Types of sentences

I am a 4/5th grade teacher. I recently taught my students the 4 types of sentences, but I ran accross a question I can't answer.
What kind of sentence is it when it contains a quote? For example: "Help me!" cried John. Is this an exclamitory sentence or is it declaritive since it is telling what John said?

Thanks for your help, I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere else on this.