Teacher notes for this lesson. Two sides of A4, not for pupils.Mild sheetMedium sheetSpicy sheetAnswers
Teacher notes · not for pupils Grammar sequence

Little Joining Words

Word classes: preposition and conjunction

Lesson 9 of 14
Year 3 45 min

Objective

Identify prepositions and conjunctions, and decide which a word is from what follows it in the sentence.

Board title: Prepositions and conjunctions  ·  Say it: “Today we're telling a preposition from a conjunction by looking at what comes straight after the little word, a thing, or a whole part of the sentence.”

Curriculum

  • Y3: using and understanding the grammatical terminology, preposition, conjunction, clause
  • Y3: expressing time, place and cause using conjunctions and prepositions (revisited)
  • Terminology: preposition · conjunction · clause · noun
  • STA domain: G1.1

Success criteria

  • find the noun that follows a preposition
  • say where or when a preposition points
  • find the two parts a conjunction joins
  • sort before and after by reading the sentence

Key vocabulary

preposition · conjunction · clause · noun · word class · sentence

Run of the lesson

5 min
Starter: write before lunch and before we ate lunch on the board. Same word, twice, and neither one is wrong. Ask whether before is doing the same job, take answers about what changed after it, and move on without settling it.
10 min
Model the test that decides everything: cover what follows the little word in We cook in the kitchen, only the kitchen is left, a thing. Do the same with Boil the pasta while the sauce cooks, a whole part is left that could almost stand alone. Then sort after twice, after lunch and after we ate lunch, and name the trap as it changes cupboard.
6 min
Sort the Cupboards, Medium, briefly, six rounds is plenty: the bank has no preposition or conjunction cupboards, so play it for the terminology and the read-Polpetta's-sentence-aloud-before-you-sort habit, which this lesson lives or dies on, then close it and come back to the slides.
6 min
The four vote pairs, and the first two are the whole lesson in miniature: Wait until the timer rings against Wait until six o'clock, same word, two cupboards. A child says WHY before each reveal (answers: a-left, b-right, c-right, d-left).
15 min
Worksheet, independent. Circulate on Task 2, this sheet's hardest hunt: on Spicy one word turns up twice and is labelled wrongly both times, so make every child underline what follows the bracketed word before they touch the label. On Task 3, the before-twice sentence is the assessment.
3 min
Plenary: two children read a Task 3 sentence and the class names the job of the little word inside it. Then the class quiz: Polpetta says Before and after are conjunctions. Always. What follows after in After lunch, we washed up?
On screenSPAGhetti → Sort the Cupboards → Medium. One screen only; no pupil devices needed. Read the bank before you plan, and read it properly: there are no preposition or conjunction cupboards in it. The bank's own objective line for the hottest band promises them, but the words are not there, Medium sorts nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and the hottest band adds pronouns and determiners and stops. So the game cannot test today's two classes at all. Play it anyway, briefly, for the terminology and for the read-the-sentence-before-you-sort habit, which is the habit this lesson lives or dies on; then close it and teach the two cupboards from the slides. Six rounds is plenty. ~8 items in 10 minutes with discussion.
SPAGhetti · Grammar sequence · Lesson 9 of 14  ·  Teacher notes 1 of 2
Teacher notes · not for pupils Little Joining Words · side 2

On the day

If the tech failsSkip the game entirely. Task 1 is the same content on paper, read the four pairs aloud and vote with thumbs. Two cupboards drawn on the board, a stack of sentence cards with one word circled, and the same question every time, what follows it? The lesson still works.
If they're on devicesLesson code SORTC (on the worksheet footer) opens the right game, locks the café until 10 items are done, then unlocks it as the reward.

Misconceptions to watch for

Sorting the word instead of the sentence. before, after, until, since live in both cupboards and children want a permanent answer for each one. They will learn one and then be marked wrong on the other and conclude that grammar is arbitrary. Say it plainly at the start: these four words have two jobs each, and the sentence hands out the job.

Any short word is a preposition. the, a, and, but, is all get posted into that cupboard because they look small and unimportant. Give them the two-part test out loud: a preposition has a noun straight after it and tells you where or when. Both halves, or it is something else.

Prepositions are only about place. They accept under the counter and in the kitchen, then refuse after lunch, during the match, before six. Time prepositions are half of them and the half that gets missed. Ask what the word tells you, where, or when, and accept either as evidence.

Because of counted as a conjunction. It looks like because and it carries a reason, so they file it as a joining word. A thing follows because of, so it is a preposition; a whole part follows because, so it is a conjunction. The same split catches instead of and in spite of later.

The three sheets

Same four tasks on every sheet, in the same order, with the same look. Only the demand changes. Print the one each child needs; nobody does two.

Mild

Same four tasks as every other sheet, same order, same look, the demand is lower, not the dignity. Shorter passage in Task 2, and in Task 3 a word bank or words to tick, with printed sentence starters. Give it to anyone who needs a way in, and expect them to move up.

Medium

The core sheet. Give this to most of the class. No word bank; in Task 3 pupils choose from a few close options, then use one in a sentence of their own.

Spicy

Same four tasks, more demand, a longer passage with a subtler error, and Task 3 asks for two things at once. Not extra work; harder work. Nobody should be doing Spicy and the Medium sheet.

Adaptive teaching

  • Support: Task 1, then sort cards with the word already circled into two trays before any writing happens.
  • SEN: gentle mode on; read every sentence aloud before they sort, and cover the word's left-hand side with a finger.
  • Stretch: Task 3 extension, one sentence in which the same word appears twice, doing both jobs.
  • EAL: pre-teach follows in this sense. Prepositions rarely map one to one between languages, so teach the test rather than the translation.

Play it

Lesson code SORTC at playspaghetti.com. The code is printed on the bottom of every pupil sheet with a QR, and Class Quiz in your dashboard opens the plenary quiz for this lesson pre-picked.

SPAGhetti · Grammar sequence · Lesson 9 of 14  ·  Teacher notes, not for pupils 2 of 2  ·  Ludora