Let's Shake on It!

Fourth Grade Writing

by Maggie Knutson July 10, 2017

Students will enjoy thinking about subject and verbs as two parts that must work together to form a clear idea.
Students will create mixed-up sentences as a class, then write funny stories that peers can revise.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to revise sentences so that subjects and verbs agree.

Materials and preparation

Class set of Subject/Verb Agreement with

Gabriella Grammar
30 index cards
Lined paper for story writing
Class set of Diagramming Sentences: Subject
and Verb (optional)

Attachments

Great Grammar: Subject Verb Agreement (PDF)

Sentence Diagramming: Subject/Verb (PDF)

Introduction (10 minutes)

Split the class into two groups.

Have half of the class write a subject on their index card and the other half write a predicate.
Encourage the subject group to include both singular and plural subjects. Example subjects: the
snowman, my pet frog, the yellow school buses. Example predicates: go over the speed limit, melted in
the sun, hops across the pond.
Put all of the subjects in one container and all of the predicates in another container.
Select one subject and one predicate and put them together to read a sentence to the class. Some of the
combinations will agree and some of them won’t, since you will get a random mix of singular and plural.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling (10 minutes)

Ask the class why some of the sentences didn’t sound right. They should note that the subject and verbs
didn’t always agree.
Explain that when you form a sentence, a single subject must have singular verb, and a plural subject
must have a plural verb.
Draw more examples from the containers to make sentences, adjusting the verbs or subjects so that they
agree. Call on students to try.
Also explain that the verb tenses within a sentence must agree, or be consistent. For example, you
wouldn’t say, “Dave went for a bike ride, cleans his room, and then is going to lunch.”
Ask students to work in pairs to create sentences that have incorrect verb tense agreement.

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Guided Practice (10 minutes)

Distribute the worksheet Subject/Verb Agreement with Gabriella Grammar.

Go over the instructions at the top, noting the subject verb agreement rules.
Instruct students to complete the practice exercises independently or with a partner.

Independent working time (30 minutes)

Instruct students to write a fun short story that includes at least five errors in subject/verb agreement.
Have students trade stories with a classmate and fix the errors.
Another option would be to have students read their stories to the class, and when they get to an error
the class shouts “STOP!” and the reader calls on a student to correct the error.

Differentiation

Support:

Conduct a shared-writing experience using the short story activity. Write the error-filled story as a class,
then make copies of it for another class to identify the errors.

Enrichment:

Extend this activity by having students try some beginning sentence diagramming with the worksheet
Diagramming Sentences: Subject and Verb.

Assessment (5 minutes)

Write some combinations of subjects and verbs on the board: some that agree, and some that don’t.
Have students identify the ones that don’t agree. (Examples include birds fly, child play, horse are,
airplanes is.)

Review and closing (5 minutes)

Discuss: How is noun/pronoun agreement similar to subject/verb agreement? Provide the example: The
cupcakes fell and now we can’t eat it.

Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/

 Subject / Verb Agreement
With Gabriella Grammar

Hi! I’m Gabriella Grammar. Let’s learn about

subject and verb agreement together! The
subject and verb must agree in number: both
must be singular, or both must be plural. For
example:

Singular --> The dog chases the cat

Plural --> The dogs chase the cat

Circle the verb that correctly completes each sentence.

1. The four aliens ______ green goo inside their spaceship. eat eats

2. My dinosaur ______ onto the trampoline. leap leaps

3. Those cars _______ a loud sound as they race around the track. make makes

4. One of his sisters ______ the trombone. play plays

5. I ______ milkshakes to cool down on hot summer days. drink drinks

6. Our hamburgers _______ so delicious! taste tastes

7. Mrs. Lane, my teacher, ______ us to finish our homework want wants

before the big game.

Circle the correct verb and complete the sentence.

1. The elephant (bring/brings)

2. Sarah (win/wins)

3. All the princes and princesses (eat/eats)

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 ����������������������� Subject and Verb
Every complete sentence must have a subject and a verb. Example: The bird sings.
Subjects are often nouns, but not always. To diagram a sentence,
draw a line underneath the subject and verb. Then draw a line bird sings
between them that extends a little below the line under them.

Diagram the following simple sentences. For this exercise, only diagram the subjects and verbs.

The cat ate the mouse.

I like Theresa.

The house is blue.

Some sentences have more than one subject, called Katherine and Wendy ran and
a compound subject, or more than one verb, called a played in the snow.
compound verb. In these situations, the subject and verb Katherine ran
diagram looks like this:

and

and
See if you can diagram the following sentences with
compound subjects and verbs. For this exercise, only diagram Wendy played
the subjects, verbs and conjunctions.

The doctor and the nurse helped the patient.

We laughed and talked for hours.

Jim and Rose prepared and cooked the roast.

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