Peek Inside a Kindergarten Sentence Writing Unit

Writing is one of the most difficult academic tasks we ask our students to do in kindergarten. This is why learning how to write a complete sentence can be challenging for young students. You can use this kindergarten sentence writing unit to explicitly teach this skill to your students in small, manageable chunks. 

The Importance of Sentence Writing in Kindergarten

It might seem like a pretty tall order for kindergarteners to write complete sentences, especially when they start the year learning how to identify and write individual letters. However, it’s important for students to experience success with writing as early as possible.

When students feel like writers, they are more motivated to keep practicing! Learning how to write a sentence is one of the first steps in helping students feel like they are able to communicate through writing. This early success will help them build a strong foundation that will encourage them to continue developing this skill.

Kindergarten Sentence Writing Unit

Teaching students how to write a sentence is hard! It’s even more challenging without a writing curriculum to follow. That’s why I put together a unit with detailed lesson plans to make sentence writing more approachable for young students. 

There are five main components to this writing unit. Let’s take a peek inside:

1. Quick Mini-Lessons

Young kindergarten students need to be explicitly taught the skills needed to write sentences. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find the time to fit writing instruction into an already jam-packed daily routine. 

The mini-lessons in this unit are designed to be quick and simple, taking just 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Each lesson covers one of the following topics, and the skill addressed in each lesson will build on the previous lessons.

• What is a Sentence?: Students will learn that a sentence is a group of words that tells us something. 
• The Naming Part of a Sentence: With a kid-friendly explanation of the subject of a sentence, students will learn about and identify the naming part of a sentence..
• The Telling Part of a Sentence: Students will also be able to learn more about the predicate, or “telling part”, of a sentence.
• Conventions: Students will learn about all of the important conventions that they need to include when writing a sentence, like capitalization, spacing, ending punctuation, and spelling.
• Writing a Five-Star Sentence: Finally, students will put it all together and practice writing a complete sentence.

By the end of the unit, students will have learned all of the skills they need to write a complete sentence. However, it’s also important for them to put these concepts into practice! The rest of the curriculum helps students practice writing in many engaging ways.

2. Independent Practice

Each mini-lesson in the unit has corresponding opportunities for independent practice. For example, one of the lessons in this unit introduces the two parts of a sentence. After working together as a class to put the naming part and telling part of a sentence together, students can do a similar activity independently.

They will cut out the groups of words on their worksheet, then paste them in the correct position on the worksheet in order to create a sentence that makes sense. They will then write the complete sentence on the worksheet, giving them an additional opportunity for writing practice. 

Each mini-lesson in this unit has a corresponding worksheet for independent practice. You could even print all of the practice sheets for the unit and assemble them into a journal!

3. Engaging Centers

For even more independent writing practice, you can use engaging center activities to reinforce the skills that you’re teaching during this unit. 

Each activity closely corresponds to the instruction from the mini-lesson, so students will easily understand what they need to do for the activity. This makes it more likely that they’ll be able to complete these centers with minimal adult support. 

Some centers include a recording sheet for students to complete, like this center where students write a sentence about the picture. Other centers use task cards and manipulatives for hands-on practice. There are also centers that can be laminated for writing practice using dry-erase markers. The variety ensures that students will stay engaged until it’s time to rotate to the next station.

4. Culminating Craftivity

At the end of a unit, it’s always a great idea to give students the chance to put together everything they’ve learned into one culminating activity.

For this sentence-writing unit, students can complete a craftivity! They will cut out animals and assemble them into a fun scene. After the craft is complete, students will write a sentence about the scene they created.

5. Visual Supports

If you’ve visited this blog before, you know that I’m a huge fan of using visual supports in kindergarten. Visuals aren’t just for classroom management! This sentence writing unit has anchor chart visuals that you can use to help your students better understand the concepts from the unit.

These visual supports can be included on a bulletin board, in a pocket chart, or even as a visual reminder during center time. No matter how you decide to incorporate the visuals from this unit, your students will benefit from the additional support!

Printable Sentence Writing Unit for Kindergarten

Would you like to use this sentence writing unit in your kindergarten classroom? I’ve compiled everything you need into one easy-to-download resource. This writing curriculum scaffolds sentence writing into small, manageable chunks so your students can experience success with writing early in the school year.

With detailed lesson plans, engaging independent practice, and helpful visual supports, your students will be writing complete sentences in no time!

To take a closer look at everything included in this resource, just click below to head over to the Teaching Exceptional Kinders shop.

Get a Closer Look at our Kindergarten Sentence Writing Unit

Save This Kindergarten Sentence Unit

Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite kindergarten board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find this unit when you’re looking for an engaging way to help your students practice writing sentences.