The Grammar 6 Handbook Preview

Photocopy Section 1

Grammar and Spelling Lesson Sheets

For each lesson there is at least one photocopiable activity sheet for the children to complete, accompanied by a page of teacher’s lesson notes. The recommendations in the notes are intended to be followed systematically. However, if a suggestion seems inappropriate to a particular class situation, it can of course be adapted to suit.

All the lesson notes feature a notepad in the top right-hand corner. This has a brief checklist of what to prepare (items which are useful, but not essential, are shown in brackets) as well as a guide to previous lessons that the teaching builds on.

The grammar notes all follow the same format:

a. b. c. d. e. f.

Aim Introduction Main point Grammar sheet Extension activity Rounding off

Each grammar lesson has its own particular focus, and the teacher’s notes vary accordingly. However, the standard format helps to give the lessons a recognisable shape.

The spelling notes also follow a standard format:

a. b. c. d. e.

Revision Main point Spelling list Spelling sheets A & B Dictation

Many of the teaching points are common to all the spelling lessons, so these are explained in further detail below.

a. Revision

Each lesson should start with a short burst of revision. Early lessons concentrate on using flash cards and sound dictation to revise the five long vowel sounds and their alternative spellings (in dictation, ask the children how they would write the /ee/ in ‘monkey’, for example). They go on to revise the

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‹uni-› ‹mono-› Spelling List 1 1.

Put the words in the Spelling List into alphabetical order.

unit 1.

2.

unicorn 2.

3.

uniform 3.

4.

monogram 4.

5.

monorail 5.

6.

monotone 6.

7.

unify 7.

8.

unicycle 8.

9.

union 9.

10.

universe 10.

11.

monocle 11.

12.

monologue 12.

13.

monosyllable 13.

14.

universal 14.

15.

monochrome 15.

16.

monolith 16.

17.

unification 17.

18.

monopoly 18.

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Spelling Sheet 1a (GH6)

‹bi-› ‹di-› ‹du-› Spelling List 2 1.

Work out the answers to the clues and complete the crossword. All the answers are words in the Spelling List.

duo

2

1

2.

duet

3.

biceps

3

4 5

4.

biplane

5.

bicycle

6

8

7 9

6.

10

11

duel

12 13

7.

dilemma

8.

biathlon

9.

binary

10.

diverge

11.

duplicate

14

16

1.

2.

12.

digraph

3.

4.

4.

13.

billion

5.

6.

biennial

7.

15.

binoculars

9.

16.

bicentenary

17.

bilingual

18.

bicentennial

14.

15

8.

10.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

large muscles, one at the front of each upper arm happening once every two years a two-wheeled vehicle with a saddle and pedals (across) 2 letters making one sound, like /ch/ and /ai / (down) a piece of music for two singers or players another word for ‘bicentenary’ to make an exact copy of something a problem forcing you to decide between two things to branch off in different directions special glasses that help you see things far away (across) the number 1,000,000,000 or 1,000,000,000,000 (down) a two-sport event (skiing and rifle-shooting) the 200th anniversary of an important event having two parts or involving two things a fight between two people with pistols or swords two people who sing, play or perform together able to speak two languages well an early type of aircraft with two pairs of wings Spelling Sheet 2a (GH6)

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Grammar 2 – Simple, Continuous and Perfect Tenses Aim: Reinforce the children’s understanding of the simple, continuous and perfect tenses, and develop their ability to identify tenses in sentences.

Prepare...

Grammar S Red pencils heet 2 Dictionaries

Builds on...

G H 1: G 15– 1 G H 2: G 16– 8 1 GH3: G8–9, 8 G17, G36 G H 4: G 1–2 , G 36 GH5: G4–7, G9–10, G17

Introduction: Write ‘to push’ on the board and ask what form of the verb this is [the infinitive]. Discuss with the class how the infinitive is the name of the verb and without more information we cannot say who did the pushing or when it was done. Draw a simple grid of nine boxes on the board (or make it look like the Tense Tent on Grammar Sheet 2), reminding the children that verbs describe what is happening in the past, present or future. Then ask the children what tenses they know [simple, continuous and perfect] and label the grid as shown below. Fill in the grid with the class, discussing how each tense is formed (see Verbs: pages xx and xx) and remind the children that the third person singular in the present tense takes the suffix ‹-s›, unless the verb ends in ‹sh›, ‹ch›, ‹s›, ‹z› or ‹x›, when ‹-es› is added. The verbs ‘to be’ and ‘to have’, which act as auxiliary verbs in the continuous and perfect tenses respectively, are irregular, so now is a good time for the class to conjugate them in the simple past and present tense, using the pronoun actions.

Simple

Continuous Perfect

Past

pushed

was/were pushing had pushed

Present

push /pushes

am/are/is pushing have/has pushed

Future

shall/will push

shall/will be pushing

shall/will have pushed

Main point: Write the sentences ‘We rode our bicycles yesterday’, ‘We were riding our bicycles to school’ and ‘We have ridden our bicycles recently’ on the board. Discuss these sentences and remind the class that the simple tenses describe actions that start and finish within a specific time, the continuous tenses describe actions that have started and are still happening, and the perfect tenses describe general experiences that have already been completed, usually at an unspecified point in the past. Also remind the class that while present participles (used in the continuous tenses) are completely regular, past participles (used in the perfect tenses) are often irregular and can be formed in a variety of ways, with no clear rules for which verbs take which spellings. Revise the two most common patterns: ‘swim, swam, swum’, where a change in vowel letter indicates a change in tense, and ‘ride, rode, ridden’, where ‹-n› or ‹-en› is added to the root verb to form the past participle. Point out that the ‹d› is doubled in ‘ridden’ to keep the short vowel sound /i/, and remind the children of the spelling rules for adding a suffix that starts with a vowel (see pages xx to xx).

Grammar Sheet 2: Write the following verbs on the board: to play, to carry, to wear, to sing, to drink, to eat, to read, to run away (phrasal verb). The children write inside the outlined word Ve rbs , using a red pencil, and then choose a verb, writing it in each tense to complete the Tense Tent. A good dictionary will always list the verb name and irregular past tense and past participle of a verb, so encourage the children to look these up where necessary [wear/wore/worn; sing/sang/sung; drink/drank/drunk; eat/ate/eaten; read/ read/read (pronounced /reed, red, red/); run/ran/run].

Extension activity: The children think of a sentence, using a verb from the board, and write it out nine times on the back of their grammar sheet, changing the tense each time.

Rounding off: Go over the sheet with the children, discussing their answers. If they have done the extension activity, ask some of them to read out a sentence and say which tense is being used.

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Black

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Most nouns are countable and have a singular and plural form. Other nouns have no plural because, in English, they are thought of as a single idea, or as one large thing that is hard to divide. These are called uncountable nouns.

Choose three countable nouns and three uncountable nouns from the picnic and write them on the lines below. Remember that uncountable nouns are never used with ‘a’ or ‘an’. ble Counta

a

an

the

le untab Unco

some

the

some

We use noun phrases like ‘a handful of rice’ or ‘two bags of flour’ to show the quantity of an uncountable noun. Choose some uncountable nouns from the picnic to complete these phrases.

a jug of

two slices of a spoonful of

a cup of

a loaf of five bottles of

three pieces of

a jar of

‘Much’ describes uncountable nouns and ‘many’ describes countable nouns. Which nouns from the picnic would go with these questions?

How much?

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How many?

Grammar Sheet 4 (GH6)