Keep. Them. ENGAGED! Yes YOU Can…with a FREEBIE!

Keep them Engaged

Real Talk… Are you ready?

I cannot imagine doing anything else with my life other than teaching.. but…I AM T.I.R.E.D….with a CAPITAL “T”! This year, I have the cutest and sweetest group of littles…but they are A.C.T.I.V.E. with a CAPITAL “A”! So I literally have to take this into account with every single lesson I teach this year.  I cannot expect them to stay in their seats for a twenty-minute lesson…nope.. not gonna happen…Can you relate?  I am hoping you can….and I am sure you DO! Hence… My motto this year…Keep Them Engaged!

Types of Sentences for your classroom activities

I have really thought long and hard about how I deliver my instruction for the last few months and I feel it has helped A LOT for my littles!  There is always some type of movement, partner work, group work… SOMETHING… added into my lesson that gives my littles the movement their little bodies need. And this has helped…I am a little less tired every day because I have been giving them what they need which allows me to correct undesirable behaviors less.. Win..Win..don’t cha think? 🙂

My Types of Sentences Unit

This lesson that I created was on teaching Types of Sentences:

  • Declarative
  • Interrogative
  • Imperative
  • Exclamatory.

I actually broke this lesson up into two lessons. One lesson for Declarative and Interrogative sentences and one lesson for Imperative and Exclamatory sentences. What’s even better was that I was observed doing it! Yeppers! I started with some sentence jumbles on Astrobrights cardstock. I am addicted! Is there a 12-Step program for Astrobrights Addicts? I digress…

How I Keep Them Engaged….

I put my sentence strips up on my black pocket charts and my students read the sentences on the strips.  Then I asked them what type of punctuation mark I needed and they told me. I then asked if anyone knew what this type of sentence was called…. crickets.. so I told them 🙂  We created an anchor chart with what declarative interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences were. Then as a class we created two sentences together and wrote them on the laminated sentence strips using an expo marker.

Then… the best part happened… You are gonna want to read on for a GOODIE…RIGHT ON THE CARPET… I organized my kiddos into groups of three or four children and handed them a group of jumbled sentences on sentence strips. They had to put the sentences together, decide on the end punctuation mark, decipher the type of sentence, and then work collaboratively to create two types of sentences by SHARING the pen and the words!  I had 5 pockets charts leaning up against all of my bookcases surrounding my carpet… Here is a photo of what they looked like…

teaching the four types of sentences

I gave my kiddos about 8-10 minutes to work collaboratively and share the pen.  I was WOWED by the work they did together. They were ENGAGED, MOTIVATED, EXCITED… and I am literally NOT kidding. They were enjoying the learning process.  I didn’t have to correct behaviors once.. not once. They were all focused and taking part in the activity.  They loved sharing their sentences and the types of sentences they created. Everyone in the group needed to share one thing.  It was a success!

My Sentence Sleuth Tab-Its® Resource

The following day, we met on the carpet to discuss what we learned the day prior (and from the first lesson) and NOW I wanted to know if they learned and mastered the concept of the 4 different types of sentences. They independently completed I am a Sentence Sleuth Tab-Its booklet! It was a perfect summative assessment! Gotta love that… and… yet again.. they had FUN completing it!’

If you want to pick up this Sentence Sleuth Tab-Its Booklet, you can check it out in my Blog Shop by clicking here!

4 Types of Sentences using Sentence Sleuths Tab-Its

So… long story short… I am trying my best to keep them ENGAGED by allowing them some movement and group work during as many lessons as I can get it into.  All in all… we had two very successful lessons on the 4 Types of Sentences….and the best part…Who got HIGHLY EFFECTIVE in all domains??!! This girl 🙂  Happy Day!

Here’s a FREEBIE To Keep Them Engaged!

So.. as promised.. I have a FUN FREEBIE for you!

CLICK HERE to get your Teach-Its® Collective Nouns FREEBIE!

And I hope you will check out my Grammar Tab-Its® that include my Sentence Sleuths Tab-Its! Below is some of the other Tab-Its® included in this resource!

Check it out by clicking the pictures below! Be sure to also check out all my other great blogs and resources at my blog shop by CLICKING HERE!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!!!

Hugs,

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Anna D.

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I'm Anna DiGilio

Hi, I'm Anna! I was a primary teacher for over twenty-three years, wife of a firefighter, mother of twin teenage boys, obsessed with being creative and helping teachers and love my Saturday morning quiet cup of coffee!
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