Tell who a sentence is about

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — Hearing "After lunch, my cousin climbed the big oak tree," your child says the sentence is about my cousin.
• — Your child names an animal or a thing as the doer when it is the one acting, like the wind or the dog.
• — Your child finds who the sentence is about even when other words come first.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Ask one question: who or what?

   Say "The cat knocked over the cup" and ask who or what the sentence is about. The answer, the cat, is the doer. The book calls it the doer, and later lessons call it the subject.

2. 02

   Let things and animals be doers

   In "The rain soaked the laundry," the rain is the doer, even though it is not a person. Give a few sentences like this so your child does not wait for a name.

3. 03

   Look past the words at the front

   In "On Saturday, Dad washed the car," Saturday comes first, but the sentence is about Dad. Ask who did something, not which word came first.

4. 04

   Keep the whole doer together

   In "My little brother spilled the milk," brother is the key word, and my little brother is the whole doer. Let your child say the whole answer out loud.

5. 05

   Check it with the action

   Once your child names the doer, ask what that doer did. If the answer fits, like the cat knocked over the cup, the doer was right.

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Say: "The puppy chewed my shoe." Ask who or what the sentence is about.

   Listen for  The puppy. The shoe is in the sentence too, but the puppy is the one doing something.

2. Try 2

   Say: "In the morning, the bus came late." Ask what the sentence is about.

   Listen for  The bus. Morning comes first, but the morning does not do anything. The bus is what came.

3. Try 3

   Say: "The kettle whistled on the stove." Ask for the doer.

   Listen for  The kettle. A doer can be a thing, not only a person or an animal.

4. Try 4

   Say: "Grandma and I planted beans." Ask who the sentence is about.

   Listen for  Grandma and I. Both of them did the planting, so both belong in the answer.

5. Try 5

   Say: "My best friend from down the street sent me a letter." Ask who the sentence is about.

   Listen for  My best friend from down the street. Friend is the key word. The street is a noun in the sentence, but the street did not send anything. This is the stretch question.

Watch for

• — Picking the first noun. In "At the park, Sam found a frog," park comes first, but Sam is the doer. Ask who did something.

If it is not there yet

• — Use sentences about your own family, where the doer is someone your child knows. Ask who did it, as if solving a small mystery.
• — Keep the doer at the front of every practice sentence for a while, and bring in opening words like "After lunch" later.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 9

  Action Verbs

  Needs it because the question that finds the verb is asked about the doer, so the doer comes first.