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

Who, Which, Where

Relative clauses

Lesson 15 of 17
Year 5 45 min

Objective

Use relative clauses beginning with who, which, whose, where, when or that, and punctuate a non-defining clause with a pair of commas.

Board title: Relative clauses  ·  Say it: “Today we're tucking an extra fact into a sentence with who, which, whose, where or when, and deciding whether the clause needs a pair of commas.”

Curriculum

  • Y5: relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that
  • Y5: brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis (revisited, the aside)
  • Terminology: relative clause · relative pronoun
  • STA domain: G3.1

Success criteria

  • choose who for a person and which for a thing
  • use whose for owners, where for places, when for times
  • put commas round a clause the sentence could lose
  • leave the commas off when the clause picks one out

Key vocabulary

relative clause · relative pronoun · who · which · whose · aside

Run of the lesson

5 min
Starter: both cards on the board, Nonna, who is eighty, still bakes daily. and The chef whose hat fell off just laughed. One has commas, one has none, which is right? Both are, and do not say why yet, the difference is the job each clause is doing.
10 min
Model the match first: person → who, thing → which or that, and say the wrong pairing aloud, the waiter which, so they hear the clang before they ever write it. Then whose for owners, where for places, when for times. Then the commas: an aside takes the pair (the lift-out test from the parenthesis lesson), a clause that picks one out takes none. Name the what trap kindly, it is heard speech written down, dialect, not carelessness, and in writing it is who, which or that.
8 min
On the Side on the whiteboard, Spicy. Level 1 is choosing the pair of marks, treat it as a two-minute parenthesis recap, because levels 2 and 3 are today's content, the relative pronoun gaps and the commas round the clause. Before each vote a child says what the clause follows: person, thing, owner, place or time.
5 min
The four vote pairs (answers: a-right, b-left, c-left, d-right). On pair b, say the long form aloud, the chef who is hat fell off, and the sentence collapses, whose with no apostrophe is the owner word.
14 min
Worksheet, independent. Circulate on Task 3 hunting two things: what creeping back in, and asides written without their second comma. On Spicy the assessment is the same-clause-twice sentence, commas on and off, and whether the writer can say what changed.
3 min
Plenary: two children read a Task 3 sentence, the class calls the pronoun and votes commas or no commas. Then the class quiz: Polpetta's hero piece says Nonna is the baker what taught me everything, is Nonna a person, a thing, a place or a time?
On screenSPAGhetti → On the Side → Spicy. One screen only; no pupil devices needed. Spicy opens on choosing the pair of marks, treat that first level as a two-minute parenthesis recap, because levels 2 and 3 are today's content: the relative pronoun gaps, then commas round the clause. ~8 items in 10 minutes with discussion.
SPAGhetti · Grammar sequence · Lesson 15 of 17  ·  Teacher notes 1 of 2
Teacher notes · not for pupils Who, Which, Where · 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. Then build one sentence on the board five ways: who, which, whose, where, when. The lesson still works.
If they're on devicesLesson code WHCHE (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

The pizza what we ordered. Heard speech written down, dialect, not carelessness. Name it kindly and be firm: writing takes who, which or that. This is the plenary, so no child leaves without meeting it.

which for a person. The waiter which served us. Person → who. Things → which. Pets divide the class, either is defensible, and saying so stops the argument.

who's for whose. The chef who's hat fell off. Who's is who is, say the long form aloud and the sentence collapses. Whose, no apostrophe, is the owner word.

Commas round a clause that picks one out. The chef, whose hat fell off, just laughed claims there is only one chef in the room. Lift the clause out: if the sentence loses its meaning, the commas were wrong. Comma decisions carry the assessment marks here.

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: who and which only. Task 1, then Task 3 orally with a scribe. Game on Mild, its comma items reuse who and which clauses.
  • SEN: gentle mode on; read Task 2 aloud before they edit and point at each clause.
  • Stretch: Task 3 extension, the same fact twice, once as an aside with commas, once as a clause that picks one out, and what changes.
  • EAL: many first languages use one word for who and which, or none at all. Drill the person/thing match orally before any writing.

Play it

Lesson code WHCHE 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 15 of 17  ·  Teacher notes, not for pupils 2 of 2  ·  Ludora