Sentence scramble

Students will learn concepts about print including print directionality and the understanding that written print contains a message.

A lesson plan for grade K English Language Arts

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Related topics

• Learn more about language arts, pre-reading strategies, read-alouds, sentences, and writing.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• sequence words to form sentences.
• illustrate their dictated sentences.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 hour

Materials/resources

• Cat on the Mat by Brian Wildsmith (big book)
• chart paper
• sentence pattern could be pre-written on paper to save time
• 9″x 12″ manilla paper
• crayons
• glue
• scissors

Pre-activities

• Students should be able to recognize some basic sight words (on, the, cat, etc.)
• Students should be able to identify the first word of a sentence by recognizing the capital letter.
• Students should be able to identify the last word of a sentence by recognizing the period at the end.

Activities

Day One

(30 minutes)

1. Show the students the big book Cat on the Mat by Brian Wildsmith.
2. Ask the students to predict what the story will be about.
3. Do a picture walk and notice the different animals on each page.
4. Turn to the first page. Ask students to identify high frequency words (on, the, cat).
5. Read the patterned text of the story together.
6. Review the story by asking the students to point out the animal words on each page.
7. Write the sentence pattern/frame at the top of the chart paper. (The _______ sat on the mat.)
8. Have each child dictate a new word to fill in the blank. Write the new sentences on the chart paper. Write each child’s name by their sentence. These words could be seasonal or integrated with another unit of study. I used December holiday words such as elf, reindeer, candle, snowman, and star.
9. If an assistant is available, the students could be divided into two groups for writing their dictations. This saves some time.

(After this part of the lesson, the teacher will need to type or hand-write on small strips of paper, each child’s dictated sentence to be cut apart by the teacher.)

Day Two

(30 minutes)

1. Before the lesson, cut apart the typed or handwritten strips. Give each child their own cut apart sentence, paper, glue, and crayons.
2. Reread the story Cat on the Mat by Brian Wildsmith.
3. Reread the children’s dictated sentences that have been written on the chart paper.
4. Individually, students sequence their own dictated sentence. Glue the cut apart words in the correct order. Then illustrate their new sentence.
5. These papers may be displayed or laminated to create a class book.

Assessment

Teacher observation of student work.

• Is their sentence in the correct order?
• Is the capital letter first?
• Is the word with the period at the end?
• Has the student illustrated their own sentence?

Supplemental information

Comments

Any patterned big book will work for this lesson. Choose a book with one sentence per page.