Snowballing Sentences

Are you looking for a way to help your students expand their sentences to include details? Do your students need help with grouping words together while reading for fluency phrasing? Try integrating this simple Snowballing Sentences activity!

Writing

Read through the completed sentence page as a whole-group. Then, model and guide the students through the process of expanding sentences to include details.

Model writing a simple sentence with a Who and a Did What. Show them how to expand and “snowball” their sentences by adding Where (e.g., “at the park”), When (e.g., “yesterday”), or Add-On phrases (e.g., “and had lots of fun”). Sometimes it helps to highlight or underline the expanded sections to help students see the details that were added. Once you’ve modeled the full process of expanding a sentence with a few examples, guide students step-by-step through expanding a few sentences together.

OPTION: As a CRAFTIVITY option, have students create and expand a sentence on three white construction paper snowballs. Glue the snowballs together and turn the snowballs into a snowman. (Don’t forget the top hat!) Display the class writing projects on a bulletin board or the hallway.

Fluency

Use this same Snowballing Sentences activity for FLUENCY practice! Students can practice “scooping” and phrasing each snowball. The add-on expansion represents each new phrase your students should scoop & phrase together.

(Need additional ideas or want to learn more about phrasing? Check out my previous Fluency posts HERE!)

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Happy Teaching!