Summary
This lesson invites students to think about what they know about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other components of a sentence. Students study a picture prompt and work as a class to compose sentences describing it. Then, students practice diagramming their sentence by drawing color-coded "train cars" around each word, then adding a capital letter "engine" and punctuation "caboose." After working with their peers, students create and diagram their own sentences from two more picture prompts.
Essential Question(s)
How do authors write good sentences?
Snapshot
Engage
Using the I Notice, I Wonder strategy, students collectively create sentences using a picture prompt.
Explore
Students identify and discuss nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and find examples of these parts of speech in one of the sentences they formulated in the Engage phase.
Explain
Students learn about the components of grammatically correct sentences by using a train analogy. As a class, students diagram the sentence from the Engage and Explore phase by color-coding words as "train cars," identifying the capital letter "engine," and adding a punctuation "caboose."
Extend
Using a different picture prompt, students try creating and color-coding a sentence on their own.
Evaluate
Students create storybook pages, each using their own unique picture prompt.
Materials
Animals in Action Picture Prompts (attached; optional)
Engage Picture Prompt (attached)
Sentence Building Handout (attached; two per student)
Storybook Sentence Handout (attached; one per student)
Red Crayons (one per student)
Blue Crayons (one per student)
Green Crayons (one per student)
Black Crayons (one per student)
Red, blue, green, and black whiteboard markers
Art materials (paper, markers, etc.) (optional)
Engage
Show the students the attached Engage Picture Prompt. Borrowing from the I Notice, I Wonder learning strategy, ask students questions about the picture, such as, "What do you notice about this picture?" "Does anyone know what this animal is?" "What is the animal doing?" and other similar questions. Discuss with the class until they can formulate a sentence or sentences to describe what is happening in the picture. At least one of these sentences should include a noun, verb, and adjective.
Explore
Select a sentence from the Engage phase with a noun, verb, and adjective included. Do not introduce these parts of speech to students at this time.
Pass out a copy of the attached Sentence Building Handout to each student. Model writing the Engage phase sentence on a whiteboard or projector space, asking students to write along with you in the first box on their handouts. Each student should write the same sentence.
Pass out a red, blue, green, and black crayon to each student. Have students write the sentence again in the second box on the handout. Ask students, "What are nouns? Why do writers use nouns?"
Ask students to decide where the nouns are in the sentence. Have students use the red crayon to circle the nouns on their handouts. (In the example sentence "The brown beaver swims," the circled noun would be "beaver.")
Ask students, "What are verbs? Why do writers use verbs?"
Ask students to decide where the verbs are in the sentence. Have students use the blue crayon to circle the verbs on their handouts. (In the example sentence "The brown beaver swims," the circled verb would be "swims.")
Ask students, "What are adjectives? Why do writers use adjectives?"
Ask students to decide where the adjectives are in the sentence. If no adjective is present in the sentence, invite students to come up with one to add. Have students use the green crayon to circle the adjectives on their handouts. (In the example sentence "The brown beaver swims," the circled adjective would be "brown.")
Explain
Borrowing from the Metaphorical Thinking learning strategy, invite students to think of the sentence as a train. For example, the first word of any sentence starts with a capital letter, just like the first part of a train has to be an engine. The end of any sentence is always followed by a punctuation mark, just like a caboose always follows the end of a train. Words come together with a capital letter and punctuation to form a sentence, just like the cars of a train link together between the engine and caboose.
Have the class write the sentence once more in the third box on the handout. Then, ask students to follow along with you, using crayons to copy what you do to mark the sentence. Displaying the model sentence on a whiteboard or projector space, draw a red box around any nouns. Draw a blue box around any verbs. Draw a green box around any adjectives. If the sentence contains other leftover words that are not nouns, verbs, or adjectives, draw a black box around them. Draw a black box around the period at the end of the sentence. (Or, if you prefer, leave the end of the sentence free of punctuation.) Draw wheels under each box to make them look like train cars (as shown below).
Now, ask the class what always comes at the beginning of a sentence.
Share with the class again that, just as the first word of any sentence starts with a capital letter, the first part of a train has to be an engine. Ask students to draw along with you in the third box on the handout, and draw a black box with a smokestack around the first word of the sentence. (See below for an example.) Make sure the first letter of the sentence is capitalized.
Ask the class what must come at the end of every sentence.
Confirm with the class again that every sentence should end with a period or other punctuation, just as every train ends with a caboose. Ask students to draw along with you as you draw a black box "caboose" around the period at the end of the sentence, adding the correct punctuation if necessary. (See the picture below for an example.)
Invite students to write the complete sentence, including a capital letter and period, in the fourth box of the handout.
Extend
Review the Picture Prompt and class sentence. Additionally, review how the class described and used nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Display the prepared picture prompt on a whiteboard or projector space. Invite students to work individually and create their own sentences based on this picture. Pass out a new copy of the attached Sentence Building Handout to each student. Ask them to follow the directions on the handout and complete the same activity they had previously as a class, constructing and labeling their own sentence with color-coded nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Allow enough time for students to complete their own sentence trains.
Students' final products should look similar to the finished class sentence. (See below for an additional example.)
Evaluate
Ask each student to observe their picture. Borrowing again from the I Notice, I Wonder learning strategy, ask students what they notice in the picture.
Hand out a copy of the attached Story Book Template to each student. Ask students to paste their pictures (or draw their own copy) in the box at the top. Ask each student to write a sentence about their picture in the lined space below. Remind them to include a noun, verb, and adjective. Have them circle their noun in red, circle their verb in blue, and circle their adjective in green.
The Story Book Template can be used as an Exit Ticket for this lesson.
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Bell ringers and exit tickets. Strategies. Retrieved from https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f505d6f2
K20 Center. (n.d.). I notice, I wonder. Strategies. Retrieved fromhttps://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f507d1a7
K20 Center. (n.d.). Metaphorical thinking. Strategies. Retrieved from https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f5068fcc