Building Sentences

I am more mathematical minded than language. Language sometimes frustrates me- it is my weaker area. Teaching kids how to write can be a great challenge. You can model good sentences, you can try to explain how to write good sentences, but what do you do if that doesn't seem to be helping? I was racking my brain for new ideas until a friend shared this sentence-building exercise with me. It makes developing a good sentence so easy for beginning writers.

First, the child writes a simple sentence which includes a noun and a verb and then progressively adds more words to the sentence according to the following structure:

• sentence:                The girl cried.
• which:                       The young girl.
• how:                         The young girl cried silently.
• where:                      The young girl cried silently in her room.
• when:                       The young girl cried silently in her room last night.

 I created a sentence-building page to make it easier to remember the "which, how, where, etc."

I have it posted in the free download section of my site Montessori For Learning.


Find more great montessori materials at Montessori for Learning!