Teaching kids about writing sentences with all the parts of speech can be a bit boring and dry. I vividly remember diagramming sentences as a child and wishing I was doing anything but that!
But at the same time, teaching sentence structure and the parts of speech is important for kids to understand. That’s why I created Roll and Sentence and Roll a Silly Sentence, which we explored when my son was in the 1st grade.
*This post contains affiliate links.
This year, we explored writing longer sentences including Who? Did What? When? and Where? parts with the same rolling cubes. It was just as much fun and explored the parts of a sentence and writing sentences in an interactive way. {You can download the FREE 15-pg. printable pack at the end of this post.}
Rolling and Writing Sentences
All you need for this activity are these rolling cubes, the sentence cards (which I printed on card stock), a pencil, and paper for the child to record the sentences.
Once the cards have been cut out and inserted into each cube, the child rolls the cubes and creates a sentence with them. Because there is a wide range of cards, many of the sentences will end up being silly…an added bonus for reluctant writers!
Note: Not all the sentences will go in the same order. For example, the Where? or When? cube may make more sense at the front of the sentence instead of at the end. We made this discovery as we spoke each sentence aloud. I’d ask, “Is that how we say it?” If it wasn’t, we rearranged the cubes until it sounded like how we’d say it. (This lead to a great conversation about the use of commas, too!)
After arranging the cubes to form a sentence, he got out his Writer’s Notebook (using the rough draft section) and recorded the sentences, remembering to use capital letters and punctuation. On the free download, there’s an extra sheet recording sheet I’ve included that can be slipped into a plastic sleeve protector to re-use with dry erase markers. We didn’t use it, but you certainly can.
More Ideas for Writing Sentences
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- Don’t have the cubes at home? Simply print off, cut out, and place the parts of the sentences in piles, like you see in the image above. Flip over the top card, one at a time, and create sentences.
- Roll a Simple Sentences
- Roll a Silly Sentence
- Teaching Kids How to Write Sentences using “magic lines” (great for beginning writers!)
Enjoy teaching!
~Becky
Love, love, LOVE, Becky! Here’s an “I wish I thought of that” post 🙂 Such a fabulous alternative to writing the sentences correctly in language workbooks (Snore!). Sharing on Facebook later today.
Thank you, Anna!
I truly will enjoy teaching writing using your ideas!
Aw, I’m so glad that my ideas have helped make writing more fun in your home!
This is so great. Thanks for sharing!
You’re very welcome!
thanks so much – will probably use some of this with my “kids” this summer!
Where did you get the dice? Great idea!
They are photo stacking blocks and I bought them on amazon. The link is in the post, too. 😉
This looks like such a fun way to write longer more interesting sentences. Pinned 🙂
Thanks! My son enjoys it.
I didn’t buy these cubes the first time I saw one of your posts about them, but now I’m getting a set. I think my grandson will enjoy using these while he is visiting Thanksgiving week.
I can’t download anything. Maybe it’s because I’m on my phone instead of a computer.?Help!
Renee
Strange. My iPhone downloads things. Try again on your laptop or home computer and make sure you’re opening with the updated version of Adobe Reader. 🙂
This looks so fun, but I don’t see the link to download it. (I’ve also not drank an entire pot of coffee yet, so perhaps I’m just not seeing it!) Could you please direct me to it?
That’s because I updated the post before I’d had my coffee. 😉 The download link is there now.