Materials

• Sentence Structure Lesson - Use the printable lesson for your lesson plan, or use student version as lesson supplement.

• Sentence Structure Worksheets - Printable teaching worksheet exercises.

Procedure

A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought.

Are these sentences?

1. "Ashley walks to the park."
2. "She takes a friend with her."
3. "Climb a tree."

Both (1) and (2) are sentences, but (3) is not a sentence. Why? It does not express a complete thought. We wonder: who climbs a tree? Why?

-By adding some words to (3) we can make a complete sentence:

"Ashley and her friend climb a tree."

Every sentence has a subject and a predicate. The subject usually contains the main subject or noun, and the predicate tells what the subject is doing, which contains the verb of the sentence.

Teachers: have the students write their own sentences on the board, and then identify the subject and predicate in each sentence.

Rules for writing sentences:
1. Every sentence must begin with a capital letter.
2. Every sentence must end with a punctuation mark. You use different marks for different kinds of sentences.

Punctuation Marks:
A period (.) ends a sentence that tells something, or makes a statement.
A questions mark (?) ends a sentence that asks a question.
An exclamation point (!) ends a sentence that shows excitement.

Types of Sentences

There are three kinds of sentences that we say and write every day.

1. Declarative: a type of sentence that declares or makes a statement.
Example - "Tom goes to school."

2. Interrogative: a sentence that asks a question.
Example - "Did Tom go to school?"

3. Imperative: a sentence that makes a request or gives a command.
Example - "Hurry Tom! Go to school now!"

Example sentences:

(Teachers: complete the following sentences with the students. Identify the type and show them how to underline the subject with one line, and the predicate with two lines.)

"Did Juan finish his chores?" (Interrogative sentence)
(Subject: Did Juan/ Predicate: finish his chores)

"Sam and Adam played football." (Declarative sentence)
(Subject: Sam and Adam/ Predicate: played football)

"Charlie, stop that now!" (Imperative sentence)
(Subject: Charlie/ Predicate: stop that now)

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