✏️ WritingLevel 1Lesson 8
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Writing Simple Sentences

Lesson preview: the Mini Lesson and Vocabulary are open to everyone. Guided practice, exercises, the parent checklist and the printable PDF worksheet come with full access (free 7-day trial or membership).

Learning Objectives

  • 1Write a complete sentence with a capital letter, a telling part, and a period
  • 2Check that a sentence makes complete sense on its own
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Mini Lesson

A sentence is a complete thought. It tells the reader something all by itself — no extra words needed to make it make sense. Every sentence has exactly three things.

Part 1 — Capital letter at the start

  • The first word of every sentence begins with a capital letter.
  • This signals to the reader: a new sentence is starting here!
  • Example: The dog runs fast. — "T" is capital.

Part 2 — A telling part (who + what they do)

  • Every sentence must say who or what it is about.
  • It must also say what that person or thing does or is.
  • Example: The dog (who) runs fast (what it does).

Part 3 — Period at the end

  • A telling sentence always ends with a period.
  • The period signals: this thought is finished.
  • No period = not a complete sentence on paper.

Does it make sense on its own?

  • Read your sentence aloud. Does it feel finished?
  • "The cat." — Not complete. What about the cat?
  • "The cat sat on the mat." — Complete!
Simple sentence structure — subject, verb, objectA sentence structure diagram labeled Subject + Verb + Object, with the example "The dog runs fast." where each word is labeled with its part.Subject + Verb + ObjectSubject+Verb+ObjectThe dog runs fast.subject (who)verb (does)object (what)All three together = a complete sentence.
"The dog runs fast." labeled as Subject + Verb + Object.
Every sentence: capital start, period endFour example sentences on ruled lines — each sentence starts with a capital letter circled in blue and ends with a period circled in orange.Capital start — Period endThe dog runs fast.I see a red bird.My cat is big.Sam can jump.capitalperiod
Every sentence starts with a capital (blue) and ends with a period (orange).
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Ask yourself: "Does my sentence start with a capital, tell something complete, and end with a period?"

Vocabulary
Sentence
A complete thought that starts with a capital, has a telling part, and ends with a periode.g. The dog runs fast.
Telling part
The part of a sentence that says what someone or something does or ise.g. in "Sam can jump," the telling part is "can jump"
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← Lesson 7: Spacing Between WordsLesson 9: Punctuation and Periods →