Fix-It Tools

This worksheet helps students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 strengthen grammar accuracy, sentence reasoning, and understanding of action relationships by choosing between by and with. Learners read each sentence and determine whether it describes who performed an action or what tool or instrument was used, using everyday contexts that make the distinction clear and meaningful.

Learning Goals

• Context-Based Preposition Selection (Grades 4-6): Choose by to show the agent of an action and with to show the instrument or tool used.
• Understanding Agency vs. Instruments: Distinguish clearly between the doer of an action and the object used to carry it out.
• Grammar Error Correction: Apply grammar rules accurately to complete sentences with correct meaning.
• Sentence-Level Reasoning: Analyze context clues to make precise language decisions.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource: Designed by educators to align with upper elementary ELA grammar standards.
• Realistic, Relatable Examples: Uses familiar actions like writing, breaking, and playing instruments to support comprehension.
• Focused Skill Practice: Targets a commonly confused grammar concept in a clear, student-friendly format.
• Flexible Classroom Use: Ideal for grammar lessons, independent practice, homework, review, or small groups.
• Low-Prep Printable: Easy to implement in both classroom and homeschool environments.

This printable worksheet helps students build confidence with by and with by reinforcing the functional difference between who did something and what was used. By analyzing sentence context and selecting the correct preposition, learners strengthen grammar accuracy, clarity, and reasoning skills. Whether used in a classroom language arts block or a homeschool lesson, this resource supports careful reading, precise word choice, and strong foundations in standard English conventions.

This worksheet is part of our by vs. with worksheets collection.