Unit 0 Check - Words and Sentences

Grade 1 · Lessons 1-9 · both topics · about 12 minutes · given at the start of Lesson 10
Before you start: This is the END-OF-UNIT check, not a weekly quiz — it covers nine lessons, so it is twice the length of Quiz 1 and takes most of the slot. That is deliberate: an assessment covering more should ASK more. The questions jump around, so say that aloud first. Read each item twice.

Every sentence here is one the class has never seen — held out of all teaching, so this measures whether the idea transferred rather than what they remember. A wrong answer on a held-out item is real information; treat it that way.
  1. How many words?
    We wash our hands.
    4
    Four words.
  2. Whole thought (W) or only a piece (P)?
    Over the wooden fence.
    P
    It tells us where, and never who or what does anything.
    If they sayW — usually because it has a capital and a periodSay“The marks are there. But who is it about? What do they do?”
  3. How many words?
    Birds fly south.
    3
    Three words.
  4. Whole thought (W) or only a piece (P)?
    The mail carrier knocked.
    W
    Who + what they do.
  5. How many words?
    The mountain is far.
    4
    Mountain is long - still one word.
  6. Whole thought (W) or only a piece (P)?
    Slept all afternoon.
    P
    It tells us who or what — and never what they do.
    If they sayW — it names something real, so it feels finishedSay“It tells me who. What do they do?” — hold your right hand out empty and wait.
  7. How many words?
    The tiger is asleep.
    4
    Asleep is long - still one word.
  8. Whole thought (W) or only a piece (P)?
    My mother sang softly.
    W
    Both parts present.
  9. How many words?
    We planted seeds.
    3
    Planted is long - still one word.
  10. Whole thought (W) or only a piece (P)?
    The small brown.
    P
    It tells us who or what — and never what they do.
    If they sayW — it names something real, so it feels finishedSay“It tells me who. What do they do?” — hold your right hand out empty and wait.
  11. How many words?
    A shell washed up.
    4
    A is a whole word by itself.
    If they sayone too few — they did not count ASay“Can I say it on its own? Then it is a word, even a tiny one.”
  12. Whole thought (W) or only a piece (P)?
    Since the day began.
    P
    It sounds grown-up and finished, but it is an answer waiting for a question. The hardest kind on the sheet.
    If they sayW — the sentence rhythm sounds completeSay“Am I still waiting for more? … Since the day began, and then what?”
As-Suffah Academy · Language Arts Unit 0 Check - Words and Sentences · TEACHER EDITION