Relative Clause Activities

Year 4

What is a relative Clause?Relative clauses enhance simple sentences by adding extra information.

Watch these videos to support understanding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=SYwiB5XD32M&feature=emb_title

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/ks2-english-relative-clauses-with-max-harvey/z4ndvk7

Let’s start with a simple sentence.

Jonathan was playing the keyboard.

Not very interesting, is it?

Why don’t we add some extra information?

Jonathan was playing the keyboard. He was in his bedroom.

Ok, but still rather simple. How could we improve this?

Let’s make it a complex sentence

Jonathan, was playing the keyboard .

The second sentence adds a bit of non-vital information to the first one, so we can drop it in as a

relative clause, like this…

Jonathan was playing the keyboard. He was in his bedroom.

who was in his bedroom,

We’ve dropped in a relative clause!

Jonathan, who was in his bedroom, was playing the keyboard.

The main clause could be a sentence by itself and still make sense:

main clause subordinate clause

Jonathan was playing the keyboard.

However, the second sentence is now a subordinate clause,

which doesn’t make any sense by itself:

Who was in his bedroom.

The subordinate clause has to be stapled into the sentence

with commas.

So it’s all relative, then?

We’ve replaced the pronoun in the second sentence with a

relative pronoun. Can you spot it?

Jonathan was playing the keyboard. He was in his bedroom.

Jonathan, who was in his bedroom, was playing the keyboard.

Who is the relative pronoun we use to replace ‘people’

nouns/pronouns.

Other Relative Pronouns

Which is the relative pronoun we use to replace ‘objects’ nouns/pronouns.

Apples grow on trees. They are very healthy.

Apples, which are very healthy, grow on trees.

Activities

Match the Clause and write your new sentence.

When two become one

1) I like to eat Spaghetti. It’s my favourite food.

2) My headteacher is Mr Luck. He has a welsh accent.

3) I eat in the dinner hall. It’s always very noisy.

4) We moved house in 2019. I was 7 years old.

5) We went on the train to London. It was very exciting.

6) Jaguars live in the rainforest. It is hot and humid.

Make two sentences become one by changing the pronoun in the second sentence into a relative pronoun.

Example: Miss Honey was my teacher. She taught me in year 3. Miss Honey was my teacher, who taught me in year 3.

Who Which When Where WhoseUse these relative pronouns to help you:

CheeseburgersRelative Clauses can be dropped in (or embedded) into the middle of a sentence after the noun to give extra information. Add relative clauses into the middle of these cheeseburgers using your own relative pronouns.

Challenge!Use this image to write a short

paragraph. You could write a description or short narrative.

Can you include relative clauses to add extra information to your sentences

using who, which, where, when, whose or that?

Remember Relative clauses turn simple sentences into complex sentences.

E.g. The clock, which he carried with him everywhere, enabled him to travel through time.

The man was tired.

The clock was heavy.

The time traveller looked weary.

The Time Traveller

Imagine you have just travelled through time into the past or future. Draw or describe where you have just landed.