Download A guide to help your child with grammar

Activities
Newspaper & Magazine Fun
Use newspapers to pick out different text types and discuss how and
why they are different to each other.
Convert headlines into full sentences and full sentences into headlines
Circle the common nouns (dog) and underline the
proper nouns (Bury St Edmunds), extend this by
colouring the abstract nouns (happiness).
Whilst any newspaper will do, First News is a
weekly newspaper written for children, it might be
worth a look.
Homophones
Collect homophones, words that sound the same
but are spelt differently. Have fun coming up with
ways of remembering which is which. For
example
Hear/here: Hear has an ear in it.
Which/Witch: Only a witch can have
an itch.
Pronoun replacement
I or me; them or they; us or we
The correct pronoun can easily get mixed up.
Construct sentences and ask your child to work
out which pronoun is the correct fit.
A guide to helping your child
with grammar.
The new curriculum has a greater emphasis on
grammar. Here is a quick guide to how parents can
help their children to develop their vocabulary, use
of punctuation and ability to talk about how
language works.
Word Class Guide
adjective
adverb
‘Give it to ____.’ me or I?
conjunction
Apostrophes
Explain the difference between it’s – it is
(contraction) and its - belongs to it.
Explain that ‘its’ is a pronoun so it doesn’t
need an apostrophe to show possession
just like his or her.
When contraction apostrophes are put in the
wrong place or missed out of a piece of writing.
Show your child each step:
Have not have n_t  haven’t
Make sure your child understands contraction
apostrophes before explaining possession
apostrophes such as Julian’s pencil case.
determiner
Useful Grammar Websites
noun
http://resources.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk
preposition
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2
pronoun
http://www.funbrain.com/
verb
An adjective describes a noun.
beautiful, orange, talented
An adverb describes a verb,
adjective, or adverb.
happily, soon, there, quickly
A conjunction joins together
words, phrases, or clauses.
because, and, so
A determiner is a word that
introduces a noun.
the, those, an
A noun is a person, place, thing,
quality.
dog, Ipswich, danger , flock
A preposition describes the
relationship between nouns.
on, under, beside
A pronoun replaces a noun or
noun phrase.
I, she, them
Verbs explain what nouns do.
to jump, to be , to grow
Games
Not Just....
Say ‘I’m not just tired, I’m exhausted!’ ‘I’m not just
happy, I’m delighted!’ Encourage your child to
come up with more vibrant vocabulary too.
It may sound obvious but most
importantly speak to your child using the correct
grammar, as this will embed the correct patterns of
language. Reading with your child regularly also
teaches them how written language is structured.
Read a range of good quality literature
(both fiction and non-fiction) that will help
build vocabulary and understanding of
sentence structures as well as being
great fun.
At times read the punctuation to your
child and explain how it affects how
you read the text. For example a
question mark invites the reader to
raise their pitch towards the end of a sentence. An
exclamation mark explains that a character is
surprised or angry etc.
When helping your child to write, break up
the writing into small chunks, ask the child
to say the small chunk to you before they
write it down. Add punctuation and correct
spelling after the sentence has been
constructed. At times, use scrap paper, a magna
doodle, mini blackboard or even bath crayons to
practise writing the sentence before writing it in the
allocated place; this encourages good editing
habits and prevents the child’s anxiety that their
work will look messy if they correct it.
Describing Games
Little riddles such as, when you’re in the garden
together say, “I’m tall and green with a yellow
head what am I?”
Gather some everyday household objects into a
small bag. Take turns describing the objects to
each other whilst the other looks away. Ask
questions that might help to make the description
clearer, such as ‘What material is it made of?’
Alphabet Games
Extend your child’s use of verbs and reinforce alphabetical order coming up with animal antics
such as: aardvarks ambling, baboons bouncing,
cats creeping etc.
A Gaggle of Collectives
Collective nouns are fun to gather.
Share a book about animals and
tell your child what the collective
noun for each group of animal is. Children love
finding out collectives such as a gaggle of geese,
a parliament of owls or a crash of rhinoceroses.
Captain Commands!
Imagine that your child is the captain of a ship or another authority
figure, phrase them a question that
they then make into a command
sentence for example,
‘Would you please scrub the
decks?’ becomes ‘Scrub the decks!’
Adverb Charades
Play charades with a verb and adverb together
that everyone has to guess such as dance elegantly or jump excitedly.
Odd one out
Write 5 words down and ask your child to spot the
odd one out. This could start by being a word that
begins with a different letter :soil sand soap
sandwich cereal. The odd one out can refer to
different word types such as jump leap laugh
dance dinosaur. (verbs/nouns) Ask your child to
explain why they are the odd one out.
Sentence Builder
Two or more players take turns to build a silly
sentence one word at a time. The person who
can’t add any more loses. This is a good way of
encouraging use of conjunctions.