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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Let's Build a Sentence Unit Plan
This English unit has been designed to introduce the key components of simple and compound sentences to younger students; specifically, capital letters and punctuation; verbs, nouns, adjectives, and conjunctions.
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Active Voice and Passive Voice
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify and use active voice and passive voice in sentences.
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Let's Build a Sentence
A 60 minute lesson in which students will write simple and compound sentences.
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Building Compound Sentences
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify that a compound sentence is made up of two or more main clauses joined together by a conjunction.
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Using Adjectives to Describe a Character
A 60 minute lesson in which students will use adjectives to describe the personality and appearance of characters.
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Using Adjectives
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify that an adjective provides information about a noun and is often called a describing word.
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Building Simple Sentences
A 60 minute lesson in which students will build a simple sentence.
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Capital Letters and Punctuation - Fix It!
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify that capital letters and punctuation are used to build sentences.
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Capital Letters and Punctuation
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify that capital letters and different types of punctuation are used to build sentences.
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Common and Proper Nouns
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify that a noun is a naming word used for a person, place, or object.
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Very Important Verbs
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify that a verb describes an action in clauses or sentences.
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What is a Sentence?
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify that a simple sentence is a group of words that contains a subject, a verb, and expresses a complete thought.
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9 Fun Punctuation Resources and Activities for Elementary Schoolers
How do you teach punctuation in a fun way? These punctuation activities and exercises are chock full of fun and learning too!
- 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