Using Commas After Fronted Adverbials - PowerPoint

An educational resource aimed at Year 3 and 4 pupils focuses on the correct use of commas after fronted adverbials within sentences. A fronted adverbial is a word or phrase that is placed at the beginning of a sentence to describe the action that follows and is usually followed by a comma. The material includes various activities to help students identify fronted adverbials in example sentences, such as "Before going to school, Melissa always walks her dog," and then apply this knowledge by punctuating new sentences correctly. These exercises are designed to reinforce the grammatical rule that a comma should follow a fronted adverbial, as in "Hardly making a sound, the kitten carefully stalked the fly."

The resource provides worksheets where students are tasked with rewriting sentences to include the correct punctuation for fronted adverbials. For instance, they would correct the sentence "after eating his dinner george was allowed some pudding" to "After eating his dinner, George was allowed some pudding." Additionally, the worksheets encourage students to create their own sentences using fronted adverbials, further cementing their understanding of how to use commas effectively in their writing. Example answers are provided to help guide the students and ensure they have clear models to follow, such as "Tired and angry, Sheree climbed the stairs," and "With a spring in her step, Shabana walked home."