Teach Your Child How to Write a Good Paragraph

While most children in grades 3 and up can write a paragraph, it takes a little more understanding to write a good paragraph.

Knowing the parts of a paragraph and how they are put together can help your child to write them well.  After that, it’s just a matter of writing good sentences using that structure.

I though I’d share with you some tips and resources that you can use to help your child write a good paragraph. I have included some handy worksheets as well as instructions on how to use the Hamburger Paragraph analogy, an old goodie. Let’s get started.

Teach Your Child to Write a Good Paragraph

Parts of a Paragraph

Knowing and identifying the parts of a paragraph can make it easier for a child to write a paragraph.  If you think your child needs this, here is a simple worksheet you can use to help him identify these parts.

Indenting a Paragraph

Before starting a paragraph, you child needs to know how to indent.  Since there is no tab key on a piece of paper, you can show him how to use his thumb to indent.  Tell him to hold up the thumb of the hand he does not write with.  Have him put it down to the right of the red margin line.  Then have him put a dot to the right of his thumb.  This is where his first word will go.  Let him know that no other sentences in the paragraph are indented other than the first.

The Hamburger Paragraph

A hamburger (or your sandwich of choice) makes a great analogy for teaching your child how to write a paragraph.  Here’s how it works.

Top Bun – Topic Sentence

Explain to your child that the first sentence of a paragraph tells what the paragraph is about. It’s called a topic sentence.  It’s the top bun of the hamburger.  It needs to draw the reader in so it should be interesting.  That’s why it is often called a hook.  It can be a question like, “Did you know that cheetahs are the fastest land mammal on earth?”  It can be a fascinating fact like, “Lions are the only member of the large cat family that hunt as a group rather than individually.”  It can be a quote like this one.  Napoleon said, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Your child may not be able to come up with a hook right away.  That’s OK.  Sometimes it is better for beginners to just start with a simple topic sentence that tells what the paragraph is going to be about.  In that case, it might look something like this, “Dolphins are smart animals.”  Choose the method which best suits your child.

The Fixings – Details

The next part of the paragraph includes all of the details about the topic.  They are the fixings in the hamburger like the lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mayonnaise, pickles, and burger.  All of these fixings “support” the top bun, so the details should support the topic.  There should be at least 3 of these, but more is even better.  After all, who wants a hamburger with just ketchup and mustard. 🙂

The Bottom Bun – Concluding Sentence

The last part of the paragraph is the concluding sentence.  It is the bottom bun of the hamburger.  It can do one of two things.  It can restate the topic sentence in a different way.  Or it can briefly summarize what was covered in the paragraph.

More advanced writers can use it to create a transition to the next paragraph in longer papers like essays and reports.  Teens can learn this skill.

Free Printable Sheets for Hamburger Paragraphs

There are some handy printable worksheets at these websites with a picture of a hamburger for kids to write sentences on.  You might want to check them out.

• Writingfix.com
• Eduplace.com
• Freeology.com

Using Real Examples

There is one more thing you could do to help your child write paragraphs.  Show him examples of paragraphs in school books, library books, newspapers, and magazines.  This will help him to see how they are organized and written in real life situations.

Looking for something that will inspire your child to write a good paragraph? I have some fun writing prompts here you might be interested in.

Many blessings,

P.S. Want some angel-themed journal pages and decorative papers for your child to write paragraphs on? You can get those and other educational resources FREE in the Angel Learning Resource Pack when you subscribe to my Newsletter.