In this multi day class, students will explore and practice how words are used in sentences.  Our lessons will include various steps and exercises to help learners understand the concept of analyzing sentences. A series of sentences have been put together beginning with very simple. (Kristi drinks water.) As the child works through these sentences their understanding of how words relate to one another in a sentence should progress in a gradual and natural way. 

 We’ll begin by making introductions, having a brief icebreaker and overviewing the class rules. Through an interactive Canva slideshow and exposure to real Montessori sentence box materials, students will observe the wooden circles and arrows used in sentence analysis. The first pieces they will learn about include the following: red circle, larger black circle, smaller black circle, and black arrows. We will then prepare some sample sentences together, laying out sentence strips along with the symbols. 

Week 1, Meeting 1- We will review the symbols of noun and verb. After labeling words in sentences with our sentence symbols, learners will explore the word “predicate “ within sentences. (sentences have subjects and predicates). Predicate means the verb and what follows in a sentence. Through use of my document camera, we can manipulate parts of sentences and use the symbols to label each part. 

 Week 2, Meeting 2- Students will review basic parts of a sentence and expand upon this knowledge by including some compound subjects, compound verbs and direct objects within several sentences. (Sheila and Joel eat peaches and apples.) As an extension if time allows, we can explore the use of adverbs in sentences with orange arrows and circles. (Judy chewed her food in the cafeteria .) We will distinguish between adverbs of time (tells when) and place (tells where). 

As a prerequisite to this course, learners should be well acquainted with basic parts of speech such as nouns and verbs. Simple reading and writing ability is also needed to do sentence analysis work.