Silly Sentences

Explicit instruction/Teacher modeling

• Divide the students into groups of four.
• Give each group a set of sticky notes.
• Each student in the group should have one note of each color.
• As a class, brainstorm nouns. Encourage the students to come up with interesting nouns. Have the group agree on one noun and have one student write it on his noun sticky note.
• Have the group decide which article is needed with the noun.
• Repeat this process with the other three parts of speech. Have different students do each part of speech for this process.
• Have the students place the sticky notes on the board form a silly sentence.
• Read the sentences aloud as a class.

Guided practice/Interactive modeling

• Tell the students to brainstorm other interesting nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and write them on the proper colored sticky notes.
• After that is done, have the groups experiment with different arrangements of the words to form different sentences.
• Have each group share their sentences with the rest of the class.

Independent working time

• Give out sheets of storybook paper.
• Have each student pick his favorite sentence to write and illustrate.
• Have the students identify each part of speech by writing an abbreviation under each word (art, n, v, adj, adv) or writing in the colors that correspond to the sticky notes.

• Enrichment: Have advanced students use multiple adjectives and adverbs and/or conjunctions.
• Support: Provide struggling students with sticky notes with words already printed on them, or delete the adverbs from the activity.

• To assess understanding, discuss each student's sentence with him.

• Close the lesson by reminding the students that using many different parts of speech makes writing more interesting.