Start-Up Activity

It is important to help students develop their sentence sense, and you can do this by immersing them in reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities.

To gauge their understanding of sentences, display the following groups of words.

• Josie ate her lunch
• A cheese sandwich and an apple
• Mickey giggled
• Rolled down the hill
• Scruffy barked and wagged his tail
• An angry robin

Read each group of words aloud and ask students if the words form a complete sentence. Then ask them how to turn the incomplete sentences into complete ones. Then read and discuss the chapter introduction.