In Kindergarten, one of the main writing skills that students will learn is how to write a sentence. Teaching kids how to write a sentence takes a lot of modeling and patience. You can watch how I teach how to model writing a sentence here. Once they are able to write a sentence, you will want them to start practicing independently. I am all about simple, yet effective independent activities, so I have a few ideas that you can try! Here are 4 sentence writing activities for Kindergarten students to complete independently.
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Sentence Starters
One of the first sentence writing activities I try with my Kindergarten students is sentence starters. Simply write down the start of a sentence, such as “I see a…” or a more challenging one, “My favorite thing about Spring is…” and the students will finish the sentence. They can use words that they spell phonetically or use picture cards to help them finish the sentence. These really help build confidence as your students are just starting to write independently. I liked to pair sentence starters with using picture prompts. You can read more about picture prompts and how you can use them here.
Building Sentences
Perhaps the best way to really get students ready to write sentences is to build them first. This hands-on approach allows students to move words around, use new vocabulary, add capitalization and punctuation, without having to erase if they mess up. You can read more about how I use this activity with my students here.
Once your students can build a sentence independently, you can add in actually writing down the sentence. There are writing sheets included in this Holiday and Seasonal Building Sentences bundle here. As a student creates a sentence using the word and picture cards, they would write down the sentence once they are done, and then draw a picture to match.
Sentence Scramble
Once your students are able to build sentences, I like to throw a challenge in there and have them unscramble a sentence. I create a sentence using the same sentence building cards, and then have them unscramble it and write it down.
You can use this sentence writing activity in your daily center rotation, too. Put 4-5 sentences in a pocket chart, one in each row. Then, have them unscramble each sentence, and finally write down each sentence.
Roll a Sentence
My students go crazy over anything that involves them rolling a dice! If you have these dry-erase dice found here, you can easily write a few words on each. Students will roll each dice, put them in the right order and then write the sentence down.
Another roll a sentence option is this set of dice with pockets. I like using these if students are doing this in a center so the words don't rub off. Simply insert a paper with words for each one, have the students roll, and create a sentence. With both options, you can either have them write it down using a whiteboard or write it on a piece of paper.
You can grab this free pack of Roll a Sentence dice inserts here! This set uses animals and simple CVC words to allow students to practice reading and writing sentences independently. Enter your email below and it will be sent straight to your email inbox.
Let me know which sentence writing activity you are going to try with your students!
Emilie says
I love roll and write activities for children of all ages. My students are always asking for these dice activities. I’m also grateful for your scramble active because it is a wonderful way to help shape a student’s understanding of the structure of building a complete sentence.
Kristina says
My students always loved anything that involved dice! So happy to help out with new ideas.