Write a full sentence

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — Asked what they noticed outside, your child writes "The wind is blowing hard." instead of "windy."
• — Your child can split a long, run-together thought into two sentences, each with its own capital letter and period.
• — When you read your child's sentence without them there, it makes sense.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Who or what, and what about it

   Every sentence needs two parts: who or what it is about, and what they did or what is true. The cat sat. The bread got moldy. Say short ones out loud together and name the two parts.

2. 02

   Read it all by itself

   Cover everything around a sentence and read it alone. If it leaves you asking what happened or who did it, it is not finished yet.

3. 03

   Capital at the start, period at the end

   Point to the first letter and the last mark every time. They tell a reader where one thought starts and where it stops.

4. 04

   Cut long ones in two

   When a sentence strings ideas together with and, and, and, find the place where one thought ends. Put a period there and a capital letter on the next word.

You will need: Lined paper · A pencil

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Say "muddy boots" and ask your child to turn it into a full sentence about something that happened.

   Listen for  Something like "My boots got muddy in the yard." Listen for who or what plus what happened, and look for the capital and the period.

2. Try 2

   Write: The dog's bowl is empty, so he ate his dinner. Ask your child to write it as two sentences, one for what they can see and one for what they think it means.

   Listen for  "The dog's bowl is empty." and "I think the dog ate his dinner." Each one has its own capital and period. The book asks for this same split, so it is worth doing more than once with sentences of your own.

3. Try 3

   Write "Because it was cold." and ask your child whether it is a full sentence.

   Listen for  No. It leaves you asking what happened because it was cold. One fix is "We stayed inside because it was cold."

4. Try 4

   Ask your child to write one sentence about something that went wrong the last time they made or built something.

   Listen for  One complete sentence, like "The glue did not dry before I moved it." It should make sense to you with no explaining out loud.

Watch for

• — Writing the way we talk, with and then, and then, and then. Reading it back out loud usually shows your child where to stop.

If it is not there yet

• — Have your child say the sentence out loud first, then write exactly what they said.
• — Work with very short sentences, three or four words long, until the capital and the period come every time.

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

• How Scientists Actually Find Out · Lesson 3

  Saw It or Worked It Out

  Needs it because your child rewrites mixed statements as two clean sentences, one evidence and one conclusion.

• How Scientists Actually Find Out · Lesson 24

  What Could Have Gone Wrong

  Needs it because each weak point is written as a plain sentence a parent can read back.