Spelling and Grammar Lower Junior LKS2 - Parent/ Carer Workshop

Aim To become familiar with the expectations, terminology used for Spelling Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) To understand the methods used at school and how you can help at home

Spellings in Key Stage Two We teach patterns from the National Curriculum Spelling lists Examples include: precede, solemn, lamb, wary, malicious, obedient, deceive, essential, enough, legible, co-own and hesitancy. Spellings rules are taught in class. Spellings are tested weekly

Spelling Teaching Methods Key Stage Two Word meaning Visualisation Dictionary skills Thesaurus skills Derivations Word roots/suffixes/prefixes Dictations Anagrams

What should my child do at home? Children have spellings lists sent home weekly. They should revise the spellings 4 times at home during the week – encourage. Little and often works best but research says it takes 9 attempts to embed a new word in your long term memory.

How can I help? Display the spellings somewhere visible. Practically make words and play games focusing on the patterns and rules Test your child orally. Test your child in writing – make sure they complete the Look, Cover, Write, Check methods. Spelling games, e.g., Scrabble, Boggle, fridge letters.

Grammar and Punctuation Key Stage Two The end of year expectations for punctuation and grammar make up the majority of statements of writing. The children need to develop their complex sentences, so that the links between ideas become more sophisticated.

Paragraphing By KS2, children need to set their work out in paragraphs. The core structure of any piece of writing is: introduction, series of paragraphs (on single themes) and a short conclusion. This helps: prioritise ideas, develop points and avoid repletion. We encourage many children to miss a line between paragraphs.

Main Clauses Also described as independent clauses. These must contain a subject and predicate, i.e., a person, place or thing doing something. Without a main clause the words are not a sentence. Father was snoring. The dog was playing. London was suffering.

Longer Main Clauses Often the main clause is extended with additional words to make it more interesting and informative. Our father was snoring loudly. The young dog was playing in the garden. London was suffering power cuts.

Subordinate Clauses Also described as dependent clauses. These contain a conjunction, subject and predicate (and may contain an object). They need to be linked to a main clause. Our father was snoring loudly, while he slept in his chair. Because it escaped, the dog was playing in the garden. London was suffering power cuts, until the main power supply was restored.

Embedded Clauses Also described as drop in clauses. The main clause is “interrupted” as an additional piece of information is parachuted into the sentence. Our father, who lay collapsed in his chair, was snoring loudly. The dog, which was having the time of its life, was playing in the garden. London, which was dark, was suffering power cuts.

Openers Often the main clause is extended with additional words to make it more interesting and informative. Sounding like a tractor, our father was snoring loudly. Delighted, the dog was playing in the garden. All at once, London was suffering power cuts.

Fronted Adverbials The adverb is moved to the front of the sentence to give it greater emphasis. This is often developed into a phrase. Loudly, our father was snoring. Happily wagging her tail, the dog was playing in the garden. Alarmingly, London was suffering power cuts.

Semi-colons Link two main clauses that are closely related. Typically, one might expect the two parts to have equal significance. Our father was snoring loudly; it was most irritating. The dog was playing in the garden; my baby brother giggled in delight London was suffering power cuts; the Prime Minister said it was a state of emergency.

How can you help at home? When reading, talk about grammatical features used in books. Support the development of punctuation and sentences when writing in their homework research projects. How could you develop/ extend that sentence? What punctuation could you add there?