nouns. I designed it to support children preparing for the Y6 grammar test. It could be useful for anyone exploring different types of nouns. Enlarge the game board and playing cards up to A3 for less fiddly fun. Enjoy! If you would like more like this please download my other games. They come with presentations and lesson plans.
If you use this, please leave a review - it's good teacher karma!
This activity has also been developed into ‘First Week Back Poetry’, a fully resourced one week unit (PowerPoints, plans, activities). It is available from my shop. Please follow this link https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12907781
Upper KS2 poetry activity: ‘What I DIDN’T do over the summer!’ We didn’t all go on amazing holidays over the summer, but there are amazing things in front of our noses. Try this poetry activity with upper KS2 children.
If you use this - and I saved you some time - please leave a review in return.
If you are reading Goodnight Mr. Tom here are three very short drama activities for children to try in pairs. They could be used just to help children engage with the story.
I asked children to use these three short pieces of drama to support them in writing a diary entry and they produced some wonderful writing.
If you like this creative and active approach to teaching, you will love my pack of 40 grammar games - available to buy in my TES shop.
Hope they are of use to someone out there in teacherland.
If you use it, please review it! *2200 downloads…2 reviews
27 ways to for KS2 writers to edit and improve their own writing. This project was written by Fiona Keeling and Maurice Leahy and has been loosely inspired by Brighton Train Station (bear with us). We put it together to help children develop writing further at the editing stage. The PowerPoint explains how it works, but we are sure you’ll find your own ways to use this.
Fiona brings it to life in her classroom with a cap, whistle and realistic train tickets!
It was a lot of work, so if you spot the odd error, please let us know and we will put it right.
We hope it saves you some precious time. Please leave a review. Happy editing!
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.
This is the blushometer activity from the seal resources, Year 5, but in handy word format - all on one side.
Give these out to pairs and for them to score embarrassing situations before sharing ideas with the class.
Brilliant for circle time or PSHE.
Hi teachers of the world!
I love using Roger Mcgough’s fantastic ‘What I love about school’ to motivate pupils to write poetry with patterns. I’ve used it several times, and the children often come up with brilliant poems of their own, once they have had time explore the patterns.
A shortened version of the poem, some comprehension activities and planning sheet are included. Have fun!
If you like this activity, you may like my grammar games and units of work.
37 spelling questions linked to the Y5/6 spelling list and other patterns and rules that Y5/6 need to know. Complete each challenge to solve the Christmas joke puzzle! The answer is at the end of the sheet - don’t show your pupils.
It’s a festive way of assessing spelling!
Quiz, Quiz, Trade is a fun and active way for children to learn facts.
These times table Quiz Quiz Trade cards have red, amber, green and sometimes blue questions. The children can say which colour question they would like, depending on how confident they are feeling.
I can use a hyphen to combine words and create compound adjectives.
Explanation
Children need to understand how hyphens can be used to avoid ambiguity (e.g. man eating shark versus man-eating shark, or recover versus re-cover). Also, an understanding of hyphens can add descriptive depth to noun phrases (e.g. the creature) when they are used to form compound adjectives (the ferocious-looking creature). In the compound adjective ‘ferocious-looking’, the hyphen shows that the two component words have a combined meaning.
Aim: using the ‘dice guide’, roll to create six compound adjectives with hyphens that you could use before a noun (e.g. muddle-headed monster). Write definitions for your compound adjectives on your ‘game card’. Keep unusual or ridiculous combinations too!
Have fun playing with words!
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...
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!
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.
Quiz, Quiz, Trade is a fun and active way for children to learn facts. The cards can be tailored to cover any subject area, topic or learning objective and are particularly useful for introducing a new subject area that your class wouldn't already know lots about. You could include a range of differentiated questions, but I have often found that the children you least expect will learn the more complicated facts after playing this game.
The idea behind Quiz, Quiz, Trade is that it is a fun, non-threatening and exciting game that is inclusive for all and will help all children in your class to acquire knowledge quickly. Really handy when you just need them to have a bit of background knowledge or learn something quickly in order to apply or develop the knowledge in their work. Quiz, Quiz, Trade can be used for any age group (my cards are all aimed at years 4-6) that will be able to read the questions and answers.
I have used Quiz, Quiz, Trade in observations with much success (see instruction page) and consistently use it to introduce new topics in class-the children love it!
It can be tricky for young spellers to choose between the suffixes ‘-able’ and ‘-ible’. The two player dice game ‘WinnABLE’ gives players lots of opportunities to spell and discuss these words and introduces a much needed element of FUN! There is also a simple presentation and a word sorting warm up to use with your class. I’d allow a full session for this suffix work.
Updated instructions now added Quiz, Quiz, Trade is a fun and active way for children to learn facts. The cards can be tailored to cover any subject area, topic or learning objective and are particularly useful for introducing a new subject area that your class wouldn’t already know lots about. You could include a range of differentiated questions, but I have often found that the children you least expect will learn the more complicated facts after playing this game.
The idea behind Quiz, Quiz, Trade is that it is a fun, non-threatening and exciting game that is inclusive for all and will help all children in your class to acquire knowledge quickly. Really handy when you just need them to have a bit of background knowledge or learn something quickly in order to apply or develop the knowledge in their work. Quiz, Quiz, Trade can be used for any age group (my cards are all aimed at years 4-6) that will be able to read the questions and answers.
I have used Quiz, Quiz, Trade in observations with much success (see instruction page) and consistently use it to introduce new topics in class-the children love it!
Put your children in pairs to play the fun spelling game ‘VictoriOUS’. It’s a two player dice game that enables children to learn these four rules for adding the suffix ‘ous’:
Some root word do not change – just add ‘ous’
For many root words that end in e, take off the ‘e’ and add ‘ous’
If the root word ends ‘-ge’, keep the ‘e’ and add ‘ous’
Change the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ and add ‘ous’
How about words that can’t have the ‘ous’ suffix?
Peer assessment is built in. Everything that you need is here - just add 1-6 dice!
