Hi again,
Part two of word groups (or word classes) are verbs. I will absolutely talk about phrases, clauses and sentences as well, but in their own time with their own wee post, because, though not massively complicated, it doesn't do to overload people with information (as I've been told in many a high stakes lesson observation. Ahh, memories).
Bare this in mind actually - if your child is just not getting it, and you can see that it's more than a sulk at being asked to do work, strip everything back to basics and praise, praise, praise for everything they can get right. Chances are, taking a step back and looking at a problem again (be it maths, science, or anything else) won't do the trick. There's no point in trying to paint the Mona Lisa if you don't know how to hold a brush, right?
It's the same for SPaG. Your 11 year old might be the brightest button in the class, but it's also been an entire week since anything could even remotely be called 'normal'. That normally bright and on it child has had more of a rupture to routine than anyone - remember that episode of The Simpsons, where the school goes on strike? Bart needed boundaries, Lisa needed structure. If you can help by explaining to them the basic concepts - in this case, word classes and how they can be used to improve their writing - then life might just get simpler. Ish. Simplerish.
Anyway, verbs!
Verbs:
Put simply, verbs are 'doing' words. Verbs are vital in sentences. In this sentence:
I walked to Oriental Bay.
Walked is the verb because it describes what I was doing.
Clap, jump, hop and climb are verbs you can act out. For younger children, Simon Says is a great way of figuring out verbs. Give your child an action, or several, and then a word which cannot be an action. One example is 'cat'. While you can purr, prowl, hiss, clean or swipe like a cat, you can't 'cat'. Talk to your child about the difference between cat and purr, and they may start to see that not all words are actions. Verbs as actions is about as much as we want from Year 2 children, but ooooh, it goes deeper!
Look at this sentence:
I think, therefore I am.
Think is a verb, but so is am. Am is the first person present tense form of be, and by being something, you're doing something, which means you've got yourself a verb there, friend.
Also, nouns can be used as verbs! Look here:
I had tried to phone you last night.
I had wanted to ring you.
We had to bench that idea for now.
Phone, ring and bench, in the contexts of these sentences, are the action, and therefore the verb.
Auxiliary Verbs
This is where the fun of grammar kicks in, and by fun, I mean the very careful side eye you need to give it before it goes bonkers. An auxiliary verb goes before the main verb in a sentence. Most commonly, it's a form of 'to be' 'to have' or 'to do'. Think about it like this:
I going to try my best.
While slightly broken English, still gets the meaning across to the reader because the main verb is still there, whereas:
I am to try my best.
Is a sentence in which all meaning is lost, the reader has no idea what will be done tonight and it, frankly, sounds super sketchy. You need both:
I am going to try my best.
To make the sentence make sense.
Try this one:
I have thought of what to do for mum's birthday.
Have is the auxiliary verb, thought the main verb. You need both to make the sentence make sense. Auxiliary verbs have different purposes in writing. This can be for:
Changing tense:
Hannah is painting the Mona Lisa.
Hannah has painted the Mona Lisa.
Adding emphasis:
Hannah did paint the Mona Lisa, who's Leonardo Da Vinci?
Creating a negative sentence:
Hannah wasn't lying when she said she painted the Mona Lisa first.
Turning statements into questions:
Hannah has painted the Mona Lisa and it's fake news to say otherwise.
Has Hannah painted the Mona Lisa? Is this all fake news?
A good way to spot auxiliary verbs is to read a newspaper and highlight or underline them in a given passage. See if your child can tell you why the auxiliary verb has been used and what difference it makes.
Modal verbs
By Year 5, you need to think about modal verbs. These are a type of auxiliary verb which change the possibility of the main verb happening, from one hundred percent definitely going to happen to a rolling dice chance of that happening. We're talking future tense, baby! See here:
I will play scrabble tonight.
I must play scrabble tonight.
I shall play scrabble tonight.
Ahh, you feel that? It's my destiny to play scrabble! Jeeves, fetch the board!
I can pet that dog.
I could pet that dog.
I should pet that dog.
Can and could both similarly show a possibility of petting that dog, while should makes it a moral obligation to do so.
I might pick you up from the airport, but I have to pet a dog all afternoon.
I may pick you up from the airport, but I have to pet a dog all afternoon.
I would pick you up from the airport, but I have to pet a dog all afternoon.
Might and may, in this context, denote a dangling tense possibility of hitching a lift. If the designated dog petting time concludes early, yeah sure! Have that lift! Would shows that there's not a chance of the dog petting time to be over and done with and it looks like you'll have to get a cab instead, sorry buddy.
This may sound left field, but you know who uses a tonne of modal verbs? Mine craft players. They're always talking about the future and what they possibly can build. Your 10 year old son probably worships a few of them by now - check out a video and see if you and your child can spot the modal verbs in action.
This (extremely brief) sojourn into verbs has actually shown me a few things. First, there's heaps of grammar to go with the actual word classes (tenses, person, phrases, all that jazz) and secondly, trying to put rules onto English grammar is like trying to squeeze two weeks worth of clothes into a single day bag. You can do it if you ignore a bunch of stuff, but there's always a useful pair of socks left on the floor. I'm going to continue with word classes, but if something comes up and you're just not sure about it, don't worry. Let me know of any confusing bits, and remember - whatever you're doing, you're doing great.
Elspeth
Part two of word groups (or word classes) are verbs. I will absolutely talk about phrases, clauses and sentences as well, but in their own time with their own wee post, because, though not massively complicated, it doesn't do to overload people with information (as I've been told in many a high stakes lesson observation. Ahh, memories).
Bare this in mind actually - if your child is just not getting it, and you can see that it's more than a sulk at being asked to do work, strip everything back to basics and praise, praise, praise for everything they can get right. Chances are, taking a step back and looking at a problem again (be it maths, science, or anything else) won't do the trick. There's no point in trying to paint the Mona Lisa if you don't know how to hold a brush, right?
It's the same for SPaG. Your 11 year old might be the brightest button in the class, but it's also been an entire week since anything could even remotely be called 'normal'. That normally bright and on it child has had more of a rupture to routine than anyone - remember that episode of The Simpsons, where the school goes on strike? Bart needed boundaries, Lisa needed structure. If you can help by explaining to them the basic concepts - in this case, word classes and how they can be used to improve their writing - then life might just get simpler. Ish. Simplerish.
Anyway, verbs!
Verbs:
Put simply, verbs are 'doing' words. Verbs are vital in sentences. In this sentence:
I walked to Oriental Bay.
Walked is the verb because it describes what I was doing.
Clap, jump, hop and climb are verbs you can act out. For younger children, Simon Says is a great way of figuring out verbs. Give your child an action, or several, and then a word which cannot be an action. One example is 'cat'. While you can purr, prowl, hiss, clean or swipe like a cat, you can't 'cat'. Talk to your child about the difference between cat and purr, and they may start to see that not all words are actions. Verbs as actions is about as much as we want from Year 2 children, but ooooh, it goes deeper!
Look at this sentence:
I think, therefore I am.
Think is a verb, but so is am. Am is the first person present tense form of be, and by being something, you're doing something, which means you've got yourself a verb there, friend.
Also, nouns can be used as verbs! Look here:
I had tried to phone you last night.
I had wanted to ring you.
We had to bench that idea for now.
Phone, ring and bench, in the contexts of these sentences, are the action, and therefore the verb.
Auxiliary Verbs
This is where the fun of grammar kicks in, and by fun, I mean the very careful side eye you need to give it before it goes bonkers. An auxiliary verb goes before the main verb in a sentence. Most commonly, it's a form of 'to be' 'to have' or 'to do'. Think about it like this:
I going to try my best.
While slightly broken English, still gets the meaning across to the reader because the main verb is still there, whereas:
I am to try my best.
Is a sentence in which all meaning is lost, the reader has no idea what will be done tonight and it, frankly, sounds super sketchy. You need both:
I am going to try my best.
To make the sentence make sense.
Try this one:
I have thought of what to do for mum's birthday.
Have is the auxiliary verb, thought the main verb. You need both to make the sentence make sense. Auxiliary verbs have different purposes in writing. This can be for:
Changing tense:
Hannah is painting the Mona Lisa.
Hannah has painted the Mona Lisa.
Adding emphasis:
Hannah did paint the Mona Lisa, who's Leonardo Da Vinci?
Creating a negative sentence:
Hannah wasn't lying when she said she painted the Mona Lisa first.
Turning statements into questions:
Hannah has painted the Mona Lisa and it's fake news to say otherwise.
Has Hannah painted the Mona Lisa? Is this all fake news?
A good way to spot auxiliary verbs is to read a newspaper and highlight or underline them in a given passage. See if your child can tell you why the auxiliary verb has been used and what difference it makes.
Modal verbs
By Year 5, you need to think about modal verbs. These are a type of auxiliary verb which change the possibility of the main verb happening, from one hundred percent definitely going to happen to a rolling dice chance of that happening. We're talking future tense, baby! See here:
I will play scrabble tonight.
I must play scrabble tonight.
I shall play scrabble tonight.
Ahh, you feel that? It's my destiny to play scrabble! Jeeves, fetch the board!
I can pet that dog.
I could pet that dog.
I should pet that dog.
Can and could both similarly show a possibility of petting that dog, while should makes it a moral obligation to do so.
I might pick you up from the airport, but I have to pet a dog all afternoon.
I may pick you up from the airport, but I have to pet a dog all afternoon.
I would pick you up from the airport, but I have to pet a dog all afternoon.
Might and may, in this context, denote a dangling tense possibility of hitching a lift. If the designated dog petting time concludes early, yeah sure! Have that lift! Would shows that there's not a chance of the dog petting time to be over and done with and it looks like you'll have to get a cab instead, sorry buddy.
This may sound left field, but you know who uses a tonne of modal verbs? Mine craft players. They're always talking about the future and what they possibly can build. Your 10 year old son probably worships a few of them by now - check out a video and see if you and your child can spot the modal verbs in action.
This (extremely brief) sojourn into verbs has actually shown me a few things. First, there's heaps of grammar to go with the actual word classes (tenses, person, phrases, all that jazz) and secondly, trying to put rules onto English grammar is like trying to squeeze two weeks worth of clothes into a single day bag. You can do it if you ignore a bunch of stuff, but there's always a useful pair of socks left on the floor. I'm going to continue with word classes, but if something comes up and you're just not sure about it, don't worry. Let me know of any confusing bits, and remember - whatever you're doing, you're doing great.
Elspeth
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