Functions of Conjunctions
Fifth Grade Writing
by Maggie Knutson September 2, 2017
A deeper comprehension of clauses and conjunctions will help your young writers understand the building
blocks of language. Practice with conjunctions will also help them create more complex sentences and correct
run-on sentences.
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to identify clauses and use conjunctions to combine them into more complex
sentences.
Students will be able to repair run-on sentences using conjunctions.
Materials and preparation Key terms
Class set of Gluing Words: Coordinating and clause
Subordinating Conjunctions subject
Class set of Conjunctions: The Cure for Your predicate
Run-ons coordinating conjunction
Two sentence strips with run-on sentences, subordinating conjunction
such as: “My markers are dried up I’m throwing correlative conjunctions
them away.” / “The plant on the window sill run-on sentence
died it didn’t get watered enough.”
The following conjunctions written in large font
on cards or paper: and, so, for, but, so
Attachments
Gluing Words: Coordinating and Subordinating Conjunctions (PDF)
Conjunctions: The Cure for Your Run-ons (PDF)
Introduction (5 minutes)
Recruit two student volunteers to come to the front of the room and hold up the run-on sentence strip.
Read it as a class.
Conduct a think-pair-share about this sentence. What do students notice?
Share out student thoughts. Students should notice that the sentence doesn’t really make sense, or that
it reads awkwardly, as if something is missing.
Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling (10 minutes)
Explain that this sentence is what we call a run-on sentence.
Distribute the Gluing Words: Coordinating and Subordinating Conjunctions worksheet
Go over the information on the sheet, explaining that conjunctions are like glue. They are the connecting
pieces that combine two thoughts in a sentence. The bigger pieces in the sentence are clauses — a
group of words that represent a complete thought. A complete thought (or sentence) has a subject and a
predicate. That means you can identify a “who” or “what,” and a “what about it?"
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Guided Practice (15 minutes)
As a class, generate two clauses and fill them in together on the worksheet activity.
Have students generate two clauses of their own and add them to the sheet. Share out briefly.
Explain that, by using coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, you can make new, more complex
sentences out of simple clauses.
As a class, make two new sentences, using the clauses and conjunctions listed on the sheet.
Touch back on the idea of run-on sentences. Explain that by understanding how conjunctions work, you
can take two clauses that make up a run-on and use the conjunctions to glue them together.
Distribute the Conjunctions: The Cure for Your Run-ons worksheet
Call students’ attention to the lists of conjunctions on the sheet.
Take out the original sentence strip and conjunction cards.
Invite students to consider how they could use a conjunction to glue the two clauses together so that the
sentence makes sense.
Share student suggestions by tearing the run-on sentence strip so that the two clauses are divided. Insert
conjunctions to reconstruct the sentence.
Independent working time (10 minutes)
Have students complete the worksheet by revising the five run-on sentences provided using conjunctions.
Differentiation
Support:
Provide clauses and conjunctions on sentence strips and allow students to manipulate them as sentence
building blocks.
Enrichment:
Have students locate complex sentences that utilize conjunctions in their independent reading books.
Instruct them to write them on the board and analyze them as a class.
Assessment (5 minutes)
Select two of the student-generated clauses from the first worksheet. Instruct students to combine them
using a conjunction on the back of their worksheet.
Review and closing (5 minutes)
Discuss: What would happen if we didn’t have conjunctions? How would our writing be different? What
challenges would we face as writers?
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Name: Date:
Gluing Words: Coordinating and Subordinating Conjunctions
PART A
Conjunctions are like glue. They are the connecting pieces that combine two thoughts
in a sentence. The bigger pieces in the sentence are clauses, a group of words that is
a complete thought. A complete thought (or sentence) has a subject and a predicate.
That means you can identify a “who/what” and a “what about it?”
We listened to Bruno Mars’ new album on my phone.
Subject Predicate
(WHO/WHAT) (WHAT ABOUT IT?)
Circle the subject and underline the predicate in the clauses below.
Then add a few examples of some of your own.
Juan bought a new computer
Juan still has his old computer
My new shoes get dirty
I wash my shoes in the sink
After the rain stopped
I went to the skateboard park
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PART B
Now let’s combine clauses using conjunctions for glue. There are three kinds of conjunctions
but the two most common are coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. Those sound
like fancy words, but really they have simple meanings.
Coordinating Conjunctions allow you to combine two related and independent sentences.
There are seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet.
I lost my dog + I got a new cat = I lost my dog, and I got a new cat.
Subordinating Conjunctions also allow you to combine two clauses in the case where
one of them depends on the other for its meaning. The one that depends on the other
is a dependent clause; it just provides added information about the other thought.
The subordinating conjunction glues the two ideas together by indicating place, time,
or cause and effect. Some common examples are: after, although, as, because, since, than,
until, unless, whenever, and while.
I got a new cat because I lost my cat.
Combine the clauses in Part A to make new sentences using coordinating and subordinating
conjunctions.
New sentences using coordinating conjunctions:
(Punctuation Tip: Add a comma before the conjunction)
New sentences using subordinating conjunctions:
(Punctuation Tip: If the dependent clause comes first, use a comma to separate
the clauses)
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Name: Date:
Conjunctions: The Cure for Your Run-ons
Run-on sentences are sentences that have two or more ideas that are smashed together without a conjunction. It’s like pushing a car and a
trailer together but not hooking them up.
Run-on: My brother made a gallon of slime he didn’t share any with me.
Fixed: My brother made a gallon of slime but he didn’t share any with me.
Use the list of conjunctions below to fix the run-on sentences.
Subordinating Conjunctions
after because lest till
although before now that unless
as even if provided until
as if even though since when
as long as how so that whenever
as much as if than where
as soon as inasmuch as that wherever
as though in order that though while
Coordinating Conjunctions
For and nor but or yet so
Correlative Conjunctions
Both ____________ and ______________
Neither ____________ nor _____________
Either _____________ or _____________
Not only ____________but also __________
1) I beat the video game my brother beat it a few weeks later.
____________________________________________________________________
2) I went to the gas station and got a ton of candy my mom got angry.
____________________________________________________________________
3) My brother takes the longest showers he comes home from practice dripping
with sweat.
____________________________________________________________________
4) My sister won the skateboard competition she practiced for weeks.
____________________________________________________________________
5) The movie is showing at 7:00 it is showing at 9:30, too.
____________________________________________________________________
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