Fronted Adverbials- A Thread.
(I know it sounds truly awful)

We’ve been doing fronted adverbials in Year 3. I find them a really impressive tool for improving the detail and adding interest to writing. This year we’ve tried something slightly different.

In previous years, we’ve chosen to brush over the different types of fronted adverbials. This year we spent our first session committing these to memory. Using a dance, we memorised the different types and what specific detail they add.

Time- when something happened.
Place- where something happened.
Manner- how something happened.
Frequency- how often something happened.
Possibility- how likely it is something will happen.

We then used a mix and match activity in groups to see if we could identify which examples fall into which category. It was also a great way to provide them with high quality examples they could use later in the week.

Our second session was a focus on our text, Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx. We did some adverbial spotting within the text and magpied any favourites we liked for our working wall as well as creating our own class examples based around the text.

Then in our 3rd session we thought about the impact of the different types of fronted adverbial.
If we use- As quick as a flash,
There is a sense of urgency, it adds to the pace of the story.

Whereas- With a solemn look,
The reader recognises a change in the characters mood.

Before our final session of writing, we identified the mood we wanted to create in each paragraph. The children were then able to identify fronted adverbials that would add to the intended feel of that section.

The results have been great. Just by spending a little more time understanding the different types of fronted adverbial as well as how they can be used to create a mood or an effect on the reader, the writing has been much more engaging & reads with greater fluidity.

Here ends the most boring thread in history.