F un with Fragments

2. Fun with Fragments Exploring Sentences and Sentence Fragments

3. A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought.A sentence contains a subject and a predicate.Danattended the pep rally before the football game.

4. Sometimes part of the sentence may be missing. • Three little girls in the front row What’s missing? • Ran behind the blue couch What’s missing? • In the attic at the top of the stairs What’s missing?

5. When a group of words fails to tell us • Who or what did something (the subject), • What happened (the predicate), • Or both (the subject and the predicate), we have what is known as a sentence fragment.

6. A sentence fragment is only a piece of a sentence. • It does notexpress a complete thought.

7. Let’s correct these sentence fragments!

8. Sat behind me in science class What’s missing?

9. Yes, we need a subject. The new girlsat behind me in science class.

10. The bag of groceries on the kitchen table What’s missing?

11. Yes, we need a predicate. The bag of groceries on the kitchen table goes to Grandmother's house.

12. After the rain stopped What’s missing?

13. Yes, we need a subject and a predicate. After the rain stopped, the childrenran outside to play.

14. Remember, a sentence must tell you all you need to know to have a complete thought.

15. Watch out for sentence fragments!