• Identify an abbreviation or acronym.

• Learn the difference between the two types.

• Add to existing knowledge of both types.

Introduction
Display the words 'abbreviation' and 'acronym'. Find out from children what their definitions of each are:

Abbreviation - the first letter or letters of each important word placed together eg: TTFN (Ta Ta For Now).

Acronym - an abbreviation that can be said as a word eg: Swalk (Sealed With A Loving Kiss).

Read through with the class the story:

Discuss what the abbreviations stand for.

Main activity
With e-mail, people use abbreviations too. Give students the abbreviations below - can they work out what they stand for?

The most common ones are:

• As A Matter Of Fact
• As Far As I Know
• Away From The Keyboard
• Also Known As
• As Soon As Possible
• Be Back In A Bit
• Be Back Later
• Bye For Now
• By The Way
• See You Later
• Frequently Asked Questions
• For What It's Worth
• For Your Information
• Great Minds Think Alike
• Got To Go
• Ha Ha Only Kidding
• Hope This Helps
• In My Humble Opinion
• In My Opinion
• In My Not So Humble Opinion
• In Other Words
• If You Know What I Mean
• Just To Let You Know
• Laughing Out Loud
• On The Other Hand
• Sealed With A Loving Kiss
• That's All For Now
• Ta Ta For Now
• What You See Is What You Get

Another good story to use to examine abbreviations and acronyms is: