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3rd grade · English Language Arts · Unit 8 of 13

Sentence Smarts

Kinds of sentences

What your child practices

Telling statements, questions, exclamations and commands apart, spotting incomplete sentences and joining ideas with so, but, or and because.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 3.2.1.1; 3.2.1.3 · complete sentences, kinds of sentences and conjunctions

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A complete sentence tells who or what, and what they do.
  2. A statement tells, a question asks, an exclamation shows strong feeling and a command tells someone to do something.
  3. Join two ideas with and, but, or, so or because.

Example: Which is a complete sentence: “Our class at a farm.” or “Our class visited a farm.”? Both tell who: our class. Only one tells what they did: visited. Answer: Our class visited a farm.

Sentence Smarts in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 8 of 13 in 3rd grade English Language Arts, after Word Pairs and before ABC Order & Dictionary.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which is a complete sentence?

    • Knitted a warm scarf.
    • Grandma's warm scarf.
    • Grandma knitted a warm scarf.

  2. Question 2

    What kind of sentence is this?

    Wash your hands before lunch.

    • Command (tells someone to do something)
    • Exclamation (shows strong feeling)
    • Question (asks something)
    • Statement (tells something)

  3. Question 3

    What kind of sentence is this?

    Hooray, the rain finally stopped!

    • Question (asks something)
    • Command (tells someone to do something)
    • Exclamation (shows strong feeling)
    • Statement (tells something)

  4. Question 4

    Which is NOT a complete sentence?

    • The kettle whistled loudly.
    • The bright moon lit up the sky.
    • Fell all night.

  5. Question 5

    What kind of sentence is this?

    Our class planted beans in cups.

    • Exclamation (shows strong feeling)
    • Statement (tells something)
    • Question (asks something)
    • Command (tells someone to do something)

  6. Question 6

    Which is a complete sentence?

    • Plays the drums.
    • My sister and the drums.
    • My sister plays the drums.

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