This PowerPoint presentation, suitable for more than one lesson, provides a humourous report about a type of guinea pig called a trolley pig. It gives examples of the key types of fronted adverbial - those starting using: prepositions, with, verbs ending in -ing, because, although, if, similes starting with ‘Like…’ and ‘As…as’, adjectives and adverbs of time (when, before etc). The text also includes relative clauses starting with who, which, whose and where, and an adverbial starting with otherwise. Font and spacing suitable for dyslexic learners; cognitive load has been kept to a minimum. Use for SPaG lessons or for demonstrating how to improve sentence structure using adverbials. There are some suggested extended writing follow-ups at the end of the document.

This PowerPoint presentation examines the themes, vocabulary and key images of The Lost Happy Endings. The text is analysed in terms of its effect on the reader by varying the sentence structure, with emphasis on the use of adverbials. Pupils have the opportunity to answer overarching questions about the author’s approach and intentions, as well as analysing sentence structure in detail. It can be edited to suit your purposes or used as is.

A presentation with examples of images and sentences from various picture books, mostly fiction. All sentences are from real texts, to reinforce teaching of fronted adverbials starting with prepositions. The presentation can be used alongside my other fronted adverbials with prepositions lessons - one each on ‘examples’, ‘how to write them’ and ‘practice writing them’ - available individually or as a bundle. (Please note, the images and accompanying text in this presentation are not copyright/royalty-free.)

A phonic approach to teaching the Year 5/6 statutory spelling words. A unit of fourteen sets and lessons, 7 per half term. Words are grouped by the irregular sound that they have in common e.g. the ‘ai’ sound in ancient, pronunciation, exaggerate, neighbour, accommodation. ** Lesson activities involve children using variants of the target sound to complete words, in this case, -ncient, pronunci-tion, exagger-t-, n-bour, accommod-tion. Answers are provided. Lessons include extensions for fast finishers. Sets can be used for weekly spelling test lists. **so words with more than one irregular part can occur in more than one set e.g. accommodation appears in the ‘mm’ and ‘cc’ sets.

This 2-page document offers guidance on the teaching of fronted adverbials. Where it is specified, the requirement in the National Curriculum is that children in Years 3 and 4 should be able to use them to express time and cause. However, children can start to use them naturally in Year 1 and should continue to use them to improve the quality of their writing throughout Key Stage 2. In order to do so, it is useful to have a sense of the progression in the use of fronted adverbials. The list in the document is not exhaustive but it does include the most common and the most useful fronted adverbials appropriate to pupils in Key Stage 2. Crucially, it helps you to gauge where pupils are in their use of more complex sentence structures and provides a clear upward pathway towards more advanced forms. Do have a look at my other resources on fronted adverbials.

Suitable for half a term to a term’s work, depending on starting point & understanding of pupils - you may need to track back and repeat at different points. Lessons are in PowerPoint format, with a colour version for teaching and a black & white one for printing. Exercises are picked directly from the PowerPoint and condensed into a separate printable document. Teaches full stops in four stages: 1) Writing lists. 2) Commas & and (coloured red) to separate items in a list. 3) and (coloured green) to add ideas. 4) ‘Green and’ & full stop to join and finish ideas. Children will learn to: to use ‘and’ to join items in a list and to join ideas (sentences) avoid using ‘and’ to list ideas one after the other in their writing understand that finger spaces can be used only to separate words, not ideas to show completion of an idea with a full stop to show next idea with the first letter of the first word capitalised Children are supported by concentrating the resources on the G in SPaG, avoiding any mention of Spelling. Sassoon font and colour coding are used throughout. Information is presented in a low-cognitive load context with familiar scenarios (sweets, toy shop, park, beach, school) and stories (Red Riding Hood etc).

This is a presentation that takes children through the construction of sentences that begin with fronted adverbials starting with prepositions. Each example is related to a clear picture so that children have a visualisation of the concept. The sentence construction is colour-coded to support children with building their own sentences of this type. This presentation is one of three and may be used at the beginning, the middle or the end of the series, or on its own. The others are called ‘Fronted adverbials starting with prepositions 1. - examples’ and ‘Fronted adverbials starting with prepositions 3. - practise writing them’. All three presentations are intended for Upper Key Stage 2. These presentations can be bought individually or as part of a bundle of three.

This is a presentation giving examples of sentences that begin with fronted adverbials starting with prepositions. Each example is related to a clear picture so that children have a visualisation of the concept. The sentence construction is colour-coded to support children with building their own sentences of this type. This presentation is one of three and may be used at the beginning, the middle or the end of the series, or on its own. The others are called ‘Fronted adverbials starting with prepositions 2. - how to write them’ and ‘Fronted adverbials starting with prepositions 3. - practise writing them’. All three presentations are intended for Upper Key Stage 2. These presentations can be bought individually or as part of a bundle of three.

This is a presentation that takes children through the construction of sentences that begin with fronted adverbials starting with prepositions. Each example is related to a clear picture so that children have a visualisation of the concept. The sentence construction is colour-coded to support children with building their own sentences of this type. This presentation is one of three and may be used at the beginning, the middle or the end of the series, or on its own. The others are called ‘Fronted adverbials starting with prepositions 1. - examples’ and ‘Fronted adverbials starting with prepositions 2. - how to write them’. All three presentations are intended for Upper Key Stage 2. These presentations can be bought individually or as part of a bundle of three.

This lesson presentation aims to introduce children to ways of joining ideas other than using conjunctions like ‘and’. In this case, it shows them that ‘The cat sat on the mat and hissed at the dog’, becomes ‘Sitting on the mat, the cat hissed at the dog.’ There is some revision at the beginning of using ‘and’ to join ideas. This includes the misconceptions and errors that can occur throughout the primary key stages, namely using a finger space on its own between two ideas - the cat sat on the mat she hissed at the dog, and comma splicing - the cat sat on the mat, she hissed at the dog. This revision is from the presentation (available here) ‘Full stops KS1 LKS2 Intervention Lessons & Exercises’. It is up to the teacher whether to use the revision section or not. The presentation is aimed at Lower Key Stage 2 but could also be used with Years 5 & 6. It may be used as one lesson or several.

A presentation with text and images from various picture books to use as a starting point for teaching fronted adverbials starting with 'with'.

This is an editable Word document that provides resources for a debate. It includes sentences stems using different tenses that can be taught and practised before running a debate. It also suggests practical ways of organising a debate with supporting resources.

This is an editable story mountain for The Village That Vanished.