Students will put the words in the cut-up sentences back in order to make sense.
Teacher Tips
Guide students to use strategies (punctuation, capitalization, and prompts) to put the words back in order.
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Sentence Smash
Put cut-up sentences back together
Guide
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Say Let’s read these words together.
Point to each word as you Read sits, starfish, on, The, coral, some
Say That doesn’t make sense. Let’s move the words so the sentence makes sense.
Ask Let’s figure out the first word in the sentence. We need to start the sentence with a capital/uppercase letter. Do you see a word that has an uppercase letter?
(The)
Point to the word The and Say Yes, the word The must be the first word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Ask Now let’s look for a period, because we put the period after the last word in the sentence. Do you see a word that has a period after it?
(coral)
Point to the word coral and Say Yes, the word coral must be the last word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s figure out the words that come in between the first and last words in the sentence.
Point to the word The and Ask So the sentence starts like this. The. Hmm.. the what? It has to be a noun because the article the comes before a noun to announce it. A noun is a person, place, animal, or thing. Which of the words is a noun? (starfish)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The starfish … coral.
Ask The starfish what? It has to be a verb. What does the starfish do? Do you see an action word that tells something the starfish can do?
(sits)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The starfish sits … coral.
Ask We have two words left: on and some. Can you put them in order to make sense? Where does the starfish sit? (on some coral)
Push next to show the complete sentence
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the sentence we put back together.
Point to each word as you Read The starfish sits on some coral.
Point to the picture and Say The sentence makes sense with the picture because the red starfish is sticking to the coral. We can say it sits on some coral.
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Guide
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Say Let’s do another one.
Point to each word as you Read coral, The, the, in, octopus, hid
Say Now let’s move the words so the sentence makes sense.
Ask Let’s figure out the first word in the sentence. What word can be the first word?
(The) Why do you think so?
(We start the sentence with a capital letter.)
Point to the word The and Say Yes, the word The must be the first word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Ask Now let’s find out the last word. What word can be the last word?
(coral) Why do you think so?
(We put a period after the last word in a sentence.)
Point to the word coral and Say Yes, I see a period after the word coral so it must be the last word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Now let’s figure out the words that come in between the first and last words in the sentence.
Point to the word The and Ask The. The what? It has to be a noun because the is a word that comes before a noun. A noun is a person, place, animal or thing. Which word is a noun? (octopus)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The octopus … coral.
Ask The octopus what? It has to be a verb. What does the octopus do? Do you see a word that can go next?
(hid)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The octopus hid … coral.
Ask We have two words left: the and in. Can you put them in order to make sense? Where did the octopus hide? (in the coral)
Push next to show the complete sentence
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the sentence we put back together.
Point to each word as you Read The octopus hid in the coral.
Point to the picture and Say The sentence makes sense with the picture because the octopus is hiding in the coral.
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Guide
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Say Let’s do another one.
Point to each word as you Read octopus, sea, jets, the, in, The
Say Now let’s move the words so the sentence makes sense.
Ask What word can be the first word?
(The) Why do you think so?
(We start the sentence with a capital letter.)
Point to the word The and Say Yes, the word The must be the first word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Ask Now let’s find out the last word. What word can be the last word?
(sea) Why do you think so?
(We put a period after the last word in a sentence.)
Point to the word sea and Say Yes, I see a period after the word sea so it must be the last word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Now let’s figure out the words that come in between the first and last words in the sentence.
Point to the word The and Ask The. The what? Which word can go here? (octopus) Why do you think so?
(It has to be a noun — a person, place, animal, or thing.)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The octopus … sea.
Ask The octopus what? What does the octopus do? Do you see a word that can go next?
(jets) Why do you think so?
(It has to be a verb.)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The octopus jets … sea.
Ask We have two words left: the and in. Can you put them in order to make sense? Where does the octopus jet? (in the sea)
Push next to show the complete sentence
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the sentence we put back together.
Point to each word as you Read The octopus jets in the sea.
Point to the picture and Say The sentence makes sense with the picture because we learned that one way an octopus moves is called jetting.
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Guide
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Say Let’s do another one.
Point to each word as you Read The, up, tips, turtle
Say Now let’s move the words so the sentence makes sense.
Ask What word can be the first word?
(The) Why do you think so?
(We start the sentence with a capital letter.)
Point to the word The and Say Yes, the word The must be the first word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Ask Now let’s find out the last word. What word can be the last word?
(up) Why do you think so?
(We put a period after the last word in a sentence.)
Point to the word up and Say Yes, I see a period after the word up so it must be the last word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Now let’s figure out the words that come in between the first and last words in the sentence.
Point to the word The and Ask The. The what? Which word can go here? (turtle) Why do you think so?
(It has to be a noun.)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The turtle … up.
Point to the word tips and Ask We have only one word left. Can the word tips come after the word turtle? (yes) Why do you think so?
(It is a verb.)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the sentence we put back together.
Point to each word as you Read The turtle tips up.
Point to the picture and Say The sentence makes sense with the picture because we see the turtle is almost standing up in the water.
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Guide
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Say Let’s do another one.
Point to each word as you Read fish, is, of, fan, a, fins, Datiz
Say Now let’s move the words so the sentence makes sense.
Ask Which word can be the first word?
(Datiz) Why do you think so?
(We start the sentence with a capital letter.)
Point to the word Datiz and Say Yes, the word Datiz must be the first word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Ask Now let’s find out the last word. Which word can be the last word?
(fins) Why do you think so?
(We put a period after the last word in a sentence.)
Point to the word fins and Say Yes, I see a period after the word fins so it must be the last word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read Datiz … fins.
Ask Datiz what? What does Datiz do? Do you see a word that can go here?
(is) Why do you think so?
(It has to be a verb.)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read Datiz is … fins.
Ask Datiz is what? It is telling us something about Datiz. Let’s first look at the word choices and what Datiz can be.
Point to the word fish and Ask Can Datiz be a fish?
(no)
Point to the word fan and Ask Can Datiz be a fan? A fan can mean you really like something.
(yes)
Say and Ask So the word fan is the one that describes what Datiz can be in the sentence, but we need another word before that: the article. Datiz is one person, so we need an article that indicates one person or one thing. What word can that be? (a)
Push next to show the words in their places
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read Datiz is a fan … fins.
Say We have two words left: fish and of. We usually say a fan of something. So the next word after fan has to be of. That leaves fish for the last missing word.
Push next to show the complete sentence
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the sentence we put back together.
Point to each word as you Read Datiz is a fan of fish fins.
Point to the picture and Say The sentence makes sense with the picture because Datiz is looking at the fish and they all have fins.
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Guide
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Say Let’s do another one.
Point to each word as you Read bobs, jellyfish, The, sea, in, the
Say Now let’s move the words so the sentence makes sense.
Ask What word can be the first word?
(The) Why do you think so?
(We start the sentence with a capital letter.)
Point to the word The and Say Yes, the word The must be the first word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Ask Now let’s find out the last word. Which word can be the last word?
(sea) Why do you think so?
(We put a period after the last word in a sentence.)
Point to the word sea and Say Yes, I see a period after the word sea so it must be the last word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Now let’s figure out the words that come in between the first and last words in the sentence.
Point to the word The and Ask The. The what? Which word can go next? (jellyfish) Why do you think so?
(It has to be a noun.)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The jellyfish … sea.
Ask The jellyfish what? What does the jellyfish do? Do you see a word that can go next?
(bobs) Why do you think so?
(It has to be a verb.)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The jellyfish bobs … sea.
Ask We have two words left: in and the. Can you put them in order to make sense? Where does the jellyfish bob? (in the sea)
Push next to show the complete sentence
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the sentence we put back together.
Point to each word as you Read The jellyfish bobs in the sea.
Point to the picture and Say The sentence makes sense with the picture because we can describe the jellyfish as bobbing up and down.
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Guide
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Say Let’s do another one.
Point to each word as you Read pals, The, many, have, zebrafish
Say Now let’s move the words so the sentence makes sense.
Ask What word can be the first word?
(The) Why do you think so?
(We start the sentence with a capital letter.)
Point to the word The and Say Yes, the word The must be the first word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Ask Which word can be the last word?
(pals) Why do you think so?
(We put a period after the last word in a sentence.)
Point to the word pals and Say Yes, I see a period after the word pals so it must be the last word in the sentence.
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Now let’s figure out the words that come in between the first and last words in the sentence.
Point to the word The and Ask The. The what? Which word can go next? (zebrafish) Why do you think so?
(It has to be a noun.)
Push next to show the word in its place
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the words we put in order together.
Point to each word as you Read The zebrafish … pals.
Ask We have two words left: many and have. Can you put them in order to make sense? The zebrafish what? (have many pals)
Push next to show the complete sentence
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Guide
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Say Let’s read the sentence we put back together.
Point to each word as you Read The zebrafish have many pals.
Point to the picture and Say The sentence makes sense with the picture because there are many zebrafish. They swim in schools of fish.