Overview

This 30-minute introductory lesson for Year 1 students in New Zealand focuses on understanding what sentences are and identifying the basic components: the 'who' (subject) and the 'do' (verb). Using a stimulating and age-appropriate photo, students will explore who is in the picture and what action they are doing, laying the foundation for constructing simple sentences.

Curriculum Alignment

• English Learning Area (The New Zealand Curriculum)
• Level: Year 1 (approx. ages 5-6)
• Strand: Listening, Reading and Viewing – Language Features and Structures
• Achievement Objectives:
  • Recognise a sentence is a group of words that communicates an idea
  • Use simple sentences with a subject and a verb
• Key Competencies:
  • Thinking – understanding sentence concepts
  • Using language, symbols, and texts – recognizing components of sentences
  • Relating to others – communicating ideas
• Support from Te Mātaiaho English (Ministry of Education, 2024):
  • Teach explicitly that a sentence communicates an idea and includes a subject and a verb
  • Use visual supports, modelling, and sentence stems to scaffold learning
  • Build vocabulary by naming precise nouns and verbs relevant to familiar contexts (e.g., body parts, classroom events),.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, students will be able to:

1. Understand and state what a sentence is (a group of words that communicates an idea).
2. Identify the ‘who’ (subject) and ‘do’ (verb) in a sentence.
3. Use simple sentences orally to describe an image (sentence with a subject and an action).
4. Begin to recognise the punctuation used at the end of a sentence (full stop).

Resources

• A large, colourful photo showing a simple scene with clear actors and actions (e.g., children playing, an animal doing something).
• Sentence strip cards (with example words: ‘The cat’, ‘runs’, ‘jumps’).
• Whiteboard and marker or chart paper.
• Visual aids to colour-code sentence parts (e.g., blue for 'who', red for 'do').
• Copies of the photo for each student (optional).

Lesson Outline (30 minutes)

1. Introduction and Warm-up (5 minutes)

• Greet students and introduce the focus: "Today we are going to be sentence superstars!"
• Briefly explain what a sentence is in simple terms: "A sentence is a group of words that tells us about a person or thing and what they are doing."
• Activate prior knowledge by asking: "Can you tell me something you did today?" Collect a few responses as spoken sentences.

2. Explore the Photo and Identify ‘Who’ and ‘Do’ (10 minutes)

• Show the photo to the whole class. Ask: "Who do you see in this picture?" (Subject identification)
• Next, ask: "What is happening in this picture? What is the person/animal doing?" (Verb/action identification)
• Record responses on the whiteboard, colour-coding the ‘who’ (subject) in blue and the ‘do’ (verb) in red for clarity.
• Model creating simple sentences orally by combining these parts, e.g., "The boy runs."
• Use sentence stems for support: "The ___ (who) ___ (does what)."

3. Guided Practice in Pairs or Small Groups (8 minutes)

• Hand out copies of the photo or keep the large one visible.
• In pairs or small groups, students take turns identifying the ‘who’ and ‘do’ using sentence stems provided.
• Prompt them with questions: "Who is this?" and "What is the ___ doing?"
• Circulate and support students as needed, encouraging oral sentences.

4. Wrap-up and Reflect (5 minutes)

• Invite several students to share their sentences with the class.
• Reinforce the concept: "We use sentences to tell people who is doing what!"
• Briefly introduce full stops by showing where to stop after a sentence.
• Praise all efforts to encourage confidence and participation.

Assessment for Learning

• Observation: Teacher notes participation and ability to identify subject and verb on the photo.
• Oral check: Listen to students’ oral sentences for accuracy in including ‘who’ and ‘do’.
• Feedback: Provide immediate, positive feedback and scaffold language when needed.
• Next steps: Use student contributions to plan the next lesson scaffolded on sentence formation and punctuation.

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Appendix: Curriculum Links

The New Zealand Curriculum – English Achievement Objectives Level 1

• "Make meaning of texts by drawing on their experience of oral language."
• "Use knowledge of letters and sounds and sentence structures to make sense of texts."
• "Use simple sentences to communicate ideas."

Te Mātaiaho English Highlights for Year 1

• Demonstrate understanding that a sentence is a group of words used to communicate an idea.
• Demonstrate understanding that a simple sentence includes a subject and a verb.
• Use oral sentence stems to build and combine sentences.
• Use precise nouns and verbs from familiar contexts (e.g., classroom, home).
• Support from visual scaffolds such as colour-coding parts of sentences.
• Explicitly teach full stops and sentence boundaries,.

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This lesson plan supports teachers to engage young learners with practical, interactive, and scaffolded introduction to sentence structure, directly aligned with the New Zealand Curriculum and the most current English framework guidance (Te Mātaiaho English). It emphasises oral language development, metacognitive awareness, and inclusive teaching methods through visual supports and peer interaction, ensuring a solid foundation for the unit "Sentence Superstars!" and future literacy development.