Telling and Asking: Learning About Sentences!

English Language Arts Grades Pre-K 8:26 Video
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Lesson Description

Let's explore telling and asking sentences! We'll learn how to spot them and why they're important. Based on the Teacher Mary video.

Video Resource

Telling Sentence and Asking Sentence

Teacher Mary

Duration: 8:26
Watch on YouTube

Key Concepts

  • Telling sentences (statements)
  • Asking sentences (questions)
  • Punctuation (period and question mark)

Learning Objectives

  • Students will be able to identify telling sentences.
  • Students will be able to identify asking sentences.
  • Students will be able to differentiate between telling and asking sentences.

Educator Instructions

  • Introduction (5 mins)
    Begin by asking the students if they like to tell stories, and if they like to ask questions. Explain that today we will be learning about different kinds of sentences - sentences that tell us something (telling sentences), and sentences that ask us something (asking sentences).
  • Video Viewing (5 mins)
    Watch the Teacher Mary video on 'Telling Sentence and Asking Sentence' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWupvVroOLw). Point out the examples used in the video.
  • Discussion (5 mins)
    After the video, have a short discussion about what they learned. Focus on the difference in how the sentences end (period vs. question mark).
  • Activity: Sentence Sorting (10 mins)
    Prepare sentence cards (written or with pictures) with simple telling and asking sentences. Have students sort the cards into two piles: 'Telling' and 'Asking'. Provide guidance and prompting as needed.
  • Wrap-up (5 mins)
    Review the difference between telling and asking sentences. Ask students to give their own examples of each.

Interactive Exercises

  • Sentence Charades
    Write simple telling and asking sentences on cards (e.g., 'I am happy.', 'Are you sleepy?'). Students act out the sentence without speaking, and the others guess if it's a telling or asking sentence.

Discussion Questions

  • What does a telling sentence do?
  • What does an asking sentence do?
  • What do you see at the end of a telling sentence?
  • What do you see at the end of an asking sentence?

Skills Developed

  • Listening comprehension
  • Sentence recognition
  • Critical Thinking
  • Verbal communication

Multiple Choice Questions

Question 1:

Which sentence tells you something?

Correct Answer: I like apples.

Question 2:

Which sentence asks a question?

Correct Answer: Is the ball big?

Question 3:

What do we put at the end of a telling sentence?

Correct Answer: A dot (.)

Question 4:

What do we put at the end of an asking sentence?

Correct Answer: A question mark (?)

Question 5:

Which of these is a telling sentence?

Correct Answer: The cat is sleeping.

Question 6:

Which of these is an asking sentence?

Correct Answer: Do you like to play?

Question 7:

If a sentence ends with a dot, is it likely to be what kind of sentence?

Correct Answer: Telling sentence

Question 8:

A sentence that is asking will have what at the end?

Correct Answer: Question mark

Question 9:

If you ask someone 'Do you like ice cream?' are you telling or asking them something?

Correct Answer: Asking

Question 10:

Which one of these sentences tells something about a dog?

Correct Answer: Dogs are happy

Fill in the Blank Questions

Question 1:

A telling sentence _______ you something.

Correct Answer: tells

Question 2:

An asking sentence _______ you something.

Correct Answer: asks

Question 3:

A telling sentence ends with a _______.

Correct Answer: dot

Question 4:

An asking sentence ends with a question _______.

Correct Answer: mark

Question 5:

"The sky is blue." is a _______ sentence.

Correct Answer: telling

Question 6:

"Is the sky blue?" is an _______ sentence.

Correct Answer: asking

Question 7:

If you see a question mark at the end of a sentence, it is likely an ________ sentence.

Correct Answer: asking

Question 8:

"I am a student." is an example of a ________ sentence.

Correct Answer: telling

Question 9:

Sentences help us communicate and _____ others

Correct Answer: understand

Question 10:

We always want our sentences to make _________.

Correct Answer: sense

Educational Standards

PK.2.PC.5:Students will begin to recognize ending punctuation marks in print during shared reading or other text experiences. PK.5.R.1:Students will hear different sentence structures through conversations, read-alouds, and interactive reading. PK.4.W.1:Students will begin to use new vocabulary to produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities. PK.3.R.2:Students will answer basic questions (e.g., who, what, where, and when) about texts, photographs, or illustrations during shared reading or other text experiences with prompting.

Teaching Materials

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