Introduce statements and questions to begin. Gather the students for a group lesson. Give an example of a statement (declarative sentence): "I will be home at 3:00." Then give an example of a question (interrogative sentence): "What time will you be home?" Ask students to explain the difference between the purposes of each of these sentences. (The first sentence tells and the second sentence asks.) Explain that a "telling" sentence is called a statement and an "asking" sentence is called a question.
Write down a list of statements and questions on chart paper. Have students volunteer to come up and write S for statement or Q for question next to each sentence. Leave out punctuation if desired, and have students write in the period or question mark. Ask students to give their own examples of statements and questions.
Send students off to practice identifying statements and questions on worksheets. Sheets should have example sentences and then space for the children to write their own.
Assign homework that offers them opportunities to practice identifying and writing their own statements and questions.
Gather the students for another group lesson. Review statements and questions. Then give a few examples of exclamations. "Wow!" or "This is the best cake ever!" or "I never want to speak to you again!" Students may say these are statements. Explain that while these are indeed telling sentences, they express emotion (joy, fear, anger, etc.). Allow the children to give you examples of their own. Tell them that exclamations end in an exclamation point.
Give the students time to practice and then assign homework that incorporates statements, questions and exclamations.
Introduce commands. Explain that commands (imperative sentences) order someone to do something. Give examples: "Go to your room this minute." or "Make me breakfast immediately!" Tell the students that commands can end in a period or exclamation point. On chart paper, write several sentences that are either commands or exclamations and invite the students to determine which sentences are giving an order and which are expressing an emotion. Send them off to practice identifying and writing all types of sentences.