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Topic: Y4

Relevant for Year 4 teachers and students.

Collective Nouns (Stein)

Lesson

Objective

To understand diffferent types of collective nouns.

Usually, nouns can be singular or plural, like book or books.

What other examples can you think of? 

There are some nouns which only appear in the singular. Can you think of any? 

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Homonyms (Stein)

Plan

Please note: there are two pages of activities for this lesson.

Activity 1

Show the learners the two example words. Ask them to discuss with a partner how many different meanings they can think of. In the next two slides, show possible solutions. 

Next, explain that words with multiple unrelated meanings are called homonyms. Ask learners to identify the word class of the two example words.  

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Homonyms 1 (Stein)

Lesson

Objective

To identify the different meanings of homonyms of various word classes. 

Activity 1

Look at these two words. How many meanings can you think of for each? 

  • bank 
  • pupil

  • bank 
    1. an organization or a building that handles money and provides financial services. 
    2. the land on the side of a river or a lake

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    Homonyms 2 (Stein)

    Lesson

    Activity 3

    This lesson continues our look at homonyms. 

    Take for example the word fast

    How many different meanings and word classes can you think of?

    Look at these two sentences: 

    1. Katie works very fast
    2. Katie is a fast worker.

    They have very similar meanings, but in one sentence fast is an adverb and in the other an adjective.

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    Hyponymy (Stein)

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Show the learners the list of three nouns. Ask them to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. 

    After a couple of minutes, reveal the focus of the lesson in the next slide: how nouns can relate to each other by being more general or specific. Use the example to demonstrate. Ask learners if they can think of any other examples. Don't worry if they struggle at this point, as they will see more throughout the lesson. 

    Ask learners to make notes on the new terminology, beacuse they will need it for the other activities. 

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    Hyponymy (Stein)

    Lesson

    Activity 1

    Look at these three nouns.

    What is the relationship between them? Can they be arranged into a logical order? 

    • dog
    • poodle
    • animal

    We can label nouns as general or specific. The specific noun is included in the general noun.

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    Metaphor (Stein)

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Check your learners' prior knowledge by asking them to discuss the meaning of the term metaphor and to give examples. This can be done individually, and then check in small groups and/or whole class.

    Use the next slide to confirm the learners' answers. Next, ask if the learners can think of any other animal metaphors such as sly fox. Ask learners to share their ideas with each other and the whole class.

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    Metaphor (Stein)

    Lesson

    Activity 1

    What does the term metaphor mean?

    Can you think of an example? 

    A metaphor is when a word or phrase is used to suggest a resemblance to a another thing or action. 

    A metaphor uses language in a figurative sense. 

    When we call someone a sly fox we are implying that their behaviour is similar to a fox i.e. sneaky or crafty. 

    What other animal metaphors can you think of? 

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    Noun identification

    In this activity, students work through the criteria for identifying nouns.

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    Noun identification: Activity 1

    Which words do you think are nouns?

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    Noun identification: Activity 2

    I'll see you on Thursday.

    Is Thursday a noun?

    • Does it represent a person, place, thing or idea?
    • Can it be singular or plural? Can you say one ___ and two ___s?
    • Can it be possessive? Can you add 's or ' at the end?
    • Can it follow the or a?
    • Can it be replaced with a pronoun like it, he, she, or they?

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    Noun phrase generator

    Try this noun phrase generator in class. Your students will enjoy creating weird and funny noun phrases using the interactive whiteboard.

    Goals

    • Create some new noun phrases.
    • Examine what can and can't happen in noun phrases.
    • Evaluate example noun phrases, looking at why they do or don't work.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that today, we will be generating noun phrases. 

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    Noun phrase generator: Activity

    Use the interactive whiteboard to generate weird and wonderful noun phrases. 

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    Nouns and only nouns

    Students are asked to communicate using a bank of nouns - and nothing else.

    Goals

    • Communicate with a partner using only nouns.
    • Discuss what can and can't be easily expressed using only nouns.
    • Determine which other types of words are useful for expressing complex ideas.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that this activity will involve you trying to express progressively more complicated concepts and actions to a partner using only these words, your own body language and imagination.

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    Polysemy (Stein)

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Explain that the word polysemy refers to the idea that words can have more than one meaning.

    Ask the learners to think of more than one meaning for the words football and mouse and discuss with a partner or small group. Show the next slide to reveal some possible answers.

    As an extension, see if learners can come up with any other words with multiple meanings. 

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    Polysemy (Stein)

    Lesson

    Objective

    To understand how polysemy applies to different word classes.

    Activity 1

    Some words may have only one meaning, but most tend to have more.

    Let's take for example the words football and mouse.

    How many meanings can you think of for each? 

    football can mean:

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    Sentence building

    In this activity, students ask the question: what is a sentence? Then, they answer it using an interactive smart board sentence generator.

    Goals

    • Identify sentences and non-sentences.
    • Create some examples of sentences and non-sentences using an interactive smart board sentence generator.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that today, we will answer the question: what is a sentence?

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    Sentences with 'because'

    In this activity, students practise composing sentences with the word because.

    Goals

    • Identify the causal relationship that underlies use of because.
    • Compose some reasonable sentences using because.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that today, we will practise using the word because.

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    Sentences with 'because': Activity

    I'm wearing wellies.
    Why?
    Because it's raining.

    I'm wearing wellies
    because
    it's raining.

    You're it.
    Why?
    Because I tagged you.

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    Sentences with 'if'

    In this activity, students practise composing sentences with the word if.

    Goals

    • Rehearse an implicit understanding of the conditional meaning of if.
    • Practise composing sentences using if.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that today, we will practise writing sentences with the word if.

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    Sentences with 'if': Activity

    If you're wearing red, raise your hand.

    If you're wearing blue, stomp your feet.

    If you're wearing velcro, scratch your head.

    If you have a zipper on your clothes, scratch your ear.

    If you're the tallest one, wiggle your nose.

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    Spelling - Consonant doubling 1

    Goals

    To learn and practise the spelling rules associated with base words ending in consonant letters when endings (suffixes) are added.

    Lesson plan

    The lesson is divided into a series of activities where students group words according to whether they double the final consonant letter when a suffix is added, or not. For each set of examples, students are asked to identify and make predictions about the patterns for this area of spelling.

    Introduction

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