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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Irregular Subject Verb Agreement Matching Game
Support student grammar skills with a fun and interactive matching game that reinforces irregular subject-verb agreement through hands-on learning.
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Subject Verb Agreement Sentences Sort
Get your students sorting subject-verb agreement sentences quickly and effectively with this engaging hands-on activity.
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Plural and Singular Subject Verb Agreement Matching Game
Support student grammar skills with a fun and interactive matching game that reinforces plural and singular subject-verb agreement through hands-on learning.
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Past, Present, and Future Verb Tense Matching Activity - Regular Verbs
Practice using past, present, and future tenses of regular verbs with a butterfly matching activity.
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Past, Present, and Future Tense Worksheets - Grades 1/2
Provide students with additional verb tense practice with worksheets focusing on changing verbs into past, present, and future tense.
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Is or Are? Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Download these is or are task cards, designed to help students confidently choose the correct verb form while improving their grammar skills.
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Subject-Verb Agreement Game
Use this subject-verb agreement game as a fun and collaborative way of teaching the fundamentals of correct sentence structure.
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Was or Were? Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Download these was or were task cards, designed to help students confidently choose the correct verb form while improving their grammar skills.
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Types of Sentences Sorting Worksheet
A cut and paste sorting worksheet to practice identifying the four types of sentences.
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Types of Sentences Review
A worksheet to review the four types of sentences.
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Complete and Incomplete Sentence Sort Worksheet
Practice sorting incomplete and complete sentences.
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Persuasive Writing Bump It Up Wall – Grade 6
Help your 6th-grade students "bump up" their persuasive writing with this bulletin board display.
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Persuasive Writing Bump It Up Wall – Grade 5
Help your 5th-grade students "bump up" their persuasive writing with this bulletin board display.
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Persuasive Writing Bump It Up Wall – Grade 4
Help your 4th-grade students "bump up" their persuasive writing with this bulletin board display.
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Persuasive Writing Bump It Up Wall – Grade 3
Help your 3rd-grade students "bump up" their persuasive writing with this bulletin board display.
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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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Subject Verb Agreement Dice Game
Download this dice game for pairs of students to practice subject-verb agreement and sentence writing.
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Main Clauses and Subordinate Clauses Poster
A poster explaining main clauses and subordinate clauses.
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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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Simple Sentence Dominoes - Set 2
A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.
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Simple Sentence Dominoes - Set 1
A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.
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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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Ending Punctuation Worksheet
A worksheet to practice ending punctuation.
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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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Active Voice and Passive Voice Poster
Differentiate between active and passive voice with this classroom poster.
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Passive Voice Poster
Identify writing in a passive voice with the aid of this classroom poster.
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Active Voice Poster
Identify writing in an active voice with the aid of this classroom poster.
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Active Voice and Passive Voice PowerPoint
A 13 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about active voice and passive voice.
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Active Voice and Passive Voice Worksheet
A worksheet for students to use when learning about active voice and passive voice.
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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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Very Important Verbs Worksheet
A worksheet in the theme of The Gingerbread Man that explores the importance of verbs.
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Successful Sentences – Sentence Construction Cards
Word cards for constructing complex 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