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Mentor Sentences for Emergent Readers

Upper grades had them first, then second and first grade teachers got them… I couldn’t leave out my kinder friends, now could I?? Mentor sentences for emergent readers look VERY different than the other grades, so I’d like to take some time to talk about them in this post. These are perfect to use whole group or small group (if you have only some students who need it)- and are ideal for any student who is still in the emergent reader phase… not just kindergarten!

In this post, I had two fabulous teachers share how they are using these mentor sentences in their classroom through pictures. They are using two different books/lessons, but you’ll still get the idea of each activity. 🙂

There is also a video of me teaching mentor sentences to Kindergarten ELL students at the end of this post, as well as a freebie for you to try! I hope you enjoy learning how to implement these in your own classroom!

Mentor Sentences for Kindergarten take more of a balanced literacy approach than the other grades. There is still a time to notice and a time to imitate, but students are also practicing reading along with writing. To begin, students will listen to you read a book- fun books like Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus and Very Hungry Caterpillar are included in the first set. Then you will display a sentence from the book and practice reading it together.

Mentor sentences for emergent readers with Ideas by Jivey

Students should tell you what they notice in the sentence- they might see specific letters or words they recognize… they might tell you which words are the shortest or longest… maybe even what punctuation they see. You can ask questions to prompt them if needed. As the year progresses, of course, they will notice more. Reading the sentence every day, multiple times, will help in their word recognition! Several sentences in the first set repeat some of those important sight words they need to learn.

To further help them with word recognition, students will complete a cut and paste activity where they will read the words mixed up and put them back in the correct order of the sentence. You may want to cut apart the words to ensure they stay in one piece, or to speed things along.

Mentor sentences for emergent readers with Ideas by Jivey

Again- lots of reading and re-reading of the sentence!

Mentor sentences for emergent readers with Ideas by Jivey
Once they have better recognition of the words, they should connect with the topic of the sentence. In this case, they would connect with vehicles or “things that take you places.” I have provided picture cards with words that help students connect with the sentence. Then it’s time for shared writing! They get to practice imitating the sentence with you!
Mentor sentences for emergent readers with Ideas by Jivey
After practice with you, they can imitate on the activity I provided, which has a blank in the sentence. You might want them to use one of the picture cards to help them spell their word, or you may need to write the word for them.
Mentor sentences for emergent readers with Ideas by Jivey

Students will cut out the words of their own sentence (or again, you may want to do it for them). Then, they should practice putting the sentence back in order! You might want to keep them in a baggy so they can practice reading and ordering the words without losing pieces.

Mentor sentences for emergent readers with Ideas by Jivey

Then of course, the best part of all- students get to illustrate their sentence!

Mentor sentences for emergent readers with Ideas by Jivey

 

Mentor sentences for emergent readers with Ideas by Jivey

How cute are these?!

If your students have moved out of the “EARLY” emergent reader phase, you can check out Mentor Sentences for Emergent Readers (K-1)! To see a side-by-side comparison of the Kindergarten and Kinder-First sets, check this post out!

If you’d like to see Mentor Sentences for Kindergarten in action, watch this video:

And if you’d like to try them out in your own classroom, grab this freebie from my TPT store!

Mentor sentences for emergent readers Freebie with Ideas by Jivey
There is also a SEASONAL mini-unit available!
Mini Unit Mentor sentences for emergent readers with Ideas by Jivey

If you want even more IN-DEPTH step-by-step help with implementing mentor sentences, check out my courses!

For more ideas about mentor sentences, follow my Pinterest board!