Grammar Foundations

Overview

In this lesson (Lesson 1 of 1) students explore how grammar helps informative writing by learning sentence structure, parts of speech, and key punctuation. They practise turning simple ideas into complete, correctly punctuated sentences.

Learning intentions

• Students will learn what makes an informative sentence clear and complete.
• Students will identify parts of speech in simple sentences.
• Students will use basic sentence structure (who/what + action + details).
• Students will apply capital letters, full stops, and commas in a list.

Success criteria

• I can write sentences that include a subject and a verb.
• I can underline parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and simple adverbs) in a sentence.
• I can add correct capital letters and full stops to my writing.
• I can use commas to separate items in a list within a sentence.

Curriculum links

• English: developing understanding of grammar for sentence-level clarity.
• English: creating texts with purpose and using appropriate punctuation.
• Literacy: speaking and listening for planning and revising ideas before writing.
• Writing: using evidence from models to improve clarity.

Lesson structure (45 minutes)

1. 5 min — Hook and model

• Display a short informative sentence on the board: “Kangaroos live in Australia.”
• Ask: “What is the topic? What is the action? How do we know it’s a full sentence?” Briefly highlight capital letter and full stop.

2. 8 min — Mini-lesson: sentence parts

• Teach a simple sentence formula: “Noun (who/what) + Verb (action) + Details.”
• Provide examples and do a quick class sorting: write 6 cards on the board (noun/verb/adjective/adverb). Students help identify them in one or two sentences.

3. 10 min — Interactive activity: parts of speech hunt

• Give each pair a short, teacher-prepared paragraph of 4–5 sentences about a familiar topic (e.g., “Seeds grow into plants.”).
• Students highlight or label:
• nouns (things/people/animals)
• verbs (actions/states)
• adjectives (describing words)
• simple adverbs (words ending in -ly, if included in the text)
• As a class, check one sentence together and clarify any misconceptions (e.g., “jump” is a verb; “quick” is an adjective).

4. 8 min — Guided practice: punctuate and improve

• Provide two sentence versions:
• Version A: “birds fly high they are fast”
• Version B: “Birds fly high. They are fast.”
• Students explain what changed and why. Emphasise: capital letters and full stops make writing easier to read.
• Introduce comma lists: “I will pack an apple, a water bottle, and a hat.”

5. 11 min — Independent task: build informative sentences

• Students choose a topic from a small list (class animals, plants, weather, school routines).
• Using a worksheet or slide template, they write 4 sentences:
• 1 about the topic (noun + verb)
• 2 with details (add an adjective or adverb)
• 1 includes a list separated by commas
• Teacher circulates to check: subject + verb, capital letters/full stops, and comma lists.

6. 3 min — Share and quick feedback

• Students share one best sentence with a partner and swap for a quick “check it” glance using a simple teacher checklist (subject/verb, punctuation).
• Collect common errors to address in the next unit lesson if needed.

Resources

• Projector/interactive whiteboard with model sentences
• Part-of-speech word cards (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) for whole-class use
• Printed short informative text (4–5 sentences) for parts-of-speech hunting (same for all or differentiated by readability)
• Sentence-building template with prompts and a list box for comma use
• Highlighters or coloured pencils for identifying parts of speech
• Mini punctuation guide poster (capital letters, full stops, commas in lists)
• Teacher clipboard checklist for quick conferencing
• Topic prompt cards (e.g., “Plants”, “Ocean animals”, “Our school day”)

Assessment

• Observe students during the parts-of-speech hunt: can they correctly identify nouns and verbs?
• Use the independent task to check writing against the success criteria (complete sentences, punctuation accuracy, comma use in lists).
• Listen to pair sharing for students’ explanations about sentence completeness and punctuation purpose.

Differentiation

• Support:
• Provide sentence stems (e.g., “The ___ (noun) ___ (verb) …”).
• Offer a reduced text version with fewer sentences for the hunt activity.
• Provide a word bank aligned to the chosen topic (common nouns/verbs/adjectives).
• Extension:
• Challenge students to include a second comma list or add an extra detail clause using “because” (kept simple at this stage).
• Ask students to label the sentence structure more precisely (e.g., main noun, main verb, descriptive words).
• EAL:
• Pre-teach key terms (noun, verb, adjective) with pictures and gestures.
• Allow oral rehearsal of sentence order before writing.
• Provide bilingual support if available for word banks.
• SEN (including learning difficulties):
• Use a smaller writing target (3 sentences) while maintaining accuracy of punctuation.
• Provide checklists with visual icons for subject/verb and punctuation.
• Offer brief teacher conferencing to correct one goal at a time.