When you have a nice helping of words, but they just aren't quite a sentence this is called a sentence fragment. In order to qualify as a sentence the group of words has to have a subject and a verb this is called an independent clause. The sentence must also be solid by itself and not be missing pieces. When you read a sentence fragment you will catch yourself saying, "That just doesn't sound right!" These worksheets will have students find sentence fragments and convert them into complete thoughts and ultimately sentences themselves.
Fragment or Not? - You start by identifying fragments and end off with full sentence rewrites. This is where I would start with this skill.
Incomplete - See how your accuracy is on these. You are just looking for statements with clear thoughts, a subject, and action words.
Sentence Lock - Lock this one down quickly. This is another version of the previous worksheet. This was requested by several teachers.
Joy's Birthday Blues - See if you can find all 7 fragments in this complete reading passage. Students should try to read each sentence carefully and sometimes even aloud to themselves.
The Lost Dog - Where is poor Ginger? I can't find her. See if you can find her and follow the thoughts of the author.
Fragmented Phrases - Yet another daredevil picture. Phrases are often overlooked for their importance with this grade level.
Frags - Find them and re-write them. See if you can make the words jump off the page and engage the readers.
Complete Sentences - What is with the motorcycle picture? I don't know either, but I'm certain students will find it amusing.
Completed Sentence - You will find some seriously short sentences in here. They are total fragments that need you tender love and care as an author.
Incomplete Lock - A sandwich would really hit the spot now. When does a sandwich not hit the spot?
Dinosaur Dreams - There is a great deal to learn and read here. The passage is really fun for kids.
Baby Animals - The marsupial babies will stay in the mother's pouch until. Once they are no living in their mother pouch, they will need to.
The First Day of School - During the summer, Hallie could not stop thinking about her first day of school. There were just two more days to go before she started preschool.
Trip to the Carnival - Travis was visiting his cousin's home during the fall. Carnivals mostly are a summer attraction, but they are finishing up their tour when the leaves start falling.
The Peach Orchards - It was a hot summer day. Tiffany's parents had planned a trip to the mountains to pick peaches.
What often throws students for a loop, when dealing with sentence fragments, is that most fragments will follow standard punctuation and capitalization rules. They will often start with capital letter and have end punctuation. What is completely absent is a main clause. Without a main clause the sentence lacks a subject, verb, or complete thought. When deciding if you are working with one; look for any of those three pieces to be missing. If anyone of those three are missing, you have yourself a fragment.
You can also look for participle phrases. Those are verbs that end in -ed or -ing, based on which word tense we are satisfying. These phrases function as adjective and do complete the need for a total thought. You will notice that many fragments have subordinators paired with a relative clause. This is when a clause begins the common subordinators (after, although, because). This is often the most confusing form of fragments.
When you are working to transition a fragment to a full sentence there are basically one of two things to do. If it lacks a main clause, just make sure the clause is complete. This means that you will need to make sure that your new sentence has a subject, verb, and complete fluid thought. In some cases, they simply require a comma to connect the two parts. Whatever you do, when you have what you feel is a completed sentence read it aloud and make sure it is clear. Sometimes we hear what we want to hear, not what is actually written. So, it is good to have a friend give it a read too.