The Four Types of Sentences

Yesterday we learned about the four types of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. I was impressed with how well the kids were able to pronounce the words as they aren't the easiest for 4th graders. We talked about how most sentences are declarative because we are just saying something, not a command, not a question, not an emotional statement... just saying something. Most of the students were able to recognize the word 'declare' in declarative and made the connection.

So this morning we were correcting our daily sentences on the Smartboard. I told the students that because we now know the four types of sentences, they have to say what kind of sentence it is when they add punctuation. I gave them an example:

"If I put a question mark at the end of this sentence I would say: 'I put a question mark at the end because it's an interrogative sentence.' Does everyone understand what I want you to say?"

A chorus of 'yes' came from the gallery. After a little prompting...(it was morning after all)

As we were going through and correcting the sentence, Thomas walked up to the board and very confidently put a period at the end of the sentence. He spun around with an almost cocky smile and declared:

"I put a period at the end of the sentence because it's a deformative sentence."

Maybe we better review the four types of sentences tomorrow...