Workshop Dates: April 14th,15th, 16th,17th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th
Every Easter Grammar lesson explains the rules through interactive discussion and pictures alongside clear exercises, then includes a short writing task (to apply the concepts) and proofreading practice.
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Grammar 1:
- Present Tense: Subject-verb agreement requires practice, so students will review the rules about when to add “s,” “es” or “ies” to the ends of verbs and work on exercises to improve their present tense skills.
- Conjunctions: Extending sentences means understanding how to use “and / or / so / but / because” and how to punctuate correctly. In addition to this, we will show students how to add the conjunctions “however” and “since.”
- Present Continuous: To use “-ing” verbs accurately, we must understand the correct subject-verb agreement (for instance, “the dogs are barking…” vs. “the dog is barking”) as well as the spelling rules for when to remove the “e” (“take – taking”) and when to double the consonant (“stop – stopping”).
- Apostrophes: Many students are confused about how to use apostrophes to show possession (“Jane’s bag”). We will also delve into what to do with plurals when several things own something; where do you put the apostrophe when there is already an “s”, or if the plural is irregular?
- Contractions: While basic contractions like “don’t” or “isn’t” may seem easy, “won’t” is a bit trickier… and even adults mix up “you’re” with “your,” and “it’s” with “its,” so a strong grasp of these rules is a great idea!
- Punctuation: A mastery of punctuation is the foundation for writing accurate sentences. This lesson focuses on question marks, exclamation marks, capital letters, commas with time words and commas with conjunctions.
- Pronouns: Using “I / he / she / it / we / they” is just the start! When should we replace “I” with “me,” or when should “this” turn into “these?” What is the difference between “her” and “hers?” We will take a look at subject pronouns, object pronouns, possessive pronouns and demonstrative pronouns.
- Prepositions: Words like “to”, “at”, and “in” may seem simple, but they are in fact some of the trickiest words for young learners to use correctly. This lesson will teach students how to identify and select the correct prepositions of place and prepositions of time to use in their own writing.
Grammar 2:
- Past Tense– As well as reviewing the rule for “-ed”/”-ied” and when to double the consonant (“stop – stopped”), students will study irregular past tense verbs (“drew” and “brought”), learn to form negative sentences correctly (using “did not”), and practise forming past tense questions.
- Adjectives & Adverbs– After discussing what an adjective is and how to identify them, students will discuss the commonly misused “-ed” vs. “-ing” pairs (“terrified” vs. “terrifying”). For adverbs, they will examine different ways to form them, including “-ly” and “-ily,” then put their knowledge to the test.
- Conditionals – Can your child create sentences with “if?” Can he/she spot when “if” sentences need “will” and present tense or “would” with past tense? Correctly explaining what we imagine requires some complex grammar, but we will break it down step-by-step.
- Prepositions – These little words like “at,” “in,” “above,” “towards,” and “along” may appear simple, but they are some of the most common errors in student work! We will take a careful look at prepositions of time, prepositions of place, and prepositions of direction.
- Past Continuous Tense– Most students recognise that past continuous tense needs “-ing,” but accurately using this takes practice. Along with rehearsing “was”/”were”, the class will study where to insert the “not” for negative sentences and how to accurately swap the word order around for questions.
- Punctuation – Why is “Dad” sometimes capitalised and sometimes lower-case? When do we need a comma with a conjunction (“and”/“but” etc.)? How can we correctly punctuate dialogue in a story with all those troublesome commas and speech marks? We will cover all this and more.
- Present Tense– This tense is crucial for non-fiction writing such as essays, so practising correct conjugation, including how to add “s/es/ies” on the end of verbs and identify which form we need, is important.
- Conjunctions: Conjunctions, such as “for”, “since”, “while” and “although”, are vital if we want to extend our sentences. This lesson will review how we can use these joining words in the middle and, sometimes, in the beginning of our sentences and how to punctuate them correctly.
Grammar 3:
- Past Tenses: Simple and Continuous: After reviewing regular / irregular past tense and how to form the past continuous tense (including “-ing” verbs) accurately, students will learn when to use both tenses together correctly (“Leah was sleeping when her phone rang.”)
- Sentence Structure: What makes a full sentence? Beyond reviewing the parts of a simple sentence and identifying how to fix incomplete sentences, we will also cover compound structures and how to correctly use sentence variation (starting a sentence with an adverb, adjective or verb).
- Conditionals: Using “if” can be tricky! This lesson includes when to use “will” vs. “would” or “would have” (1st, 2nd and 3rd conditional) and which tense to use alongside them for different situations.
- Direct vs. Reported Speech: Transforming “Why do you give presents?” into “Harry asked her why she gave presents” involves much more than just changing names. We will discuss how to change tenses and word order so we can go from what a person or character actually said to talking about what they said – and back again!
- Relative Clauses: Explaining what we mean is much easier with phrases like “which is…” “who was…” or “that…” – but how can we use them correctly in the sentence structure, and why do some of them need commas?
- Deduction and Obligation: It can be hard to know which modal auxiliary verbs, such as “must not, “should have” and “could not”, fit in a sentence. After discussing these differences, students will practise writing about what might have happened and rules or suggestions to prevent it.
- Passive Voice: Particularly useful for formal writing such as essays, passive voice means we do not need to say who/what does the action (e.g., “the bike was stolen”). We will focus on understanding the reasons why this structure is used, and cover both passive in past tense (“the speech was given”) and past continuous (“the speech was being given”).
- Phrasal Verbs: It is common for students to get tripped up by phrasal verbs (e.g., “look out for”, “wake up”, “fill in”), but mastering them can help build vocabulary and improve writing and speaking skills. This lesson will introduce some of the more common examples to students and provide opportunity for them to practise using them in their own writing.