Years 2–6: Sentence Routines Printable Sentence Mats
Sentence Routines | Printable Sentence Mats | Years 2–6
Do your students write the same short, simple sentences in every piece of writing?
Sentence Routines is a set of 16 printable sentence mats that give students a clear, repeatable way to build, join, shape and improve sentences. Each mat has its own visual layout that shows students what the routine does, from a noun group train to a funnel that shrinks a whole text into one sentence. Every mat has a ‘My sentence’, ‘Our topic’ or ‘Our text’ line, so the same mats work with any class text, unit or piece of student writing, all year. A teacher guide with 17 ready-to-teach lesson plans shows you how to introduce each routine in about 45 minutes.
Every routine follows the same steps
Model it → Say it → Record it → Use it again
Students expand a bare sentence with who, when, where and why, build noun groups carriage by carriage, join simple sentences into compound and complex sentences, move a subordinate clause to the front, and revise a sentence from their own writing in three steps.
What's Included?
- 16 A4 sentence mats in four groups: Building Sentences, Joining Ideas, Shaping Sentences, and Checking & Improving
- What's Included and How to Use pages
- Which Mat, When: a quick guide to each mat's year levels and what it's best for
- 17 ready-to-teach lesson plans: an introduction to sentence routines, plus one lesson per mat
- Learning intention, success criteria and a teacher tip for every lesson
- Curriculum links to the Australian Curriculum v9.0 and the NSW English K–10 Syllabus for Years 2–6
The Routines
- Building Sentences: Sentence Expander, Noun Group Builder, Verb Group Choices, Adverbial Builder
- Joining Ideas: Combine It, Because, But, So, Complex Sentence Builder, Move the Clause
- Shaping Sentences: Sentence Openings, Add Extra Information, Sentence Types, Quoted & Reported Speech
- Checking & Improving: Fix the Boundaries, Sentence Shrink, Copy the Craft, Revise It
Why Sentence Routines?
- Students learn a few routines well and reuse them, rather than starting a new worksheet each time
- Not tied to a unit, so they work with any text, topic or piece of writing
- Uses syllabus language: noun groups, verb groups, adverbials, main and subordinate clauses, quoted and reported speech
- One mat for every level: no printed examples, so the same mat works from Year 2 to Year 6
- Black-and-white pages that print well and slip into plastic sleeves for reuse
- Works without printing too: students can draw the layout in their books or use mini whiteboards
Pair with Vocabulary Routines | Printable Vocabulary Mats and Visible Thinking Routines | Printable Thinking Mats for a complete set of literacy mats.
Resource Details
- Focus: Sentence-level grammar, punctuation and sentence variety
- Year Levels: Years 2–6
- Format: Printable PDF (A4, black and white)
- Length: 25 pages
- Time: Introduce each routine in about 45 minutes, then reuse it all year
This is a digital resource. You'll get an instant download link by email straight after checkout, and on your order confirmation page.
Yes. Every Hello Primary resource is written by an Australian primary teacher and aligned to the NSW English K–10 Syllabus and the Australian Curriculum v9.0. The curriculum links for this resource are included in the download.
Some Hello Primary resources are editable, such as our Canva frameworks and editable rubrics. If a resource is editable, the description will say so. If it isn't mentioned, the resource isn't editable.
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