Oh, the simple sentence. Are you tired of repeating yourself? “Don't forget the capital letter,” you say. “Remember to add a period at the end,” you remind students. Wouldn't it be nice to have students practice writing sentences on repeat, but in ways that get kids excited, moving around the room, playing games, or practicing independently? Of course it would be, which is why I'm sharing seven simple sentence activities that you can use in centers, with early finishers, or during instruction.
What is a Simple Sentence?
A simple sentence can vary in length, but in the case of our little ones, we'll make it as simple as simple sentences get.
Simple sentence definition: a sentence with a subject and a predicate.
Simple sentence example: The dog runs.
Here's a simple sentence anchor chart to use during your instruction or to hang up in your writing center as a reminder for students. Get your simple sentence poster and writing sentences rubric here.
Simple Sentence Write the Room
Write the Room is a great activity for getting kids out of their seats and moving while learning. In this activity, your students will walk the room and write sentences. As they move around, they'll find sentences that you have hidden around the classroom to practice writing.
Not only are your students writing sentences, but it's also the perfect time to practice handwriting. The kids don't have to think of a sentence, but they need to write it.
Add a cherry on top by having your student use their crayons to circle the subject and predicate in different colors.
Musical Sentence
This next idea is a classroom favorite. You will need some music and your students will need their whiteboards and dry eraser markers. Have your students write a simple sentence on their boards. Just one sentence. When they are finished, have them stand behind their chairs to indicate that they're ready. Once you see most students standing, start the music. As the music plays the students wander around the classroom with their whiteboard and the sentence written on it.
After about a minute, stop the music. The students freeze and turn to the person(s) closest to them, and read their sentences to each other. Have the students give you a thumbs up when they're finished. Start the music and play again.
Another idea for this activity is to have students read each other's sentences. The kids can even check for capital letters and periods.
Feel free to modify this activity to focus on the many other skills you'll be teaching.
Sentence Puzzles
Sometimes having kids work quietly at their desks is just what the doctor ordered, and these writing sentences practice worksheets are the perfect medicine. Your students will cut out the words then arrange them into a sentence. After, they'll need to write the sentence, including a capital letter and a period, then draw a picture. Your students will work on several fine motor skills while reviewing sentence writing skills.
Sign up for The Nook to get access to these practice pages.
Sentence Caterpillars
The simple sentence structure can be easily illustrated with this adorable sentence caterpillar. Whether you're teaching your students a simple sentence or adding details to your sentences, this caterpillar is a great visual for your young writers. This resource if perfect for hanging on your wall, adding the sentence caterpillars to your writing center, or your students' writing folders.
Get your sentence caterpillars in The Nook.
Writing Sentence Starters
Sometimes the first step is the most difficult. Give your students simple sentence starters to free up the cognitive load of getting started. It allows new writers to have some sort of scaffold to push them along. Hang these sentence starters up in a center or use them as an early finisher activity. Your students will practice writing a simple sentence along with the conventions of capitalizing the first word and adding punctuation to the end.
Writing Sentences Game
Here's another activity to practice and repeat the basic structure of a simple sentence. Have your students play a game of concentration by turning over the cards and looking for pairs with the same sentence. Not only will you love having this activity to keep up the continuous practice, but your students will always have something to work on for an independent or buddy activity.
Simple Sentence Pictures
Writing about a picture is an easy way to practice sentence writing. Students won't need to think of an idea because the idea is in the picture. They simply need to practice their sentence writing skills. Providing students with a picture is perfect for sentence writing for kindergarten, first, and second grades. Add this fantastic resource to your collection.
Give students some guided practice then set them free to practice on their own during independent work, in the writing center, or with a buddy.
Writing sentences is a skill that all of our students need. The basic format of the simple sentence needs to be mastered in order to understand the more complex sentences they'll encounter in the future. These activities offer the necessary practice students need to become proficient in simple sentence writing. Be sure to access the resources mentioned in this post at The Nook and save yourself time and energy.
