Year 6 · SPaG · Spring: Lists, colons and semi-colons
Year 6 writing in note form worksheet and PowerPoint
To write short notes from a sentence, keeping the key facts and using punctuation to separate them.
Writing notes
Notes are a short way to record the important facts. Leave out words that are not needed (such as the, a, is, was), but keep names, numbers, dates and key words.
| keep | names, dates, numbers, important nouns |
|---|---|
| drop | small words such as the, a, is, was, and |
| use | colons, commas, semi-colons and dashes to separate the facts |
| no | full sentences, capital letters at the start of every line, or full stops |
Examples
- The train to London leaves at nine from platform two. → Train to London: 9.00, platform 2
- We visited the farm and saw cows, sheep and pigs. → Farm visit: cows, sheep, pigs
Key words
- notes
- a short record of the key facts
- abbreviation
- a shortened form of a word
- key word
- a word that carries important meaning
- summarise
- to say the main points briefly
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: Take a page of your reading book or a topic page and make notes of ten key facts. Use at least one colon, one semi-colon and one dash.
Pupil target: I can write short notes.
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 writing in note form PowerPoint.
Where this lesson fits
This is lesson 32 of 72 in the Year 6 SPaG scheme, in the Spring term, block “Lists, colons and semi-colons”. It is taught before the SATs grammar test in May.
Other lessons in this block
- Colons and semi-colons
- Punctuating bullet points
- Semi-colons
- Colons
- Choosing punctuation to mark boundaries
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