Ten-Minute Grammar

SUBJECTS AND PREDICATES – Teacher’s Guide

INTRODUCTION:
Welcome to Ten-Minute Grammar! The goal of these units is to help students build a solid understanding of
grade-level grammar concepts during the first ten minutes of the class period each day. Each unit goes through a
progression in which new grammatical concepts are introduced (by discovery, as much as possible), built upon,
and then practiced and reviewed. In addition, the concepts in each consecutive unit build on one another
logically—it might seem silly to spend time reviewing nouns and verbs with 8th graders, but it’s necessary if
they’re going to understand things like gerunds and infinitives or specific types of verb phrases.

This unit includes a week and a half of daily bell-ringer activities, a quiz, and two practice worksheets.

SUGGESTED TIMELINE:
 Start the Day One bell ringer on a Monday.
 The “Practice” worksheets can be done as a class any time during the week (or skipped if you feel your
students don’t need it.)
 By Friday, if you feel the class is ready for it, give the unit quiz.
o If you feel like the entire class needs additional practice to master the concept, there are three
additional bell-ringer activities.
o Differentiation: The “Alternate Quiz” included in the packet is a slightly modified quiz geared
toward students with IEPs that call for such modifications.
 After the quiz, a student who clearly failed to grasp one or more of the week’s concepts should be
assigned one of the “Practice” worksheets. After completing the worksheet, the student can retake the
unit quiz for an improved grade.
 Starting a unit mid-week isn’t a problem at all—don’t feel like you MUST start on a Monday!

OBJECTIVES:
1. Students should understand that…
a. A subject is who or what the sentence is about (the thing or person doing the action)
b. A predicate is what the subject does
c. A group of words that is missing either a subject or a predicate CANNOT be a sentence
2. Students should be able to…
a. Identify the complete subject and predicate of a sentence
b. Write sentences that contain a subject and a predicate

KEYS TO THE UNIT:

The “subject and predicate” concept should be review at the junior-high level, but that doesn’t mean we don’t
need to teach it explicitly. It’s impossible to teach students about clauses and the structure of more complex
sentence unless they already understand subject and predicate. So what you, as the teacher, need to remember is
that this concept is a vital stepping stone to understanding higher concepts that will significantly impact the
quality of student writing.

One fun suggestion for this unit is to use the Schoolhouse Rock video, “The Tale of Mr. Morton.” It’s cheesy
and old-school, but junior-high students get a kick out of it because of that, and it’s a good way to get the
concept stuck in their heads.
DAILY ROUTINE:
Have the day’s bell-ringer activity up on a projector when the students come to class each day. I have my
students do the assignment on quarter-sheets of paper (I cut them up and have a stack available each day). Days
Four and Six in this unit require copyediting with proofreading marks; since it takes too long for students to
copy the incorrect sentences and then edit them, a page of quarter-size student answer sheets are provided for
those days (see the pages after the last bell ringer.)

Students should spend the first five minutes working silently (use that time to take roll and then circulate
around the room to keep kids on task.) After the five minutes of work time, spend the next five minutes going
over the answers. Use the correction session each day to explain new concepts, clarify ideas, and correct
misconceptions. For each question, I like to have my students turn to the person next to them and share their
answer; then I ask a student to volunteer an answer. If a student answers incorrectly, find someone else who can
give the correct answer. Help the class understand the concept a little better and then ask the first student a
question like, “Explain why your first answer was wrong.” I’ve never had a student feel offended by this—if
anything, it gives kids a chance to redeem themselves after what might have been an embarrassing moment of
being wrong in front of everyone.

If you use an overhead projector, a Smart Board, or project onto a white marker board, you can choose a
student each day to come to the front and write answers or corrections as other students volunteer them.

How you grade the daily bell-ringer questions is up to you. I used to give my students full credit as long as they
attempted each question and then participated in the answer session. But this year, I actually stopped grading
the daily practice altogether—so students are graded solely on the unit quiz (and sometimes the practice
worksheet.) This has worked great. The only issue with doing it like this is that you have to make sure you don’t
let kids get away with not doing the bell-ringer—I sometimes hold them during lunch if they were slacking off
and didn’t do it.

The Wordplay at the end of each day’s questions can be a way to earn extra credit if you choose. As incentive
to work quickly, I tell my students they can’t begin on the Wordplay until they’re finished with the other
questions, and I always offer a piece of candy to the first student to get the answer right or the student with the
best answer or most answers. (You’d be surprised what junior-high students will do for a Starburst or a Jolly
Rancher!)

LITERATURE:
This unit contains example selections from the novel Incarceron
by Catherine Fisher.
 DAY
Subject and Predicate
Ten-Minute Grammar One

Identify the subject in each of the following sentences (who or what the sentence is about):

A sneaky rat named Scratch was pilfering food from the pantry.
1. Suddenly, the rat heard a low growl and a hiss.
2. Scratch bolted as fast as he could.
3. Captain Meow, the black tomcat, raced at Scratch’s heels.
If students left out the appositive phrase, “the black tomcat,” that’s not the end of the world. But point
out that it is part of the subject.
4. Just in time, the brown rat scurried into his hole.

Identify the predicate in each of the following sentences (what the subject did):

Captain Meow waited patiently.

5. He sat outside the mouse hole all day long.
6. Finally, the old tomcat decided to take a nap.
Technically, the adverb “Finally” in number 6 is part of the predicate because it modifies the verb;
explain that if your students are ready for it, or set it aside if it would confuse the class more than help
them.
7. Snoring loudly, the sleepy hunter forgot about his prey.
Some students might confuse the phrase “Snoring loudly” as part of the predicate because it sounds like
an action—it’s actually a participial phrase that functions as an adjective modifying the subject, “the
sleepy hunter.”

Wordplay – Just for fun!

 FOUR-LETTER WORDS: Take the four-letter word below and change one letter to
make a new four-letter word (keep it clean!) Then take that word and change one letter to
make a new word. Then take that word and… You get the picture.
DUMB
 DAY
Subject and Predicate
Ten-Minute Grammar Two

Identify the subject in each of the following sentences from Incarceron by Catherine Fisher:

1. Necklaces and amulets hung from the posts.

Make note to the students that there are two subjects here that share a predicate—that’s called a
“compound subject,” although they don’t necessarily need to remember that term.
2. A small whine emerged from the device.

Identify the predicate in each of the following sentences from Incarceron :

3. Jared had crouched and was picking up the sharp, curved fragments of glass.
Like the compound subject in number 1, this is a compound predicate—two predicates connected to a
single subject. This is important to point out because later when they learn about clauses, students might
confuse this for two clauses because it seems to have two predicates; but it’s still a single clause.
4. Huge and malevolent, the bird stared down at her.

Add your own subject to the following sentences from Incarceron :

5. ___________________________ was black and looked like ebony.

6. ___________________________ hadn’t really been listening.

Add your own predicate to the following sentences from Incarceron :

7. Sleek silver devices ___________________________ .

8. The long table ___________________________ .

Wordplay – Just for fun!

 CATALOGUE CREATOR: The prefix “tele-” means “from a distance” and
sounds like “tella.” How many words can you list that contain this prefix?
 DAY
Subject and Predicate
Ten-Minute Grammar Three

In your own words…

1. What is a subject and how can you identify one?

2. What is a predicate and how can you identify one?
3. If a group of words doesn’t have a subject AND a predicate, why is it NOT a
full sentence?
Answers will vary. What you want here is for them to figure out how to
explain this concept in a coherent way.

General Grammar Review:

4. Which of the following homophones is usually a verb: Affect or Effect?

5. Write a sentence in which the word “president” must be capitalized.
Example: My mom didn’t vote for President Obama, but my dad did.
6. What are the two verb phrases in the following sentence?
a. The apes had become more intelligent and were taking over the world.

Wordplay – Just for fun!

 ANAGRAM: Rearrange the letters in the nonsense phrase below to create
new words that actually make sense.
MACARONI DELI
(Hint: talent competition)
American Idol
 DAY
Subject and Predicate
Ten-Minute Grammar Four

Read the following excerpt from Incarceron by Catherine Fisher and then answer the following
questions:

(a)Inside, he latched the flimsy door and sat on the bed. (b) The room was
cold and smelled of unwashed clothes, but it was quiet. (c) Slowly, he let
himself lie back. (d) He breathed in and inhaled terror.
1. What is the predicate of sentence (a)? (Hint: it’s a compound predicate, so the
subject is doing two things, which are both part of the predicate).
latched the flimsy door and sat on the bed (compound predicate)
2. What are the subjects of sentence (b)? (Hint: the sentence has two subjects
because it’s a compound sentence—two independent clauses.)
“The room” and “it” (two subjects because it’s a compound sentence)
3. Would the word “Slowly” in sentence (c) be part of the subject or the
predicate? Predicate – it’s an adverb modifying the verb “lie”
4. In sentence (d), is “breathed in” part of the subject or predicate? Predicate –
once again, a compound predicate

Using the proper proofreading marks, correct the six errors in this excerpt:
then
The swan was moving. it seemed to glide, peacefully at first; than it reared up,

flapping it’s great wings and she saw an arrow come slowly out of the out of the

trees and pierce its breast

Wordplay – Just for fun!

 DESCRAMBLER: Try to sort out the five scrambled words below:
NEVI DFEIR NYKUHC OLYOGOZ NGAEBAB
Vine Fried Chunky Zoology Beanbag
 QUIZ
Subject and Predicate
Ten-Minute Grammar DAY

REVIEW FOR TODAY’S QUIZ:

1. What is the subject of a sentence?

2. What is the predicate of a sentence?
3. Identify the subject and predicate in the following sentence:
a. Four purple penguins and green iguanas met at the dance club and
boogied the night away.
4. Write several of your own example sentences and identify the subject and
predicate.
 Extra
DAY
Ten-Minute Grammar Five Subject and Predicate

Identify the subject in each of the following sentences from Incarceron by Catherine Fisher:

1. Finn’s oathbrother was transformed.

2. The shouts of the Comitatus died abruptly.

Identify the predicate in each of the following sentences from Incarceron:

3. Keiro flung his head back and screamed with triumph.

4. A warm breeze drifted down the shaft.

Add your own subject to the following sentences from Incarceron:

5. ___________________________ convulsed with agony.

6. ___________________________ took a deep ragged breath.

Add your own predicate to the following sentences from Incarceron:

7. A blizzard of metal slivers ___________________________ .

8. The fire in the hearth ___________________________ .

Wordplay – Just for fun!

 VOWEL COMBINATOR: The vowel combination “oa” almost always sounds like
the hard “O” in “go.” List as many words as you can that contain this vowel combo.
 Extra
DAY
Ten-Minute Grammar Six Subject and Predicate

Read the following excerpt from Incarceron by Catherine Fisher and then answer the following
questions:

(a)Without waiting for his answer, she turned and swept back into the
Den. (b) Slowly, Finn rubbed a hand around the back of his neck, feeling
the damp of sweat. (c) He realized his body was a knot of tension; he made
himself breathe out. (d) Then he froze.
1. Who or what is the subject of sentence (a)? she
2. Is “the damp of sweat” the subject of sentence (b)? No
3. How many subjects and predicates does sentence (c) have? Three of each
“He (subject) realized (predicate) his body (subject) was a knot of tension (predicate); he
(subject) made himself breathe out (predicate).”
4. Is the word “Then” in sentence (d) part of the subject or the predicate?
Predicate; it’s telling us “when” the action happened, making it an adverb modifying the
verb.
Using the proper proofreading marks, correct the six errors in this excerpt:
sp. said
For a moment he, couldn’t speak. Before he could draw a brethe, she says,
“You must swear my safety. But he said “they have to pay the ransom.”
The comma after “moment” isn’t in the book and so doesn’t count as one of the six. However, it should
technically be there. Students might also consider moving the comma as one correction, still making it six in
total.

Wordplay – Just for fun!

 FIXER-ROOTER: How many words can you think of that have the same prefix,
suffix, or root as the multisyllabic word below?
EXTEMPORANEOUS
(done or made without much or any preparation)
 Extra
DAY
Ten-Minute Grammar Seven Subject and Predicate

Read the following excerpt from Incarceron by Catherine Fisher and then answer the following
questions:

(a)“The honor is ours,” she said. (b) “Perhaps you’d like to come into the
parlor. (c) We have cider and newly baked cakes as refreshment after your
journey.” (d) Well, she hoped they did. (e) Turning, she saw that three of
the servants had gone and the gaps in the line had closed swiftly behind
them.
1. Is the word “honor” in sentence (a) part of the subject or the predicate? Subject
2. In sentence (b), is the word “parlor” a verb, noun, pronoun, or adverb? Noun
3. Is “cider and newly baked cakes” the subject of sentence (c)? No
4. In sentence (a), which word is a linking verb and which word is an action
verb? “is” is a linking verb; “said” is an action verb
5. Sentence (e) is a compound-complex sentence and has THREE subjects; what
are they? “she,” “three of the servants,” and “the gaps in the line”
6. In sentence (d), which two words are pronouns? “she” and “they”
7. In sentence (d), is “hoped” part of the subject or the predicate? Predicate
8. List three nouns from sentence (e). servants, gaps, line

Wordplay – Just for fun!

 EIGHT BALL: Create as many words as you can using three or more of the letters
below (at least one eight-letter word is possible):
DADORIEN
Ordained
 Extra
Ten-Minute Grammar Practice Subject and Predicate

NAME: PERIOD:

The SUBJECT of a sentence is who or what the sentence is about—the person or thing
doing the action of the sentence. The PREDICATE is the action of the sentence—what the
subject does or is.

In the following sentences, identify the underlined portion as the SUBJECT or PREDICATE:

PredicateAbraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States.

1. ____________

Subject In the 1860 presidential election, Lincoln defeated Democrat Stephen Douglas, John
2. ____________
Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats, and Jon Bell of the Constitutional Union Party.

PredicateBefore becoming president, Abe worked as a lawyer and served in several political
3. ____________
positions.

PredicateLincoln lost eight elections during his political career.

4. ____________

Subject President Lincoln presided over the Civil War and the end of slavery.
5. ____________

Subject Many scholars rank Lincoln as the greatest president in U.S. history.
6. ____________

In order to have a full sentence, you must have a SUBJECT and a PREDICATE.

Decide if each of the following groups of words is a full sentence or not (answer YES or NO.)

NO After re-entering politics in 1854, Abraham Lincoln.

7. ______

YESHe was elected to the Illinois Legislature but turned down the position, hoping instead to
8. ______
become a senator.

NO Was not chosen by the Illinois legislature to be a U.S. senator in 1855.

9. ______

NO Later nominated to be the Republican Senator from Illinois, opposing Democrat Stephen A.
10. ______
Douglas.

YESLincoln spoke against the Dred Scott Decision in 1857.

11. ______

YESHe delivered an important speech on slavery in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1860.

12. ______

ANSWERS WILL VARY.

Add a SUBJECT or a PREDICATE to complete the following sentences:

13. The President of the United States ___________________________________.

14. ___________________________________ was placed in command of the Union Army.

15. The Gettysburg Address ___________________________________.

16. ___________________________________ ended slavery in the United States.

Some sentences might have more than one person or thing doing the action—that would
be a COMPOUND SUBJECT. A sentence might also have a subject doing more than one
action—then you have a COMPOUND PREDICATE.

Add a COMPOUND SUBJECT or a COMPOUND PREDICATE to complete the next sentences (the
sentences do not necessarily need to be true):

17. _______________________________ and _______________________________ marked a turning

point in the Civil War.

18. After the Civil War, Lincoln _________________________________________ and

_________________________________________.

19. _______________________________ and _______________________________ participated in

several famous debates.

20. General Ulysses S. Grant _________________________________________ and

_________________________________________.
 Extra
Ten-Minute Grammar Practice Subject and Predicate

NAME: PERIOD:

The SUBJECT of a sentence is who or what the sentence is about—the person or thing
doing the action of the sentence. The PREDICATE is the action of the sentence—what the
subject does or is.

For sentences 1 – 4, decide if the underlined portion is part of the SUBJECT or PREDICATE:

PredicateDuring the Civil War, President Lincoln supervised the selection of top generals.
1. ____________

Subject Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address became one of the most quoted speeches in American
2. ____________
history.

PredicateSix days after the surrender of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln died.
3. ____________

Subject His death marked the first assassination of a U.S. president.

4. ____________

In most SIMPLE sentences, the SUBJECT makes up the beginning of the sentence and the
PREDICATE comes afterwards.

For sentences 5 – 8, underline the SUBJECT once and underline the PREDICATE twice:

5. Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin on the 12th of February, 1809.

6. His younger brother, Thomas, was born in 1812 but died in infancy.

7. Young Abraham went to school in a log schoolhouse.

8. Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abraham’s mother, died of “milk sickness” before Lincoln’s 10th birthday.

9. Abraham shot a wild turkey at age 7 but felt bad about it and never hunted again.
In other sentences, however, the SUBJECT and PREDICATE are harder to recognize
because part of the predicate comes before the subject (often an adverb phrase that tells
when or how the action happened.)

For sentences 9 – 12, underline the SUBJECT:

10. After his father’s marriage to Sarah Bush Johnston, young Abraham developed a good relationship with
his stepmother, Sarah.

11. Often borrowing books from others, Lincoln loved to read and learn.

12. As a teenager, he was called “Abe.”

13. At age 22, Abe studied Shakespeare and participated in a local debate club.

In COMPOUND and COMPLEX sentences, there are actually two SUBJECTS and two
PREDICATES (because compound and complex sentences have two clauses in them.) The
conjunction that links the two clauses together is marked in bold, and it isn’t actually part
of subject or the predicate.

For sentences 19 – 22, underline the SUBJECTS once and the PREDICATES twice:

14. Abraham gave his first political speech in 1830; he spoke in favor of improving navigation on the
Sangamon River near his home.

15. Lincoln was elected captain of a rifle company during the Black Hawk War, but he didn’t end up
fighting any battles.

16. In 1832, Lincoln ran as a candidate for the Illinois General Assembly, but he lost the election.

17. Lincoln was left in debt when the village store he owned in New Salem failed. **

18. Even though he lost his first election, Lincoln ran for the General Assembly again in 1834.

19. Abraham became a leader of the Whig Party after he was re-elected in 1836.

20. His girlfriend, Mary Owens, rejected him when Abe proposed to her in 1837.

** Technically, there are two subjects and predicates in “the village store he owned in New Salem failed.” “The
village store” is a subject with “failed” as its predicate; “he” is another subject with “owned in New Salem” as
its predicate. The problem is that there is an implied “that” before the “he.” Because that would be confusing to
junior-high grammarians, it’s better to treat “the village store he owned in New Salem” as the subject, which is
also perfectly true.
QUIZ ANSWER KEY

Match the following terms with the correct definitions (each

term has two correct answers):
1. Subject __B__ __C__
2. Predicate __A__ __D__
A. The action of the sentence (what the subject does or is)
B. Must contain a noun or a pronoun
C. Who or what the sentence is about (the person or thing
doing the action)
D. Must contain a verb
Which answer correctly identifies the SUBJECT of each
sentence?
3. Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United
states in 1861.
A. 1861
B. President of the United States
C. Abraham Lincoln
4. Growing up on the western frontier, he and his family were
not wealthy.
A. he and his family
B. the western frontier
C. not wealthy
Which answer correctly identifies the PREDICATE of each
sentence?
5. Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, came from a
slave-owning family in Kentucky.
A. Abraham Lincoln’s wife
B. came from a slave-owning family in Kentucky
C. Mary Todd Lincoln
6. The Republican president from Illinois took charge of both
the political and military aspects of the Civil War.
A. took charge of both the political and military aspects of the
Civil War
B. political and military aspects of the Civil War
C. The Republican president from Illinois
Underline the SUBJECT of this sentence:
7. The 1858 campaign featured seven debates between Lincoln
and Stephen A. Douglas.
8. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.
Underline the PREDICATE of this sentence:
9. After the war, Lincoln sought to reunite the divided union.
10. John Wilkes Booth assassinated the president in 1864.
Add a SUBJECT to this sentence:
11. __________________________________
Answers will vary worked diligently.
Add a PREDICATE to this sentence:
12. The Gettysburg Address ___________________________.
Answers will vary

Alternate

Ten-Minute Grammar QUIZ Subject and Predicate

NAME: PERIOD:

Match the following terms with the correct definitions:

1. Subject __B__
2. Predicate __A__
A. The action of the sentence (what the subject does or is)
Must contain a verb
B. Who or what the sentence is about (the person or thing doing the action)
Must contain a noun or a pronoun

Which answer correctly identifies the SUBJECT of each sentence?

3. Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United states in 1861.
A. Abraham Lincoln
B. President of the United States

4. Growing up on the western frontier, he and his family were not wealthy.
A. he and his family
B. the western frontier

Which answer correctly identifies the PREDICATE of each sentence?

5. Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, came from a slave-owning family in
Kentucky.
A. Abraham Lincoln’s wife
B. came from a slave-owning family in Kentucky

6. The Republican president from Illinois took charge of both the political and military
aspects of the Civil War.
A. took charge of both the political and military aspects of the Civil War
B. The Republican president from Illinois
Underline the SUBJECT of each sentence:
7. The 1858 campaign featured seven debates between Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.

8. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.

Underline the PREDICATE of each sentence:

9. Lincoln tried to reunite the divided country after the war.

10. John Wilkes Booth assassinated the president.

Add a SUBJECT to this sentence: ANSWERS WILL VARY.

11. __________________________________ worked very hard.

Add a PREDICATE to this sentence: ANSWERS WILL VARY.

12. The Civil War _____________________________________.