building sentences

On Tuesday morning the children took on the role of sentence builders. In our classroom we build letters using different materials, we build words using letter tiles, and we build sentences using words and punctuation.

First, we discussed what we know about sentences;

Lots of words.
Sometimes sight words.
Always letters.
There's an ending point.

Then, children built the sentence on our morning message;

I  see  a  red  leaf .

Finally, using the pointer, we read the sentence.

We talked about the period at the end, noticed the sight word see, and listened for the sounds in the color word red. There's a lot of conversation and reflection to be had when looking at a sentence with Kindergarteners. What do you notice? What sounds do you hear? How many words in our sentence? What's the name of the punctuation at the end? Why are spaces between words important? What do you notice about the first word (letter) in our sentence?

 

 

 

Following our message work, we gathered around the oval rug. The children represented one red leaf on a piece of paper and glued it to their black canvas. With the sentence printed on a piece of paper, they carefully cut out each word and built the sentence under their leaf illustration. For some children, there was a challenge; a mixed up sentence to put in order!

Sentence building offers a hands on learning experience. We discussed sight words, word order, spacing, and punctuation. The children practiced their representational skills as well as their cutting and gluing skills. It was an engaging and joyful experience for a community of expert builders and developing readers.