So teachers everywhere are worried about the new end of key stage tests

Year 2 and Year 6 face equally gruelling assessments

Including the new spelling, punctuation and grammar paper

The introduction of the new test

Has sent many teachers into a panic

Driven them to teaching to the test

Going over as many test questions and sample papers as they can lay their hands on

Or spend their evenings creating

It is true

The new papers are going to be a challenge

It is going to be necessary to introduce children to the format of some of the questions

The technical terminology

But it remains

That the best way to teach children tricky ideas

Introduce new concepts

And encourage them to remember key vocabulary and facts

Is to make teaching and learning practical and fun

Remember always these wise words

That underpin everything I do

With my own children

As well as at school

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. – Confucius

Over the last few weeks I have been planning, preparing and collating ideas

For teaching punctuation and grammar to my Year 1 and 2 class

I have a broad range of abilities within the cohort

A range of interests and learning styles

I try to use a broad repertoire of ideas to cover teaching and learning

To try and reach all the children as best I can

I actually really enjoy teaching SPAG

And it is something that is fun to play with at home too

Language is a wonderful thing

Playing with language brings great joy to people of all ages

And has done for the longest time

So many games we all play are based upon this premise

I digress

Today I want to share with you some of the ideas I have found

For making the teaching of punctuation practical

And the learning of vocabulary fun

I hope you find something here that is useful

Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives

Lets start with a quick warm up game

Noun / Verb Game
Ask children to call out nouns and verbs
Write them on the board in two columns
Ask the children to verbally create silly sentences
Write the sentences on mini whiteboards

There are lots of ways to play with nouns and verbs

I love the idea of getting outside and going on a noun hunt

This can be looking for actual things in the environment

Or you could put out pictures or words for the children to find

You can ask children to try and find a noun for each letter of the alphabet

There lots of ways to create a noun hunt that is right for your class

Word sorts are fun too

You can write words on pebbles or bottle tops

The children can then sort word classes or types of nouns

Proper, common and collective

I have found some great activities for introducing and revising pronouns

Including these interactive sentence strips where you place the pronoun over the noun

Making the purpose of the pronoun really clear to see

I love using craft with my children too

Using flowers to create a pronoun patch in a grammar garden

I think is a wonderful idea!

This craftivity is great for revising plural nouns

Adjectives are the easiest word class to teach I think

There are so many lovely creative ideas

Like this cloud and rainbow craft

Write a noun on the cloud

And adjectives to describe the noun on the colours of the rainbow

These would look beautiful hanging from the ceiling in your classroom

You can also make adjective flowers if you are following the grammar garden theme

To make SPAG cross curriculum areas

You could do an adjectives session in PSHE

Asking children to describe themselves

A family member or friend

This could be part of a lovely lesson on friendship and/or self esteem

And again these ideas would all make fabulous displays

I think it is good fun to begin teaching verbs with a practical activity

A game of charades

Or a relay race

(A great way to fit SPAG into PE!)

I absolutely adore these pipe cleaner mannequins for acting out verbs

Would be great fun for introducing adverbs too

And children could animate their mannequin carrying out actions in certain ways

Would be a lesson to remember I think

Cannot wait to try it out!

Contractions and Conjunctions

Scrunching up and stretching out

Words and sentences

Made for practical play

I think one of the best ideas I have seen for teaching contractions

Is The Contraction Surgery

Getting children to scrub in, gown up and operate on words

Removing letters and replacing with apostrophes

A magical idea for bringing learning alive

Children physically contract the words

And experience the role of the apostrophe

This practical session can be followed up with lots of creative revision

Contraction crocodiles

Contraction caterpillars

Contraction cupcakes

(I have a little girl in my class who will do anything you ask her if it involves cake!)

The wonderful illustrative ideas for this concept go on and on

Make Pinterest your friend!

Conjunctions have some equally exciting games and craftivities

I love the idea of physically building sentences

And joining clauses like puzzle pieces

Practical

Purposeful

Memorable

Fun!

There are so many amazing ideas

For teaching punctuation and grammar

For preparing our children for their assessments

In a fun and imaginative way

I cannot wait to get started

I cannot wait to get sharing!

This is part one of my Getting to Grips with Grammar series

Please join me for the ride

I will be sharing all my fabulous Pinterest finds

And reporting how I get on when I try them out

Why don’t you try them too?

See what you can do!