When you write about a picture, a good sentence tells three things: who is in it, what they are doing, and where.
Key idea
A sentence about a picture tells who, what they are doing, and where.
Why it works
Your reader can’t see the picture. If you write only “A girl. A kite. A tree.”, they have to guess what is happening. A whole sentence tells them.
Worked example: Turn a list into a sentence
A picture shows: a dog, a bone, a yard. Someone wrote “A dog. A bone.”
- Who? The dog.
- What is it doing? Digging for a bone.
- Where? In the yard.
- Put them together.
Answer: “The dog digs for a bone in the yard.”
Common mistake
Listing things in the picture (“A dog. A ball. A tree.”) instead of telling what is happening. Ask the three questions: who? what are they doing? where?
For the grown-up. Picture books are great for this: cover the words, look at a page together, and ask your child to tell you who, what and where in one sentence. Then write it down for them, or let them write it.