The vocabulary sentence writing worksheets below are designed to make sentence writing easier, more organized and more efficient.  At least by January of 1st grade (when students have their consonant and vowel sounds memorized) they should begin the sentence writing activities below at least 2 or 3 times a week. Please read the section below for some great ideas on making the sentence writing activities a more positive experience. Levels 1 through 10 can be accessed immediately by clicking the link below.  Levels 11-27 are available in the Complete Grade 1 Sentence Writing Packet from our  BEST READING FILES DOWNLOAD AREA.

Level 1 - short a

Level 8 - Final "e" rule

Level 26 - short e

Sentence Writing Strategies & Tips
Each worksheet above gives practice in writing 8 sentences using the Grade 1 Reading Vocabulary Words. These parallel the Levels in our Grade 1 Reading Word List, thereby not only giving practice in important sentence creation concepts, but also improving reading vocabulary as well.  This occurs because the child repeats the word over and over mentally while trying to develop an appropriate sentence.  Further memorization of the word occurs again when the child writes the word in the sentence.  Spelling the main vocabulary word correctly in the sentence is easily done since the word is printed at the beginning of each sentence line. 

An important point to remember - Successful sentence writing must be mastered before successful paragraph writing can be achieved.    In case you read that too quickly let me repeat it -

Successful sentence writing must be mastered
BEFORE
successful paragraph writing can be achieved.

Unfortunately, many teachers do not try to achieve this critical sequence of writing skills which results in increased child frustration, failure and a negative attitude toward writing. The bottom line? - make sure your child(ren) can successfully attempt these sentence writing sheets before advancing to the paragraph writing section (the paragraph section will be added this summer).  Sentence writing is also a great way to practice "inventive spelling".  Inventive spelling simply means letting the child spell their sentence words in whatever way sounds good to them, but using letter sounds to guide the spelling.  Please, don't go back and correct the child on all their misspelled words, although the main vocabulary word at the beginning of the sentence should be spelled correctly since it is printed clearly on the line.  If you do correct the child on all misspelled words, you will quickly frustrate them and turn them off to writing.  Remember, our main goals here are to help the student:

* Learn the main sentence vocabulary word
* Practice sentence formation &  creative thinking
* Practice spelling words using the sounds heard when saying the word

Don't worry, precise spelling will come later. I also want to encourage you to remember a really great trick which  works wonders in eliminating the typical frustration a child encounters when spelling unknown words in their sentence writing.

It is called - "SAY IT IN SLOW MOTION WHEN YOU CAN'T SPELL A WORD"

Every student and teacher should have this phrase memorized. Whenever a child asks you how to spell a word, just look at them and say - "SAY IT IN SLOW MOTION WHEN YOU CAN'T SPELL A WORD."  In fact, I even literally say the phrase in slow motion to emphasize the point (which always gets a few laughs from the students).  Tell the child you don't care if they spell words wrong just as long as they listen for the sounds and try their best.  This will eventually make the child feel comfortable about creative writing since spelling is often the major obstacle in the writing flow process.   If a child still has trouble spelling a word you can model the slow motion strategy by actually saying the word he/she is trying to spell.  For instance, if the word is "sit" - you would take about five seconds to say the word emphasizing each sound - ssssssssss - iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii - t.  And then you ask the child - "What letters make those sounds?" - Say it in slow motion for them again several times if necessary.  Kids seem to pick up on this trick very quickly.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED - To get the thought processes going with students just beginning the writing process it is extremely helpful to provide examples of some visual Nouns to use in their sentences.   In other words, show them some nouns they can use in their sentences (i.e. cat, pig, dog, hat, etc.).  You can download and print the Phonics Desk Noun Cards which can then be displayed at the front of the class, thereby inspiring those literary masterpieces ! - just click the colored link in the line above.

Happy Writing - Richard Pressinger (tampareads.com)