Sentence Structure Teaching Resources
Teach students the elements of sentence structure this school year with printable worksheets, sentence-building activities, sorting games and more elementary school teaching resources designed to help extend your students' understanding of how to write clear and concise sentences that follow the rules of English grammar.
This extensive collection of teaching resources has been created by teachers for teachers like you. Aligned to the Common Core curriculum, the ELA collection includes editable worksheets and teaching presentations and more to save elementary teachers time on lesson planning.
Created by expert teachers, each resource in this sentence collection has been carefully reviewed and curated by our team. That means it's ready to use in the classroom! You'll even find editable resources, plus differentiated options.
New to teaching about sentence structure, or just looking for fresh ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teaching team!
English Sentence Structure Explained
From subjects to predicates, objects to clauses, the English language is packed with rules specific to sentence structure that students need to learn on the way to becoming proficient writers.
Ready to break down how to build a sentence in English and look at some examples? Let's go!
Subject
The subject of a sentence is the noun or pronoun that performs the action or is described in the sentence.
For example, in the sentence "Jaquan did his homework," Jaquan is the subject.
Predicate
The predicate of a sentence expresses the action or state of being in a sentence.
Let's go back to the sentence "Jaquan did his homework." In this case, did is the predicate.
Object
The object of a sentence is a noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb.
For example, "homework" would be the object in "Jaquan did his homework."
Complement
The complement of a sentence is a word or phrase that completes the meaning of a sentence.
The complement can be a direct object, indirect object, or subject complement.
For example: "a doctor" in "She became a doctor."
Modifier
A modifier in a sentence provides additional information about a word or phrase in the sentence. It can be an adjective or an adverb. Example: "kind" in "She was a kind teacher."
What Are Clauses?
Clauses are groups of words containing a subject and a verb. They're important to understand when learning sentence structure. After all, one kind of clause is a sentence!
There are two main types of clauses:
- Independent Clause — An independent clause can stand alone as a complete sentence because it expresses a complete thought. For example: "I did all of my homework."
- Dependent Clause — A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence because it does not express a complete thought. It relies on an independent clause to make sense. Example: "When I went to the store," (Dependent clause) "I bought an apple." (Independent clause). Dependent clauses can be paired with independent clauses to build sentences.
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Who, What, Where Simple Sentence Mini Book
Use this simple sentence mini book to help students identify the parts of a simple sentence.
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Simple Sentence Building Activity - Caterpillar
Use this simple sentence building activity in the form of a caterpillar to have students identify the parts of a simple sentence.
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Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences Worksheet Pack
Use this set of five grammar worksheets to teach about the structures of simple, compound and complex sentences.
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United States Patriotic Symbols - Holiday Worksheets
Build and write sentences about patriotic holidays in the United States with a group of six holiday sentence-building worksheets.
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Compound Sentence Quiz
Assess your students ability to identify, write, and edit compound sentences with a printable Compound Sentence Quiz.
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Independent and Dependent Clauses Worksheet Pack
Introduce the concept of independent and dependent clauses with a set of printable sentence structure worksheets.
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Statement, Question, Command, Exclamation – Cut and Paste Worksheet
Identify statement, command, question, and exclamation sentences with a Types of Sentences Cut and Paste worksheet for 2nd grade.
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Run-On Sentence Practice - Worksheet Pack
Give your students more run-on sentence practice with a Run-On Sentence Worksheet pack.
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Complete and Incomplete Sentence Task Cards
These task cards are best used as independent practice or formative assessment assignments during sentence structure lessons.
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Simple Sentences Cut and Paste Worksheets
Build confident early readers with this engaging Simple Sentence Cut and Paste Worksheet Set.
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Compound Sentence Strip Activity
Use these simple sentences and coordinating conjunctions to help students practice forming compound sentences.
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Simple Sentence Dominoes Printable
Use this set of 30 dominoes to assist your younger students with building and understanding simple sentences.
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Simple & Compound Sentence Structure Lesson Slides (2-3)
Use our Simple and Compound Sentence Structure Lesson Slides to teach your 2nd and 3rd graders about sentences, subjects, predicates, and simple/compound sentences.
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Alice in Wonderland Escape Room - Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences
Help Alice escape Sentence-Land in this Alice in Wonderland Escape Room Game covering simple, compound, and complex sentences.
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Types of Clauses Anchor Charts
Introduce your students to the types of sentence clauses with a set of printable Types of Clauses Anchor Charts.
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Types of Sentences Flip Book
Create a helpful types of sentences flipbook with our Differentiated 4 Kinds of Sentences foldable graphic organizers.
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Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences Poster Pack
Display and use these handy anchor charts to teach your students about simple, compound, and complex sentences.
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Compound Sentences Worksheet Pack
Build your students' knowledge of using coordinating conjunctions using this compound sentences worksheet pack.
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Complete Sentence vs Fragment Sentence Sort
Make sentence structure lessons engaging and hands-on with this playful Complete Sentence vs Fragment sorting activity.
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Fix the Sentences Worksheets
Use these Fix the Sentences Worksheets to help your students become confident writers.
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Fixing Sentence Fragments Worksheet Pack
Use this no-prep sentence fragments worksheet pack to help your students improve their sentence writing skills.
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The Unsinkable Titanic - Weekly Paragraph and Sentence Combining + Answer Key
Practice combining simple sentences to form compound and complex sentences with the Unsinkable Titanic Weekly Paragraphs and Sentence Combining worksheets & answer key.
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Simple Sentence Exit Tickets
Check your students' knowledge of simple sentences with this set of simple sentence exit tickets perfect for kindergarten.
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Picture Prompts for Simple Sentences Flipbook
Encourage early writers to build confidence with this interactive flipbook!
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Roll and Write - Simple and Compound Sentence Game
Play a ‘Roll-a-Sentence’ simple and compound sentence game to help your students practice writing simple and compound sentences.
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Christmas Worksheet - Sentence Editing
Edit and correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and spacing errors with a set of Christmas Fix the Sentence worksheets.
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Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences Sorting Activity
Practice reading, identifying and writing simple, compound, and complex sentences with a sorting activity.
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Roll and Write – Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences
Practice writing simple, compound, and complex sentences with our Roll and Write activity.
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Successful Sentences – Sentence Construction Cards
Word cards for constructing complex sentences.
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Complex Sentences Matching Game
Download this complex sentence matching game to help your students comprehend and build complex sentences.
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Combining Sentences Anchor Chart Pack (5-6)
Use our Combining Sentences Anchor Chart Pack to help your students learn new ways to combine simple sentences in their writing.
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Combining Sentences With "And" Worksheets (2 - 4)
Use these printable Combining Sentences With ‘And’ Worksheets to help your students practice using the conjunction ‘and’ to form compound sentences.
- Sentence Structure Worksheets
- Sentence Structure Games
- Sentence Structure Templates
- Sentence Structure Posters
- Sentence Structure for Kindergarten
- Sentence Structure for 1st Grade
- Sentence Structure for 2nd Grade
- Sentence Structure for 3rd Grade
- Sentence Structure for 4th Grade
- Sentence Structure for 5th Grade
- Sentence Structure for 6th Grade