Teaching Strategies, Tactics, and Methods

An exclamation mark is a punctuation mark that indicates an emphasis or loudness. Here, you’ll learn about the exclamation mark for children and how to make your exclamatory sentence. There are also many exclamatory sentence examples of the different types of sentences with exclamation marks.

What does an exclamation mark look like?

What is an exclamation mark used for?

The origin of an exclamation mark came from the words ‘note of admiration’. In more modern terms, however, this punctuation mark indicates a strong feeling, loud volume, and emphasis in speech. They are used at the end of an exclamation sentence.

What is an exclamation sentence?

For teaching and learning with children, the explanation of an exclamation sentence is simplified into this:

An exclamation sentence is used when someone is surprised. It typically starts with ‘how’ or ‘what’ and contains a verb and a noun.

For example:

• What a great helper you are!
• How kind you are!

These sentences are very similar to what Little Red Riding hood says to the wolf- “What big teeth you have!”

Exclamation sentences are often found in children’s stories, particularly fairy tales, as characters are often shocked and surprised by their adventures.

Exclamatory sentence examples

• Thank you, Tony!
• Happy birthday, Ron!
• I hate you!
• Ice cream sundaes are my favorite!
• Did you see Harry this weekend? He got a new job!
• My Christmas was so much fun!

When to use these exclamatory sentence examples

Here are some examples of when people use exclamation marks:

• Use it for a solid command to indicate the speaker’s tone and loud volume – When you are reading words on the page, it can be tricky to understand the manner the reader is trying to convey to us. This is where the exclamation point comes into action. When reading an exclamatory sentence example, the exclamation point indicates something was said loudly or with a sense of surprise or urgency.
• To show strong emotion – In informal language, sometimes, using both a question mark and an exclamation mark works to convey emotion. For example, ‘wow!’
• Underlined or italicized text, dependent on the style of the writer. Books, plays, and films can be italicized with an exclamation mark following it. For example, ‘I watched the play Mamma Mia! with my dad.’

Can I use more than one exclamation mark in a sentence?

Typically, using more than one exclamation mark is seen as too much during a sentence. It’s also known as improper grammar. One at the end for emphasis gives the reader enough understanding that the point is essential. The content of an exclamation sentence example should convey urgency or shock; therefore, more than one exclamation mark isn’t necessary.

One vs. multiple exclamatory sentence example

• Did you see that? The plane flew in circles right above me!!
• Did you see that? The plane flew in circles right above me!

The first sentence ignores other and more effective forms of punctuation and loses the meaning of the sentence. Secondly, the double exclamation marks at the end add no additional value. Instead, the second sentence conveys the right level of urgency while using other appropriate punctuation marks.

Perpendicular lines intersect at 90° to form a right angle.

In the illustration of a protractor below, the two pink lines meet at a right angle. If those two lines continued, they would be perpendicular to each other because they intersect at a right angle.

What does perpendicular mean?

As an adjective, the word perpendicular means “at an angle of 90° to a given line, plane, surface or the ground”.

As a noun, it means”a straight line at an angle of 90° to a given line, plane, or surface”.

The word “perpendicular” comes from the Latin word “perpendicularis.”

Properties of perpendicular lines

When thinking about and identifying perpendicular lines, children need to keep these qualities in mind:

• The lines are distinct from each other
• The lines always intersect at right angles
• Adjacent sides of a square and a rectangle are always perpendicular because they form a right angle at the corners

Examples of perpendicular lines

You can find examples of perpendicular lines quite often in real life. Here are some that you might be able to spot:

• A Christian cross is made up of two vertical lines
• Clock hands can be perpendicular; for example, when one hand points to 3 and the other points to 12
• The corners of shapes like squares and rectangles are the points of intersection of two perpendicular lines
• Railway crossings where the road meets the railway line are often perpendicular

Parallel lines and curves

Parallel lines are lines that are always the same distance away from each other. They are equidistant. Therefore, they will never meet and always point in the same direction. But, of course, they could be of an infinite length, and still, they would never touch each other.

When you rotate one line from a pair of perpendicular lines by 90°, it becomes a pair of parallel lines. This is because the strings run alongside each other at the same distance without touching.

Curves can also be parallel if they match the same pattern as each other and always keep the same distance apart without touching.

A composite shape (or composite figure), also known as a compound shape, is made up of several different forms when deconstructed.

They come in a variety of different forms.

Composite Shape Examples

A composite or compound shape is any shape of two or more geometric shapes.

The below shape is made up of a square and a triangle.

The blue shape is made up of a square and a rectangle.

The green shape consists of two triangles.

Shapes can be either two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) areas, with height, length, or width but no depth. They can be defined in 2 ways:

1. By an outline
2. Through contrast with its surroundings, whether by comparison or tone

Shapes can be:

• Organic, meaning they are naturally produced, like fruits, vegetables, snowflakes, and honeycombs.
• Geometric, meaning they are mathematically created, like circles and squares.

Geometric shapes have straight lines, angles, and points. There are no gaps between the lines that make these shapes. Round shapes are the only geometric shapes that are the exception to this because they have no sides, no straight lines, and no points.

Think about a point having no dimension (no length, width, height, or depth) and a line being a one-dimensional shape. Both the point and line form the base of geometry. An angle is formed when two lines meet together and make a point. The point is the vertex (vertices if more than one, like in a square). So 2D and 3D shapes are made using points, lines, and angles, aside from round ones.

In plane geometry, 2D shapes are flat and closed figures, like triangles, rectangles, kites, and hexagons. In contrast, in solid geometry, 3D shapes aren’t flat and include shapes like spheres, cylinders, cubes, and cones.

2D Geometric Shapes

Here are some geometric shapes that are also 2D shapes:

triangle

circle

trapezium

 

rhombus

crescent

parallelogram

 

rectangle

kite

square

 

ellipse

3D Shapes

Here are some geometric shapes that are also 3D shapes:

cuboid

sphere

cylinder

 

prism

cuboid

cone

A prism shape is a 3D shape that has a constant cross-section. Both ends have the same 2D shape, and rectangular sides connect them.

Any 2D shape with flat edges can become a prism. Examples include square prisms, rectangular prisms, triangular prisms, and octagonal prisms. However, because a prism must have flat sides, a cylinder isn’t a prism.

Examples of 3D prism shapes:

The following examples are prisms taught in primary school. By using everyday objects, getting children familiar with them will help them remember the different shapes that make up the prism family.

Rectangular prisms have:

• six faces
• twelve edges
• eight vertices
• edges that are not all the same length

Triangular prisms have:

• five faces
• two triangular faces
• three rectangular faces

Pentagonal prisms have:

• seven faces
• two pentagonal faces
• five rectangular faces
• 15 edges
• ten vertices

Hexagonal prisms have:

• eight faces
• two hexagonal faces
• six rectangular faces
• 18 edges
• 12 vertices

Octagonal prisms have:

• ten faces
• two octagonal faces
• eight rectangular faces
• 24 edges
• 16 vertices

How do you find the volume and area of prisms?

The volume and area can be found depending on the shape of the prism. For instance, here’s how to calculate the surface area of a triangular prism:

A = bh + l (s1 + s2 +s3)

If you look at the above diagram, you’ll see

• b is the bottom edge of the triangle
• h is the height of the base triangle
• l is the length of the prism
• s1, s2, and s3 are the edges of the base triangle

A tally chart is a table used for counting and comparing the numbers of classes of a data set.

Tally charts collect data quickly and effectively since filling a chart with marks is much faster than writing words. The format also lends itself nicely to collecting data in sub-groups which can be helpful.

The initial data is recorded using ‘hashes’ or tally marks, organized into five groups. It makes keeping track of the total number much easier, as you can count the groups of tally marks by five.

A tally chart is just one method of collecting data using tally marks. This data can then be used to create more detailed and visual graphs and charts to compare the information that has been collected.

A Tally Chart Example

If you’re struggling to picture what a tally chart might look like, here’s a tally chart example to clarify things. A typical example of a tally chart is counting the number of people with blue, brown, and green eyes. Again, each person is represented by a line, and a strike means each fifth person through the last four lines. Again, this makes whatever’s being observed easier to count and record.

Eye Colour	Tally	Frequency
Blue	llll	9
Brown		10
Green	llll	4

The tally chart example above also has a ‘frequency’ column for ease of use, but this isn’t always necessary. Usually, when children have finished with their tally charts, they’ll go on to represent their data in a pictogram. Also, because tally charts depict nominal data (that is, data that’s used to name something), they’re unsuitable for recording data to be used in other graphs or charts, like a line graph.

All those lines mean that tally charts can be tricky to change in the event of an error. But, on the other hand, it means they’re most helpful in recording ongoing results (that is, things like counting). It is because there’s very little chance that it will need to be changed later once a tally mark is made.

Onset and rhyme are terms that technically describe the phonological units of a spoken syllable. Syllables are split into two parts: the onset and the rime.

Onset – the initial phonological unit of any word which contains the initial consonant or consonant blend. However, not all terms have onsets.

Rime – the string of letters that follow the onset, which contains the vowel and any final consonants.

What is onset-rime segmentation?

Onset-rime segmentation is breaking or separating words into two parts: the onset, the consonant or cluster of consonants at the start of a syllable, and the rime, the remainder of the syllable.

For example, in the word ‘climb,’ cl- is the onset, and -imb is the rime.

Why are Onset and Rime important?

Onset and rhyme improve phonological awareness by helping children learn about word families (see next section). Phonetical awareness is an important skill to hear sounds, syllables, and words in speech. It can help students decode new words when reading and make spelling simpler when writing.

What are word families?

Word families are groups of words that have a standard feature. For example, cat, hat, sat, and mat is words with the sound and letter combination “at.” Recognizing familiar phonetic sounds is the foundation for developing strong spelling skills.

There are combinations of word families; these are 37 of the most common:

Ack, ake, all, ale, an ame, ain, ank, ap, ash, at ate, aw, ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ight, ill, ide, ill, in, ine, ing, ip, ink, it, ock, op, oke, ore, ot, uck, ug, unk and ump.

Onset and Rime Examples:

Now that we know what the common word families are for the rime of a word, let’s have a look at some onset and rime examples with some rime word families:

‘ake’ Bake – B/ake Cake – C/ake Take – T/ake	‘ash’ Mash – M/ash Sash – S/ash Dash – D/ash	‘eat’ Heat – H/eat Beat – B/eat Treat – Tr/eat
‘ock’ Lock – L/ock Dock – D/ock Shock – Sh/ock	‘ight’ Light – L/ight Sight – S/ight Flight – Fl/ight	‘ump’ Dump – D/ump Pump – P/ump Clump – Cl/ump

You can see and hear the repetition of the phonetic sounds by using onset and rhyme examples with the rhyme word families.

You can also use onset and rhyme without grouping your examples by word families. Instead, the words have been split into their onset and rime, helping draw attention to the phonetics of those specific words:

In the word ‘pan,’ p- is the onset, and -an is the rime. In the word ‘pet,’ p- is the onset, and -et is the rime. In ‘tin,’ t- is the onset, and -in is the rime. And finally, in the word ‘bed,’ b- is the onset, and -ed is the rime.

When would a word not have an onset?

Onset can be one of three things:

1. It’s empty– Because the syllable starts with a vowel instead of a consonant, there’s no onset.
2. It’s singular– The word starts with one consonant sound. For example, c- is the onset in the word CAP.
3. It’s an adjacent consonant– The word begins with multiple consonant sounds (aka an adjacent consonant). For example, the word ‘swim’ begins with the adjacent consonant s-w.

A protractor is a tool used to measure and draw angles. There are different types, but the most popular ones are the semicircular and circular ones.

They often have two sets of numbers going in opposite directions: 0° to 180° and 180° to 0°. So, pupils must be careful which scale they use when measuring the angles.

What is a protractor used for?

Children learn how to use these tools in maths lessons, particularly when learning about the properties of shapes.

And the reason why protractors are used in maths education is that they allow children to put their knowledge into practice.

For example, pupils will not only learn about different angles in theory, but they will also learn how to measure and draw:

• right angles;
• acute angles;
• obtuse angles;
• straight angles;
• reflex angles.

Through hands-on experience, children are more likely to attain information for longer.

How to Use a Protractor

Although it may initially seem tricky to understand, this measuring instrument is not that difficult to use (we promise!).

Here are a few handy tips on how to use it when measuring angles and what to look out for:

1. First, spend some time with your little ones discussing what the numbers mean. Then, remind them to read from the correct scale.
2. You’ll notice there’s a cross or a circle in the middle. Place it at the point (also known as the vertex) of the angle you are about to measure.
3. Align one leg of the angle with the baseline of the protractor. Read from the zero on the outer scale.
4. Finally, follow the opposite leg of the angle up to the measuring scale. Again, make sure to count the degree lines carefully.
5. Sometimes, you might come across angles that lay in an anti-clockwise direction (see the example below). It is when you need to use the inner scale of the protractor.

And that’s it! The more practice children get, the more confident they will measure angles with this handy tool.

The Area of a Circle

There are a few things we need to know when calculating the area of a circle, and it’s always good to start with the basics. First, a circle is a 2D shape — like any other 2D shape, its area is the amount of space it covers.

Unlike polygons (such as squares, triangles, or parallelograms), we can’t multiply together the length of the sides to find the area. So instead, we use the distance from the circle’s edge to the center.

There are two measurements you need to be aware of here:

• The radius is the distance from the circle’s edge to the center.
• The diameter is the distance from one side of the circle to the other through the center of the circle.

The diameter is twice the radius; the radius is half the diameter. Keep reading to find out how to work out the area of a circle using the diameter.

How to Calculate the Area

To find the area, we need to know the radius. If you were finding the area of any other shape, you would multiply two measurements together, for example, height × width in a rectangle. Because a circle has the same radius all the way around, we multiply the radius by the radius. We then take that answer and multiply it by π:

How to work out the area of a circle using the radius

• Area of a circle = π × radius × radius

Pi is a Greek letter, spelled pi, and pronounced like pie. Pi is a constant, which means it never changes. It is also irrational, which means it never ends and never repeats. The first 20 digits are:

• 3.14159265358979323846…

If you’re using π to find a circle’s area (or circumference), you can use the π button on your calculator or round it to 3.14.

Example 1 — Find the area of a circle using a radius of 5 cm. Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.

Area = π × radius × radius

We know the radius, so put it into the formula above:

• Area = π × radius × radius
• Area = π × 5 × 5
• Area = 78.5 cm2 (to 1d.p.)

Make sure you give the correct units. Like any other area, the area of a circle is given in square units. That may be cm2, m2, mm2 or km2, among others.

Let’s go through another example.

Example 2 — Find the area of a circle using the radius of 17 cm. Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.

Area = π × radius × radius

We know the radius, so put it into the formula above:

• Area = π × radius × radius
• Area = π × 17 × 17
• Area = 907.9 cm2 (to 1d.p.)

How to work out the area of a circle using the diameter

In maths, you will not always be given the radius of a circle. However, it is still possible to find the area. Here are the steps you must take to work out the area of a circle using the diameter:

Step 1: Find the radius

The radius is equal to half of the diameter. So, to find the radius, we must divide the diameter by 2:

radius = diameter ÷ 2

Step 2: Use the formula using the radius

Now that we know the radius, we can use the same formula for the area.

Area = π × radius × radius

We are multiplying r by itself in this equation, which means we are squaring it. So, the formula can be simplified into this:

• A= π ×r2

Finally, because this is an algebraic formula, we can remove the × sign:

• A= πr2

Let’s put this into practice with an example.

Example 1 — Find the area of a circle using a diameter of 14 m. Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.

Be careful! We have been given the diameter in this question, but we need the radius to find the area.

The radius is half the diameter:

• radius = diameter ÷ 2
• radius = 14 ÷ 2
• radius = 7 m

We can now find the area as before:

• Area = π × radius × radius
• Area = π × 7 × 7
• Area = 153.9 m2

Here’s another example of how to find the area of a circle using the diameter:

Example 2 — Find the area of a circle using a diameter of 32 m. Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.

The radius is half the diameter, so:

• radius = diameter ÷ 2
• radius = 32 ÷ 2
• radius = 16 m

Now, we can find the area using the original formula:

• Area = π × radius × radius
• Area = π × 16 × 16
• Area = 804.2 m2

How to work out the area of a circle using the circumference

In some cases, you will find that a circle’s radius and diameter are unknown. Fear not; you can still calculate the area of a circle using the circumference. The circumference is the total distance around the circle. The formula for finding the area of a circle using the circumference is:

C = 2πr

Key:

• C represents the circumference
• r represents the radius
• A represents the area

Step 1: Solve for ‘r’

We can take this formula for the circumference and use it to find the value of the radius. To do this, the formula will be:

r = C/2π

Step 2: Replace ‘r’ in the formula

Now, we can replace ‘r’ in the original formula for the circumference with this new expression:

A = π(C/2π)2

Step 3: Simplify the formula

This formula is quite confusing to look at, so let’s simplify it. The simplified version of this formula for the area of a circle is:

A = C2/4π

Now you have a fool-proof formula for calculating the area of a circle.

Let’s put all of this into practice with an example!

Example 1 — Find the area of a circle using the circumference of 30 m. Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.

A = C2/4π

Now, we have to put the measurements of the circle into this formula.

A = 302/4π

A = 900/4π

Area = 71.6 m2

Blackout Poetry

We all know haikus, sonnets, and ironic poetry, but have you ever heard of Blackout Poetry? This art form, a part of the Erasure or Found Poetry art forms, is a beautiful way to revitalize old literature or signs and turn it into something new! Where did this poetry form come from, though? Well, let’s find out together!

What is Blackout Poetry?

Blackout Poetry is the name of any poem derived from blacking out any unwanted words from a paragraph, book, sign, etc., using whatever inking or coloring tools you have on hand. Anything with words can be turned into a blackout poem so long as the artist can block out the particular words they want by blacking out the others!

Blackout Poetry is based all around Found Poetry. Found Poetry is the art form of picking and choosing words that resonate with the artist’s vision. You can do Found Poetry by cutting words out of books or magazines and sticking them together, similar to a collage. Blackout Poetry is incredibly similar in style, but rather than cutting from all sorts of literature; blackout poetry focuses on what can be created from a single page of text.

With this in mind, blackout poetry may seem relatively easy to recreate. That is, if you blackout words without genuinely considering their meaning or purpose.

History of Blackout Poetry

Found poetry and Erasure may have been the basis of blackout poetry, but a creative young man fully realized and popularized it! Austin Kleon, a Texas-based writer, found that there was a different way of reading passages than what others were used to. So he started to pick words from a daily newspaper and black out the ones he didn’t like with a marker. He published a book called Newspaper Blackout Poetry, including his blackout poems.

However, according to him, the technique was invented and used by poets hundreds of years ago, sometime during the 18th Century. In the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin’s neighbor did similar work using newspaper columns. He read across the narrow columns and found some great puns that he eventually published. Since then, other poets across the world have created blackout poetry.

Purpose of Blackout Poetry

The purpose of Blackout Poetry is to draw a new meaning from something initially made by another mind. Many blackout poets try to derive almost an opposite sense from their starting block of text, using words to string together a new story from the initial one given.

There are many ways to decide which words are most useful within a blackout poem. Focus on how they can relate to the other words chosen beforehand– and remember that the first-word choice is always the most important as it can set the stage for how the rest of the poem falls together!

Examples of Blackout Poetry

There are many famous examples of blackout poetry. Out of all, Peter Knight’s project “Heart of Darkness” Blackout features various beautiful poems made from book pages of “Heart of Darkness,” which details evilness in man’s heart. Below is an example of one of his blackout poems from the project:

Some other lovely blackout poems include:

How to Make Blackout Poetry

Reading blackout poetry is fun, but creating it is fulfilling and engaging. You can study many techniques, but we’ll focus on the one that is easiest to pick up and apply! Creating your blackout poetry is a fun way to flex your creativity within the confines of a single passage.

To start your first blackout poem, you’ll need a page of text, a pencil or a black marker, and an understanding of what you want to write! Then, you can dive in.

1. The first thing you have to do is decide on a text you’ll like to work with. Many modern blackout poets use articles found online, but you can also use old books, other poems, newspapers, and magazines– whatever you find that features words, you can blackout!
2. Look over the chosen text for words that relate to the poem you wish to create! Depending on your selected text, this can be relatively simple or more difficult, so don’t sweat taking your time!
3. Circle your chosen words BEFORE blacking out the rest of the passage. Do this with a pencil or with the marker you are using to black out the quotes. It keeps everything neat and permits you to edit your poem before you reach the point of no return.
4. Create your poem! Before blacking out anything, do one final read-through. Read it aloud and backward until you feel pleased with the result!
5. Finally, it’s time for the art! Take your chosen blacking-out marker or pen and black out all the words that are not your selected words. You can black out the words in any way you wish– many blackout poets do artful squiggles or make designs with the ink. It is the best time to let your imagination flow.
6. And when the ink dries, your poem is done!

How Can Children Make Blackout Poetry

There is an even more straightforward way to teach your children how to create their blackout poetry! Follow the rules below to teach a lesson about making blackout poetry!

1. A lesson about making blackout poetry should come AFTER you show your students some examples of blackout poems! Then, they can learn the easiest by following these examples.
2. Choose some passages that may interest them. Although YA novels like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or more can be used, be sure that no actual books your students like are ruined!
3. Allow your students to choose their favorite passage and comb through some words to get inspired.
4. Once they pick out their favorite words and themes, have your students circle the words and read them out one at a time to see if they like how they sound! Do this until everyone is satisfied
5. Let them black out the page. They will have to blacken the unnecessary words with a pencil or a marker. Feel free to use colorful tags for this project as well!
6. You can go the extra mile and ask them to create an image that fits with the poem, paint or illustrate the page. You could also add an original title and underline the poem’s theme.
7. Let them be proud of their work and display the poems on the wall or encourage kids to read them in front of the class!

What You Can Make

Your blackout poetry can create various themes, ideas, and results! For example, many blackout poems that focus on politics can be used to change one’s mind about a particular political movement. In addition, blackout poems that use distinct books can change the book’s overall point!

Your blackout poems can be used to change the original texts’ meaning or as decor. Many blackout poems can be framed, especially if the blacking out is done artfully!

Blackout poetry is a beautiful way to make something new out of something old and perhaps dark or cruel. It is a reshaping of one art form to another and should be used as a teachable moment for students to learn that there can be methods to madness!