KS1 English — Writing Sentences About an Animal

Taught through Rosie the galah

Approx. 25 minutes · KS1

Before you start

This is Rosie. She is a pink and white cockatoo called a galah, and she is very loud.

We are going to write some sentences about her.

Take as long as you like. Nothing here is marked.

What you'll learn

• What makes a sentence.
• Where capital letters and full stops go.
• How to use adjectives to describe.
• How to join two ideas with "and" or "because".

Part 1 — What is a sentence?

A sentence needs three things:

1. It makes sense on its own.
2. It starts with a capital letter.
3. It ends with a full stop.

✅ Rosie is a bird.
❌ rosie is a bird — no capital letter, no full stop.
❌ Rosie the pink. — has a capital and a full stop, but does not make sense.

Your turn

Which of these are proper sentences?

1. Gary has spines.
2. the tortoise eats leaves
3. Rosie can talk.
4. Under the warm lamp.

Part 2 — Capital letters

Capital letters go in two places:

• At the start of every sentence.
• At the start of a name.

Rosie, Gary, Elvis and Marvin are all names, so they always get a capital — wherever they are in the sentence.

"The bird is called Rosie." Two capitals: one for The at the start, one for Rosie.

Your turn

Write these out with the capital letters put right.

1. gary is a hedgehog.
2. i saw marvin today.
3. the galah is called rosie.

Part 3 — Adjectives

An adjective is a describing word. It tells you more.

• Rosie is a bird. → Rosie is a noisy bird.
• Gary has spines. → Gary has sharp spines.
• Marvin is a tortoise. → Marvin is a huge, slow tortoise.

Adjectives make writing much more interesting to read.

Some good ones

soft · spiky · loud · quiet · tiny · huge · warm · gentle · curious · slow

Your turn

Add an adjective to each:

1. Rosie has a ______ voice.
2. The hoglet is ______.
3. Marvin has a ______ shell.

Part 4 — Joining ideas

Two short sentences can be joined into one longer one.

"and" joins two ideas together.

Rosie is pink. She is loud. → Rosie is pink and she is loud.

"because" tells you why.

Gary sleeps in the day. He is nocturnal. → Gary sleeps in the day because he is nocturnal.

Your turn

Join these using "and" or "because":

1. Marvin is slow. He is heavy.
2. Rosie shouts. She wants attention.

Part 5 — Write about Rosie

Write four sentences about Rosie.

Here is what we know:

• She is a galah, which is a kind of cockatoo.
• She is pink and white.
• She is very loud.
• She reads with the children.
• She lives in Surrey with us.

Check your writing

• Does every sentence start with a capital letter?
• Does every sentence end with a full stop?
• Does Rosie's name have a capital letter every time?
• Have I used at least one adjective?
• Have I used "and" or "because" at least once?

Part 6 — Questions

1. Write this properly: rosie is a loud bird (2 marks)

2. Find the adjective: Gary has sharp spines. (1 mark)

3. Join these with "because": Marvin sits under the lamp. He is cold. (1 mark)

4. Write one sentence about any animal, using an adjective. (2 marks)

Try this

• Say a sentence about your favourite animal out loud, then write it down.
• Find three adjectives in a book you are reading.

Notes for the adult

Curriculum: KS1 English — writing sentences with correct capitalisation and punctuation; using capital letters for names; using adjectives to expand noun phrases; and joining clauses using "and" and subordination using "because".

Part 1's fourth example — "Under the warm lamp." — is the important one. Children learn "capital and full stop" as the whole rule and then apply it to fragments. Showing a correctly punctuated non-sentence is the fastest way to teach that a sentence also has to make sense.

"Because" is doing a lot of work here. It is the first subordinating conjunction most children use, and it moves writing from listing to explaining. Worth praising loudly whenever it appears.

For a child who is not writing independently yet, every task here works spoken and scribed. The four sentences about Rosie can be dictated and then copied, or just dictated.

Access: read-aloud, dyslexia-friendly font, enlarged text, high contrast and calm mode. The checklist in Part 5 is a tick-list and prints separately.

No timing, no scoring.

Ready for more? Open the full unit →