Year 6 · SPaG · Autumn: Word classes
Year 6 subjects and objects worksheet and PowerPoint
To identify the subject and the object of a verb, and to see how swapping them changes the meaning.
Subject and object
The subject is the noun or pronoun that does the verb. The object is the noun or pronoun that the verb is done to. Every sentence has a subject; not every sentence has an object.
| subject | who or what does the action: The baker made a cake. |
|---|---|
| object | who or what the action is done to: The baker made a cake. |
| swapping them | changes the meaning: The dog chased the cat / The cat chased the dog |
| no object | The baby slept. (nothing has the action done to it) |
Examples
- The farmer fed the horses.
- The horses fed the farmer. (a different meaning!)
Key words
- subject
- does the action
- object
- has the action done to it
- verb
- the action or state
- pronoun
- can be a subject or an object: she, her
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: Write four pairs of sentences. In each pair, use the same two nouns but swap the subject and the object so the meaning changes. Underline the subject once and the object twice.
Pupil target: I can find the subject and the object in a sentence.
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 subjects and objects PowerPoint.
Where this lesson fits
This is lesson 7 of 72 in the Year 6 SPaG scheme, in the Autumn term, block “Word classes”. It is taught before the SATs grammar test in May.
Other lessons in this block
- Nouns and verbs
- Adjectives and adverbs
- Pronouns
- Determiners, conjunctions and prepositions
- Word classes together
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