Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name is Mrs. Riley and I'm here today to do some learning with you.

Today we're going to be focusing on grammar, which is one of my favourite subjects because it really helps us when we do our writing.

Let's get started.

The outcome of today's lesson is to say and write a simple sentence in the past tense.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

Don't worry if any of these keywords seem a little bit tricky, because we are going to talk about them a lot in today's lesson.

And by the end of the lesson, hopefully you'll feel really comfortable with what they mean.

I'm going to say each keyword and I'd like you to repeat it back to me.

My turn.

Your turn.

Are you ready? Simple sentence, past tense, fronted adverbial of time, comma.

Sometimes when I say comma, I do a sound and an action that goes like this, whoosh, for a comma.

Maybe you could try and do that now.

Ooh, well done.

Let's just say those keywords one more time.

This time even louder.

Here we go.

Simple sentence, past tense, fronted adverbial of time, comma, whoosh.

Excellent.

Well done.

I can tell that you are listening really carefully.

Let's keep it up for the rest of the lesson.

In our lesson today, we are going to first focus on past tense simple sentences.

So let's get started.

In English, we can speak or write in the present or past tense.

The tense tells the reader when something happens.

The present tense tells us the action is happening now.

Jun cooks dinner.

This is written in the present tense.

The verb is cooks and it tells me it is happening now.

The past tense tells us the action happened before.

Jun cooked dinner.

Cooked is the verb and it tells us if this is in the past tense.

It happened before now.

Today, we are learning about past tense simple sentences.

The verb in the sentence helps us to know what tense it is in.

A verb is a being or a doing word.

So today it's really important that we spot those verbs.

Jun cooks dinner, Jun cooked dinner.

Look at how the verb ending has changed.

The verb is cooks or cooked.

The ending has changed from cooks with an S on the end to cooked with an E-D on the end.

Here's a check for understanding.

The past tense means it's happened before now.

Is that true or false? The past tense means it happened before now.

Is it true or false? Pause the video while you answer that question.

Well done for giving that a go.

The correct answer is true.

The past tense means it happened before now.

Let's change some present tense simple sentences into the past tense.

First, we need to identify the verb in each sentence.

Remember, the verb is the being or doing word.

And identify means we need to find the verb.

Here are the sentences.

Are you ready? Aisha bakes a cake.

I help Gran.

They clean the kitchen.

I'm going to give you a little bit of thinking time and I want you to point at the three verbs.

There's one in each sentence.

What is the doing word in each sentence? Can I see you pointing? I can see some people pointing.

Well done.

Okay.

Excellent.

Right, let's go through the correct answers.

Bakes is the verb in the first sentence.

It's the thing that Aisha is doing.

Aisha bakes a cake.

In the second sentence, I help Gran.

Help is the verb.

In the third sentence, clean is the verb.

Clean is the thing that they are doing.

Next, we need to change the verb into the past tense by adding the correct ending.

Aisha mm a cake.

How would we say that if we were saying it that it's happened in the past, it's already happened? Aisha mm a cake.

The correct answer would be Aisha baked a cake.

Well done If you guessed that.

They clean.

Oh, sorry.

I help Gran is the next one.

I help Gran.

If I was turning that into the past tense, what would that sound like? Hmm.

I helped Gran.

Well done if you guessed that one too.

And finally, they clean the kitchen.

They, what would that be in the past tense? Maybe you could shout it out to me.

They, well done.

They cleaned the kitchen.

We identified the verbs in each sentence and we changed them into the past tense by changing the ending.

Now it's time to check your understanding.

This is the verb help in the present tense.

I'd like you to tick the correct past tense spelling of help.

Remember to look at the end of the word and look at which one you think looks right.

Tick the one that you think is correct.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

That was tricky, wasn't it? The correct answer is C, helped.

I've added E-D on the end of the word to turn it into the past tense.

Let's remind ourselves of the key features of a simple sentence.

Simple sentence checklist.

A simple sentence contains at least one noun.

That is a naming word for a person, place, or thing.

It contains one verb, a being or doing word.

It is about one idea.

It makes complete sense.

It starts with a capital letter and it often ends with a full stop.

These are all the things that make a simple sentence.

Aisha baked a cake.

I helped Gran.

They cleaned the kitchen.

Let's look closely at these three sentences and check that they meet all the criteria on our simple sentence checklist.

Aisha baked a cake.

Aisha and cake are both nouns.

Aisha is a person and a cake is a thing.

So, yes, it contains a noun.

Does it contain a verb? Aisha baked a cake.

Ah, baked as a verb.

It's a doing word.

Is it about one idea? Aisha baked a cake.

Yes, there's only one thing happening in that sentence.

Does it make complete sense? Aisha baked a cake.

Yes, it does.

Does it start with a capital letter? Yes, I can see a capital A.

And does it end with a full stop? Yes, it does.

That means this is a simple sentence.

Let's look at the next sentence.

I helped Gran.

I can see it's got a capital letter at the beginning, a full stop at the end.

It has a verb, helped.

It makes sense, it's about one idea, and it has a noun.

And my third sentence also meets all the criteria.

It's got a capital letter and a full stop.

It's got a verb, cleaned.

It's got a noun, kitchen, and it makes sense, and it's about one idea.

It is time for you to do a check for understanding.

Could you tick the two sentences that are written in the past tense that have happened before now? A, the horse trotted home.

B, the horse trots home.

C, Ben jumps on the bed.

D, Ben jumped on the bed.

And remember, if you are unsure, look at the verb.

The verb will tell you what tense the sentence is written in.

Please could you tick the two sentences that are written in the past tense? Pause the video now.

Well done if you got the correct answers, which are a, the horse trotted home, and d, Ben jumped on the bed.

Both the verbs, trotted and jumped, end in E-D, which often means that it is a verb in the past tense.

It's now time for you to do a task.

I would like you to change these present tense simple sentences into the past tense.

First, identify the verb by circling it.

Write the past tense verb on the line next to the sentence.

I'll read the sentences to you.

The stars twinkle.

A fox barks in the dark.

The man crosses the road.

First, find the verb and circle it, and then rewrite the verb on the line, but change the ending to turn it into a past tense verb.

Could you pause the video now while you complete this task? Good luck.

The stars twinkle.

A fox barks in the dark.

The man crosses the road.

Let's first identify the verb by circling it.

The stars twinkle.

Twinkle is the verb.

It is the thing that the stars are doing.

A fox barks in the dark.

Barks is the verb.

It is the thing the foxes are doing.

The man crosses the road.

Crosses is the verb.

It is the thing that the man is doing.

Now let's try and turn them from the present tense to the past tense so that it's already happened.

The stars twinkled.

A fox barked.

The man crossed the road.

You'll notice in those sentences that I have added E-D on the end.

We don't always change verbs into the past tense by adding E-D, but it is something that we do often.

And here in all these examples, that is how I turned these verbs from the present tense into the past tense.

It is time to look at our second learning cycle, fronted adverbials of time.

That was one of our keywords.

We have been learning about past tense simple sentences.

We know that the verb carries the tense of a sentence.

The verb is the really important part to look at if we want to know what tense it is written in.

The tense tells the reader when something happened.

It doesn't tell us where it happened.

It tells us when it happened.

Aisha skipped in the playground.

Aisha skips in the playground.

Skips is the verb.

It tells us that Aisha is skipping.

It is happening now.

When it turns from skips into skipped, Aisha skipped in the playground, it tells us it's in the past.

It's already happened.

We can give more detail about when exactly the action happened by using a fronted adverbial of time.

So we can change the tense in the verb to tell us when something happened, but we can give even more detail by adding a fronted adverbial of time.

So what is a fronted adverbial of time? A fronted adverbial of time comes at the front or beginning of a sentence.

Time tells us when an action happened.

So we see that a fronted adverbial of time is going to come at the front or beginning of a sentence, and it's just going to give us a clue about the time, about when something happened.

A fronted adverbial of time is a sentence starter that tells the reader when something happens.

Aisha skipped to the playground.

Skipped is the verb and it tells us that this sentence is in the past tense, but we could add, yesterday, Aisha skipped to the playground.

Yesterday is a fronted adverbial of time.

It comes at the start of the sentence and it tells me when Aisha skipped to the playground.

A fronted adverbial of time is followed by a, whoosh, comma.

And there it is.

After yesterday, we have a comma.

It is time for a check for understanding.

True or false.

A fronted adverbial of time tells the reader where the action happened.

Is that true or false? Pause the video while you answer that question.

Well done if you got the correct answer, false.

A fronted adverbial of time doesn't tell the reader where the action happened, it tells the reader when the action happened.

Let's read some sentences with fronted adverbials of time.

After school, whoosh, we went skating.

Remember, I do that funny sound and action when there's a comma.

After school is the fronted adverbial of time.

It tells me when we went skating.

After school, comma.

Last night, whoosh, I played with my new toy.

Last night is the fronted adverbial of time.

It comes at the start of the sentence.

It tells me when I played with my new toy and it has a comma after it.

Yesterday, my dog chased a cat.

Yesterday is the fronted adverbial of time.

Last week, Alex won a race.

Can you tell me, shout out loud, what is the fronted adverbial of time in this sentence? Last week, Alex won a race.

Are you ready? Can you maybe hold it on your chest? What's the fronted adverbial of time? Well done.

It's last week.

In the summer, we ate ice cream.

Are you ready? Have a look at the sentence.

Try and identify the fronted adverbial of time.

When you've got it ready, hold it on your chest.

The fronted adverbial of time is in the summer.

Well done.

In the summer, we ate ice cream.

In the summer is the fronted adverbial of time.

A long time ago, people lived in caves.

Last one.

A long time ago, people lived in caves.

Hold the answer on your chest.

What is the fronted adverbial of time? Well done.

A long time ago.

These fronted adverbials of time tell us when the action happened.

Not where it happened, but when the action happened.

Some fronted adverbials of time are just one word followed by a comma.

Yesterday, comma.

Other fronted adverbials of time are a group of words followed by a comma.

A long time ago, people lived in caves.

So we can see two different examples of fronted adverbials of time.

Yesterday is one word with a comma.

A long time ago is a group of words followed by a comma.

The whole group of words form a phrase that tell us when something happened.

The comma comes at the end of the phrase, and the main idea of the sentence follows.

Time for a check for understanding.

True or false.

A fronted adverbial of time comes at the beginning of a sentence.

Is it true or false? Pause the video now.

Well done If you got the correct answer, true.

A fronted adverb of time comes at the beginning, or the front of a sentence.

Another check for understanding.

A fronted adverbial of time is always followed by a, a full stop, b, a comma, or c, a verb? Pause the video while you think about the answer.

Well done If you got the correct answer, b, a comma.

A fronted adverbial of time is always followed by a comma.

If the fronted adverbial of time is a group of words, it can be really tricky to know where the comma comes, or which word the comma comes after.

Have a look at these examples.

In the summer, we ate ice cream.

In the summer, we ate ice cream.

In the summer, we ate ice cream.

Where we have a comma, it often tells the reader to have a pause.

So did you notice when I read those sentences, I paused where the comma came? So listen again and think about which one sounds right.

Where should the comma come? In, the summer we ate ice cream.

In the, summer we ate ice cream.

In the summer, we ate ice cream.

Which one sounded right? Perhaps have some thinking time.

The correct answer is the last one.

The comma is placed after all the words that tell us when the action happened and before the main idea.

The fronted adverbial of time is in the summer.

That tells us when we ate the ice cream.

So the comma has to come after that group of words.

Let's add a fronted adverbial of time to each of the past tense simple sentences below.

Here are our fronted adverbials of time.

Last night, comma, yesterday, comma, in the summer, comma.

You'll notice they all start with a capital letter, and that's because we know that they're going to start our sentences.

Here are the past tense simple sentences.

Jun made pasta.

The cats disappeared.

We went to the park.

So if we were going to add some more detail to each of those sentences to help us know when something happened, we could put one of those fronted adverbial in front of this past tense simple sentence.

For example, we could say last night, Jun made pasta.

We could say, yesterday, the cats disappeared.

But you'll notice we've got to do something really important here.

Yesterday, the cats disappeared.

Yesterday has a capital letter because it's the start of our sentence.

But the, the T in the no longer needs a capital letter because we have now put a sentence starter.

We've added a fronted adverbial of time at the beginning, so we can change that T to a lowercase T.

And finally, in the summer, we went to the park.

But what's wrong with that sentence? I've added my front adverbial of time at the beginning.

My front adverbial of time starts with a capital letter, but there's a capital letter that doesn't need to be there.

Can you point at it? Sometimes I call them naughty capital letters because they're in the wrong place.

Can you point at that naughty capital letter? Well done if you are pointing at the W, we no longer needs a capital letter at the start it.

Let's do another task.

I would like you to use the word bank and add a fronted adverbial of time before each past tense simple sentence.

Here's the word bank of fronted adverbials of time.

Let me read them to you.

Last night, whoosh.

After school, whoosh.

Last week, whoosh.

Last year, whoosh.

yesterday, whoosh.

In the past, whoosh.

They are all really useful fronted adverbials of time to use.

Here are our past tense simple sentences.

We went on a camping trip.

The moon was bright.

I played a board game.

Have a think about which fronted adverbial of time fits really well with the past tense simple sentence.

For example, it might sound a bit strange to say in the past, the moon was bright.

I wonder if there's something, a fronted adverbial of time that would fit a bit better in that sentence.

So add a fronted adverbial of time at the beginning of each past tense simple sentence and think carefully about which one do you think works well.

Pause the video while you complete that task.

Okay, let's go through the answers.

Last year, we went on a camping trip.

You might have chosen a different option to last year.

After school, we went on a camping trip.

Last week, we went on a camping trip.

Last year, we went on a camping trip.

All of those would work.

You'll notice I've put the fronted adverbial of time before my main sentence, my past tense simple sentence, and I remembered the comma after it.

Last night, the moon was bright.

Last night, comma, the moon was bright.

After school, comma, I played a board game.

I've added my fronted adverbial at the start of my sentence, and I have a comma after it.

Well done for all your hard work today.

Let's summarise what we've learned.

We've learned that a simple sentence can be written in the past tense.

The verb in the sentence carries the tense.

A fronted adverbial of time tells the reader when something happens.

A fronted adverbial of time comes at the beginning of the sentence and is followed by a comma.

So next time you do some writing, perhaps you could start your sentence with a fronted adverbial of time with a comma after it.

I bet anyone would be really impressed if you did that.

It's a lovely way to start a sentence.

Perhaps you might also notice when you write or say sentences, if they are in the present or past tense.

And perhaps you might notice some verbs when you are reading your next story.

You might look at the verbs and look at the endings, and see if you can see how that helps us to tell when something is happening.

You should be so proud of yourselves.

This was a really tricky lesson and you've done so well.

I hope to see you all again soon.

Bye.