Help students develop greater control, detail and sophistication in their sentence writing through this engaging five-day Sentence Explorations pack focusing on the effective use of prepositional phrases.

Designed for Years 7–8, this pack moves students beyond simply identifying prepositional phrases to using them deliberately to add information about where, when and how events occur. Through the authentic context of Space Exploration, students take on the role of astronauts and mission writers, gradually developing simple observations into detailed, purposeful sentences.

Across five carefully structured lessons, students progress from identifying prepositional phrases and understanding the information they provide to adding multiple phrases and using them independently in their own writing. Through explicit teaching, guided practice and independent application, students discover how prepositional phrases can expand ideas, clarify meaning and create a stronger picture for the reader.

 

This pack includes:

• Five days of structured sentence instruction
• Explicit WALTs and success criteria
• Clear teacher modelling (I Do)
• Guided practice activities (We Do)
• Independent application tasks (You Do)
• Daily reflection prompts
• Vocabulary banks
• Cumulative learning reminders
• Final independent writing task
• Simple margin marking codes for feedback

Perfect for:

• Whole-class writing lessons
• Structured Literacy programmes
• Literacy rotations
• Independent literacy tasks
• Small group teaching
• Writing intervention
• Sentence fluency development

 

Students will investigate how prepositional phrases add useful information to sentences and learn to combine phrases effectively without simply adding unnecessary words. As the week progresses, they move from sentences such as The astronaut floated to more detailed constructions that locate actions in time and place. By Day 4, students apply their learning to Astronaut Mission Log entries, drawing together previous learning about complete sentences, adjectives and adverbs alongside their new understanding of prepositional phrases.

The week culminates in an independent writing task in which students imagine themselves as astronauts and create five mission log entries describing their journey through space. This provides an authentic opportunity to bring their cumulative sentence learning together and begin making increasingly deliberate choices as writers.

Curriculum Focus: Sentence Structure, Prepositional Phrases, Sentence Expansion, Vocabulary Development, Descriptive Writing, Writing Fluency

Year Level: Years 7-8
Lesson Length: 15–20 minutes per lesson
Pack Focus: Sentence Expansion
Week Focus: Prepositional Phrases
Theme: Space Exploration

Scope and Sequence: Pack A, Week 4

Key Learning: Students explore how prepositional phrases can add meaningful detail by telling the reader where, when or how something happens. They progress from recognising individual phrases to combining multiple phrases and applying them independently within authentic writing. Importantly, students learn that effective sentence expansion is not simply about making sentences longer – it is about choosing details that clarify meaning and create a stronger picture for the reader.