Senseless Sentences

Senseless Sentences is an activity designed to give students practice in proofreading sentences for common mistakes in spelling/word usage. The difficulty level can easily be adapted for any grade or ability group.

Directions:

Prepare a set of cards with the sentences on the front and the correct answer on the back. The mistakes in the sentences should be words that contain the same letters as the correct word. In this manner you are presenting sentences that contain all correctly spelled words; however, the words have been incorrectly used in the context of the sentence. The following is a list of possible sentences to utilize. The correctly written sentence is given in blue:

1. Be careful of the name dog.
   Be careful of the mean dog.
2. She cooked in a nap and top.
   She cooked in a pot and pan.
3. We caught the turtle in a ten.
   We caught the turtle in a net.
4. The act is drinking milk again.
   The cat is drinking milk again.
5. The next town is a lime away.
   The next town is a mile away.
6. The cup is no the dining room bleat.
   The cup is on the dining room table.
7. There was an low screeching in the attic.
   There was an owl screeching in the attic.
8. A white save is on the shelf.
   A white vase is on the shelf.
9. She tea the ripe lump.
   She ate the ripe plum.
10. The little pig's house saw built of warts.
    The little pig's house was built of straw.
11. The fox was caught in a part.
    The fox was caught in a trap.
12. She watered the garden with a shoe.
    She watered the garden with a hose.
13. John now the slat game.
    John won the last game.
14. Leon didn't tea her doc sandwich at lunch today.
    Noel didn't eat her cod sandwich at lunch today.
15. She has a grin on her finger.
    She has a ring on her finger.
16. Please don't pest no the rug.
    Please don't step on the rug.

Options:

• Prepare the cards and place them in a learning center. Individual students can use them at a specified time or as an extra activity when their class work has been completed.
• Prepare the cards and present one a day to the whole class. You may designate a specific time during the day as Senseless Sentences time or allow the students to work on the activity throughout the day until a solution is reached.
• Award a small prize to the student or small group who reaches the solution first.
• Encourage students to create their own Senseless Sentences.
• Use a word processing program to create professional looking cards.
• Notch the upper right hand corner for easy sorting.