Grammar in MI

Today we discussed cohesion within and between paragraphs. We spent some time unpicking different paragraphs on different extinct animals. We discussed TIDE, where we found the transition/introductory sentence, the we found the development sentences then moving onto the ending sentence. We used highlighters to show these different sections. We then focussed on the Tecopa pupfish again using TIDE to explore the paragraph. From here we grouped our facts into sections which will support us when we write our plot point.

We then moved onto modifying the different verbs in a paragraph with adverbials. We looked at a piece of text, identifying the verb/verb phrase, the subject and the leftovers. We quickly realised that the sentences were very simple and included lots of repetition. From here we used TRaMP yo modify an adverbial, thinking about time, reason, manner and place. We then moved the adverbials around to show different structures. We are looking forward to continuing with this tomorrow.

Writing in MI

MI have started their new writing/grammar unit looking at extinct animals. Over the last few days we have been taking part in a series of diagnostic tasks that are allowing us to digest lots of grammar that will be needed when it comes to writing our own non-chronological report. Today we thought about adverbials of time, manner and place along with identifying main and subordinate clauses. We moved our sentences around changing the order of the main and subordinate clause. We have added our anchor charts to our working wall which we will use when we start to write.

Conjunctions

The last thing we needed to learn before moving on to our writing sessions was how to join two independent clauses together. We learned all about coordinating conjunctions, known as FANBOYS – for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so. We then worked through a few example sentences in which we had to identify which conjunction had been used. Once we’d identified this, we looked at the independent clauses either side of the conjunction. We identified each verb and subject, allowing us to see how we had two independent clauses with a subject and a verb joined together with one of the FANBOY conjunctions. We also learned that these conjunctions can be used to join more than one subject together to create a compound subject (for example, The moon and the stars).

Verb, Subject, Leftovers in paragraphs

Crew Hamill have tried really hard to develop their knowledge of verbs, subjects and leftovers by identifying them within paragraphs. We have been looking at unpunctuated paragraphs, with no capital letters, commas and full stops, and have used our knowledge of independent clauses having a subject and a verb to be able to work our where the punctuation belongs. We have found this tricky at times due to some of the vocabulary being difficult to understand but after working on it for a while, we are now much more confident!

Computing meets PVPG

Recently, we have been enjoying our computing lessons so much that the children are using AI(artificial intelligence) at home. It is so lovely to see this high level of engagement and even a couple of children have made story books (with the help of AI). It has now become a regular occurrence to read them as we walk down the corridor to break. With us hooked with AI, Miss thought it would be a good idea to incorporate this into our grammar application lesson. The children loved prompting AI to generate a short paragraph with no punctuation that they had to then identify the verb/verb phrase, subject, coordinating conjunction, leftovers and then punctuate to identify the main clauses. Obviously this was my favourite short paragraph!

When leftovers could belong to both clauses

Today, we looked at what happens when you are building single-sentence clauses but you have ‘leftovers’ that could belong to either clause you are creating. We followed our script to identify verbs and subjects, then labelled the leftovers that were easier to identify (the leftover at the end belonging to the second clause). We then looked at how the leftover in the middle could belong to either clause. It could be the ending of the first clause, adding extra information, or it could be used at the beginning of the second clause with a comma being used after it. We had a go at doing this in pairs and playing around with the structure of our clauses before completing our exit ticket to illustrate what we had learned.

Building single clause sentences

In grammar, we started to build single clause sentences with the understanding that a single clause sentence has a subject and a verb. In addition to this, we also had some pronouns which replaced the noun. This avoids repetition. We were encouraged to use the script, what’s the first verb? Who or what is doing? This gives us focus when we are completing the activities.

Identifying ‘leftovers’

We continued to identify leftovers (parts of our clause that are not a subject or a verb) during our grammar lesson on Monday. However, we discussed how the sequence we had been spotting during the last few lessons (subject, verb, leftovers) doesn’t always apply and it will not be like that in every single clause we write. As such, we looked at a few examples of where the positioning of these differed. We made sure we followed our script which required us to identify the verb first, then the subject, then the leftovers in order to label these accurately.