Teaching page · Grade 1 · Lesson 20

Expand with WHERE

Some nouns name things you can touch. Others name ideas — and those are the ones writers need.

What it is

A sentence can be finished and still not tell you much. The bird sang. is a whole sentence — it has someone doing something. But your reader cannot picture it yet. Adding where puts the reader in the place with you.

Watch it built

1
Start with the sentence you have.
The bird sang.
2
Ask yourself one question: where?
Where did it sing? In the tree.
3
Put the answer at the end.
The bird sang in the tree.

One more

The children played.
↓
The children played in the yard.
Remember
Ask where? and put the answer at the end.
Ask yourself: “Can I point at it?”

Remember

Place, time, change — the frame every story sits in.

59