Children can struggle to write sentences for a number of reasons. Many different skills come into play when writing a sentence including:

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1 Parent s Corner #3 By Melinda Matthews, SPELD NSW Referral Officer Teachers on the Teachers Certificate Course are having fun learning various strategies to help reluctant students write sentences. For some children the act of writing a sentence on paper can be exceptionally difficult. Approaching how to write a sentence with some fun hand-on activities that engage the reluctant writer will hopefully not only help the child, but reduce the stress as a parent is trying to help that child. Children can struggle to write sentences for a number of reasons. Many different skills come into play when writing a sentence including: physically being able to sit on a chair, hold a pencil and write from left to right on paper knowing what a sentence is being able to write with correct grammar, punctuation and spelling Having the general knowledge and vocabulary to use appropriate words Being able to sequence and organise thoughts And most importantly coming up with an idea Sentences a quick over view A sentence is a group of words that make sense and contains a verb. Example: The boy ran. A sentence can be: a question: Can I have a cup of tea? a command: I told you to do that now! a statement: I love school. an exclamation: They won the game! A sentence starts with a capital and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. Types of sentences: Simple sentences contain one clause that is a group of words that has a subject, someone or something and gives us more information about the person or thing. Example: The horse (Subject) drank some water (what it did). Compound sentences have two or more main independent clauses joined by a conjunction. Example: Sally planted a flower and Paul watered it. Complex sentences have more than one verb and thus more than one clause. A complex sentence has a main independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. Example: The soccer game was cancelled (main clause) because it rained (dependent clause as information from the main clause is needed for it to make sense). SPELD NSW Parents Corner Issue 3, from E News June

2 Activities to write simple sentences: Beginner Writers: Identifying - Using a picture identify the correct sentence to describe the picture. To understand which sentence is correct the child needs to name the person or thing and what it is doing, i.e. telling us more. Example from Ants in the Apple by Lin Meeks - Write several simple sentences on separate pieces of paper, cut each sentence into two and get the children to reassemble them correctly. SPELD NSW Parents Corner Issue 3, from E News June

3 Selecting and Completing - Using a picture to name the person or thing to complete the given sentence or complete the sentence to tell us more about the person or thing. Example from Ants in the Apple by Lin Meeks - On a piece of paper write several sentences and cut them into two. Using either the beginning or end part of a sentence ask the child to complete the sentence. When finished this activity ask the child to show all the sentence parts and ask them to match the parts to make complete sentences. Examples of sentence beginnings and endings that can be completed by the student and/ or rearranged to make four complete sentences. SPELD NSW Parents Corner Issue 3, from E News June

4 Generating - Using a picture to generate the idea of what is happening to the person /s or things/s, and then the child writes their own sentence. Developing Writer Example from Ants in the Apple by Lin Meeks - Using a cheap card (blank inside) from a $2 shop, write the name of the person or thing on the picture then write the sentence on the inside. This activity can be extended by writing numbers over the top of the picture to sequence events. Use the numbers as visual cues to write several sentences on the inside of the card. The numbers and names help the child remember what the main items and order of events are when writing the sentence. - Using small strips of paper to represent the sentence, write individual words on separate pieces of paper. 1. Start with a simple sentence: The boy ran. 2. Brainstorm alternate words for: -boy student, teenager, toddler, athlete -ran skipped, galloped, sprinted, bolted 3. Change any existing words to preferred words by writing the preferred word on the back of the paper. The student bolted. 4. Keep expanding the sentence by inserting new words. Ask questions like: describe the noun/ verbs (adjectives/ adverbs) - huge, smart, blond/ lazily, quickly why scared by a dog, saw his teacher coming, heard the bell where school, home, athletics track what he won, he got caught, he tripped who friends, his mum, a teacher when yesterday, Friday, morning SPELD NSW Parents Corner Issue 3, from E News June

5 When the sentence is finished, tape the pieces together to allow the completed sentence to be displayed. Not all questions are suitable for all sentences. However, questions can lead onto more sentences and paragraphs once an understanding of the basic sentence writing is achieved. Final sentence: The blonde student tripped when he bolted for school after hearing the morning bell. Sentence Roll Using the same procedure outlined above, continue expanding the sentence until it becomes ridiculous. The exercise is for students who already have a basic understanding of sentence writing. Some words to be avoided include and and because. Descriptive words, nouns and verbs can only be used once. And is acceptable if it used to connect descriptive words, e.g. black and white. This is a good activity to extend vocabulary and get the child to think about writing expanded sentences. If several children are doing this activity together a game can be made of who can create the longest sentence. Alternatively, if doing the activity with one child see if they can write a longer sentence each time they do this activity. Sentence example: Weekend. The smart long-legged blond student suddenly tripped when surprised by a large black spotty dog barking madly at a group of seven teenage school-girls standing in the middle of a deserted road watching a small nest in the distant gum trees on a hot summer s morning before the bell went for school. Teachers from the Teachers Certificate Course displaying an example of their sentence roll on the Written Expression With many of the above activities colour coding can help children to identify parts of the sentence. Example: Use one colour, blue pen or paper for the subject and a separate colour, green for telling us more about the subject. SPELD NSW Parents Corner Issue 3, from E News June

6 Colour coding with either colour pens or paper can help identify the sentence parts- - Nouns red - Adjectives yellow - Verbs green - Adverbs blue - Pronouns orange - Conjunctions/Other white References: Many of the above strategies were taught at the 2013 Teachers Certificate Course. Lin Meeks, Ants in the apple Peter Clutterbuck,2010, Good Grammar, Blake Education SPELD NSW Parents Corner Issue 3, from E News June