What are connectives?
What are connectives? A connective is a word that is used to link clauses or phrases within a sentence. The most well-known connective is possibly the word AND.
At the beginning of their learning journey, children will think simply of connective words adding two phrases together in a sentence.
As their learning develops they will see that connectives can be separated into Conjunctions, Prepositions and Adverbs.
When will children begin to learn about connectives?
In Key Stage 1 when children are 5 and 6 teachers will encourage them to form more complex sentences by using connectives to join simple sentences together. As an example a child might be encouraged to look at the following:
- The dog is very thirsty. The dog’s water bowl is empty.
These two simple sentences could become one more interesting sentence by using connectives as follows:
- The dog is very thirsty because his water bowl is empty.
When do children develop their knowledge of connectives further?
- During Key Stage 2 when they are between 7 and 11 years old children will build up their knowledge of connectives. They’ll begin to learn that connectives can be conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs and they will be using them to enrich their writing.
- Children who write well tend to use a varied set of connectives to bring their writing to life and learn to use connectives to help them to vary their sentence length which adds interest to their written work.
What sort of exercises will children do as they learn about connectives?
Children will be encouraged to join simple sentences together and to re-draft their work to use connectives more effectively. Work on connectives normally starts with conjunctions in year two and then moves on from there as children make progress.
During Key Stage two from year three onward children will learn that connectives don’t solely occur within one sentence but can also come at the beginning of a second sentence to help the two sentences link together and so improve a child’s writing style.
Here’s an example with the connective word in bold:
- I set out for the shops in a rush and ran most of the way there. After two minutes I ran out of puff and had to walk the rest of the way.
How does Learning Street help children to develop their knowledge and use of connectives?
Connective usage is a broad topic and one where children start at a basic level and gradually get towards more complex use as their knowledge improves. It is an important area and children may well be asked questions on the topic in their year six SATS exams.
Learning Street courses feature development work on connectives use. Knowledge is developed on a gradual basis and children find that our process of introduction, consolidation and revision means that they emerge with a thorough understanding of connectives and use them confidently in their written work.
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