Some days you just need a low-prep activity. This low-prep conjunctions lesson was perfect for the grade 3’s I see as a class for creative writing group.
Before the students can be expected to write a creative paragraph or story, they need to have the basic knowledge of sentence construction down. (In this lesson the Gr.4’s worked on sentence construction too using sticky sticks!)
I explained to them, literally using the strips of paper and the tape, that two sentences(two strips of paper with two different sentences) can be joined together with a conjunction word(on tape)! Seeing this physical demonstration made it clear for them to understand.
I then have each child two sentences that fit together and asked them to make one sentence by choosing a conjunction word on the tape. They did the same as the demonstration, but now THEY are doing it, so reinforcing the concept even more.
Everyone had a chance to read out loud their sentence. We discussed that one can use different conjunction words depending on the way you want to express the sentence. For example: “I want to buy bread SO I need R10″(matter of factly) OR “I need to buy bread ALTHOUGH I need R10″(pondering)
We used these sentences:
After the hands-on lesson, we went on to written work, using a worksheet from Great Schools. The students combined two given sentences by using a list of conjunction words. Then write their own sentences using those words.
Obviously, you could make these more pretty by using coloured paper, or coloured markers. But, for a quick, low-prep lesson, this is perfect just as it is. AND the students did learn a lot from it!
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