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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Was/Were Subject Verb Agreement Worksheet
Provide students with additional subject-verb agreement practice with a worksheet focusing on using was and were correctly
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Writing Compound Sentences with Conjunctions Worksheet
Assign this worksheet to allow students to practice using coordinating conjunctions to create compound sentences.
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Simple Sentence Dominoes - Set 2
A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.
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Everyday Grammar Sentence Structure Warm-Ups – Grades 1 and 2 Interactive PowerPoint
An engaging 40 slide interactive PowerPoint to use in the lower grades classroom when learning about sentence structure.
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Coordinating Conjunctions Craft and Writing Activity
Encourage your students to get hands on with this highly visual representation of coordinating conjunctions and the role they play in linking two ideas in a sentence.
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FANBOYS Poster for Teaching Coordinating Conjunctions
Display this grammar poster in your classroom to help students choose appropriate coordinating conjunctions using the acronym FANBOYS.
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Synonyms and Antonyms - Build a Sentence Interactive
Build strong vocabulary and sentence-writing skills with an interactive synonyms and antonyms sentence-building activity.
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C.O.P.S. and A.R.M.S Editing Anchor Charts
Encourage students to proofread and edit their writing using the C.O.P.S. and A.R.M.S acronyms with printable writing anchor charts and editing checklists.
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Holiday Worksheet - Easter Sentences
Build and write sentences about Easter sentence-building worksheets.
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Write About It! Christmas Sentence Builder Pack
Write around the Christmas tree with a group of Christmas sentence building worksheets for beginning writers.
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Sentence Conjunctions Posters for Lower Elementary Students
Display this set of 8 grammar posters to teach students about sentence connectives and conjunctions.
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Write About It! Halloween Costumes
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled Halloween writing prompts about Halloween costumes.
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Write About It! Pumpkins - Differentiated Writing Prompts
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled fall writing prompts about pumpkins.
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Singular/Plural Subject Verb Agreement Google Slides Interactive Activity
Improve sentence structure and grammar skills with a Google Interactive resource that focuses on singular and plural subject-verb agreement.
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Has/Have Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using has and have correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.
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Find What Doesn’t Fit: Relevant Details Worksheet
Practice determining what details are relevant and irrelevant to a topic while providing a purposeful context.
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Is/Are, Was/Were Subject Verb Agreement Interactive Activity
Embed subject-verb agreement practice into digital learning with this Google Slides Interactive activity.
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Has/Have Subject Verb Agreement Worksheet
Provide students with additional subject-verb agreement practice with a worksheet focusing on using has and have correctly.
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Complete or Incomplete? - Worksheet
Practice identifying incomplete and complete sentences.
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Complete and Incomplete Sentence Sort Worksheet
Practice sorting incomplete and complete sentences.
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Types of Sentences Scoot Activity
Reinforce understanding of the 4 types of sentences with this set of 20 task cards.
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Sort It Out! - Types of Sentences
Practice identifying the 4 kinds of sentences by sorting all 30 cards by their sentence type and missing punctuation marks.
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SPLAT! Types of Sentences Card Game
Practice identifying the 4 kinds of sentences (interrogative, declarative, imperative, or exclamatory) with this set of 20 task cards.
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Simple Sentence Dominoes - Set 3
A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.
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Build It! - End Punctuation Task Cards
A set of 20 task cards, directions, and answer key to practice forming end punctuation.
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Declarative, Interrogative, and Exclamatory Sentence Match-up Cards
A set of match-up cards to use when teaching younger students about the types of sentences.
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Make a Sentence – Worksheet
A set of worksheets where students unscramble words to create a sentence.
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Everyday Grammar Sentence Structure Warm-Ups – Grades 5 and 6 Interactive PowerPoint
An engaging 40 slide interactive PowerPoint to use in the upper grades classroom when learning about grammar and sentence structure.
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Four Types of Sentences Poster Collection - Primary and Intermediate
Display these posters highlighting the four types of sentences and teach your students to use varied sentence types in their writing.
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My Drawing of the Gingerbread Man Worksheet
An engaging worksheet in the theme of the Gingerbread Man that explores the use of adjectives through drawing.
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Christmas Writing Center - Types of Sentences for 2nd Grade
Help your students answer “What Type of Sentence Is This?’ with a printable Christmas sorting activity on the 4 types of sentences.
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3rd Grade English Worksheets - Christmas Printables
Add some Christmas spirit to your December grammar lessons with a printable pack of Christmas-themed 3rd-grade English worksheets.
- 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