Last week Sam John did not go to the soccer match they were not feeling well. They had not been feeling well they ate some hamburgers they had bought down the street. Their parents told them they had to stay at home
they were better. The boys agreed with their parents they both wished they could have seen the match.
Sentences
Introduction
A sentence is a group of words that makes sense and contains a subject and a verb. Take the example into the box. This is not a sentence as it does not have a subject and a verb and does not make sense by itself. A sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark.
There are four types of sentences.
(a) Statements simply state something or give information about something.
Examples: It is hot. The time is eight o’clock. Koalas are marsupials.
(b) Questions ask something.
Examples: What is the weather like? What time is it? What is a koala?
(c) Commands or requests direct someone to do something. They can also give advice or warnings.
Examples: Get out your books. Sit up. Look out for sharp stones.
(d) Exclamations express the strong feeling of the speaker or writer about something.
Examples: Ouch! I did it! What a fantastic day!
Sentences can take several forms.
(a) Simple sentences consist of one clause. They can be divided into two parts:
the subject tells who or what did something, and the predicate contains the verb and tells us what the subject did or is doing.
Examples: Horses (subject) run (predicate).
Billy (subject) climbed the tree (predicate).
Although the terms subject and predicate need not be mentioned at this level, it is important that students do come to see that a sentence tells us who or what did something and what they did.
(b) Complex sentences have more than one verb and thus have more than one clause. A complex sentence has at least one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.
Example: When it was hot we went for a swim because we wanted to get cool.
(c) Compound sentences consist of two or more main clauses (independent clauses) joined by a comma and a conjunction.
Example: I washed the dishes, and Billy dried them.
Speech can be reported directly or indirectly.
(a) Direct speech is the exact words spoken by a person. It is enclosed in quotation marks.
Examples: “I am writing a story,” said Meg.
Meg said, “I am writing a story.”
“I am,” said Meg, “writing a story.”
Notice that the commas and the periods appear inside the quotation marks.
(b) Indirect speech reports a person’s speech but does not necessarily quote the exact words used.
Examples: Meg said she is writing a story.
Meg told us she was writing a story.
Teaching Strategies
Complete the sentence
Have children add words to complete a sentence. Informal exercises such as this demonstrate to children that a sentence must express a complete thought.
Bill has a new I a rabbit
Answer the question
Ask children questions and have them answer in complete sentences. Children could also be organized in pairs and take turns to ask and answer questions. The game could be made more fun by allowing children to make up silly questions.
What is your name?
My name is Miles Joseph Smith.
Jumbled sentences
Write a series of jumbled sentences on the chalkboard. Challenge children to orally unjumble them. As children become more confident, try giving longer sentences.
lives dog a kennel in a
Interview
Choose volunteers to imagine that they have just returned from the moon. Have the rest of the class imagine that they are reporters and ask suitable questions which the moon travellers must answer in complete sentences.
Is the surface of the moon dry?
How long did it take you to get to the moon?
Sentences (cont.)
Complete the sentence
Have children complete sentences that you have begun or begin sentences that you have provided only the endings for. Activities such as this help children understand that sentences have a part that tells who or what did something and a part that tells what they did.
A spider . . . A dog . . .
. . . swam across the creek.
. . . bit the boy on the leg.
Match up
Have children match the beginnings of sentences to the best endings.
The dog get wool from sheep.
We climbed the tree.
The monkey barked at the stranger.
Headline hunt
Have children search through newspapers and cut out the headline words. Have them create sentences of their own using the words and then paste their sentences onto a sheet of paper.
What am I?
Read a description of an object and ask children to guess what it is. Point out the statements and question in the description, and ask children to answer with a complete sentence. Challenge children to make up their own “What am I?”
statements and questions.
I am small. I have wings. I am an insect. I make honey.
What am I?
I am a bee.
Make the opposite
Write a sentence on the chalkboard. Have children rearrange the words to make the sentence mean the opposite.
The bull chased the boy. The boy chased the bull.
Addo
Call out one word. Children must then add one word at a time to build up a long, sensible sentence. This can be played as a circle game.
Bill Bill ran
Bill ran across
Bill ran across the . . . and so on.
Sentences (cont.)
Subject/predicate match
On separate pieces of cards, write suitable subjects and predicates. Shuffle them and have children make sentences. Children can also make sets of cards for other groups to match.
The dog are in the garden.
The girls is climbing the tree.
The boy is chewing its bone.
Sentence search
Have children search through a text to find the following:
the longest sentence the shortest sentence a question
an exclamation a command a statement direct speech indirect speech
Make a sentence
Have children make up their own sentences from given words.
farmer sheep meadow
The farmer drove the sheep into the meadow.
Sentence formulas
First, have children create sentences based on formulas and then let them make up sentence formulas for their classmates to “solve.”
article + noun + verb The snake crawled.
article + adjective + noun + verb The black snake crawled.
article + adjective + noun + verb + adverb The black snake crawled away.
Sentences (cont.)
Sentences
Name Grammar BLM 59
A sentence must make sense and must contain a subject and a verb.