Writing Sentences: 5 Easy Lessons for Beginner Writers

Sentence writing: how do you teach young students such a complex skill? In this episode, Martha shares how you can teach kindergarten and first grade students how to write complete, basic sentences in five lessons. By the end of these 5 lessons, students will be able to write simple sentences with capitals, punctuation, and proper spacing. 

Transcript

From “zero to sentences in one week”. 

Upbeat Music Jingle]

Welcome to Episode 8 of Primary (Paradise) Teaching

SENTENCE BASICS: HOW TO TEACH SENTENCE WRITING TO BEGINNERS

Sentence writing: how do you teach young students such a complex skill? Today, I’m going to share how you can teach kindergarten and first grade students how to write complete, basic sentences in five lessons. By the end of these 5 lessons, students will be able to write simple sentences with capitals, punctuation, and proper spacing. These ideas use a gradual release method, and typically take about a week, however, you can stretch lessons or compress them, depending on your students’ needs. These lessons are helpful before beginning your writing curriculum for the year. It’s pretty difficult to write a story if you don’t know how to write a sentence. However, you can also stop your writing instruction at any point and do this “sentence bootcamp” style. I want to be upfront and share that I do sell these lesson on my website and in my TeachersPayTeachers shop, but, with the information I’m sharing today, you could also replicate these lessons in your personal classroom. It’s just more work for you. Last disclaimer, and then I’ll get to the good stuff. If you’re  Looking for more advanced sentence writing ideas, I’ll be sharing those in the next episode. Okay, let’s get started with lesson 1.

LETTERS, WORDS, AND SENTENCES, OH MY!

Before delving into sentences, it’s important to ensure that your students know the difference between what letters, words, and sentences look like. This lesson is simple but effective. It will also help you see where your students are. Create posters with your students (or make them ahead of time) and label them each “letters”, “words” “sentences. Have students write all of the letters they know on one, examples of words on the next, and finally, together, write some sentences on the third. Discuss how we use letters to make words and words to make sentences.

Then, you can have your students sort letters, words, and sentences. They can do this by cutting letters, words, and sentences out of magazines, you could do it digitally, or you could use a worksheet. This is a great activity to get students familiar with looking at and distinguishing what a sentence looks like, and what it doesn’t look like.

Lesson 2: CAPITALS AND PERIODS

I know in all of my years of teaching, I felt as if I was constantly reminding students to begin their sentences with a capital and end them with a period. I was so excited when I decided to use this simple chant and hand motions to help solidify this idea in my students’ minds. You can look at the sentence poster you created in the previous lesson, and ask your students what they notice about the first word in every sentence and also what they notice at the end of each sentence. Every sentence starts with a capital and ends with a period! (Note: I realize there are other forms of punctuation, but remember, these lessons are for students who are brand new to sentence writing. We don’t need to throw in exclamation points and question marks just yet.)

Teach your students to say “Sentences start with a capital” while making a c with their left hand. Repeat a few times. Then add “end with a period” and have students make a fist with their right hand. I would have my students chant this every time before beginning to write independently, and it really helped them remember both elements. Also, you can have them say “punctuation” instead of period. I typically start out the year saying “period” and switch to punctuation as we learn sentence types.

Next, you can have them practice finding the capital and period in sentences. I like to have them color the capital green (because it’s the start of the sentence) and the period red (because it’s the end of the sentence). I also utilize this stop light technique as we learn more about sentences, so it’s helpful to start now.

Lesson 3 SPENCER THE SPACER

Oh, spacing. Spacing can be so difficult for many students, so I like to introduce them to Spencer the Spacer. He’s a giant popsicle stick who makes sure there are bigger spaces between words and little spaces between letters. In my lesson I include a fun little rhyme for Spencer, and he tends to become an important friend in classrooms who use him. Spencer should fit perfectly between each words on his back. He should fit between letters on his side. You can have students create their own Spencer the Spacer by giving them small popsicle sticks and either markers or small smile stickers.

Have students practice checking the space between letters and words so they can get comfortable with Spencer. Eventually, they won’t need to use him anymore, but he’s a great tool for beginner writers.

Lesson 4 I CAN BUILD SENTENCES

It might seem like I’ve waited a long time to actually have students write sentences, but using this gradual release method will allow students to feel confident that they know what they’re doing when it’s time to write. Lesson four is when students really get down to the work. This is also the lesson that you might want to extend a day or two depending on how students are doing. Take time to review all of the things you’ve discussed so far. Then you can delve into the meat of sentence writing. Again, I include a visual for this, but I teach students that the steps of writing a sentence go like this.

1.  Think before writing

2. Start with a capital

3. Tell who or what (Timmy, dog, The ball)

4. What they’re doing (running, hopping, is red)

5. End with a period

6. Go back and reread their sentence.

Adding hand motions for each step can be super helpful.

Next, you can have your students build sentences by cutting and pasting the words of the sentence. Then, have them write their sentence. Again, this allows them to feel confident in what they’re doing. This sentence building activity can be done with 2 word sentences, such as Tim runs. 3 word sentences My dad cooks, or 4 word sentences, The ball is red. 

Allow students to build as many sentences as they need to this way. I like to have about 10 sentences for each level. Most students will only need a few, but it’s nice to have extras for students who need more practice.

Lesson 5 TIME TO WRITE YOUR OWN!

The last lesson puts everything students have learned together. Students can write their own sentence using everything they’ve learned! Model writing a sentence, have students help you identify all of the parts, and then let them give it a try! I like to have them write on their dry erase boards first, and then, once they’ve got it, I have them write it on their paper and illustrate it. Display these proudly. You and your students have worked hard!

If you love these ideas, but don’t want to actually put the activities together, you can find the lessons ready made on my website or my TpT shop. Whether you recreate them yourself, or use my ready-made lessons, your students will now have all of the building blocks for basic sentence writing, and hopefully you have less “but I don’t know how to write a sentence”-ing in your classroom.

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