Starter quiz
- Which of these pieces of punctuation can be used to add parenthesis to a sentence?
- dashes ✓
- full stops
- apostrophes
- brackets ✓
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- Which of these sentences uses dashes correctly to add parenthesis?
- The eagle swooped - fast as lightning - towards its innocent prey. ✓
- The eagle - swooped fast as lightning - towards its innocent prey.
- The eagle swooped fast - as lightning - towards its innocent prey.
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- Which words in this sentence could be placed between dashes to show parenthesis? 'A siren loud as thunder woke us in an instant.'
- a siren
- loud as thunder ✓
- a siren woke us in an instant
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- Which words in this sentence could be placed between dashes to show parenthesis? 'The cave dark and vast and empty echoed with the sound of our whispers.'
- the cave echoed with the sound of our whispers
- dark and vast and empty ✓
- the cave echoed
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- Which of these sentences creates the most intense effect of sadness for the reader?
- The child sat down and cried.
- The child - in jeans and a t-shirt - sat down and cried.
- The child - alone and abandoned in the empty playground - sat down and cried. ✓
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- Which of these pieces of parenthesis could be added to this sentence to create an effect of fear? 'The forest surrounded them on all sides.'
- dark and endless ✓
- bright as the midday sun
- a glorious expanse of greenery
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Exit quiz
- Which of the following can an apostrophe be used to show?
- contraction ✓
- correction
- possession ✓
- position
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- Which sentence below uses both apostrophes for contraction correctly?
- They'd told us it was'nt ready yet.
- They'd told us it wasn't ready yet. ✓
- Theyd' told us it wasn't ready yet.
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- Which words in this sentence could be contracted using an apostrophe? 'We should have given it to him, but he had told us to wait.'
- given it
- should have ✓
- he had ✓
- told us
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- Match each 'possession' idea to the sentence that uses it. Each sentence uses an apostrophe for singular possession.
- an opinion belonging to Sam⇔I disagreed with Sam's opinion. ✓
- beliefs belonging to Lucas⇔We respected Lucas' beliefs. ✓
- personality belonging to Jun⇔Because I like Jun's personality, we're good friends. ✓
- a neighbour belonging to Alex⇔We all dislike Alex's neighbour because he is rude to us. ✓
- Which sentence correctly uses the apostrophe for plural possession for the idea 'the tired passengers belonging to the ships'?
- The ships' tired passenger's got off at the port.
- The ships' tired passengers got off at the port. ✓
- The ship's tired passengers got off at the port.
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- Tick the sentences that use an apostrophe for plural possession correctly.
- The childrens' appalling behaviour shocked Mrs Begum.
- The children's appalling behaviour shocked Mrs Begum. ✓
- The people's huge sacrifices made all the difference. ✓
- The persons' huge sacrifices made all the difference.
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Worksheet
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Presentation
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Lesson Details
Key learning points
- An apostrophe is an important piece of punctuation with more than one purpose.
- An apostrophe can contract two words together.
- An apostrophe can show if a noun belongs to another singular noun.
- An apostrophe can show if a noun belongs to another plural noun.
- Contractions are useful in writing to indicate a character's informal speech.
Common misconception
Pupils may believe all plural nouns end in s.
Emphasise that several very common plural nouns do not end in s - make a list of these to keep.
Keywords
Apostrophe for contraction - a punctuation mark used to contract two words together
Apostrophe for possession - a punctuation mark used to show if a noun belongs to another singular or plural noun
Singular - only one
Plural - more than one
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