How to Write a Sentence
How to Write a Sentence for Students and Teachers
Sentences are still a struggle for many students, help them relearn the basics. A sentence must include a predicate and subject for it to be a complete sentence.
Purpose of your Sentence
to tell something
to ask something
Punctuation of your Sentence
Declarative: tell something, ends with a period (.)
Interrogative Sentence: asks something, ends with a question mark (?)
Exclamatory Sentence: shouts something, ends with an exclamation mark (!)
Sentence Structure
A sentence must include a subject and predicate for it to be a complete sentence.
Subject: a noun, noun phrase or pronoun in a sentence that does the action or describes the predicate.
Predicate: tells something about the subject and must include a verb.
Example:
Johnny is walking to the store.
Johnny is the subject and walking to the store is the predicate.
All sentences need to answer who and what. In the above example Johnny (who) was doing the action and walking to the store (what) is telling us something about the subject.
Mini Sentence Lessons
Creative Sentences: Have a student do an action in class such as walking to the door. Ask the students what happened? Students will come with a variety of answers but most will say something similar to Sabrina walked to the door. Now you can dissect the sentence with the students to highlight the subject and predicate. Do a few more sentences with the class and then have students create their own sentences with a partner. The students must do the action before they write the sentence.
Sentence Strips: Create sentences on strips of paper. Divide the papers with the subject on one strip and the predicate on another strip of paper. Place the strips of paper in a basket and give each student one strip of paper. They must find their subject or predicate and the sentence must make sense. The students will present their sentence strip and the rest of the class will agree or disagree if it is a sentence and if it makes sense.
Funny Sentence: Students create funny sentences and present them to the class. The only rule is the sentence has a subject and predicate.
The copyright of the article How to Write a Sentence in Teacher Tips/Training is owned by Debbie DeSpirt. Permission to republish How to Write a Sentence in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
