Sentence Structure Sort

When we are able to vary our sentences, our writing becomes more engaging and exciting to read. This material provides a wonderful introduction to the four, primary sentence structures: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. As children begin writing independently, having a model of how they can expand and vary their sentences can be incredibly helpful. These examples demonstrate how a single topic can transform through the different structures.

To complete this work, lay the four headers at the top of your workspace. Introduce each sentence type using the sentence structure definition cards. Begin by reading one of the sentence sort cards and refer to the definition cards to determine whether the sentence contains independent or dependent clauses. Work with the child to sort at least one example in each of the four categories. Each simple sentence has a sentence that follows the same topic/theme in each of the three remaining categories. This acts as a sort of control for the child as they work through the work. An official control can be found on the last page.

I recommend printing this work on cardstock and laminating the cards if possible. This material contains a total of 36 cards to sort as well as four definition cards for each of the sentence structure types.