Developed in partnership with Education Services Australia

The Australian Curriculum sets the goal for what all students should learn as they progress through their school life. Skills in the Year 3-4 curriculum include:

• using joining words (also called conjunctions) to link sentences and create sequences.

It’s easy to help your child practise this skill as part of everyday life – just use these simple ideas.

Get joining

At school your child will be learning how to use conjunctions – words that join ideas together to create longer sentences, such as and, or, but, because, then, when, if, after.

It takes time to learn the right word for different situations, so use these strategies to help your child practise.

Never-ending sentences

When your child says a short sentence, say a joining word to prompt them to continue the sentence. You can keep going as long as you like. For example:

• Child: I’m hungry
• Adult: because…
• Child: I didn’t eat my lunch
• Adult: but…
• Child: I had lots of fun playing
• Adult: then…
• Child: the bell rang and we had to go back to class
• Adult: so…
• Child: my tummy rumbled all afternoon.

Deliberate mistakes

Make deliberate mistakes with joining words and see if your child can fix your mistakes. For example:

• Adult: I’m wearing a jumper so I’m cold. 
• Child: Silly, you’re wearing a jumper because you’re cold!

Go online

For online reinforcement, Close encounter, Eerie Encounter and That Cat will give your child practice at:

• retelling a story
• linking sentences with joining words
• adding interest with adjectives and adverbs.

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