2024 Dates: Dec 23rd, 24th, 27th, 30th, 31st, Jan 2nd, 3rd
For more details, click Grammar Workshop (P1 to P5) to download the registration form or visit www.miniminds.com.hk/christmas-workshops/.
Every Christmas 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.
Grammar 1
- Present Tense: Beyond reviewing what a verb is and practising conjugation by adding “s” in he/she/it sentences (Simple Present), students work on the rules for “-es” (such as “washes”) and when to remove the “y” to add “ies” (“fly–flies”).
- Punctuation: Punctuation is much more than full stops! Students learn when to use question marks or exclamation marks, and they practise putting capital letters on every word of a proper name. We will also discuss and use the rules for commas in lists and after time-words.
- Present Continuous Tense: Students run through how to make present continuous sentences correctly, including adding “-ing” to verbs. They will need to choose from “is/am/are” and learn spelling tricks like doubling the “n” in “running.”
- Be, Have, Do (Irregular Present Tense): Since students often make errors with “we have” vs. “it has,” or “he does” vs. “they do,” this lesson aims to provide them with a solid foundation and lots of practice with these extremely useful irregulars.
- Nouns and Plurals: After identifying nouns, we will focus on how to form plurals, particularly those which involve more than just adding “s” (think of “classes” and “people.”) Students will also practise the commonly-misused “there is” and “there are” phrases.
- Adjectives: Beyond understanding what an adjective is, students will transform nouns into adjectives by adding “y” and learn the spelling rules for this (“sun” to “sunny” and “taste” to “tasty”). They will also learn about the crucial difference between “-ed” and “-ing” (“I’m annoyed” vs. “I’m annoying!”)
- Prepositions: Students learn what prepositions are and how to avoid common errors. For example, we use “on” for days (“on Friday,” “on my birthday”) and “in” for years (“in 2023”).
Grammar 2
- Past Tense: Although it may be called “simple past,” we all know it isn’t simple! This lesson reviews the rules for different types of regular verbs broken down into clear chunks, guides students through practising some irregulars (which have no rules!) in an activity, and even shows them how to form past tense questions.
- Nouns and Quantifiers: Some nouns are countable and some are uncountable, controlling which quantifiers – such as “much,” “a few” or “many” – we can use. This lesson explains the concept, explores how to deploy these correctly, and then introduces the negative versions such as “there aren’t any.”
- Pronouns: Beyond just the subject pronouns “I/you/we/they/he/she/it,” these tricky little words can also become object pronouns such as “him.” We will discover how to spot the difference and then explore possession (his/her/their etc.) and when we need to use reflexive pronouns such as “herself.”
- Past Continuous & Reported Speech: Why is it incorrect to say, “I was believing?” What is the grammatical difference between things that were happening at the same time versus something that interrupted another activity? Students will become more familiar with these, along with how to change tenses when we talk about what somebody said without quoting them (when “I am thrilled” becomes “He said he was thrilled.”)
- Future Tenses: English has many different ways to talk about the future! After examining “will” and “going to” constructions, we will look at modals like “have to” which can also express future plans.
- Punctuation: After revising the pieces needed to create a true full sentence (subject and predicate), we will dive into the details of where to place commas with conjunctions. How to correctly punctuate speech/dialogue, including the rules for when we need capitals and commas around quotation marks, is also covered.
- Prepositions of Time: Students refine and deepen their understanding of how to apply these deceptively tricky short words like “for” or “since” to discuss duration (how long…?), along with how to use “in” for indicating the future.
Grammar 3
- Past vs. Present Tenses: Although students have usually studied these tenses before, the details of how and when to apply them can be tricky! This lesson aims to not only review the basics but also deepen understanding of why we need past, past continuous, or present tense in particular contexts. It will also explain when to switch between them correctly for dialogue.
- Parts of Speech & Transformations: Swiftly identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs can be crucial for understanding all types of grammar rules, but many students are unaware of patterns (for instance, “-ment,” “-tion” and “-ity” endings mean a noun)! Beyond these tips, students will also be guided in transforming words into other parts of speech, such as “concentration-concentrate-concentrated-concentratedly” or “clarity-clear-clear-clearly.”
- Present Perfect Tense: Learners are often understandably confused about using “have” to talk about completed (past) activities. We will examine when this is needed, along with practising the past participle form that goes with it (“broken, known, done…”) and touch on complexities of meaning like the difference between “has been to” and “has gone to.”
- Comma Splices & Complex Sentences: What truly makes a full sentence? One of the most common errors among advanced students is the comma splice, which is when sentences are joined together incorrectly using only a comma. We will investigate how to identify this, look at different ways to fix it, and construct some correct complex sentences using patterns.
- Modals: Using these “helping verbs” goes far beyond remembering not to conjugate after “can.” This lesson reviews why and how to apply modals of both obligation and deduction such as “might, would, should” and more, including for writing about both present and past events.
- Advanced Introductory Phrases: Starting sentences with introductory phrases (such as “Fortunately, …” or “With a wide grin on her face, …”) can make writing sound much more mature for either stories or essays! Students will examine different types of introductory phrases and how to build the sentence structure correctly, including the right punctuation.
- Past Perfect Tense: How can we show what happened before a past event? Introducing past perfect phrases like “the cat had stolen the key” can add both a clearer timeline and a more mature style to creative writing. In addition to “had,” we will look in more detail at forming the past participle, which can be identical to past tense or different (e.g. “eaten, made, seen.”).