Teaching sentence structure can be so boring, but not this year! I wanted to plan something fun and hands on to help my students learn sentence structure and help it stick! I turned my classroom into a construction zone and we spent the week constructing sentences! : )

All of the activities shown below (and much more!) are included in my Constructing Sentences Unit. This post also contains affiliate links.  

My kids were so excited to find our room like this. In the words of a first grader, “Well this wasn’t what I expected!” The signs around my door are all included in the unit. 

It protected dirt with a sentence writing sight word activity. 


I divided my students into four different groups. Each group had their own cone to secure their work space.

For each activity a different student was the “crew leader” and wore the apron with all of the center materials. Thanks to my local Home Depot for donating the aprons!

They were PRECIOUS!


Of course the week started with an anchor chart on how to BUILD SENTENCES. 

It was really helpful and we reference it through the week for each activity.

We sorted sentences. 

We wrote sentences. These fun balloons were given to us by our sweet librarian who found them at Hobby Lobby.

We unscrambled sentences.


It was seriously a great week of learning and so much fun! 

Here are some of the accessories parents helped provide for the activity:cones, caution tape and hard hats. 

Don’t let fear of material cost stop you from planning a fun activity for your students. Get creative, tap into your resources and be resourceful! I bet the P.E. coach would be happy to lend you a few cones and printable hard hats are included in my Constructing Sentences Unit so you don’t have to buy those either. Props just help get the kids excited and set the tone for the activity, they don’t replace amazing teaching.

I hope you have a WONDERFUL and well-deserved weekend! : )