fronted adverbials homework year 6

What is a fronted adverbial? FREE word mat & worksheets

A fronted adverbial  is a great way to up-level your child’s writing. Our engaging and colourful worksheets plus word mat have been designed to make the learning easy and interesting for all children.

What is an adverbial?

An adverbial is a word, phrase or clause which adds more detail or information to a verb e.g the time, place, or manner of which describe the action in the rest of the sentence.

• He drove to the hospital as quickly as he can .
• The children jumped happily .
• I met my friend in Paris. 
• My daughter finished her work at half-past six .

Fronted adverbial definition:

A fronted adverbial is an adverbial phrase or a word that’s moved to the beginning of the sentence, before the verb. They are usually separated from the rest of a sentence with a comma.

So an adverbial phrase is an adverb, followed by a comma, followed by the main clause.

The fronted adverbial describes the action that follows. For example:

“The child opened the door”  is an action. The fronted adverbial is “slowly”. So the action is going to be done slowly.

These adverbials help the child to improve their writing style. In order to make a complex sentence, the child can use coordinating conjunctions 

Fronted adverbials examples.

Occasionally,  my mum allows me to have a sleepover at my friend’s house.  (frequency)

In the distance,  he could hear a scream.  (Where)

Carefully,  Ben read the recipe.  (How)

In the garden, there was a baby hedgehog under the leaves. (Where)

As soon as he could, He left the exam hall . (When)

How to teach fronted adverbials in a fun way?

A great resource for KS2 children to keep on hand as a prompt and spelling reference during independent writing tasks.

Our wonderful fronted adverbial word mat will make it easy for your child. Firstly, ask your child to write a few simple sentences like:

• She ran to the school.
• Ben ate ice cream.
• Tom finished his homework.

Now ask your child if they can improve these sentences using the given fronted adverbials word mat . Try to do the same thing over an over again to make them learn better.

Spot an adverbial phrase or adverbs

Please also have a look at our free prefix and suffix mats , which can help the child to get better in spellings.

In the fronted adverbials worksheet , read the sentence and spot the adverb or adverbial phrase. Move them at the start of the sentence to make the fronted adverbial sentences. Remember your child to add a comma after the fronted adverbial phrase or word.

 Make sentences with fronted adverbials.

Show the pictures below to the children and ask them to write a fronted adverbial sentence for each picture. An example sentence has been provided under each picture.

Slowly , the bird soared across the sky.

At midnight , the fairies danced above the glistening sky.

Attentively , the children listened to the story.

Slowly , the children crossed the road.

If you are interested in some creative writing story starters for children, please have a look at  21 Creative writing story starters for children

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Fronted adverbials: examples and meaning

What are fronted adverbials? 

Fronted adverbials are words or phrases that are placed at the beginning of a sentence to describe the action that follows.

What are some examples of fronted adverbials?

• In the morning, I went for a run.
• Before dinner, we played in the garden.
• With great excitement, she opened the present.
• At school, we learned about dinosaurs.
• Suddenly, the phone rang.

What is in this fronted adverbial worksheet?

In this fronted adverbial worksheet for primary school children, you will find an easy-to-understand explanation of what fronted adverbials are, with clear examples and a fun, cut-and-place activity. Solidify your child's understanding of fronted adverbials with this teacher-created resource. 

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Printables / activities for fronted adverbials

• 1 How Did It Happen.pdf
• 1 When Did It Happen.pdf
• 1 Where Did It Happen.pdf
• 2 Adverbial Sort.pdf
• 3 Spot the Adverbial.pdf
• 4 Spot the Missing Comma.pdf
• 5 Fronted Adverbials Writing Prompt.pdf
• 5 uplevelling-sentences-activity-sheets.pdf
• WORD MAT fronted-adverbials-ks2-word-mat-list-_ver_6.pdf

Unfortunately not the ones with chocolate chips.

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• Fronted Adverbials Worksheets Examples And Resources For Ks1 And Ks2 English

Fronted adverbials – Best KS2 worksheets, examples and lesson ideas

Once upon a time, pupils weren't expected to know what a fronted adverbial was. Today's students, however, very much are, and hopefully these resources can help…

In lockdown and the era of homeschooling, Michael Rosen noted that his social media timeline was suddenly full of parents telling him that they didn’t know what fronted adverbials were.

If you’re also confused or need fresh inspiration for teaching this area of grammar, read on…

What are fronted adverbials?

High-quality model texts, how to teach fronted adverbials, fronted adverbials teaching resources.

The 2014 national curriculum glossary explains that when we move a word or phrase that normally comes after a verb to before it, we have ‘fronted’ it.

It defines an adverbial as a word or phrase that we use, like an adverb, to modify a verb or clause. 

We can use adverbs  as adverbials. However, you can also use many other types of words and phrases this way, including preposition phrases and subordinate clauses .

For children (and teachers) to understand adverbials, they need to understand word classes more generally. All sentences will have a subject and a verb: ‘The dog barked.’ They may even have an object too: ‘The dog barked at the cat.’

It would be hard to write this sentence in a different order and retain the same level of coherence. An adverbial, however, is very flexible. ‘The dog barked at the cat at 11am.’ Here the adverbial (‘at 11am’) is after the verb (‘barked’).

‘At 11am, the dog barked at the cat.’ Here we have fronted it. Personally, I think it works better fronted in this sentence, otherwise we’re using ‘at’ twice in quick succession. But there are other occasions when the adverbial sounds better after the verb.

The role of adverbials

Adverbials tell us more about the verb. They might tell us when, where, how, how long, why or how much. They add an extra level of detail to our sentences. You may find more than one in a sentence: ‘In 2020, at the age of 100, Captain Tom was finally knighted.’

Have a go at moving these adverbials around. Notice how you can make this sentence look quite different, but it’s still coherent and has the same meaning. That’s the wonderful thing about adverbials!

Teach fronted adverbials in context with these creative and powerful model texts from Plazoom for Year 4. Each text is annotated with key teaching points and will save you hours of time writing or finding your own examples.

Fronted adverbials examples

• ‘ Save Our Ancient Woodlands ‘ protest letter by Loretta Schauer – explore the author’s use of fronted adverbials in discursive writing
• ‘ Until We Are Free Again ‘ exciting narrative by Margeret Bateson-Hill –  write a description of Boudicca using adverbials to show time, place and manner
• ‘ Dear Gran ‘ informal recount by Jo Franklin – investigate how to use fronted adverbials to modify verbs

The best way to teach children about fronted adverbials is to look at them being used by experts: children’s authors. Pick up any good children’s chapter book (and many picturebooks too) and you’re bound to spot a fronted adverbial on whichever page the book falls open at.

“The best way to teach children about fronted adverbials is to look at them being used by experts”

You’ll undoubtedly also find a sentence which starts with a determiner. This is good because we want children to see that fronted adverbials work best when used as one way to start a sentence, not the only way. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

When looking at a children’s book, select a sentence which includes a fronted adverbial and discuss it. I’ve chosen the excellent Fergus Crane by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell for my example:

‘ Further along the road, the air swirled with mournful music.’

Discussions about word class should form a normal part of a lesson. Identifying verbs and nouns allows children to see when a sentence isn’t complete.

If they’re unable to spot a verb and realise that a sentence requires one, you’ll find incomplete sentences making their way into children’s writing, like ‘Further along the road, a girl with long, blonde hair’.

Play around with the adverbial from Fergus Crane . Can we place it anywhere else in the sentence? Why have the authors decided to write it like this? Identify what it tells us about the verb ‘swirled’.

Once children understand what fronted adverbials are, what they can add to a sentence and have examined them in real writing, then it’s time to have some fun as writers.

Effective use

Once children have seen real examples of fronted adverbials in writing and have experimented with them they will inevitably be on the success criteria for a writing lesson.

Hopefully, you will have instilled in your class the importance of variety in sentence openers and structures. They will have seen, both in real writing and in your modelling, the importance of using fronted adverbials alongside a whole plethora of ways sentences can be written.

When we mark children’s work, we must congratulate effective writing decisions and not simply praise a grammatical structure being used.

Children need to understand what a fronted adverbial is, how it can be used and the effect it can have. They also need to know when it works and when it doesn’t.

“We must congratulate effective writing decisions and not simply praise a grammatical structure being used”

Take a look at the following examples:

• As quick as a flash, the tortoise headed to the lettuce
• All of a sudden, the old boat slowly began to appear on the horizon.
• Quietly, the boy said his name with a booming voice.

Excellent fronted adverbials and excellent sentences, but together they do not work. The grammatical skills we teach explicitly will provide children with an excellent toolkit as they become proficient writers if we teach that skill within its context.

Laura Dobson is a teaching and learning consultant with a passion for primary English.

Fronted adverbial games

Download our fronted adverbials word mats and cut up the fronted adverbial cards and the example sentences.

Ask children to get into pairs. Each child needs to select a blue card and a yellow card. If the fronted adverbial makes sense with the sentence, they get a point.

Get pupils to sort the pairs they make into the following categories:

• makes sense
• makes sense but silly

As a further challenge, ask children to explain why the sentence is silly or why it’s nonsense.

This resource can also be used with just the fronted adverbial cards. In groups of three, ask children to turn over one card. Two pupils must then have a go at completing the sentence. The third child votes for which sentence they prefer and explains why.

Finally, this resource can be used to consider how flexible adverbials are within a sentence. In pairs, ask children to select an adverbial and a sentence. How many ways can they write the sentence with the adverbial in, and still achieve the same meaning?

A word of warning: both the fronted adverbial cards and the sentences begin with capital letters. As they play around with these, they must remember to remove the capital letter that is not required.

Fronted adverbials SPaG challenge mat

This review mat for grammar, punctuation and spelling from Plazoom is an excellent way to revise and practise using fronted adverbials. The worksheets are divided into five different types of activity, including writing challenges and GPS sample test questions.

Fronted adverbials spinner

This simple interactive resource spins a virtual wheel full of fronted adverbials. You can then challenge students to write a sentence starting with their word.

All about that verb

If you’re after a catchy song to try to help kids retain information about what an adverb does, this little ditty is set to the tune of ‘All About That Bass’, so it’s likely to be a hit with primary students.

Adverbs word mat

This handy adverb word mat groups each term into ‘How?’, ‘When?’, ‘How Often?’, ‘Where?’ and ‘How much?’. It’s a good place for kids to start when looking for inspiration to create their own sentences.

Fronted adverbials guide and games

This handy article from EdPlace runs through what fronted adverbials are, gives some examples, offers some activities to try and includes some interactive online worksheets to use.

Fronted football adverbials

For something a little more hands on, this printable PDF has a range of cut-out sentence openers and endings to match up, all linked to a football theme.

Cutting edge classroom ideas

This activity from a teacher on Vimeo involves printing out a selection of sentences that require the students to find the verb or verb phrase, then cutting out the adverb or adverbial and moving it to the front of the sentence (adding a comma if necessary).

Worksheet with answers

Rather than the usual reorganising of sentences, this worksheet asks students to identify the adverbial, and then write down whether each one falls under the category of ‘how/how much’, ‘when’, or ‘where’.

Of course, you could always get them to rearrange the sentences so that they include fronted adverbials afterwards.

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• What are Fronted Adverbials? (Examples & Worksheets)

Fronted Adverbials Explained

• Herosphere Home

What are Fronted Adverbials?

Fronted adverbials, put simply, are the words or phrases at the beginning of the sentence to describe the action that follows;

As soon as she could, Tracey ran out to play. (time)

Occasionally, Mum would allow us to select a sweet in the shop. (frequency)

In the distance, he could see the train coming. (place)

As fast as he could, Jack ran home from school. (manner)

Completely exhausted, Holly clambered out of the pool. (degree)

Try our English, maths and science activities for free

Top 10 fronted adverbial examples

EdPlace Primary teacher, Ms. Alison explains: an adverb or adverbial can be used to modify a verb or sentence. They can both be used to give more detail on manner, time, place, frequency, degree, etc.

They can answer questions like when? Where? How? In what manner? To what extent?

A fronted adverbial simply puts this information first. They are words or phrases at the beginning of the sentence used to describe the action that follows. An easy way to remember this is that they add to the verb.

Fronted Adverbial Games

Children are often introduced to fronted adverbials in year 4. Using fronted adverbials can be a way to add interest to writing, to display more detail or to add depth. Sometimes a sentence will benefit from a fronted adverbial, but sometimes it won’t, which is why children are often given games to play with words and phrases to teach them what will work and what won’t. Here are a few examples;

Look for a fronted adverbial word mat online. Ask your child (or work with your child) to write ten simple sentences; ‘John ran for the bus,’ ‘Lisa walked to school,’ Jake flew over the clouds.’ Now ask your child if they can improve these sentences using a fronted adverbial from the word mat. Discuss different options, what works, what doesn’t? Why does it work? How does it enrich the sentence?

Identify fronted adverbials

Write some sentences with fronted adverbials. Can your child identify and underline which words make up the fronted adverbial? Discuss why you might need a comma. How does the fronted adverbial add to the sentence?

Write onto card ten sentences with fronted adverbials. Cut them up so that the fronted adverbial is separate to the rest of the sentence. Can your child match them up so that they make sense?

Spot the fronted adverbial

When reading a story with your child, see if they can spot any fronted adverbials as your read. Discuss why the author might have used them, what effect do they have?

Worksheets and Practice

EdPlace is here to help and support you and we have a number of worksheets aimed specifically at getting to grips with adverbs and adverbials.

Year 4 – Identify adverbs in sentences 1 , 2 and 3 .

Year 5 – Use modal verbs and adverbs to show degrees of possibility.

Year 7 – Revise your adverbs.

Further Learning

The BBC has a great video linking fronted adverbials to football;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zwsc82p

They also have a clear explanation and activities for younger children;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zp937p3

AUTHOR, MS. ALISON – PRIMARY ENGLISH TEACHER. 

• EdPlace Explains
• Fronted adverbials

WRITTEN BY: Charlotte Potter

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Fronted adverbials

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Other

Last updated

30 November 2014

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