3.2 Explicitly Teach Writing a Simple Sentence

Today we are going to focus on sentences. A sentence is a group of words that make a complete thought. When we write a sentence, we want to put our words in the correct order so readers can know what we mean. A sentence has two basic parts: a naming part and an action part.

We're going to learn how to build a sentence with the two basic parts that a sentence must have: a naming part, called a subject, and an action part, called a predicate. Sentences also need a capital letter at the beginning and end punctuation at the end. 

Here are the two parts of a basic sentence. We need both parts for our sentence to be a complete thought. If we do not have both parts, it is a sentence fragment and not a sentence.

Our yellow card is the naming part. What part is this? [Children echo: the naming part.] This part of the sentence is also called the subject. What is this part also called? [Children echo: the subject.] Right. It tells the reader who or what the sentence is about. Let’s read who or what this sentence is about.

Our blue card is the action part. What part is this? [Children echo: the action part.] This part of the sentence is also called the predicate. What is this part also called? [Children echo: the predicate.] It tells the reader what the subject is doing. Let’s read about what the cat is doing.

If we just had the naming part we would have a fragment. Fragments are just pieces of a sentence. They leave the reader confused and asking questions to complete the thought. For example, if I said to you, "A frog … " and then said nothing else, you are left with questions. What is the frog doing? If I just said, "jumps," you are also left with questions. Who or what jumps?

Let’s look at the beginning of these sentences. Every sentence starts with a capital letter. And let’s look at the end. Every sentence ends with a stop sign, or end punctuation. The end punctuation here is called a period.