Year 9

1. Year 9 Literacy Skills Bronze Award Name _________________________

2. Bronze Award Work your way through this basic English skills booklet to improve your English learning level. Some tasks are easier than others and it does not matter what order you complete the tasks in. Just know that by completing these tasks you will be improving your skills in English. Once completed you will be awarded the Literacy Skills Bronze Award and presented with a special certificate.

3. Task Checklist • Task 11 • Task 12 • Task 13 • Task 14 • Task 15 • Task 16 • Task 17 • Task 18 • Task 19 • Task 20 • Task 1 • Task 2 • Task 3 • Task 4 • Task 5 • Task 6 • Task 7 • Task 8 • Task 9 • Task 10 Tick the task box once you have completed the task!

4. Task 1: Proofreading Correct the 12 mistakes on the menu. The Queen’s Arms - Menu Bar Snaks: • Fich & ships £4.50 • Chickin & chips £4.90 • Beef, porck or lamb with rost potatoes and veg £4.70 • Egg sandwitch with crisps £3.20 • Tuna slad£3.60 • Hot dogs & salud£4.30 • Apple crumble and custid£2.90 • Cans of fizzy driks75p • Cofee£1.50

5. Task 2: Homophones Can you circle the correct homophone in these sentences? • Thank you. I would be delighted to accept/except your invitation. • Can you please write/right a letter to the Prime Minister? • Mum said we are not allowed/aloud to go to the cinema tomorrow. • Sally told Alice that she did grate/great in the dance show tonight. • I tried to stop the car but the breaks/brakes did not work properly. • Can I please order the steak/stake and chips with a glass of orange juice. • When you hurt your elbow it can take a long time to heel/heal. • When we left out hotel room the maid/made came and cleaned the room. • Ben asked Charlie if he would meat/meet him on the football pitch. • Oliver Twist was a very poor/pour boy who asked for more porridge. • I went to The Bodyshop because they had my favourite shower gel on sale/sail.

6. Task 3: ‘unch’ words Make up your own sentences from the group of words below. Try to use as many as you can in one sentence. Can you make a funny poem? crunch, bunch, lunch, munch, punch E.g. – Sarah and Eleanor went to Jimmy World Spices for lunch. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. Task 4: Syllables Rewrite each word into the syllable box below e.g fire = 2 syllables fi/re. Wrist, beautiful, diet, send, with, engage, sell, sand, would, risen, noon, scrunch, challenge, repeat, grating, island, knife, trapping, because 1 syllable: 2 syllables: 3 syllables:

8. Task 5: Connectives Use a connective to join these two simple sentences to create compound sentences. Connectives to possibly use: But and soas although However It is a beautiful day. ____________ I am going to the park. The dog barked. _____________ He chased the postman. It is raining outside. ____________ I need to wash the car. I love chocolate. _____________ I enjoy ice-cream. I did study for the test. ______________ I did not do very well. James like Samantha. __________________ Samantha likes Ian.

9. Task 6: Vocabulary The words ‘nice’ and ‘good’ are overused. Can you replace them in the extract with interesting alternatives? Yesterday was a really good ___________ day. I went with a group of nice ____________ people to see a really good_____________ film. It was a good ____________ film because it had lots of action and good ______________ actors. After the film we went to a nice _______________ café and had a good ______________ time. It was one of my nicest ________________ days ever. What other words can you think of? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10. Task 7: Capital Letters Can you find the 10 missing capital letters below? We had arranged to meet at 11 o’clock in west street, outside primark. I’d not seen stephanie for years and years until we bumped into each other, purely by chance, at easter. We had been at school together and had been ‘best friends’. I can see her now in the red and grey uniform of stbrendan’s. Then I moved from norfolk and we lost touch. I was amazed to hear that, like me, she was now working for british telecom. It would be wonderful catching up with all her news.

11. Task 8: ‘ice’ words Make up your own sentences from the group of words below. Try to use as many as you can in one sentence. Can you make a funny poem? nice, rice, mice, price, spice, device E.g. – Lucy fed the mice some left over rice. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12. Task 9: The Spelling Police Can you circle the word which is spelt incorrectly? • Would/believe/should/becuase • Lions/puppies/monkees/birds • Teachers/schools/tables/alarmes • Sheeps/deer/cats/fish • Jumping/running/swiming/walking • Bananna/orange/apple/pear • Red/blue/purrple/black • English/Spanish/French/Germen • Annouyed/upset/excited/happy

13. Task 10: Writing Create a list of adjectives (describing words) that you could use to describe a beach. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Create a list of similesthat you could use to describe a beach. Similes use ‘like’ or ‘as’ e.g. Her hand was as cold as ice. He walked slow like a snail. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________

14. Task 11: Question Marks Decide if the sentences below are questions. If yes, put a question mark at the end. If no, add a full stop. • Why are you being so stubborn • The girl asked if she could turn her phone off • What is the capital of Australia • I know a man who keeps an alligator in his shed • Who was the first man to step on the moon • Mike wondered when Jane would arrive • My Uncle George asked me if I wanted a video game • Can you please stop asking questions • Whatever the reason was, Barney should be punished • If I knew the answer, I would tell you

15. Task 12: Tenses Things can be written in 3 tenses; past, present and future. Underline the verb (doing word) in each sentence. Now rewrite it from the present tense to the past tense. E.g. Mike swims to the steps (present). Mike swam to the steps (past). • We walk to the market. ______________________________________ • The birds sleep in the nest. ____________________________________ • The girls go to school. _______________________________________ • The soldiers wait at the barracks. ________________________________

16. Task 13: Commas Put commas where necessary in the sentences. Remember to add a comma when you need to pause when reading aloud. Commas can be used instead of the word ‘and’. • The man coughed spluttered choked and fell off his chair. • You can watch TV only when you have done your homework taken the dog for a walk tidied your room and put away your clothes. • The doctor had a wrinkled kind intelligent face • Do you want to play a game go for a walk have something to eat or dance? • The salesman asked begged and threatened the woman but she would not say “yes”. • The mother was crying over her small thin weak crying child. • Stop shouting Dennis and calm down. • I am afraid we do not know the answer Mr. Harris. • Guys follow me. • The school was good caring well-staffed and had an excellent reputation.

17. Task 14: Writing Can you finish these sentences? • Perhaps I’m being superstitious but ______________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ • My granny always said I could never tell my brother that _____________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ • I began to wonder how she had managed to _______________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ • It was possible that __________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ • We can only imagine what went through his head when _____________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

18. Task 15: Pronouns • A pronoun is a small word used in place of a noun (a naming word). They include: his, their, her, they, I, we, us, them, me • Choose a suitable pronoun from the list above to fill the blank in each sentence below. • Paul, Sam and Alan said that ________ would like a cup of tea. • Laura put __________ bag on the counter. • They took the keys but they do not belong to __________. • Stephen left ______ keys on the table. • Pam and Brian sat in __________ garden in the sunshine. • _________ went to the corner shop to buy a bottle of milk. • Eleanor asked her mum, “can ________ go to the park?” • I tried to run fast but the bus left without _________. • That house is not mine, it belongs to my brother, it is ______ house.

19. Task 16: Plurals Plurals are when you have more than 1. Most nouns are changed into plurals by adding a ‘s’ like cat/cats or book/books. However this is not the case for all such as puppy/puppies or mouse/mice. Can you complete the plural table below?

20. Task 17: Finding Plurals Complete the wordsearch by finding the plurals in the box below. dogs houses days meals words schools boys girls brothers sisters churches boxes lunches watches cries tries babies balloons solutions cities puppies lorries countries

21. Task 18: Homophones Oh no the wrong homophones have been used. Can you find them? – there are 10, circle them. Weight David Beckham was walking down the road when he saw Wayne Rooney. “You’ve put on a bit of wait,” he said to Wayne. “I’m always hungry,” replied Wayne, “you sea, Colleen keeps baking loads of cakes, and I can’t let them go to waist.” Wayne started to cry, when suddenly SpongeBob SquarePants appeared. “Hello their,” said SpongeBob, “why are you crying?” David explained and SpongeBob asked if the cakes were plane or chocolate. “Chocolate,” answered Wayne, sniffling as a tear fell onto his toe. “You pour thing, don’t worry. I will take the cakes to my friends in Bikini Bottom, so you don’t have to eat them. I can’t wait to meat my mates and give them the good news.” With Wayne happy, David continued on his travels. The son was in the sky and David was at peace with himself after his move to Los Angeles. David posted some mail, had his hare cut (because his roots were showing), took his boat for a sale, bought a new bathroom suite for Victoria, purchased some new clothes to where, ate some cereal for lunch and went home.

22. Task 19: Writing Create a list of adjectives (describing words) that you could use to describe a funfair. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Create a list of similesthat you could use to describe a funfair. Similes use ‘like’ or ‘as’ e.g. Her head was as hot asfire. He ran fast like a cheetah. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________

23. Task 20: Word Grid How many words can you make from the word grid? List them in the box.