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What Is a Fun Way to Teach Transitions in Writing to a Fourth-grade Class?

Most fourth graders have had experience in writing essays throughout their schooling. Some of them, however, may not fully grasp the importance of using transitions in paragraphs. Transition words connect ideas by connecting sentences or clauses; without them, writing is choppy and more difficult to read. Common examples of transition words include "also," "moreover," "however" and "although." Teach your fourth-grade students about transitions through activities.

Instructions

    • 1

      Give each student two strips of paper that contain short sentences, such as "Mary spent time with her friends," and "Her mother wanted her to finish her homework." Instruct students to use a transition word to connect their sentences. For example, the two sentences can be combined to read, "Mary spent time with her friends, even though her mother wanted her to finish her homework." Once everyone is finished, ask the students to write their sentences on the board.

    • 2

      Divide your students into two teams. Instruct the teams to have one member of both teams to come up to the board. Write several sentences that need to be joined with transitions. For example, write, "Put a leash on your dog, take him for a walk, put food in his bowl." Instruct the two students to add transitions to the sentence. The first student to add the correct transition to the sentence receives a point for his team. Continue to put sentences on the board until every student has had a turn connercting them. Give the team with the most points a prize.

    • 3

      Read a short book out loud to your students. Choose a book that you think will interest them and also be appropriate for their age group. Instruct the students to raise their hands every time they hear a transition word. Once you're finished reading the book, tell your students how many transition words they identified correctly.

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