Scrambled Sentences - A Fan Favorite!

My kids love stations.  I love stations!  Done correctly, stations can be one of the most beneficial (and enjoyable) times of the day.  BUT some people make a case against stations - saying that they are chaotic and they require too much planning time.  The solution?  Consistency!  Choose a few staple stations and use them often throughout the year, just varying the difficulty and theme.  One station my kids LOVE is Scrambled Sentences.  I love them, too, because they are PACKED with great practice. 

My students love completing sentence scrambles of each thematic unit we cover!  This keeps the station fresh and exciting even though they are technically doing the same thing each week.  Students unscramble three sentences by reading the words to decide what makes sense, searching for the first word by the capital letter, and searching for the last word by the punctuation mark!  After they put the sentences in order, they write them on their paper.  Each paper has a self-assessment at the bottom so they can check their writing for a capital letter, a punctuation mark, and finger spaces between words. 

If things start to feel a little monotonous, there are some easy ways to mix it up a little!  You can throw the cards in a theme based sensory bin for students to fish out before unscrambling.

Or you can have students build sentences in a pocket chart - during stations or whole group!  I also like to laminate cards and put a piece of magnetic tape on the back so students can manipulate the words on the board!

There is another Scrambled Sentence option for students to work independently! I like to use these in a writing station or for morning work.  They could even go home as homework!  Students cut the sentence out, unscramble it, write it on the lines, and then they illustrate! The illustration adds a meaning-making piece which is great for students working on comprehension.

Have you ever tried scrambled sentences in your classroom?  What do your students think?

Click the image below to check out the bundle with over 30 themes!