Students should be familiar enough with their topic to write about it in a way that communicates a specific idea. Each sentence in the paragraph should be connected to the topic and the paragraph as a whole should make a complete statement about the topic.
Elementary paragraphs should include at least five sentences. The first sentence introduces the paragraph's topic or main idea. The next three sentences provide details that support the main idea, and the final sentence reiterates the main idea without repeating what was written in the introductory sentence. Each sentence should communicate a complete thought and should include both a subject with a noun and a predicate with a verb.
Each sentence in the paragraph should begin with a capital letter. All proper nouns should also be capitalized. For example, the first letter of people's names and the names of states, cities and countries should be capitalized.
Students in elementary school learn about the different types of sentences and the proper way to punctuate each type. Punctuation such as periods, question marks and exclamation points lets the reader know where one sentence ends and the next one begins. Commas should be used properly as should periods for abbreviations as needed.