Year 5 · SPaG · Parenthesis, brackets and dashes
Year 5 recognising parenthesis worksheet and PowerPoint
To recognise a parenthesis in a sentence and to say whether it is marked with commas, brackets or dashes.
Parenthesis
A parenthesis is extra information added to a sentence. You can take it out and the sentence still makes sense. It is marked off with a pair of commas, brackets or dashes.
| commas | My teacher, Mrs Khan, is very kind. |
|---|---|
| brackets | My teacher (Mrs Khan) is very kind. |
| dashes | My teacher – Mrs Khan – is very kind. |
| remember | Always use a pair: one mark before the extra information and one after it. |
Examples
- The dog, a brown spaniel, barked.
- The river – swollen by the rain – burst its banks.
Key words
- parenthesis
- extra information put inside a sentence
- brackets
- curved marks ( ) that go round a parenthesis
- dash
- a long line – used to mark off a parenthesis
- pair
- two marks: one before and one after
What is on the worksheet
Every sheet for this lesson has a short teaching box and 12 questions that get gradually harder: 8 fluency questions, then 4 reasoning questions that ask pupils to explain or choose. A writing challenge follows. The questions use the same styles as the key stage 2 grammar and punctuation test (circle, underline, tick, fill the gap, add punctuation, rewrite, explain). They are written for this website, not copied from past papers.
All the answers are on the last page of the same editable Word file. New questions are made every time, so you can print a different sheet for every group or for homework. The same sheet code always gives the same sheet.
Writing challenge: Find five sentences with a parenthesis in a book you are reading. Copy them out and underline each parenthesis. Say which mark each one uses.
Pupil target: I can spot a parenthesis and say which marks show it.
The PowerPoint
A 20-slide lesson deck for the same lesson: a starter that revisits earlier learning, key words, an I do and a You do question on each slide with a countdown timer, answers that appear one click at a time, and a challenge. Download the recognising parenthesis PowerPoint.
Where this lesson fits
This is lesson 1 of 43 in the Year 5 SPaG scheme, in the block “Parenthesis, brackets and dashes”.
Other lessons in this block
- Using brackets to show parenthesis
- Using dashes to show parenthesis
- Using commas to show parenthesis
- Parenthesis together
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