Treasure House - Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation Skills Teacher’s Guide 6 by Collins

Vocabulary Unit 1A: Using a thesaurus (1) Overview English curriculum objectives • Pupils should be taught to use a thesaurus

Treasure House resources • Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation Skills Pupil Book 6, Vocabulary Unit 1A, pages 4–5

• Collins Connect Treasure House Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation Year 6, Vocabulary Unit 1 • Photocopiable Vocabulary Unit 1A, Resource 1: Walked, strolled, staggered, crept, page 67 • Photocopiable Vocabulary Unit 1A, Resource 2: Raced, dashed, careered, charged, page 68

Introduction Teaching overview This unit develops children’s confidence and ability in using a thesaurus to find words with similar meanings. This will encourage children to reflect on the word choices they make when writing and know how to look for alternatives to improve the effectiveness of what they want to communicate. The activities will also help to develop children’s vocabulary generally as they are asked to look up and substitute a variety of words. Children should be familiar with alphabetical referencing from previous work using dictionaries in Year 5.

Introduce the concept Ask the children if any of them can explain to you what a thesaurus is and why it might be a useful tool. Elicit ideas and establish that a thesaurus is a reference book, organised in alphabetical order similar to a dictionary, that contains words with similar meanings. Explain that it can help us find new or better words for what we want to say.

Pupil practice Get started Ask the children to find five alternative words in a thesaurus. You may also wish to support children by working through the example collaboratively. Afterwards, discuss the words and how the meaning of each is slightly different, explaining meaning and nuance where needed. All answers will depend on the thesauruses available.

Write the following examples on the board to demonstrate: • The cake was nice. • The weather was nice. Discuss different options for ‘nice’ in each case: ‘delicious’, ‘tasty’, ‘sweet’ and so on; ‘pleasant’, ‘warm’ and so on. Organise the children into teams and give each team a thesaurus. Ask them to look up ‘nice’ and suggest a new word for each sentence. Listen to the suggestions and try them in the sentences: • The cake was nice sumptuous. • The weather was nice pleasant. Discuss other words in the thesaurus that they had rejected, and why, for example ‘courteous’ or ‘obliging’. Give each team the following words: ‘warm’, ‘clever’ and ‘big’, and ask them to choose one excellent alternative word with the same meaning for each. Share the words. Award one point for each successful word choice and a bonus point for each unique word.

Pupil Book pages 4–5 Possible answers 1. sour, old, decayed, musty, fusty, [example] 2. cloudy, overcast, grey, gloomy, leaden [1 mark] 3. spotless, unsoiled, fresh, sparkling, hygienic [1 mark] 4. protect, but, except, bar, excluding [1 mark] 5. appearance, expression, air, aspect, guise [1 mark] 6. cheerful, contented, delighted, ecstatic, elated [1 mark] 7. bound, dance, fly, hop, scamper [1 mark] 8. alarming, chilling, creepy, eerie, horrifying [1 mark]

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Vocabulary Unit 1A: Using a thesaurus (1)

Try these

Now try these

Ask the children to use a thesaurus to replace the underlined word in each sentence with a more informal word. Afterwards, discuss the change in tone with the change in vocabulary. Example answers 1. The pop star was swamped with fan mail when she finally returned home from touring. [example] 2. The curious explorer, waiting patiently, wondered with anxiety what would come out from the cave in front of her. [1 mark] 3. The old man realised his mistake and took back his statement in court. [1 mark] 4. Old Major Faversham, who’s a friend of my Gran, asked what my name was. [1 mark] 5. The full moon was shining in the black, starry sky. [1 mark] 6. The pantomime we saw in London last Christmas was very entertaining. [1 mark]

Ask the children to look up the underlined words in each sentence in a thesaurus. Then they copy out the sentence, replacing the underlined words with different words of their own choice. Finally, they need to explain why they chose those words. You may wish to support children by discussing the task before setting them to work independently or in pairs. Open-ended questions 1. Accept any well-explained substitutions, for example ‘elderly’ and ‘saturated’ exaggerate the man’s weakness and wetness. [2 marks] 2.–5. Accept any well-explained substitutions. [2 marks per question] 6. Accept any well-explained substitutions. [3 marks]

Support, embed & challenge Support

Embed

Work in a group with these children. Write the sentence ‘He walked.’ on the board. Together, think of other words for ‘walked’ before using an appropriate thesaurus to expand the list. Try the different versions of ‘walked’ in the sentence. Talk about the different meanings, asking children to act the different ways of walking. Work as a group to complete Vocabulary Unit 1A Resource 1: Walked, strolled, staggered, crept. Help the children to locate the words in a thesaurus and select appropriate words. Discuss the slightly different meaning of each and try each of them in the sentence. Ask the children to decide which works best in the context. (Answers Open-ended task. Look for appropriate choice of synonyms used to alter the text.)

Ask the children to complete Vocabulary Unit 1A Resource 2: Raced, dashed, careered, charged. Remind the children to choose the replacement word carefully, checking the meaning and whether it fits into the sentence. Afterwards, ask children to read their changed text to a partner or small group and ask them to try to explain why they made the choices they did. (Answers Open-ended task. Look for appropriate choice of synonyms used to alter the text.)

Challenge Children challenge a partner to write a list of ten everyday words. They then swap lists and race each other to look up the words and find alternatives in the thesaurus.

Homework / Additional activities Varied vocabulary Ask the children to write five versions of the following sentence. Tell them they can change any of the words: ‘The boy walked down the road.’

Collins Connect: Vocabulary Unit 1 Ask the children to complete Vocabulary Unit 1 (see Teach → Year 6 → Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation → Vocabulary Unit 1). Note: the Collins Connect activities could be used with Unit 1A or 1B.

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Vocabulary Unit 1B: Using a thesaurus (2) Overview English curriculum objectives • Pupils should be taught to use a thesaurus

Treasure House resources • Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation Skills Pupil Book 6, Vocabulary Unit 1B, pages 6–7

• Collins Connect Treasure House Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation Year 6, Vocabulary Unit 1 • Photocopiable Vocabulary Unit 1B, Resource 1: The vermillion fedora, page 69 • Photocopiable Vocabulary Unit 1B, Resource 2: A good swap, page 70

Introduction Teaching overview This unit builds on the previous unit’s work on using a thesaurus. The children are asked to look up words and find multiple alternatives, to replace words within sentences to give a more informal term, to make their own choices and give an explanation for these. By now, children should be familiar with how a thesaurus works and this unit therefore provides further practice and consolidation of those skills.

Introduce the concept Ask the children to remind you of the purpose of a thesaurus and explain how to use one. Elicit answers then ask a volunteer to demonstrate by giving them a word and a thesaurus and asking them to model to the class how to find alternative words. Remind the children that we can improve our vocabulary knowledge and the words we use in our writing by using a thesaurus to find more interesting words.

Write the following on the board: • The picnic in the woods was great. • My new scooter is great. Ask the children, working in groups, to look up ‘great’ in a thesaurus, to write five words on their mini whiteboard and hold it up. Create a class list of the words then return to the sentences and discuss which words would, and would not, fit the sentence. Explain that in the English language we have ‘shades of meaning’, which means that sometimes you cannot substitute a word with a similar word because, although the word may appear to be very similar, actually there is a subtle difference in meaning that impacts on the sentence or text as a whole. In other words, you may lose or hinder the meaning you are trying to convey by changing the word. Agree on a replacement for each (discussing the choice of formal and informal vocabulary). • The picnic in the woods was great awesome. • My new scooter is great fantastic. Ask the children in their groups to use a thesaurus to write a new version of ‘The storm was scary.’

Pupil practice

Pupil Book pages 6–7

Get started

Try these

Ask the children to choose the most appropriate alternative from the list. Afterwards, discuss the rejected options and suggest a sentence for them. Answers 1. We have a different teacher. [example] 2. Pushkal’s a clever boy. [1 mark] 3. We had a leisurely stroll along the beach. [1 mark] 4. The noise of the waterfall was deafening. [1 mark] 5. Quick! Cover the cake! [1 mark] 6. Cinderella had a miserable/dismal dinner of stale bread. [1 mark]

Ask the children to use a thesaurus to replace the word with a more informal option. Discuss the different words chosen by the children and different lists provided by different thesauruses. Example answers 1. The girl was upset because she had lost her kitten. [example] 2. The artist searched through the charity shop in the hope of saving some [1 mark] interesting materials for his project.

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Vocabulary Unit 1B: Using a thesaurus (2)

3. The explorer packed her backpack with essentials in preparation for the great trip. [1 mark] 4. The beautiful butterfly appeared from its papery cocoon. [1 mark] 5. The ballerina wanted to be discovered by the famous theatre director. [1 mark] 6. The chef inspected his burnt apron strings and wondered whether he should wear a new one. [1 mark]

Now try these Ask the children to work in pairs to discuss the different options and the meanings they have before choosing for themselves and writing their own sentences. Open-ended questions Accept any well-explained substitutions. [2 marks per question]

Support, embed & challenge Support Organise the children into pairs and ask them to look up the following words in a thesaurus, writing three alternatives for each: ‘said’, ‘nice’, ‘ate’, ‘find’, ‘sleep’, ‘create’. Use Vocabulary Unit 1B Resource 1: The vermillion fedora as a group task. Ask different children in the group to look up each underlined word. Discuss the options before asking the children to make their own choices for two versions of each sentence. (Answers Open-ended task. Look for appropriate selection of synonyms used to write new versions of the sentences.)

Embed Use Vocabulary Unit 1B Resource 2: A good swap to enable children to understand that using a thesaurus to find substitute words isn’t always straightforward.

Ask the children to look up the words that are in the left-hand column of the chart in the thesaurus. Then, in the other columns, they write words that they think are similar and could be swapped into the phrase given without losing meaning or using words that they think may actually hinder the original meaning. Afterwards, ask them to discuss whether they prefer the original word or the suggested swap. (Answers Open-ended task. Look for appropriate selection of synonyms used to represent a good and poor swap for the original word.)

Challenge Challenge children to compare the different thesauruses in the class. Ask them to look up the same words in each (for example: ‘said’, ‘nice’, ‘ate’, ‘find’, ‘sleep’, ‘create’) and compare the given lists. Ask them to present their findings to the class and recommend one of the thesauruses to the class.

Homework / Additional activities The history of the thesaurus Ask children to research and prepare a short presentation (or write a paragraph of text) on the history of the thesaurus. Ask them to find out who invented the thesaurus, when the first thesaurus was created, and how thesauruses have changed over time.

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