Five Ways To Help With Sentence Openers

"Try to vary your sentence openers." If you have spotted this on a school report, you are in very good company. In twenty years of teaching I have written it more times than I can count, and I am not sure I ever explained it properly to a parent. So let me put that right.

It means your child tends to start sentences the same way, usually with "I", "Then" or "The". A story might read: "I went to the park. Then I saw a dog. Then the dog ran away." All perfectly correct, and all a little flat. It is also completely normal, so nobody needs to worry.

Here are five easy ways to help at home:

1. Start with a time word. First, Later that day, After lunch, Meanwhile. These move a story along without a single "then".
2. Start with a place. Under the bridge, Behind the shed, At the top of the hill. Children love these because they paint a picture straight away.
3. Start with how something happened. Slowly, Without a sound, With a huge grin. Teachers call these fronted adverbials, and they need a comma after them.
4. Start with a feeling. Nervously, Delighted, Too tired to argue. This lets your child show a character's mood instead of telling you about it.
5. Read their sentences back to them. Pop a finger on the first word of each sentence. If three in a row start the same way, they will usually spot it before you say a word.

A quick game helps too, and it works just as well in the car as at the table. Say a plain sentence such as "The cat sat on the wall." Then take turns changing the opener. "In the warm sunshine, the cat sat on the wall." "Lazily, the cat sat on the wall." The silliest version wins, and grown-ups are allowed to compete.

You do not need to fix every sentence. Aim for two or three interesting openers in a piece of writing and make a real fuss of them when they appear. A child who feels proud of one good sentence will happily write another.