Use Plazoom’s Sentence Builder Game is a Year 3 prepositions activity to develop pupils’ use of these in their sentences. They will do this by: developing and improving their understanding of how sentences are structured and how prepositions are used to link nouns within sentences; and using prepositions to create prepositional phrases.
Pupils will use the noun, verb and preposition cards to create sentences, rehearsing them orally before writing. The grammar game will also give pupils the opportunity to use and understand the year 3 grammar terminology in English appendix 2 when discussing their sentences.
This grammar game for KS2 can be played as a whole class as a fun English lesson starter activity or as the main focus of the lesson. It could also be used as a writing intervention in KS2 for pupils who may need support to form sentences.
What is a preposition?
A preposition comes before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase and can link these to another part of a sentence. They can show position or direction, timing or show the relationship between parts of a sentence.
- The plane flew above the clouds.
This preposition shows position.
- Dinner is at 6pm.
This preposition shows timing.
- We learnt about the Romans.
This preposition shows relationship, ‘what’ they have learnt.
What are prepositional phrases?
A prepositional phrase is a group of words with a preposition at its head that is followed by a noun, pronoun or noun phrase. They can be used to modify a noun or verb. When they modify a verb, they are also known as an adverbial. The prepositional phrases are bold in the sentences below.
- The plane flew above the clouds.
- Dinner is at 6pm.
- We learnt about the Romans.
National Curriculum English programme of study links
- Pupils should compose and rehearse sentences orally, progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures.
- Pupils should be taught to use conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause.
- Pupils should be taught to use and understand the grammatical terminology in English appendix 2 accurately and appropriately when discussing their writing.