Building Sentences

 

Hello!

Writing is a skill which a child can acquire well when it's developed at early stages. 

As part of my class schedule I would dedicate 10-15 minutes on encouraging the students to write simple yet meaningful sentences. The age group of students that I am referring to is between 7-8 years. However, I think, the same strategy can be applied across all elementary levels. 

To begin with, we can talk about the 5W questions (who, what, when, where and why). This will ensure that the sentences are meaningful and detailed. Have the 5Ws written on the board one below the other. Their arrangement can be flexible; however, I prefer starting with who or when. Always start by constructing a class sentence before each one does their own. Students can take turns to add words to 5W questions making sure that they are well connected. 

The following example shall be helpful:

who - Ramesh

what - was studying

when - last night

where - in his room

why - because he had to prepare for his exam.

After the mind map, ask the students to write it like a sentence. Make sure they capitalise and punctuate.

Ramesh was studying last night in his room because he had to prepare for his exam.

Students can also begin with the when question. Then the sentence would look like this:

Last night, Ramesh was studying in his room because he had to prepare for his exam. 

Grammar concepts can also be reinforced with the activity. For example - 'who' can be a proper noun or a common noun, 'what' is the verb, 'when' can be referred to as time words and 'where' is the preposition. 

Once the kids are comfortable with building a mind map they can be encouraged to write sentences directly.

For older kids, the same activity can be done by making it more challenging and asking the students to add adjectives before nouns in the sentence and also adding a 'how' question if possible.

I hope the activity is useful and it helps students write meaningful sentences and well-thought passages.