Many teachers use daily sentence worksheets to help first-graders learn about sentences, their parts and proper punctuation. Basic first-grade sentence topics include teaching kids to capitalize the first word of every sentence and make sure that sentences end with a period or some other type of punctuation. A daily practice worksheet for this might include about five sentences that the students must edit. The sentences should include common mistakes the students must correct. For example, a sentence might say, "the Boy ran," which the student must fix to say, "The boy ran."
Another activity ideal for first-graders is a cutout sentence worksheet. The worksheet may contain about five sentences with the words in the wrong order. The students must cut out the words and glue them on another sheet in the correct order to make logical sentences.
A mad lib is an activity that has sentences with several missing words. The missing words represent either nouns, verbs or other types of words. For first-graders, make your own mad libs that contain simple requests for nouns and verbs. (Be sure to fully explain these parts of speech.) For example, one mad lib you could write is, "A ____ (noun) jumped off the diving board." Students must fill in the blank with any noun, such as "man" or "fox." This is a fun activity to help first-graders learn about sentence parts.
A fun activity for first-grade students regarding sentences is a slightly tweaked version of the game "Red Light, Green Light." Before starting the game, explain to students that this game should help them learn about punctuation marks. Make three signs that contain the different types of sentence endings. Explain that when you hold up a sign containing a period, the students must freeze to illustrate that normal sentences end, or stop, with a period. Write a question mark on another. Explain that when you hold up this sign, the students must stop moving, put their hands on their hips and tilt their heads to represent that they are thinking about a question. This helps illustrate that questions end with a question mark. Put an exclamation point on the last sign. When you hold up this sign, the students must wave their arms and hop up and down to illustrate that an exclamation point emphasizes excitement or enthusiasm. To play the game, have students line up in an open area where they can run. You should yell "red light" or "green light." When you yell "green light," the children run; when you yell "red light," the children will stop and look for the card containing a punctuation mark. They must perform the correct motions that the card states each time. This game teaches kids that all sentences end with some type of punctuation and helps them learn the differences between each type.