VCOP+games

__ 1. Varying Sentence Openers __ The teacher gives children one way in which they must start a sentence, together with an example as a model. Give a different style of sentence opener at each session. **//Ways to Start (Example//**) “When” starter (Last night…. ) “How” starter (Carefully, he crept ….. ) “Where” starter (Across the road…. ) Name starter (Bill wandered …. ) Simile (Like an eel ….. ) Adjective starter (Tall trees towered overhead …. ) “-ed” clause (Excited by the new, Joanna ran …..) “-ing” clause (Running quickly, Tim felt ….. ) One-worder (Tired, he ambled …. ) __ 2. Varying Sentence Structure __ Teacher gives children one way in which they must structure a sentence, together with an example as a model. Give a different structure at each session. **//Type of sentence (Example//** ) Short, simple sentence for drama (Tom ran.) Compound sentence, joined with connective, for flow (Tom ran and Kitty walked.) Complex sentence to add extra information. (The dog bolted, because he had eaten all the sausages.) Questions to draw in reader (What was that?) Exclamations for impact (Run for it!) Sentence of 3 for description (He wore a dark cloak, shiny shoes and red trousers.) Sentence of 3 for action (Tom ran across the beach, jumped over the rock and collapsed. ) __3. Call My Bluff__ The teacher or student finds a difficult word in the dictionary. Check that nobody knows the real meaning. Write the word on the whiteboard. Each student makes up a definition and writes it anonymously on a piece of paper. The teacher/leader reads out the definition. The winner is the person whose guess was closest to the dictionary definition.

__4. Missing Punctuation__ Teacher writes an unpunctuated sentence on the large whiteboard. Children rewrite, including correct punctuation marks, on mini whiteboards. Can play in reverse by giving children a punctuation mark and asking them to write an appropriate sentence that includes the given punctuation mark. __5. What’s the clause?__ Give children a main clause. Establish that it makes sense as a complete sentence. Give children a subordinate clause. Establish that it doesn’t make sense by itself, but adds extra information to the main sentence. Put both clauses together, beginning with the main clause. Explain that we can make sentences more sophisticated and interesting by beginning with Subordinate clause. Put selection of main clauses and subordinate clauses on the board. Children work in pairs. They select one main clause and one subordinate clause and put them together – have them start with the connective so that the subordinate clause if first. Encourage children to make silly sentences. __6. Missing Vowels__ Write instructions on the board, but leave out all the vowels. Eg: “Tk t yr bks.” __7. All change__ Write a sentence on the large whiteboard. Children have to rewrite the sentence, improving it by following the teacher’s command. Eg: Initial sentence: “The fox crept under the shed and began to dig furiously.” Command: “Add 3 adjectives” Child’s sentence: “The **__cunning__** fox crept under the **__old, wooden__** shed and began to dig furiously.” · Add or remove adjectives or adverbs · Change the verbs or nouns · Add a phrase, image or clause · Use a connective at the beginning or end of the sentence · Change the opening, tense or tone of the sentence · Change the sentence to a different genre or text type __8. Time Challenge__ Use whiteboards. Give children 1 minute to list as many connectives (or other type of word) as possible. Give children 1 minute to choose any of the words collected and to put them into a sentence. Give children 1 minute to up the level of their sentence by using a better opener, Wow word etc. __9. Word Families__ On a card, write out a word from a word family that you are studying and stick in on a wall. Have children write out (on a post-it note) a word that belongs to the same family, and stick it underneath. Encourage children to keep adding words. __10 Synonyms__ Give children an overused word eg went, said, big, small, bored, hot, excited etc. Write synonyms on the board, but with vowels missing E.g.: for “big” - “h _ g _” “m _ ss _ v _” Extension: child thinks of a synonym for the overused word and writes in on the large whiteboard (with vowels missing) for other children to guess. __11. Cheddar Gorge__ Sit in a circle. Someone is selected to begin a sentence, saying a word only. The sentence is passed around the circle with each player adding one more word. The aim of the game is to try NOT to end the sentence. Encourage children to use VCOP connectives to help them extend the sentence and keep it going.
 * Possible Commands: **
 * // Share ideas //**
 * // Share sentences //**
 * // Share sentences //**

__12. Register time__ Answer register with a wow word, a connective, or a word to describe a picture and cant be one that’s gone before. So doesn’t take long make sure they know at end of previous day what next morning will bring eg tomorrow we need to think of connectives to answer register with. __13. Word of the Day__ Have a WOW word for day and all pupils have to try to fit that into a spoken sentence during that day and earn points for doing so. Have to have a witness sign a slip to say they did it.