Year 4 – Homework 03/11/15

PRONOUNS

These words take the place of nouns and are therefore called ‘PRONOUNS’. Here are the

most important ones in the singular. Can you work out the plurals?

Singular Plural

I, me ____________

You ____________

He, him, she, her, it _____________________

My, mine ____________

Your, yours ____________

His, her, hers, its _____________________

Now fill in the blanks in the following passage:

I have a dog called Sam. ________ love ________ but he can

be very mischievous. One day my friends and ________ were coming

home from school when ________ dog, Sam, ran out into the road and

chased ________ friend Mick up the hill. ________ got scared and

jumped over a fence into someone’s garden. ________ shouted at

Sam to come to ________ but ________ refused. An old man came

out of the house brandishing a stick. ________ was scowling and

looked furious. ________ all legged it down the hill and Sam followed ________. When

________ got home my mum said, “Why are ________ so hot and bothered?”

“That old man up the road flipped ________ lid because Sam ran into ________ garden,” I

replied.
Year 4 – Homework 03/11/15
PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions are the little words that join up the more important nouns, adjectives, verbs and

adverbs. These are words like the following:

from, in on, by, at, of, to

Preposition Poem

Take each preposition in turn and make it the first word in a line of a poem. Then fill in the

line. Try to make the poem make sense! The first line is written for you below as an

example. You may choose a different line if you prefer.

From Monday to Friday I go to school

In……..

On……..

By……..

At……..

Of……..

To……..

STANDARD ENGLISH

The grammar used in some dialects is different from the grammar of Standard English. It

isn’t wrong, just different. When you talk, especially when you talk to your friends, you use
Year 4 – Homework 03/11/15
lots of expressions which are not Standard English. This is fine, but when you write, it’s

important to know what the Standard English grammar is. All the expressions below use non-

Standard English. Look at these dialect expressions and see if you can give the Standard

English equivalent.

 Where be he to?

 We was blue with cold.

 He’ll be home while four o’clock.

 I were mad with him, I were.

 When I gets in I likes a nice cup of tea.

 I never done it.

 Me and my mate we sees him everyday.

 I likes them chocolate cakes.

 That’s the man what I saw.

 He gets hiself mad.

Normally we would not use dialect expressions in writing. We would use Standard English,

but some writers like to use dialect expressions in dialogue, when characters are talking to

each other.

ANALOGIES

Complete each analogy by writing the best word in the blank.

1. Wind is to breeze as storm is to ___________________.

2. Haircut is to service as hat is to ___________________.

head wear bonnet product

3. Audio is to hearing as video is to ___________________.

television camera tape vision

4. Intentional is to accidental as high is to ______________.

low above lofty location

5. Microscope is to small as telescope is to ______________.

large space instrument distant

6. Century is to hundred as millennium is to _____________.

thousand twenty years celebrate

7. Cancel is to never as postpone is to _________________.

repeat delay later rain

The Pet
Peter Johnson loved pets. He had done so ever since he was a child. He was
always kind to animals. He put out milk for stray cats. He hung up seeds for
birds. He went to the park each day to feed the ducks. But his pride and joy
was his dog Rex. It was a German Shepherd.
Rex was good at tricks. He did what Peter told him to do. He could shake paws
and roll over and play dead. Peter even trained Rex to go to the shop each day
to fetch him his newspaper. Rex sat outside the shop and barked until Mr Patel
came out with the paper. Mr Patel gave it to Rex who trotted home with it in
his mouth. It was always a bit soggy and wet but Peter didn’t mind. His dog was
smart.
Now Rex liked to fetch things for Peter. He would bring him his slippers. He
would bring him toys and balls and sticks. In fact Rex was always looking out
for things to bring Peter. This was because Peter gave Rex a sweet when he
did. It was his reward.
One day Peter was sitting in his garden when Rex came running up to him. Rex
had a piece of dirty fur in his mouth. He dropped it in Peter’s lap. Then sat
down and looked at Peter hopefully.
‘What’s this then boy?’ said Peter. ‘’Some old toy you’ve found?’
Peter picked up the lump of fur and looked at it. To his horror he saw it wasn’t
an old toy at all. It was the dead body of the pet rabbit that belonged to the
little girl next door.
‘My goodness, Rex,’ said Peter. ‘This is Flopsy. You’ve killed her you bad dog!’
Rex hung his head in shame. He was sorry for the rabbit but even more sorry
that Peter didn’t give him a sweet.
Peter jumped up and ran into the house. He put the rabbit in the sink and wiped
the dirt from its fur. He looked hard to see if Rex had left any tooth marks on
Flopsy’s skin but he didn’t find any. ‘Perhaps Rex scared this poor little rabbit
to death,’ said Peter to himself. ‘I feel so bad about this.’
Then a dreadful thought popped into Peter’s head. Emma, the girl next door
would be very upset indeed to find out that Rex had killed her pet. She would
cry and weep and tell her Dad. Emma’s Dad was a very big man indeed. He
would be so angry with Rex. Peter didn’t know what he could do to save his dog.
But he had to do something. Then he had an idea.
Year 4 – Homework 03/11/15
He washed the rabbit with soap and shampoo. He plugged in his hair drier and
dried Flopsy’s fur. Then he combed it and brushed it until her fur shone. When
Flopsy was quite dry Peter hid her under his coat and crept out into the garden.
He looked over the fence and made sure nobody was next door. Then Peter
climbed over the fence and ran to Flopsy’s hutch. He opened the door and put
the rabbit back inside. He tried to make her look as life-like as he could. Peter
even put a carrot in her paws. Then he heard a car door slam out in the street.
Emma and her Dad were coming home. Peter was so scared he jumped over the
fence and dashed back into his own house. Rex hid under the table. He knew
his master was upset with him but he didn’t know why.
Peter waited in fear for Emma’s Dad to come knocking at the door. But he
didn’t come that day or the next or the day after. In the end Peter could stand
it no more and went out into his garden. He saw Emma’s Dad.
‘Hello,’ said Emma’s Dad. ‘I haven’t seen you for a few days. Are you all right?’
Peter gulped. Then he said,’ Yes I’m fine. How about you? Is everything OK?’
Emma’s Dad scratched his head. He looked puzzled. ‘Well, not really,’ he said.
‘Oh,’ said Peter. ‘What’s up?
‘Well,’ said Emma’s Dad. ‘A strange thing happened a few days ago. Emma and I
came home and we found her pet rabbit Flopsy dead in its hutch.’
‘That’s awful,’ gasped Peter.
‘That’s not the strange bit,’ said Emma’s Dad. ‘No, the weird thing is that the
rabbit died that morning and I’d already buried it in the garden before we went
out!’

Questions
1. Find 3 things we learn about Peter in the story: In the story we learn that Peter’s
surname is Johnson. We know this because in the story it says “Peter Johnson”.
2. Why was Rex special? Give at least 3 examples from the text.
3. What did Rex do wrong? How did this make him feel?
4. Why is Peter worried?
5. What did Peter do? Why?
6. What do you think Peter should have done? Why?
7. What was the effect of the twist? How did it make you feel?
8. Gold target: Highlight any ambitious words you can find in the text.
9. Highlight 8 relevant words in the text and, using a thesaurus, find more exciting words
to replace them.

Answer the questions in detail here

Make up your own story titled Mysterious Pet

Extra Work: Who is your favourite author – research and create a presentation about him or
her. It could be a powerpoint or an information booklet. You might want to include
something about their childhood, what inspires them to write etc…
Year 4 – Homework 03/11/15