The Four Star Sentence
STRATEGY CORNER
Iowa Reading Association Newsletter, May/June 2002
Jo Schreck and Leann Van Dyke, Manchester First Grade Teachers, Eastern Iowa Reading
Council
The Four Star Sentence poster is in many of our
first grade rooms, but could be used in upper
grades as well. The four requirements of a good
sentence are listed with a star beside each as
follows: capital letters (first letter of a
sentence, special names), small letters for the
rest of the words, good space (between words,
in words) and punctuation (period, question
mark or exclamation point) at the end of the
sentence. Students are to check their writing
before handing it in to be sure they have a “four
star sentence.” Some teachers have added a
fifth star with the requirement that a sentence
also needs to make sense.