Teaching page · Grade 2 · Lesson 7

A sentence that tells one whole thing

A sentence tells one whole thing, and the marks at each end show where it starts and stops.

What it is

The big dog is not a sentence — it names something but never says what happened. A sentence has to tell you who and what they did. If you can ask “yes, but what about it?”, it is not finished yet.

Watch it built

1
Here is a group of words that is not a sentence.
The big dog
2
Ask: yes, but what about it? What did it DO?
It ran.
3
Put the two halves together.
The big dog ran.
Remember
Who, and what they did. If you can ask “what about it?”, it is not done.
Ask yourself: “Does it tell one whole thing?”

Remember

A capital, one whole idea, a period.

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