Teach-Primary-Issue-19.4

beginning part of a sentence and a relative pronoun and ask them to complete the sentence. Here are some examples that you could provide for children to complete: • There’s the dog that... • Here’s the man who... • This is the park where... Pupils can then be creative in adding their own endings to the sentences. For example, you may end up with There’s the dog that stole my ball , or This is the park where I fell over . To introduce children to non-defining relative clauses (where commas, brackets and dashes are required), it would be beneficial to look separately at adding relative clauses to modify nouns and clauses. Modifying nouns When teaching relative clauses to modify nouns, it’s a good idea toprovide children with sentences containing nouns (or proper nouns or pronouns) and accompanying information to use. Example: My dog, , dug holes in the garden. Added information: My dog is really naughty. You can then model taking the additional information and using it to form the following relative clause: My dog, which is really naughty, dug holes in the garden. Children can be creative with adding information to modify the noun in their own ways. Modifying clauses When teaching relative clauses to modify clauses, provide children with main clauses containing an easy-to-describe event and ask them to think of either the consequence of that event or their opinion on it. Maggie’s’ grandma gave her £10 for her birthday. Opinion: Maggie’s grandma gave her £10 for her birthday, which was very generous of her. Consequence: Maggie’s grandma gave her £10 for her birthday, which meant that she could afford to buy the book that she really w anted. Supporting less confident writers to use relative clauses Here are some suggestions for supporting children who may be struggling to understand relative clauses: • Provide cloze sentences with a space for including a relative clause (either with or without the relative pronoun). My cat, _____________, curled up with me. My cat, which __________, curled up with me. • Provide a range of main clauses and relative clauses for children to match up. • For children struggling to understand how to add a relative clause, you can write a sentence on a strip of paper and cut it into two parts so the child can physically move them apart and insert the relative clause themselves. • If you want children to use relative clauses to modify nouns, highlight or underline suggested nouns: The cat fell asleep on me. • Regularly look at different sentences together and discuss how the meaning has changed. E.g: The children, who loved reading, enjoyed the trip to the library. The children who loved reading enjoyed the trip to the library. TP T E ACH RE AD I NG & WR I T I NG DOWNLOAD RESOURCES AT Download your FREE accompanying worksheets at tinyurl.com/tp-RC 1. The village where I was born is called Greenby. 2. The man who sold me my car was called Mr Parkinson. 3. A child who I met at the football match gave me some water. 4. I have a cat whose fur is brown and white. 5. The treehouse that my dad built last summer is a great place to read. 6. There’s the boy who told me where the park was. 7. The school that my brother goes to is on the other side of town. 8. I want to go back to the hotel where we stayed last year. 9. I gave the ball back to the boy who had lost it. 10. My mum asked me to pick up the towel that I had dropped on the floor. 11. The car park that we usually park in was full on Saturday. 12. My dad has a friend whose name is John. 13. The beach that we went to at the weekend was beautiful. 14. I’d like to go back to the place where we saw the lions. Relative clauses Underline the relative clauses in the sentences below Developed by Sarah Farrell 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1. My grandad who is nearly 90 goes for a walk every day. 2. His dog which he has had for 6 years is called Buster. 3. The teacher whose name is Mrs Smith led the assembly. 4. My dad who is not great at DIY tried to put up my shelves. 5. Her sister who is younger than her can already do a handstand. 6. My friend who hadn’t done his homework copied my answers. 7. My mum’s favourite blanket which is blue was in a heap on the floor. 8. Strawberries which are my favourite fruit are red. 9. My jumper which had a rainbow on the front was in the wash. 10. The castle which was built in 1852 was very busy on Saturday. 11. Paris which is in France is where you can find the Eiffel Tower. 12. Bananas which are yellow need to be peeled before they can be eaten. 13. Canada which is where I went on holiday is my favourite country. 14. Windows which are usually made of glass can be transparent or translucent. Relative clauses Insert a pair of commas in the correct places in the sentences below. Developed by Sarah Farrell 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark 1 mark Pronoun How it’s used Exa ple Which Used for objects, places, animals or events Our dog, which is really naughty, tried to bite the postman. Our dog tried to bite the postman, which was really naughty of him That Used for objects, places, animals and events (and used informally to refer to people) There’s the wall that my dad built last year. The hotel that we stayed at on holiday last year was really nice. When Used for a time or time period On Tuesday, when it was the school play, I felt really nervous. In Victorian times, when the Industrial Revolution occurred, there was an increase in mechanical processing. Relative clauses Developed by Sarah Farrell What is a relative clause? A relative clause is a type of subordinate clause that modifies a noun or a whole clause. Modifying a noun: There’s the boy who stole my football. The dog that I saw by the river looked like it was lost. Modifying a clause: I lost my school jumper , which really annoyed my mum. My friend was caught cheating in the test , which meant that he got a detention. What is a relative pronoun? A relative pronoun is a type of pronoun that introduces a relative clause. Here are some of the main relative pronouns and how to use them: Sarah Farrell is a KS2 teacher in Bristol who makes and shares resources online. tinyurl.com/tp-SarahFarrell @SarahFarrellKS2 www.teachwire.net | 59