Sentence Structure Teaching Resources
Teach students the elements of sentence structure this school year with printable worksheets, sentence-building activities, sorting games and more elementary school teaching resources designed to help extend your students' understanding of how to write clear and concise sentences that follow the rules of English grammar.
This extensive collection of teaching resources has been created by teachers for teachers like you. Aligned to the Common Core curriculum, the ELA collection includes editable worksheets and teaching presentations and more to save elementary teachers time on lesson planning.
Created by expert teachers, each resource in this sentence collection has been carefully reviewed and curated by our team. That means it's ready to use in the classroom! You'll even find editable resources, plus differentiated options.
New to teaching about sentence structure, or just looking for fresh ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teaching team!
English Sentence Structure Explained
From subjects to predicates, objects to clauses, the English language is packed with rules specific to sentence structure that students need to learn on the way to becoming proficient writers.
Ready to break down how to build a sentence in English and look at some examples? Let's go!
Subject
The subject of a sentence is the noun or pronoun that performs the action or is described in the sentence.
For example, in the sentence "Jaquan did his homework," Jaquan is the subject.
Predicate
The predicate of a sentence expresses the action or state of being in a sentence.
Let's go back to the sentence "Jaquan did his homework." In this case, did is the predicate.
Object
The object of a sentence is a noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb.
For example, "homework" would be the object in "Jaquan did his homework."
Complement
The complement of a sentence is a word or phrase that completes the meaning of a sentence.
The complement can be a direct object, indirect object, or subject complement.
For example: "a doctor" in "She became a doctor."
Modifier
A modifier in a sentence provides additional information about a word or phrase in the sentence. It can be an adjective or an adverb. Example: "kind" in "She was a kind teacher."
What Are Clauses?
Clauses are groups of words containing a subject and a verb. They're important to understand when learning sentence structure. After all, one kind of clause is a sentence!
There are two main types of clauses:
- Independent Clause — An independent clause can stand alone as a complete sentence because it expresses a complete thought. For example: "I did all of my homework."
- Dependent Clause — A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence because it does not express a complete thought. It relies on an independent clause to make sense. Example: "When I went to the store," (Dependent clause) "I bought an apple." (Independent clause). Dependent clauses can be paired with independent clauses to build sentences.
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Statement, Question, Command, Exclamation – Cut and Paste Worksheet
Identify statement, command, question, and exclamation sentences with a Types of Sentences Cut and Paste worksheet for 2nd grade.
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Roll and Write - Simple and Compound Sentences
Practice writing simple and compound sentences with our Roll and Write activity.
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Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences Poster
A poster to display in the classroom showing the components of a sentence.
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Making Sentences – Cut and Paste Worksheets
A set of 10 cut and paste worksheets for making short sentences.
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Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences PowerPoint
A 23-slide editable PowerPoint template that introduces simple, compound, and complex sentences.
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Dressing Up A Sentence - Interactive or Printable Activity
Encourage students to add more descriptive language into their sentence writing with this activity.
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Comma Task Cards - Grades 4-6
Practice correct comma placement in dates, series, and compound and complex sentences.
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Capital Letter and Period Scavenger Hunt Worksheet
A reading passage and 2 engaging worksheets that explore the importance of capital letter and periods.
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FANBOYS Poster for Teaching Coordinating Conjunctions
Display this grammar poster in your classroom to help students choose appropriate coordinating conjunctions using the acronym FANBOYS.
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Write About It! Spring Sentence Writing Worksheets
Introduce new writers to writing complete sentences in early grades with a group of kindergarten writing prompts about spring.
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Complete and Incomplete Sentence Task Cards
These task cards are best used as independent practice or formative assessment assignments during sentence structure lessons.
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Find What Doesn’t Fit: Relevant Details Worksheet
Practice determining what details are relevant and irrelevant to a topic while providing a purposeful context.
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Types of Sentences Sorting Worksheet
A cut and paste sorting worksheet to practice identifying the four types of sentences.
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Editing for Incomplete Sentences Worksheet
Read a short text passage, underline and rewrite all incomplete sentences in this 2-page worksheet.
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Complete and Incomplete Sentence Sort Worksheet
Practice sorting incomplete and complete sentences.
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Make a Sentence – Worksheet
A set of worksheets where students unscramble words to create a sentence.
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Coordinating Conjunctions Craft and Writing Activity
Encourage your students to get hands on with this highly visual representation of coordinating conjunctions and the role they play in linking two ideas in a sentence.
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Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences Worksheets
Use this set of five grammar worksheets to teach about the structures of simple, compound and complex sentences.
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Write About It! Christmas Sentence Builder Pack
Write around the Christmas tree with a group of Christmas sentence building worksheets for beginning writers.
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Write About It! Winter Sentence Builder Pack
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled informational writing prompts about winter
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Write About It! Pumpkins - Differentiated Writing Prompts
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled fall writing prompts about pumpkins.
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Patriotic Holiday Worksheets – Sentence Building
Build and write sentences about different patriotic holidays with this cut-and-paste worksheet
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Has/Have Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using has and have correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.
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Do/Does Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using DO and DOES correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.
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Singular and Plural-Subject-Verb Agreement Worksheet
Provide students with additional grammar practice with a worksheet focusing on singular and plural subject-verb agreement.
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Past, Present, and Future Tense Worksheets - Grades 1/2
Provide students with additional verb tense practice with worksheets focusing on changing verbs into past, present, and future tense.
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Is/Are Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using is and are correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.
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Was/Were Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using was and were correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.
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Complete and Incomplete Sentences Cut and Paste Worksheet
Sort 6 phrases by whether they are incomplete and complete sentences with this cut & paste worksheet.
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Complete or Incomplete? - Worksheet
Practice identifying incomplete and complete sentences.
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Trace, Draw, and Order Sentences Worksheets
A set of sentence building worksheets.
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Writing Compound Sentences with Conjunctions Worksheet
Assign this worksheet to allow students to practice using coordinating conjunctions to create compound sentences.
- Sentence Structure Worksheets
- Sentence Structure Games
- Sentence Structure Templates
- Sentence Structure Posters
- Sentence Structure for Kindergarten
- Sentence Structure for 1st Grade
- Sentence Structure for 2nd Grade
- Sentence Structure for 3rd Grade
- Sentence Structure for 4th Grade
- Sentence Structure for 5th Grade
- Sentence Structure for 6th Grade