Sentence Guidance for Years 2-6
Many parents ask us how to support children with writing at home. The sentence
structures below have been organised by year group as a rough age-related expectation. It
is important to remember that some children will need supporting with structures from
previous years, whilst others will already have been challenged with structures from later
years. Talking through example sentences with your child will help them to use and adapt
them more easily themselves. These can be used as models to help your child with their
writing!
Year 2
 use conjunctions and, but, so, because, or to make sentences with two clauses
 use adverbs and adjectives to add description
Yesterday I went to the park and played on the shiny slide.
The little boys couldn’t go out to play because it was raining heavily.
My older sister was sleeping on her bed so I went downstairs.
Year 3
 use Power of Three for description
 use adverbs as sentence starters, with a comma to mark them
 use expanded noun phrases (clap, clap things) to add detail
The dragon had sharp teeth, red scales and a vicious, spiky tail.
The gnome had shiny, black boots but his face was very muddy.
Carefully, I crawled out of the cave into the sunlight.
Year 4
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use which, who to introduce relative clauses
use Power of Three for action
use alliteration and simile
use a wider variety of subordinating conjunctions although, as, despite,
The lazy cat, which had been asleep all day, finally woke up.
Mr Jenkins, who was a terrifying teacher, towered over the tiny tot.
Tom rushed down the road, got on the bus and sank down into his seat.
As he trudged through the cold snow, his fingers felt as cold as ice.
Year 5
 use Ed Ingly starters with associated commas
 fully punctuated speech, including correct commas
Terrified by the towering dragon, George fell to the floor, covered his eyes and began to
cry.
Slowly stepping forward, the young boy prepared to face his punishment.
“Hello,” he said, as he shook my hand, “I will be your tour guide for the day.”
Running frantically from the scene of the crime, he shouted back, “You’ll never catch
me!”
Year 6
 use wide-ranging punctuation including brackets, dashes, colons, semi-colons
 use commas to indicate different clauses in complex sentences
Neil Armstrong – who was the first man on the Moon – is a world famous astronaut.
It was a cold night; the frost was already starting to form on the branches of the bare
winter trees.
The ball trickled slowly over the line: I had scored the winning goal!
The man, who had been waiting patiently in line the whole time, finally lost his temper and
stormed out of the shop, leaving a trail of destruction behind him.