Sentence scrambles are a fun and engaging activity for young students. There are many benefits to using them to teach both sentence structure and sentence writing. They are a low-prep activity and when I taught first grade and later Kindergarten, I used them to teach sentence writing. I would create sentences that followed a phonics rule or sigh words that we were working on. I cut up index cards and put one word of a sentence on each piece of the card. My students love sitting on the rug or at their desks and moving the cards around to create a sentence. Let’s look at some of the skills you can teach with scrambled sentences.
Sentence Structure
In English, in order to make sense, sentences follow a certain pattern or word order. Using this type of activity is a great way to teach word order and sentence structure because the students physically move the words around until the sentence makes sense.
Sentence Scrambles and Capitalization and Punctuation
As children are moving the cards around, teach them to find the word with the capital letter and that word should either start the sentence or act as the noun in the sentence if it is a proper noun. When you make the cards, put the punctuation on the card with the last word. This will help young students easily find the last word and remind them to use punctuation. I created cut and paste worksheets for my sentence scrambles. After students glue the word on the page, there is a space for students to write the sentence on their own using capitalization and punctuation. The scrambles when unscrambled serve as great mentor sentences for young writers and teaches the concept of a complete sentence.
Reading Fluency and Sentence Scrambles
Another great way to use sentence scramble sentence worksheets, is to use them for reading fluency. After the students glue their sentence down correctly, they can read the sentence to the teacher, class or partner. I created these sentences for Veterans Day and incorporated simple information for the students to learn and remember as they worked on unscrambling, reading and writing the sentences.
There are so many benefits to using sentence scrambles with your students and I cannot wait to hear how they have helped your class learn about sentences and so much more!
– Jeanne
Check out these sentence scramble products in here my store or in my TPT store !
