Adverb Clauses

 

Jeff Anderson helps students remember adverb clauses by teaching them the "AAAWWUBBIS whoop" (Mechanically Inclined 38). These words--after, although, as, while, when, until, before, because, if, since--introduce adverb clauses. 

Notes about adverb clauses:

• They can occur anywhere in the sentence: beginning, middle, or end.
• Where there is an adverb clause, there is a comma nearby.
• They depend on complete sentences. If you write an adverb clause without one, you will end up with a fragment.

If You Give... books by Laura Numeroff work well to teach AAAWWUBBIS clauses.  Some of the titles in the series: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Dog a Donut, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies.

"When the members of this clever crew are not on duty, I find them singing and dancing or amusing each other with tales of past adventure" (Chris Van Allsburg, The Wretched Stone).

"Because he was so small, Stuart was often hard to find around the house" (E. B. White, Stuart Little, 47).

"After everything had been checked and the money had been paid, Stuart climbed in, started the engine, and drove out onto the highway" (E. B. White, Stuart Little, 126).

"The Lamb, as Martha had said, was feeling the benefit of the country air, and he was as frisky as a sandhopper" (E. Nesbit, Five Children and It, 63).  Notice the compound sentence as well!

"While Antoinette touched up her eye makeup, the mouse father put Despereaux down on a bed made of blanket scraps" (Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux, 12).

For more mentor texts, go here.

Note: This post contains affiliate links.