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Free sentence activity · KS2

Fronted Adverbials

By TheLearnDen's editorial team · Updated 2026-08-08 · Free, no account, works on a phone.

Start with a deliberately plain sentence. Then pick one change and rewrite it — a different opener, an extra clause, something you could hear or smell.

The point is not to make every sentence longer. It is to see that one plain sentence has dozens of possible versions, and to choose the one that does the job.

This activity needs JavaScript switched on. With it off, the teaching notes below still work with a whiteboard.

Running this in class

  1. Model one change yourself first, thinking out loud, including a version you reject.
  2. Give everyone the same starting sentence and the same change, then read six different results. The variety is the lesson.
  3. Push back on stacking: three adjectives, a simile and an adverb in one sentence is usually worse, not better. Ask which single change earned its place.
  4. The spell book keeps the sentences a child is proud of, so they can be read out at the end or copied into books.
  5. Fifteen minutes is two or three changes on one sentence.

Questions

What does the Fronted Adverbials activity teach?

It practises varying sentence openers, expanding noun phrases, choosing precise verbs, and adding relative and subordinate clauses — the Key Stage 2 expectations for varying sentence structure for effect.

Are the examples for copying?

No. Each change shows two worked examples so children can see the shape, then they write their own. Copying the example is the one thing to rule out at the start.

Can children use their own sentence?

Yes, there is a box for typing any starting sentence, which works well with a sentence from the class text.

The other sentence activities

  • Spot the Mistake

    Find the fault in a sentence, then write a clear, correctly punctuated version.

  • Sentence Building

    Build complete sentences from given vocabulary and join clauses with purposeful conjunctions.

  • Relative Clauses KS2

    Add a relative clause inside a sentence and place the paired commas correctly.

  • Clauses and Conjunctions

    What the words actually mean: clauses, conjunctions and how sentences join.