Make one set each of proper noun cards and verb cards appropriate for the students’ level of phonics skills, using different colors for each set to help you sort them. Make a card with a period. Explain that a sentence must be a complete thought and start with a capital letter. It needs a noun (a naming word), a verb (an action word) and ending punctuation. Students should pick one noun card and one verb card to make a sentence and place the period card at the end. As students take turns, have them identify their noun and verb and say why they put the period at the end of the sentence. Expand the cards to include articles, helping verbs, common nouns, other punctuation and so on as the students’ skills increase.
Make a set of large cards, some that have complete sentences and some that don't. Make two “Yes” and two “No” cards. Divide the class into two teams. Show the players a large card and tell them to hold up the “Yes” or “No” card to answer whether the card has a complete sentence. Award points for correct answers. Expand on this game as the students gain understanding of the concept by having players on the teams take turns going to the blackboard and adding whatever is needed to make a complete sentence. Make the game even more challenging by having the teams explain the parts of speech they added to incomplete sentences on the blackboard.
Make sentence strips of the four types of sentences without ending punctuation: declarative, imperative, interrogative and exclamatory. Have teams take turns saying what type of sentence is on the strip and adding the correct ending punctuation. Vary the game as students understand the types of sentences. Write examples of the four types of sentences with ending punctuation. Have teams take turns changing a sentence from one type to another on the blackboard, such as changing the declarative sentence, "Charlotte cleans her closet once a year," to an interrogative sentence, "How often does
Charlotte clean her closet?"
Write a three-word sentence on the blackboard. The students should take turns adding a word or phrase to the sentence, making a new sentence without changing the word order or leaving words out. An example sentence is, "The dog slept. The white dog slept. The white dog slept peacefully. The white dog slept peacefully at his master’s feet. The white dog slept peacefully on the rug at his master’s feet. The white dog slept peacefully on the braided rug at his master’s feet. After a long day of hunting, the white dog slept peacefully on the braided rug at his master’s feet." You can expand this game to include asking the students to identify the parts of speech of the words that they add.