Teach Students to Build a Sentence

Sentences are the essential building blocks of written and verbal communication. We need to teach our learners from an early age that word order within sentences is important when it comes to creating meaning. They also need to learn that sentences are read from left to right and that punctuation helps indicate the type of sentence, e.g. statement, question, exclamation. This can be a lot for early learners to absorb!

This set of 10 cut-and-paste worksheets has been designed by our teacher team to help your students engage with the features of a sentence in a variety of different ways. Each page features a simple sentence. Students are required to:

1. Trace over the words in the sentence – This helps familiarise the students with the letters, words and punctuation that make up the sentence.
2. Draw  what is happening in the sentence – This enables the students to demonstrate their understanding of what the sentence is about.
3. Cut out the words that make up the sentence – Students cut out the words that make up the sentence, allowing them to practise their scissor skills.
4. Paste the words in the correct order – Students sequence the words, then paste them in the correct order to re-create the sentence.

For your convenience, we’ve created this resource in a variety of fonts. You can access your preferred font via the dropdown menu on the Download button.

Multiple Benefits of This Build a Sentence Worksheet

This resource offers a comprehensive approach to early literacy, blending essential reading and writing concepts with hands-on activities that support motor skill development. Some of these fine motor skills include:

• Cutting – Learning to use scissors with precision and control is a key skill that students will use throughout their lives.
• Gluing – Gluing is a precise art that can help students develop the ability to grasp and manipulate small objects with their hands. 
• Colouring – Holding a pencil to draw and colour helps with developing and strengthening the hand muscles that are required for everyday tasks.

Download to Start Building Sentences

As mentioned above, this set of worksheets can be downloaded in a variety of fonts. Use the dropdown menu to select your preferred version.

More Resources for Building Sentences

Click below for more teacher-created, currciulum-aligned resources to use when exploring the components of a sentence with your early years learners:

teaching resource

Simple Sentence Dominoes (Version 1)

A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.

teaching resource

Build and Write a Sentence – Worksheets

A set of 10 worksheets to enable students to practise building and writing sentences.

teaching resource

Statement, Question, Command, Explanation – Match Up Cards

A set of 32 match up cards to use when teaching younger students about the four types of sentences.