I play therefore I learn

What is the single most effective way of teaching English grammar at Key Stage 2?

“The belief seems to be that once children have an explicit knowledge of grammar, they will inevitably be better writers all round.”

So says David Horner, the author of “Cracking English Grammar in Key Stage 2: 100+ Creative Games and Writing Activities.”  And it is a belief that he challenges.

What David has in fact done is to take every single element of the Key Stage 2 SPaG agenda, and design over 100 creative writing activities around these elements.  In short, he has given children the chance to play with and utilise the grammar that they have learned.

This is all achieved in the single volume “Cracking English Grammar in Key Stage 2: 100+ Creative Games and Writing Activities”.

And the notion of “games” as well as writing activities is important, because as many professional writers admit, what they do much of the time is play with the language.  It is an activity that makes what they write more interesting to read and also an approach that ultimately makes them better writers.

Indeed, we should never forget just how much of the language is associated with games, for what else is the tongue twister, the crossword, and the alliterative phrase than games played with the language?

Then, if this notion can be extended to unravelling tricky spellings, everything within the language becomes a game or a puzzle to be solved.  The language is therefore not learned so much as played with and explored.

This in turn means that the activities that flow from this approach can be integrated into any scheme of work, and can be handled by children working in pairs, alone or in the whole class.

And at the end, the growing confidence the children come to exhibit will make them not just better writers and speakers, but also more enthusiastic writers and speakers. 

You can see how this is achieved through examples from the book, “Cracking English Grammar in KS2” on our website under the ‘Try before you buy’ tab.

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