Sentence Writing Unit

Have you ever found yourself wondering (or googling) ‘how do you teach sentence writing?’ or ‘how do you teach sentence structure?’ Perhaps you’ve found yourself looking for engaging sentence writing worksheets, grammar lesson plans, or even a sentence writing rubric? If you teach first grade or second grade, I’ve got you covered. I’m going to share my sentence writing unit with you!

Can you relate?

You know that you need to start teaching the writing genres soon, such as narrative, opinion, and informational writing. But how on earth are you supposed to do that when your students can’t even write a sentence yet?

Are you sick of –

• No finger spaces?
• Missing or incorrect capital letters and punctuation?
• Run on sentences, sentence fragments, and sentences that don’t make sense?
• Short or boring sentences?

You NEED to start with this sentence writing unit first! Teach your students the foundational skills of sentence structure and grammar BEFORE you start teaching them how to write a personal narrative.

Tell me…

Do you find teaching writing overwhelming? Perhaps it’s because your students struggle with the basics of sentence writing.

This unit aims to take away this struggle. It follows an ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach:

1. The mini lessons provide explicit instruction with teacher modeling (I do).
2. The peer discussions keep all students engaged and actively participating (we do).
3. The independent writing time gives students a chance to practice their sentence writing skills (you do).

Does this sound like you?

Do you find writing and grammar quite tricky to teach?

This unit features step-by-step scripted lesson plans that will make teaching sentence writing a breeze! You’ll know exactly what to do.

Furthermore, you might be exhausted with sourcing and preparing activities.

This unit comes with the teaching slides, printables, and assessment tools, so that you’ll have everything you need. Get your evenings and weekends back, my friend! Check out the unit here.

Or maybe you and your students are tired of the snooze-fest curriculum that you’re provided with.

So, say goodbye to boring lessons! This unit features fun and engaging slides and printables that you and your students will love to work on.

What’s included in this unit?

• Firstly, there’s 20 step-by-step scripted lesson plans
• In addition, there’s 123 slides in 3 versions (PowerPoint version, PDF version, & interactive Google Slides version)
• Of course, theres pre-assessment and post-assessment worksheets
• Then, there’s 18 worksheets
• …and 20 answer keys
• Finally, there’s an assessment rubric

Here’s a glimpse at the teaching slides –

Here’s everything else that’s included in this sentence writing unit:

• Video overview to help organize and implement the unit
• List of common core standards that align with this unit
• Teacher directions for the lesson plans
• Suggestions for differentiation
• Suggested lesson times
• Unit scope
• Unit at-a-glance calendar
• Student book/folder cover (3 versions – journal, notebook, or folder)
• Teacher directions for the printables
• Teacher directions for the rubric
• Writing samples for the rubric
• Video with tips for using the rubric

Here’s a breakdown of the lessons:

There are 20 lessons. This unit could be taught in 4 weeks (it may take more weeks, if you don’t teach a lesson each day)

• Pre-assessment
• Subject and predicate
• Sentence detectives
• Sentence building
• Sentence frames
• Capital letters
• Periods
• Writing a simple sentence
• Asking questions
• Sentences with strong feeling
• Writing multiple sentences
• Compound sentences
• Commas in a list
• Detailed ‘when’ sentences
• Detailed ‘where’ sentences
• Adding adjectives
• Stretching sentences
• Answering questions
• Revising and editing
• Assessment

Sentence Writing Unit FAQ –

What grade is this unit suitable for?

This unit has been designed for first and second grade, based on the common core standards. It’s perfect for the beginning of the school year.

However, it could be used with kindergarten students a bit later in the year (for example, after an illustration/labeling unit). Some lessons would have to be skipped though, such as the ones on commas or compound sentences.

This unit could also be used for older students. For example, if you have a third grade cohort that really needs to work on their sentence writing skills. Or perhaps you teach special ed. Take a look at the preview to be sure that this will suit your students.

Is this unit editable?

No, I’m afraid not. It has been secured to protect my work and that of the clip artists I have used.

What if I don’t have access to printing, can I still use this unit?

This unit has both print and digital components. If you have limited printing options, you can still use this unit. You can show the slides digitally. The worksheets could also be shown as a digital PDF and students could re-create the activities on lined paper.

What if I don’t have access to technology, can I still use this unit?

If you don’t have access to technology, you can still use this unit. Simply print the worksheets. You could also print the teaching slides and use them as posters.

I hope you’ve found this post informative! This unit is perfect for the beginning of the school year as your first back to school writing or grammar unit.

Check out this sentence writing unit here!

P.S. – Interested in free crafts and worksheets? Access my free resource library here!