Home

Topic: Primary

Sub-topics

Relevant for Primary School teachers and students.

Spelling - Syllables, consonants, vowels: Activity 1

Vowel and consonant sequences

Here are five patterns of vowel (V) and consonant (C) sound sequences in words with one syllable.

  • CV: go, though
  • VC: up, inn
  • CVC: ban, mine
  • CCV: slow, true
  • CVCC: mint, mined

Instructions:

»

Subject-Verb Agreement

In this lesson, students select the correct verb to compose an acceptable sentence.

Goals

  • Practise composing sentences with appropriate Subject-Verb agreement.
  • Identify acceptable patterns in Standard English.

Lesson Plan

The teacher explains that today, we will select the correct verb on the smart board, to construct acceptable sentences.

»

Subject-Verb Agreement: 'Be' verbs

Telephones
are
is
am
really weird.

»

Synonymy (Stein)

Plan

Please note: there are two pages of activities for this lesson.

Activity 1

Start by explaining the meaning of the term synonym. For an example, ask learners to think of some synonyms for the word 'argument'. 

In the next slide, show the two possible examples. Ask learners if these two words have the exact same meaning or if there are any subtle differences. Try asking learners in what situations they would/would not use each word.

»

Synonymy (Stein)

Lesson

Activity 1

A synonym is a words that has the same, or a very similar, meaning to another. 

Take for example the word argument.

How many words can you think of that have the same or a very similar meaning? 

For the word argument, some synonyms are quarrel or row.

The words quarrel and row have the same general meaning.

»

Synonymy (Stein)

Lesson

Activity 5

Just like with nouns, there are also many synonyms which are adjectives. These have the same, or very similar, meanings to each other, and are used in different contexts.

What does the term adjective mean? What examples can you think of? Can you think of any synonyms?

Find the synonymous adjective in these two sentences:

»

Verb endings

In this activity we will look at suffixes which change adjectives and nouns into verbs. This process is a part of derivational morphology. 

»

Verb identification

In this activity, students work through the criteria for identifying verbs.

Goals

  • Practise identifying verbs.
  • Recognise linguistic criteria for identifying verbs.
  • Remember the list of verb criteria for use and application later on.

Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students move beyond what is called the notional or semantic way of identifying verbs as 'doing words' to explore grammatical ways of identifying verbs. (You can listen to Bas Aarts discuss this.)

»

Verb identification: Activity 1

Which words do you think are verbs?

»

Verb identification: Activity 2

He played cricket with Charlie.

Is played a verb?

  • Is it a doing word?
  • Can it show tense? Can you say Yesterday, I ____ed, for example?
  • Does it add -s to agree with a Subject like he or she, as in He ___s.
  • Can it take an -ing ending?

He played cricket with Charlie.

Is cricket a verb?

»

Verb images: Activity

The girls are rehearsing a song.

Several boys were playing football.

Sally has studied French for three years.

John has been studying French for one hour.

 

»

Verbs in fiction

Exploring verb choices in different literary texts

In this lesson, students identify verbs in fictional extracts and discuss the reasons why authors may have chosen particular verbs in their writing.

»

Verbs in fiction: Activity

»

Word frequency

What are the most frequently used words in English? And could we do without them?

»

Word frequency: Activity

The 10 most common English words are:

the

of

and

a

in

to

it

is/was

I

for

Can you answer the following questions without using these 10 words?

»

Word salads (primary)

In this lesson, students arrange words on the smart board in order to create acceptable sentences.

Goals

  • Use implicit grammatical knowledge to arrange word tiles on a smart board into sentences.

Lesson Plan

The teacher explains that today, we will arrange words to make sentences. All of the example sentences here have been drawn from our corpus.

»

Word salads (primary): Commands activity

Look
what
I
found
.

Enjoy
the
show
.

»

Word salads (primary): Questions activity

Have
you
seen
her
?

Can
you
tell
me
?

»

Word salads (primary): Statement activity

He
talked
to
people
.

I
saw
him
in
London
.

»

Words

Lesson

Objective

To explore the meaning of simple, everyday words and how they relate to your experience of the world.

Activity 1

There are many kinds of words.

Do you know the words for what you see in the picture? Talk to a partner and write down as many words as you can.

»
»

Englicious contains many resources for English language in schools, but the vast majority of them require you to register and log in first. For more information, see What is Englicious?

Englicious (C) Survey of English Usage, UCL, 2012-21 | Supported by the AHRC and EPSRC. | Privacy | Cookies