Home

Topic: Y3

Relevant for Year 3 teachers and students.

Compound word creation

An interactive activity to explore how compounds are made

In this activity, students work with an interactive smart board display to build compound words.

The Activity pages for this starter can be found in the menu entitled 'This Unit' in the upper right corner of this page. Each Activity page contains slides that can be displayed using a projector or smart board. 

»

Compound word creation: Activity 1

An interactive activity to explore how compounds are made

»

Compound word creation: Activity 2

See how many compound words you can create from a given word.

For each word, see how many compounds you can think of which include the word.

»

Word frequency in speech and writing

Comparing word frequencies is an interesting way to think about some of the differences between speech and writing. Which are the most frequent words in speech, and how do they compare with the most frequent words in writing?

»

Word frequency in speech and writing: Activity

Spoken English

the

I

you

and

it

a

’s*

to

of

that

Written English

the

of

»

Word order

We have to have some sort of structure to organise words if we are to communicate. That structure is a big part of grammar. Linguists use a term – syntax – to describe word order.

»

Word order: Activity

The dog chased the girl.
The girl chased the dog.
The bus has left.
Has the bus left?
The woman with the walking-stick knocked on the door.
The woman knocked on the door with the walking-stick.
Only Lisa ate icecream.
Lisa ate only icec
»

Adjective identification

In this activity, students work through the criteria for identifying adjectives.

»

Adjective identification: Activity 1

Which words do you think are adjectives?

»

Adjective identification: Activity 2

Somehow, it didn't seem wise.

Is wise an adjective?

»

Adverb identification

Applying the semantic and structural criteria for adverbs

In this activity, students work through the criteria for identifying adverbs.

»

Adverb identification: Activity 1

Which words do you think are adverbs? Remember the following clues:

»

Adverb identification: Activity 2

The feeling of hopelessness she'd experienced earlier that afternoon swept over her again.

Is earlier an adverb?

»

Antonymy 1 (Stein)

Plan

Activity 1

Explain to learners that antonyms are pairs of words that mean the opposite to each other. This is very common with adjectives. Show the three examples; then ask learners to come up with three more pairs themselves. Check to make sure they are using adjectives. 

»

Antonymy 1 (Stein)

Lesson

Objective

To understand the meaning of antonyms and how they are formed.

Activity 1

In the lesson on synonyms, we saw how words can have similar meanings. They can also be related through opposite meanings. This is very common with adjectives: 

  • long - short
  • old - new 
  • quick - slow 

We call these pairs of words antonyms. Can you think of three other pairs of antonyms? 

»

Antonymy 2 (Stein)

Plan

Activity 1

Explain to learners that they will continue to look at antonyms, but this time by looking at adjectives. Make sure they understand these key terms by discussing the three example pairs. 

In the next slide, show the learners the five sentences. Each sentence has a gap which can be filled with an adjective or its antonym. Have learners copy the sentences and fill the gap with two possibilities. Reveal the answers and accept any other reasonable options.

»

Antonymy 2 (Stein)

Lesson

Objective

To examine how adjective antonyms are formed and used.

Activity 1

Adjectives commonly have opposite words, or antonyms. When we think of an adjective, we often immediately think of its opposite. For example: 

  • rich - poor
  • old - young
  • easy - difficult

For each of these five sentences, write down the pair of adjective antoynms that could fill the gap. 

»

Antonymy 3 (Stein)

Plan

Activity 1

Explain that this lesson will continue to focus on antonyms and prefixes, but this time by looking at verbs.

Check to make sure your learners know the meaning of these key terms. Use the two example sentences to help. 

Show the learners the list of six verbs. Ask them to add a prefix to each one to form its antonym. Use the next mix-and-match activity to check answers as a whole class. Bring the cards together to connect and double click to separate. 

»

Antonymy 3 (Stein)

Lesson

Objective

To examine verb antonyms, and how they are formed and used.

Activity 1

Antonyms are also very common with verbs.

Just like adjectives and nouns, they can be formed by adding a prefix.

1. I tied my shoes.

2. I untied my shoes.

Activity 1

Look at this list of six verbs.

What is the antonym for each one? Which prefix do we use to change it? 

»

Baby Sentences: Activity

Daddy go work

Mummy read

Daddy bike

What that

Where blanket

Sock off

Teddy fall

Sammy tired

Building verb phrases

In this resource we’ll look at how verb phrases can be built up by putting auxiliary verbs and main verbs together.

»

Building verb phrases: Activity

In this activity, use the interactive whiteboard to build verb phrases. Can you use all the words and make every verb phrase grammatical?

Encourage your students to explore the meaning of the verb phrases they construct: how does the use of modal verbs affect the meaning of the main verb, for example? What about the tense?

Drag words next to each other and they will 'snap' together. Double-click to 'unsnap'.

»

Collective Nouns (Stein)

Plan

Activity 1

Ask learners to think of some nouns and make them singular and plural. Then, ask if they can think of any nouns which you cannot make plural. Show them the examples in the next slide and see if they can guess the words. 

Activity 2

Ask the learners to look at the table of collective nouns and organise them into two categories. Use the 'hint' button to help if your learners are stuck.

»

Collective Nouns (Stein)

Lesson

Objective

To understand diffferent types of collective nouns.

Usually, nouns can be singular or plural, like book or books.

What other examples can you think of? 

There are some nouns which only appear in the singular. Can you think of any? 

Some nouns always mean 'more than one' and therefore they have no plural form. Can you guess the nouns from the description?

»
»

Englicious contains many resources for English language in schools, but the vast majority of them require you to register and log in first. For more information, see What is Englicious?

Englicious (C) Survey of English Usage, UCL, 2012-21 | Supported by the AHRC and EPSRC. | Privacy | Cookies