Download Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation booklet

and
Spelling, Grammar
Punctuation News
Autumn 2012
New push on the Basics!
The government announced last
year that schools must do more
to ensure that when children
leave primary school , they
should be confident in their use
of grammar, punctuation and
spelling. They have issued new
guidance for teachers which we
at Trumacar are already
implementing across the whole
school.
The government also
announced that the Year 6
children would take a new test
as part of their SAT tests in
May which would focus on these
important skills and the results
will be shared with children
and their parents.
In order to support the children
as much as possible in
developing these life skills we
have developed this booklet
which we hope will explain
what we are doing in school;
what your child may do at
home; and what support you
can give to your child in helping them become more and
more confident with their
spelling, with their grammar
use and with their use of
punctuation.
It will take support from
home as well as excellent high
quality teaching in school to
support your child—so please
do help in any way you can.
Which witch is
which?
Thank you.
Ceri Hamer
English and Literacy Leader
What are we doing already?
In school we already teach these skills as part of our
whole approach to English and Literacy, and they
start with the introduction of Phonics in the Early
Years. From this strong base we then develop
spelling skills though weekly spelling lists which
should come home with your child. These are a
mixture of spelling pattern words and topic words
and we hope that you will be able to spend time each
day to go through these with your child and help
them to learn them.
Homework to support spelling patterns may also be
given at times, such as a word-search or a
crossword. Practice sheets for grammar and
punctuation may also be sent home, and these will
cover the learning which has already been taught
in class! Again, please help your child as much as
possible unless the homework says they need to do
it on their own.
Of course, the most important part of help at home
is reading—reading can help with spelling,
punctuation and grammar—so please keep reading
with your child as much as possible. Thank you.
Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation News
Here are some of the words your child may use—and what they mean !
Adjective
big, small, red,
enormous, cheeky,
noisy, large
These are sometimes called ‘describing words’ but this can be confusing
because words that describe what we do are called adverbs instead!
It is better to think that adjectives describe things and objects (nouns).
E.g. ‘The small boy.’ or ‘The sky is blue today.’
Adverbs describe verbs—they give more information about how we do
Adverb
greedily, happily, things.
angrily, quietly,
E.g. ‘I can run quickly.’ or ‘The dinosaur noisily ate his breakfast.’
slowly, thoughtfully
Apostrophe
‘
An apostrophe shows that either a letter (or letters) is missing or that
something belongs to someone
E.g. I am becomes I’m, we have becomes we’ve and do not becomes don’t
and if the bag belongs to mum, it is mum’s bag.
A clause is either a complete sentence or a part of a sentence that if
used on it’s own, still makes sense.
Clause
E.g. Usha went upstairs to play on her computer—this is a clause
but so is just Usha went upstairs as it still makes sense.
A conjunction links a word or phrase to another part of the sentence, or
and, then, because, joins ideas in sentences together.
since, while, so, but E.g. It rained on sports day so we have to compete without worrying
about getting wet, but it was great fun because we got really muddy.
Conjunction
Elision (or ellipsis)
[ ]
An elision is the missing out of a word or phrase which we can easily work
out or guess but aren’t needed to be written down.
E.g. She waved to her mother and [she] watched her as she disappeared.
She did it because she wanted to [do it].
Etymology
This means the history or the origins of a word.
E.g. The word sandwich comes from the fact that the Earl of Sandwich
invented them. The word school comes from the Greek word ’skhole’
which means leisure.
Future tense
Some languages have different ways to talk about the future, but we
don't in English. We add other verbs to the main verb to show that
something will happen in the future.
E.g. It will leave tomorrow. It is going to be sunny on Friday.
Homophone
Which witch?
Two or more words are homophones if they are pronounced or sound the
same.
E.g. here, hear; which, witch; there, their; hare, hair; we’ll, wheel
Morphology
A word’s morphology is how the word is made up of its root, prefix
and/or suffix.
E.g. dogs is made up of the root dog and the suffix s; quietly is made up
of the root quiet and the suffix ly; misunderstand is the prefix mis and
the root understand
Noun
Nouns are the most common words we use in our language and are sometimes called ‘naming words’ because they name people, things and places.
We also say they can be the subject or object of a sentence.
E.g. The man called Peter went walking up a hill on a Sunday in July.
Object
A verb’s object is normally a noun or pronoun which is found straight
after a verb.
E.g. They designed a nature trail. On Sunday they saw owls.
Past Tense
This is when a verb is used to describe something that has already
happened and we add –ed most of the time.
E.g. She waved to her mother as she watched television. Here are two
that don't add –ed, She understood what she was being told.
Phrase
A phrase is part of a sentence which adds information to the main idea
of the sentence.
E.g. She waved to her mother, we don’t need to her mother for it to
make sense, but without She waved it would just be a phrase.
Plural
Plurals are used to show more than one thing or noun and we usually add –
s but not always!
E.g. boy—boys; carrot—carrot; woman—women; potato—potatoes
Prefix
A prefix is added at the beginning of a word in order to make a new word
E.g. overnight, disappeared, mispronunciation, dehydrated
Preposition
in, of, at, with,
by, between
Present tense
Prepositions help describe place and link nouns and pronouns to other
words in the sentence.
E.g. She disappeared in the fog at the bottom of the street.
This is a verb which shows something is happening now
E.g. When he arrives, he will unpack his bag. Your father tells me you’re
very happy.
Pronoun
A pronoun is like a noun but usually stands for a noun to avoid repetition.
E.g. Adam walked Adam’s dog down Adam’s road to the park near to
where Adam lived becomes Adam walked his dog down his road to the
park near where he lived.
Punctuation
Punctuation is any other feature of writing that is not a word.
E.g. Capital Letters, full stops ., commas, exclamation marks !, question
marks ?, speech marks “ “, hyphens — and more
A root word is the main part of a word without any prefixes or suffixes.
Root word
E.g. played has the root play, computer has the root word compute.
Sentence
A sentence is a phrase which makes sense because of the words and the
punctuation used—it is the bringing together of grammar and
punctuation.
Subject
The subject is normally the noun or pronoun that is the ‘do-er’ or ‘be-er’
in a sentence.
E.g. The children followed the nature trail. Stanley ate his cake.
Subordinate clause
A subordinate clause is additional information to the main clause or
meaning of a sentence.
E.g. A visit has been arranged for the Year 6 class, leaving at 9:30am.
Ben went upstairs to play on his guitar.
Suffix
A suffix is an ‘ending’, something that can be added to a word to turn it
into another word.
E.g. assistant, teacher, managing
Verb
Verbs are sometimes called ‘doing words’ and they can happen in the past
or the present.
E.g. look, looked, looking, travel, travelled, travelling
So there we are, a quick guide to the main words we use
when we learn about grammar and punctuation. Of course,
there are more rules and more difficult words that can be
used, but these are the main ones which will be covered
whilst your child is at Trumacar.
By working together we are sure that we can support your
child to become confident and proficient with their writing
and enable them to develop the skills they will use long into their futures.
If you have any questions, comments or thoughts, please do
not hesitate to come into school to discuss them—either
with the Classteacher or with me.
Thank you for your support.
Ceri Hamer
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