Sentence building in Spanish is helpful for kids who are learning to read and also for second language learners as vocabulary practice. There are several kinds of activities for sentence building in Spanish. I’ve included printable downloads with three examples using house vocabulary.
For children who are learning to read, sentence building in Spanish provides important word recognition practice. The sentences include high frequency words and are often supported by picture clues. Hands-on activities for sentence building in Spanish, such as cut-and-glue, word cards, and words on Legos are excellent for early emergent readers.
Sentence building in Spanish is also helpful for second language learners who already know how to read. Be sure to check out all of our free activities for readers of different levels on our Spanish Reading for Kids page.
Also, if your students are learning about furniture and homes, be sure to see our collection of Spanish house vocabulary activities.
Sentence Building with Spanish Learners
- Sentence building is an excellent way to work with vocabulary.
- Sentences combine related words, helping kids learn vocabulary they need to communicate whole ideas.
- The activities can be combined with picture clues to provide support and make them more effective for vocabulary learning.
- Sentence building is an excellent way to provide grammar models. For example, kids work with correctly conjugated verbs. This is excellent focused exposure.
- It provides exposure to spelling and punctuation conventions including written accents and capitalization.
- Sentence building can serve as support for follow-up speaking and writing activities.
- The activities can be easily differentiated. For example, with activities where students draw from categories, kids at a higher level can generate the vocabulary for each category.
- Sentence building is a puzzle. Kids enjoy ordering jumbled words or combining parts to make a sentence.
If you’re working with house vocabulary, you should also check out this song: Mi casa Song from Spanish for You.
Examples of Sentence Building in Spanish
1. Sentence Building in Spanish for Early Emergent Readers
This printable download:
- Uses sentences with a pattern
- Has two activities
- 1) Cut and glue. Kids are given the sentence they build. They cut out and glue the words in order using the model.
- 2) Kids write the sentence without a model.
- Includes a picture to color of the inside of a house. Have children color the part of the house that is described by the sentence.
Download the Sentence Building for Early Emergent Readers.
2. Jumbled Sentences
This printable download:
- Has jumbled sentences for kids to rewrite in order.
- Has sentences that follow a pattern.
- Includes a picture for kids to label with the sentences or vocabulary words.
Download Jumbled Sentences with House Vocabulary.
3. Building Sentences in Spanish from Word Sets
With this printable download:
- Kids combine subject (¿Quién?), verb (¿Qué hace?) and a prepositional phrase (¿Dónde?) to make a sentence.
- Students draw a picture to represent the meaning of the sentence.
Download Sentence Building from Word Sets.
This is another another sentence building activity using sets of words. Kids build sentences to describe pictures by using one word of each color. This activity doesn’t use house vocabulary, but it’s great for beginning readers. Spanish Sentence Building: 3 Word Sentences
4. Sentence Building in Spanish with Flip Books
Flip books are a particularly fun and effective way to do sentence building. They take a little time to assemble if all the words flip. You can also make simple flip books where only one word changes. I didn’t make one for house vocabulary, but you can find printable flip books in these posts.
You may also want to use this great song from Spanish for You! to reinforce house vocabulary and verbs. The lyrics are on the screen, so it’s easy to sing along.
What are your favorite activities for sentence building in Spanish? Please share in comments!
Rosario Rodriguez Brusniak, M.A., CCC-SLP
Jan 13, 2017
I am a bilingual speech and language pathologist and I just came across your site. Love the organization and practice where the students can practice using strategies.