what is a topic sentence 5th grade

What is a Topic Sentence? (Definition, Examples, How to Use)

What is a topic sentence ? A topic sentence , the first sentence of a paragraph, presents the main concept discussed in the paragraph. It must contain sufficient information to support numerous examples and subtopics without being too broad to obscure the essay’s intended purpose. The remaining sentences in the paragraph will act as supporting statements, providing evidence and examples for the main idea.

Importance of topic sentences

In essays or articles , where subjects can shift from one paragraph to another, a topic phrase is particularly crucial. The topic sentences, superficially, may seem to serve the purpose of only acting like the initial or introductory sentence of a paragraph. But it has numerous other purposes that make it an important part of essays.

• Topic sentences link paragraphs together to improve the sentence flow and make reading easier. When topic sentences are not used, switching between paragraphs can feel abrupt and jarring to the reader. Authors can maintain the rhythm of their writing using topic sentences and facilitate smooth transitions.
• Topic sentences show the reader a sample of what to expect from the paragraph. The readers can determine from the topic sentence whether the paragraph will comprise a narrative, a list, anecdotal evidence, statistical data, persuasive opinions, or some other form of evidence.
• If two conflicting viewpoints are presented in a single paragraph, authors can use more than one topic sentence to inform the readers about the changes in the main concept. For example, paragraphs that “compare and contrast” require more than one topic sentence. In these kinds of paragraphs, authors can start with a topic sentence introducing the first idea and follow it up with proof or evidence supporting the idea. Then they can introduce the second topic sentence conveying the opposing viewpoint, followed by proof or evidence supporting it.

Different types of topic sentences

The different types of topic sentences include:

Simple statement

This topic sentence is used by authors to make a general observation or statement and then elaborate on it in the body of the paragraph.

New studies are emerging indicating the link between climate change and the emergence of numerous new virus strains.

Interrogative or question

This is used by writers in less formal settings. Authors can start a paragraph using implicit or explicit questions related to the topic of discussion to engage the readers.

How many nations are ready to adapt to rising sea levels?

Complex topic sentences are used when the author is discussing a complicated concept that encompasses multiple ideas. Such topic sentences cover more than a single core idea.

Although many people believe that a mother bird will reject its chick if it is touched by humans, the truth is that birds do not abandon their babies after humans touch them.

Authors can use their topic sentences to make explicit demands or pleas to their readers. This will be helpful in breaking the monotony of the essay.

Let’s look at the data from the latest research.

Purely transitional

Though topic sentences are generally responsible for facilitating a smooth transition between paragraphs, occasionally they are purely transitional. These function best when the main topic shifts abruptly by highlighting the switch.

But not everybody agrees.

Pivot sentences are not found at the beginning of a paragraph but rather in the middle, indicating a change in the topic. Conjunctive adverbs like however, furthermore, and meanwhile are frequently used with them.

However, the undisputed king of tennis, Roger Federer, was dethroned in 2008 at Wimbledon.

How to create good topic sentences

A good topic sentence can be created using some simple steps:

1. Determine the key point of your essay

Writers should first form an understanding of the topic of the essay and then create topic sentences to attract the attention of readers. Constructing a good thesis statement can assist the writer in forming better topic sentences.

2. Have an outline for the essay

The author should form a plan or roadmap beforehand on the topics they want to discuss in a paragraph and the evidence they want to use as supporting statements.

3. Be coherent and clear

Writers should make their topic sentences clear and comprehensible so that the reader can form a clear understanding of what to expect in the paragraph.

4. Share opinions

It is advisable to share the opinion or viewpoint of the author in the topic sentence to attract the attention of the reader. Authors should also refrain from writing obvious facts in the topic sentences.

5. Use specific wordings

The topic sentences ought to be precise enough so that the authors can use a few sentences in the paragraph to support them.

6. Transitions should be added between paragraphs

To give the essay or paper a throughline, authors can create topic sentences that refer to the prior paragraph. A topic sentence can make a reference to the preceding paragraph while introducing the next part by using transitional words.

7. Use new, relevant information

Instead of using an obvious fact that everybody knows as the topic sentence, authors can give new information. It is also important to present them in an interesting way.

8. Create a compound or complex topic statement

Compound or complex topic statements feel advanced and stronger. Authors can create such topic statements to add a high level of sophistication to their text.

Many beginner writers and students confuse thesis statements with topic sentences. In essence, thesis statements establish the major idea discussed in the entire essay or paper, as opposed to topic sentences, which introduce the central concept of a paragraph.

Both of these sentences are responsible for giving the readers a sample of what to expect, but in entirely different capacities. Suppose a person is writing a thesis about the different compounds present in coffee and the health benefits it offers.

The thesis statement will be a generalized statement indicating that there are numerous compounds in coffee that benefit the health of humans. But the topic sentence of each paragraph will introduce any single health benefit or compound present in the coffee.

Topic sentences are typically found at the beginning of a paragraph. But this does not mean that they cannot be placed elsewhere in the paragraph. In some cases, when the details discussed can be summarized into a general statement, topic sentences can be included at the end.

Similarly, in some paragraphs where multiple concepts are discussed, topic sentences may be used in the middle of the paragraph. The placement depends on the number of topics being discussed and the way they are discussed.

• Merriam Webster – topic sentence – Definition
• Wikipedia – Topic sentence
• wikiHow – How to Write a Good Topic Sentence
• Scribbr – How to Write Topic Sentences | 4 Steps, Examples & Purpose

Inside this article

Fact checked: Content is rigorously reviewed by a team of qualified and experienced fact checkers. Fact checkers review articles for factual accuracy, relevance, and timeliness. Learn more.

About the author

Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.

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How to Teach Paragraph Writing – Topic Sentences in Paragraph Writing

I’ve always loved writing, so it makes sense that I also love to teach writing.

Teaching writing though is not always easy. What seems so intuitive to us, does not always seem natural to our students.

So, when I teach paragraph writing, I like to teach paragraph writing as if it were a recipe…First, you add this kind of sentence, then you do that… While at first glance, we may think true writing is not based on a recipe, but I think it provides an awesome start.

Think about a child learning to read… we start with letters and sounds, not novels, right? How about learning to play an instrument, we start with single notes and not symphonies.

In the same way, I like to teach writing by starting at a very basic level, with the idea that as students master the paragraph’s components, they are eventually able to use those as a springboard to beautifully written, creatively thought-out pieces.

When they have a solid foundation for writing, they can augment the recipe like a master chef might change a recipe in the kitchen.

So, what exactly do I do in my classroom to teach paragraph writing? I decided to write a series of four blog posts, to explain it in more detail. 

1. introduce the parts of a paragraph: color code and outline.

Once I introduce each part of the paragraph, I have students color-code a great deal, using paragraphs I’ve created or ones that previous students have crafted successfully. The example above shows a typical half-sheet paragraph, ready for color coding and outlining.

I like to place my copy on the document projector, while my students each have their own half-sheet. We go through the whole paragraph as a class, discussing each sentence and then color-coding it together.

The colors we use are: Topic Sentences and Conclusion Sentences are highlighted in green, Supporting Ideas are yellow and Details are pink.

To highlight sentences, I let students use markers, colored pencils, or crayons so they can grab something quickly. Really, though, I prefer markers as they work the best to highlight papers. The one disadvantage to using markers is that they do tend to bleed through to the back of the paper where we do a reverse outline of the paragraph.

I really love the introductory color coding. It not only reinforces the concept of a paragraph and gives them a basic “recipe” for it, but these paragraphs serve as good writing models for students to follow.

Once we’ve finished color coding a paragraph, we flip our paper over and make a t-chart (words, not sentences) on the back in pencil. This reverse outlining reinforces the idea that every paragraph should have a certain organization and this is how the author organized his/her paragraph.

Here’s one of the T-Chart templates we use so you get a better idea of how students can create their own. The lightbulbs are for each of the supporting ideas (reasons that add proof to the topic sentence), and the numbers on the right are the details that provide examples and explanations that support each supporting idea.

Of course, you can make your own paragraphs and materials for this but I do have a print and go resource to target these skills.

2. Introduce Different Types of Topic Sentences

When I was in school, I know we never were taught that there were different types of topic sentences, that each could be identified and named, so this was a really new idea to me but one I have since fallen in love with. I purposefully teach students five different ways to create a topic sentence, and we spend a few days working on each type.

It’s my feeling that if students in grades 3 – 6 (and even higher) can master a basic set of five topic sentences and use them with ease, this puts them in good stead as growing writers. We go over examples together, students write a sentence on their whiteboards as I give them a topic, and we discuss how there are lots of “right” answers when it comes to writing, but also some choices that are better than others.

Briefly, here are each of the five topic sentences I introduce:

1. list statements:.

A List Statement tells the reader exactly what the paragraph will be about by listing the three supporting ideas. For example: My favorite sports include soccer, football, and basketball.

2. Number Words:

Number Words do not tell the readers each of the supporting ideas but use number words (many, few, a number of, four…) to present the general topic. For example: There are several things you can do to become a better writer.

3. Two Nouns and Two Commas:

Two Nouns and Two Commas topic sentences always start with a noun (a person, place, or thing), describe it, and then make a statement about it (an appositive). The description part of the sentence is surrounded by commas (one before the description, and one after it). For example: Roald Amundsen, an explorer, was the first to find the Northwest Passage.

4. Occasion Position:

Occasion Position topic sentences start with an occasion (a dependent clause) and use words like when, whenever, although, even though. They end with the writer’s position on the topic (an independent clause). For example: Whenever we celebrate the holidays, we always include some special traditions.

5. Get Their Attention:

These topic sentences try to grab the reader’s attention by making a statement that is thought-provoking, controversial, or interesting. For example: The Italian Deli serves the best pastrami sandwiches downtown!

My Topic Sentence Resource  explains each sentence type with lots more detail and has practice pages for each type as well.

3. Review All Five Topic Sentence Types

Once students have a pretty good handle on the five types of topic sentences, I love to do this really fun chocolate chip cookie review lesson. I start by telling the story of how chocolate chip cookies were invented by accident (a copy of the story is included in the Topic Sentence packet).

Then we do the handout that has lots of different kinds of topic sentences that all deal with chocolate chip cookies. When we finish correcting together, I used to love to pass out cookies for the kids to share…until the Health and Wellness policy changed at our school, and it became a no-no…grrr.

We also love to play a sorting game (in the Topic Sentence packet) that has students working in pairs to match up the topic sentences with their sentence type. Once “official” review activities are finished, I keep right on reviewing as we work on writing throughout the year.

For example, sometimes we might be writing a paragraph for an essay and one student will give me a topic sentence example, I might ask the class what kind of topic sentence it was. Or I’ll say, our topic is __ . Who can make up an Occasion Position topic sentence for this topic?

Also, if you’d like the convenience of having all of the paragraph writing materials at your fingertips, you might want to take a peek at this deeply discounted bundle. It includes BOTH print AND digital formats!

Click here to take a look!

If you’d like to get more teaching ideas for paragraph writing, here are a few posts you might like:

Supporting Ideas and Details

Transitions

Conclusions

5 Tips for More Effective Paragraph Writing

• Read more about: Writing & Grammar

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What Is a Topic Sentence?

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

A topic sentence is a  sentence , sometimes at the beginning of a paragraph , that states or suggests the main idea (or topic ) of a paragraph.

Not all paragraphs begin with topic sentences. In some, the topic sentence appears in the middle or at the end. In others, the topic sentence is implied or absent altogether.

Examples and Observations

• " Salva and the other boys made cows out of clay. The more cows you made, the richer you were. But they had to be fine, healthy animals. It took time to make a lump of clay look like a good cow. The boys would challenge each other to see who could make the most and best cows." (Linda Sue Park, A Long Walk to Water . Clarion, 2010)
• " Momma bought two bolts of cloth each year for winter and summer clothes. She made my school dresses, underslips, bloomers, handkerchiefs, Bailey's shirts, shorts, her aprons, house dresses and waists from the rolls shipped to Stamps by Sears and Roebuck. . . ." (Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings . Random House, 1969)
• " You discover what it is like to be hungry. With bread and margarine in your belly, you go out and look into the shop windows. Everywhere there is food insulting you in huge, wasteful piles; whole dead pigs, baskets of hot loaves, great yellow blocks of butter, strings of sausages, mountains of potatoes, vast Gruyère cheeses like grindstones. A snivelling self-pity comes over you at the sight of so much food. You plan to grab a loaf and run, swallowing it before they catch you; and you refrain, from pure funk." (George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London . Victor Gollancz, 1933)
• " The flavor that salt imparts to food is just one of the attributes that manufacturers rely on. For them, salt is nothing less than a miracle worker in processed foods. It makes sugar taste sweeter. It adds crunch to crackers and frozen waffles. It delays spoilage so that the products can sit longer on the shelf. And, just as importantly, it masks the otherwise bitter or dull taste that hounds so many processed foods before salt is added." (Michael Moss, Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us . Random House, 2013)
• " The very idea of retirement is a relatively new invention. For most of human history, people worked until they died or were too infirm to lift a finger (at which point they died pretty fast anyway). It was the German statesman Otto von Bismarck who first floated the concept, in 1883, when he proposed that his unemployed countrymen over the age of 65 be given a pension. This move was designed to fend off Marxist agitation—and to do so on the cheap, since few Germans survived to that ripe old age." (Jessica Bruder, "The End of Retirement." Harper's , August 2014)
• " Grandma's room I regarded as a dark den of primitive rites and practices. On Friday evenings whoever was home gathered at her door while she lit her Sabbath candles. . . ."  (E.L. Doctorow, World's Fair . Random House, 1985)
• " Genealogy is an ancient human preoccupation. The God of Hebrew Scripture promised Abraham descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. The apostles Matthew and Luke claim that Abraham's lineage went on to include King David and eventually Jesus, though the specifics of their accounts are contradictory. Muslims trace Mohammed's line back through Abraham, to Adam and Eve." (Maud Newton, "America's Ancestry Craze." Harper's , June 2014)
• " O nce, in a restaurant in Italy with my family, I occasioned enormous merriment, as a nineteenth-century humorist would have put it, by confusing two Italian words. I thought I had, very suavely, ordered for dessert fragoline —those lovely little wild strawberries. Instead, I seem to have asked for fagiolini —green beans. The waiter ceremoniously brought me a plate of green beans with my coffee, along with the flan and the gelato for the kids. The significant insight the mistake provided—arriving mere microseconds after the laughter of those kids, who for some reason still bring up the occasion, often—was about the arbitrary nature of language: the single 'r' rolled right makes one a master of the trattoria, an 'r' unrolled the family fool. . . ." (Adam Gopnik, "Word Magic." The New Yorker , May 26, 2014)
• " In seventeenth-century Europe, the transformation of man into soldier took on a new form, more concerted and disciplined, and far less pleasant, than wine. New recruits and even seasoned veterans were endlessly drilled, hour after hour, until each man began to feel himself part of a single, giant fighting machine. . . ." (Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War . Henry Holt and Company, 1997)
• " What is the appeal of train travel? Ask almost any foamer, and he or she will invariably answer, 'The romance of it!' But just what this means, they cannot really say. It's tempting to think that we are simply equating romance with pleasure, with the superior comfort of a train, especially seated up high in the observation cars. . . ." (Kevin Baker, "21st Century Limited: The Lost Glory of America's Railroads." Harper's , July 2014)
• " Because science fiction spans the spectrum from the plausible to the fanciful, its relationship with science has been both nurturing and contentious. For every author who meticulously examines the latest developments in physics or computing, there are other authors who invent 'impossible' technology to serve as a plot device (like Le Guin’s faster-than-light communicator, the ansible) or to enable social commentary, the way H. G. Wells uses his time machine to take the reader to the far future to witness the calamitous destiny of the human race." (Eileen Gunn, "Brave New Words." Smithsonian , May 2014)
• " I passed all the other courses that I took at my university, but I could never pass botany. . . ." (James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times . Harper & Row, 1933)
• " What is there about this wonderful woman? From next door, she comes striding, down the lawn, beneath the clothesline, laden with cookies she has just baked, or with baby togs she no longer needs, and one's heart goes out. Pops out. The clothesline, the rusted swing set, the limbs of the dying elm, the lilacs past bloom are lit up like rods of neon by her casual washday energy and cheer, a cheer one has done nothing to infuse." (John Updike, "One's Neighbor's Wife." Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism . Knopf, 1983)
• " Television. Why do I watch it? The parade of politicians every evening: I have only to see the heavy, blank faces so familiar since childhood to feel gloom and nausea. . . ." (J.M. Coetzee, Age of Iron . Random House, 1990)
• " Anyone who has made the coast-to-coast journey across America, whether by train or by car, has probably passed through Garden City, but it is reasonable to assume that few travelers remember the event. It seems just another fair-sized town in the middle--almost the exact middle--of the continental United States. . . ." (Truman Capote, In Cold Blood . Random House, 1966)
• " Rodeo, like baseball, is an American sport and has been around almost as long. . . ." (Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces . Viking Penguin, 1985)
• " What a piece of work is a book! I am not talking about writing or printing. I am talking about the codex we may leaf through, that may be put away on a shelf for whole centuries and will remain there, unchanged and handy. . . ." (William Golding, A Moving Target . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982)

Characteristics of an Effective Topic Sentence

• "A good topic sentence is concise and emphatic . It is no longer than the idea requires, and it stresses the important word or phrase. Here, for instance, is the topic sentence which opens a paragraph about the collapse of the stock market in 1929: "The Bull Market was dead."(Frederick Lewis Allen) Notice several things. (1) Allen's sentence is brief . Not all topics can be explained in six words, but whether they take six or sixty, they should be phrased in no more words than are absolutely necessary. (2) The sentence is clear and strong: you understand exactly what Allen means. (3) It places the keyword—'dead'—at the end, where it gets heavy stress and leads naturally into what will follow. . . . (4) The sentence stands first in the paragraph. This is where topic sentences generally belong: at or near the beginning." (Thomas S. Kane, The New Oxford Guide to Writing . Oxford Univ. Press, 1988)

Positioning a Topic Sentence

"If you want readers to see your point immediately, open with the topic sentence . This strategy can be particularly useful in letters of application or in argumentative writing. . . . "When specific details lead up to a generalization, putting the topic sentence at the end of the paragraph makes sense. . . . "Occasionally a paragraph's main idea is so obvious that it does not need to be stated explicitly in a topic sentence." (Andrea Lunsford, The St. Martin's Handbook . Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008)

Guidelines for Composing Topic Sentences

"The topic sentence is the most important sentence in your paragraph. Carefully worded and restricted, it helps you generate and control your information. An effective topic sentence also helps readers grasp your main idea quickly. As you draft your paragraphs, pay close attention to the following three guidelines:

• Make sure you provide a topic sentence. . . .
• Put your topic sentence first.
• Be sure your topic sentence is focused. If restricted, a topic sentence discusses only one central idea. A broad or unrestricted topic sentence leads to a shaky, incomplete paragraph for two reasons:
• The paragraph will not contain enough information to support the topic sentence .
• A broad topic sentence will not summarize or forecast specific information in the paragraph."

(Philip C. Kolin, Successful Writing at Work , 9th ed. Wadsworth, 2010)

Testing for Topic Sentences

"When testing your article for topic sentences , you should be able to look at each paragraph and say what the topic sentence is. Having said it, look at all the other sentences in the paragraph and test them to make sure they support it. . . .

"If you find that you have come up with the same topic sentence more than once, you have two paragraphs doing the same work. Cut one of them out.

"If you find a paragraph that has several sentences that don't support the topic sentence, see if all the outlaw sentences support some other topic sentence and turn the one paragraph into two." (Gary Provost, "How to Test Your Articles for the 8 Essentials of Nonfiction." Handbook of Magazine Article Writing , ed. by Jean M. Fredette. Writer's Digest Books, 1988)

Frequency of Topic Sentences

"Teachers and textbook writers should exercise caution in making statements about the frequency with which contemporary professional writers use simple or even explicit topic sentences in expository paragraphs. It is abundantly clear that students should not be told that professional writers usually begin their paragraphs with topic sentences."  (Richard Braddock, "The Frequency and Placement of Topic Sentences in Expository Prose." Research in the Teaching of English . Winter 1974)

• How to Teach Topic Sentences Using Models
• What Is Expository Writing?
• Practice in Supporting a Topic Sentence with Specific Details
• Practice Composing Effective Topic Sentences
• Paragraph Writing
• Unity in Composition
• Definition and Examples of Body Paragraphs in Composition
• Development in Composition: Building an Essay
• Best Practices for the Most Effective Use of Paragraphs
• How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph
• Understanding Organization in Composition and Speech
• Definition and Examples of Analysis in Composition
• Supporting Detail in Composition and Speech
• Writers on Writing: The Art of Paragraphing
• How To Write an Essay
• Definition and Examples of Paragraphing in Essays

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5th grade writing doesn’t have to be a struggle! This blog post will provide all of my best tips and ideas for teaching your fifth graders to succeed as writers.

I’ve had classes where writing was a struggle allll yearrrr longggg. I’ve also had classes where I’d swear my students were one step away from writing professionally.

Your groups will never be the same and that’s ok. Just roll with it!

Take heart in the fact that when students leave your class at the end of the year, they will be MUCH better writers than when they entered in the fall.

No matter how good (or bad) my students are at writing when 5th grade begins, we always start at the very beginning and work on writing strong sentences.

This post will give you a step-by-step breakdown of how I help my students move from dull to dazzling sentences: How to Help Your Students Write Better Sentences

Once they’ve got the hang of writing an excellent sentence, then we move on. Your class may move slowly or quickly but be sure to watch their writing closely for clues that you may need to slow down.

You need to know where you’re going to know how you should plan the journey. So, the next section lays out my end-of-the-year goals for my 5th grade writers. Everything I do all year leads to the completion of these goals.

My end-of-the-year goals for my 5th grade writers….

By the time my students walk out of my classroom for the last time…

1. I want them to be able to efficiently organize their ideas and plan/write a five paragraph essay.

2. I want my students to be able to construct narrative, informative, and opinion essays.

3. I want my students to be able to choose appropriate sources and write a simple research report. 

4. I want my students to be able to closely read two paired passages and write an essay in response to a prompt. 

If you’re looking for a hyperlinked pdf version of my pacing and sequence for 5th grade writing, click the link below to have it sent to your email address. As a bonus, you’ll become a member of my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary teachers. 🙂

Obtain a Writing Sample!  

Give students a simple prompt and ask for a response in a paragraph or two. Emphasize to students that you are not grading writing samples for grammar, spelling, or structure. You are interested in the quality of their ideas. 

This writing sample will be valuable as the year goes on. Your students will improve so much that their first samples will (hopefully) be pathetic compared to their new, improved writing pieces.

I usually whip out their first samples after we’ve written a few five paragraph essays. Students feel inspired to keep growing their writing skills when they see how far they’ve come in just a few months. 

Example Writing Sample Prompts: 

• Describe a talent or characteristic that makes you unique and different.
• Tell about a time when you set a goal for yourself and reached that goal.
• Pretend you live in a society where children are required to choose their future career paths in the 5th grade. What path would you choose? Explain.

Create Writing Reference Notebooks with students! 

I’ll admit it – I’m a little obsessed with writing reference notebooks. We use composition notebooks to create these amazing sources of knowledge and we use them all year long. 

So, where do we start with creating writing reference notebooks?

The beginning section of students’ notebooks hold reference materials. I want students to have plenty of resources at their fingertips to improve their sentence writing, including alternatives for overused words and my specialty, sparkle words. Sparkle words are words that are just a little bit special and make my students’ writing shine, like scandalous, embrace, and intriguing.

Other ways that my students use their writing reference notebooks:

• Writing journal entries
• Creating a personal thesaurus
• Writing topics & ideas list
• Taking notes on writing skills lessons
• Writing first drafts of longer assignments

This resource will give you an idea of the printable pages that I use for students’ notebooks: Writing Interactive Notebook – Reference Pages

Do I take grades on students’ writing reference notebooks? Not really. I want these notebooks to be a safe space for students to jot ideas and take risks with their first drafts. I do sometimes take a participation grade on their notebooks. This encourages students to keep their notebooks organized and up to date.

Start with sentences!  

When teaching 5th grade, you can expect students to start the year writing complete sentences, right?! No, sorry. Whether it’s the long break or maybe your students’ 4th grade teachers never required a lick of writing, your 5th graders will often begin the year with less-than-stellar sentences. 

So, I just plan to start with sentences first every year. We work on building and expanding sentences for about two weeks. Yes, two weeks probably seems like a really long time, but spectacular sentences are the foundation for creating great writers.

To improve my students’ sentences, I take the basic, simple sentences that students write and we work on adding more specific details and interest. First, I give students a list of five nouns and ask them to write one sentence using each noun.

I usually get sentences similar to these:

• Pie is my favorite dessert.
• My dad’s car is red.
• I wear my jacket when it is cold.
• This school is a nice place to learn.
• The tree is tall.

This is where I want students to get in their sentence-writing before moving on:

• Pecan, cherry, apple, or pumpkin… any type of pie is delicious!
• My dad spends his Saturdays washing and shining up his candy apple red Jeep.
• A puffy, hooded jacket is the first thing I reach for on chilly mornings.
• My school, North Hills Elementary, has the best teachers and students.
• The tall Redwood tree in my front yard is a welcome sight to visitors and makes my house look spectacular.

My students write every single day!  

I vividly remember being in 5th grade myself and writing long papers on the most boring topics ever, like “The Science of Light” and “The History of Mapmaking.” Snooze fest! I vowed to never do that to my students. Instead, I took a different route.

Students absolutely need to learn to write full reports and five paragraph essays, but they don’t need to do this every week. They do, however, need to continually practice writing. I find that if I make writing assignments engaging, my students don’t complain and actually seem to enjoy writing.

I assign Weekly Writing Choice Boards . This writing has made all the difference in my classroom! Students are now excited about writing class. They see writing as a treat and a fun way to express their thoughts and opinions.

I hand out a new choice board every week and students must complete three assignments from the board. I don’t grade these on perfect grammar, spelling, or punctuation, instead I look for ideas and effort. Even imperfect writing practice will improve your students’ writing skills tremendously!

Enter your first name and email address below for a free set of 6 Weekly Writing Choice Boards! The pdf file will be sent directly to your inbox. As a bonus, you’ll become a member of my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary teachers. 🙂

If you teach social studies in addition to writing, this blog post will give you a bunch of engaging social studies journal entries that will help you tie social studies into your writing instruction.

Train students in proofreading and editing!  

Student need to practice proofreading and editing their writing (and the writing of other students) near the beginning of the school year.

Repeatedly practicing the steps of the proofreading/editing process will help your students to internalize this procedure. You’ll find that they will start to catch their mistakes earlier and more independently.

I find it valuable to establish and consistently use a common “proofreading language” in my classroom. It takes a little time up front to teach students the markings and their meanings but having a common system for proofreading will save loads of time throughout the school year.

This resource will give you an idea of the proofreading marks and practice that I use in my classroom: Proofreading and Editing Activity Pack

Asking your students to proofread and edit their own writing is a must but it’s also a good thing to have students pair up and look over a partner’s writing also. Your students will receive valuable feedback on their writing, editing ideas, and they’ll get to see some writing styles that are a little different from their own.

Teach five paragraph essays one piece at a time! 

Simple Paragraphs

Once my students are stellar sentence writers, we move to simple paragraphs. The simple paragraphs that I use with students consist of a topic sentence, three detail sentences, and a closing sentence.

Starting with simple paragraphs is much less threatening than jumping straight into five paragraph essays, so I find that spending some time helping students write excellent simple paragraphs is the perfect bridge into essays.

Additionally, we color-code our simple paragraphs. This allows students to think critically about what sentence types they have written and provides a visual for students (and for me) to see that all required parts of the paragraph are included.

The color-code I use with students:

• Topic sentence – green
• 3 detail sentences – yellow
• Closing sentence – red

Planning and Writing Body Paragraphs

Once students are able to write great simple paragraphs, we dive into the planning and writing of body paragraphs.

This isn’t too much of a jump for students because the body paragraphs are structured similarly to the simple paragraphs that we have practiced over and over. The only difference is that they are using one prompt to write three body paragraphs.

Many teachers think they have to start with the first paragraph of the essay, the introduction paragraph. This isn’t what I recommend. Starting by teaching students to write the three body paragraphs helps to steer the rest of the essay.

Adding an Introduction Paragraph

Now that students are able to write their three body paragraphs, it’s time to add the introduction paragraph.

The introduction paragraph contains a hook, commentary, and a thesis sentence.

The hook is a sentence (or two) that “hooks” readers and builds interest in the upcoming essay. I teach my students several types of hooks, including quotes, questions, bold statements, or sharing a memory.

After the hook, I ask students to write a sentence or two of commentary on the hook or on the prompt in general. This helps to “bulk up” their introduction paragraph a bit and make it more interesting.

The final part of the introduction paragraph is the thesis sentence. Because students already learned to write the body paragraphs, crafting a thesis sentence is so much easier.

The formula for writing a thesis sentence: Restate the prompt briefly + detail 1 + detail 2 + detail 3.

Additionally, I teach transition teams at this point. Students need to use a transition word or phrase at the beginning of each body paragraph, so that’s where transition teams come in. Transition teams are sets of three transition words or phrases that work well together.

Examples of transition teams:

• First, Second, Finally
• To begin, To continue, To end
• One reason, Another reason, A final reason

Adding a Conclusion Paragraph

When conclusion paragraph day finally arrives, my students are so excited because they can finally write an entire five paragraph essay.

In my opinion, conclusion paragraphs are super easy to teach because they only have two parts. Here’s the conclusion paragraph formula: Write the thesis sentence in a different way + add a closing thought.

I allow students to be creative with their closing thoughts. I tell them that this is the final thought that your readers will take with them, so it needs to relate well to your entire essay while being engaging and thought-provoking for readers. Some examples of closing thoughts are calls to action, quotes, personal opinions, and brief personal experiences.

Teach, Discuss, & Practice with Rubrics

I inform my students that from this point on in their school journey, they will be graded with rubrics fairly often, so this is a good time to learn about rubrics and become familiar with them.

I create or find five paragraph essay samples that are good, bad, and in-between. We read and examine the samples as a class and circle the applicable parts of the rubric. If students are able to grade a few assignments using a rubric, it’s not this unknown, scary thing anymore. 

Are you grading every single word and making a million corrections on students’ essays? I give you permission to stop doing that! 🙂

You are going to burn yourself out and get to where you hate grading and teaching writing. To be honest, your students will not become better writers when their papers are marked all over with suggestions in the margins.

Help! I need more support…

Please visit the following blog post for in-depth explanations and examples of my five paragraph essay teaching and grading process: 

Tips for Teaching and Grading Five Paragraph Essays

This resource will provide you with a full, scaffolded unit that will help you to teach the five paragraph essay process to students! Five Paragraph Essay Instructional Unit

Narrative, Informative, and Opinion Essays

As much as we’d like to just have our students write simple, straightforward five paragraph essays all year, that’s just not feasible.

But I promise, once your students can crank out those five paragraph essays on simple topics, moving to other modes of writing is no sweat! 

In my classroom, we spend time learning to write opinion essays, narrative essays, and informative essays. 

I start with opinion writing because my students have a lot of opinions, haha! We channel those opinions into five paragraph essay format. 🙂

Research Reports

The skills involved in writing a research report are valuable for 5th graders. They need to be able to judge the reliability of a source and cite their sources properly. 

Research reports also teach students to organize their ideas, take notes, make an outline, write a draft, and create a final report. 

I’d like to point you to the following blog post where I detailed my entire process for teaching research reports.

The Step-By-Step Guide to Teaching Research Reports

Paired Passages

5th graders are too young to compare two passages and write a response. Right?! 

No, this is not true at all. I think that reading paired passages and using them to craft a written response is a valuable skill for 5th graders. 

Steps to analyzing paired passages and writing an essay to answer a prompt:

First, dissect the prompt.

Second, closely read the paired texts.

Third, organize thoughts using the prompt.

The following blog post explains my paired passage writing steps in detail. Take a moment to check it out. You’ll be glad you did! 

How to Teach Writing Using Paired Passages

My Sequence & Pacing for Teaching 5th Grade Writing

Don’t stress! This sequence and pacing guide is hyperlinked and ready to be sent to your email address. Go to the bottom of this blog post to request the guide.

1st Month of School

We start school in the middle of the month, so I only have two weeks to teach during the first month of school.

This is the rundown for the remainder of the month:

Month 1, Week 3

The first week of the school year is all about teaching and practicing procedures. Teach it right or teach it all year! 🙂

Classroom Procedures – I recommend you check out this blog post:  5 Tips for Establishing Procedures in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Welcome Activities –  Welcome to 5th Grade: First Week of School Activities

Blog Post – Back to School Writing Prompts for 5th Graders

Month 1, Week 4

During this week, I review and continue practicing procedures with students but we do go ahead and start working on writing.

I establish my expectations and procedures for my students’ Weekly Writing Choice Boards.

We set up writing notebooks together, including the table of contents, cover page, and an  About the Author  page. 

Obtain a writing sample

We start working on improving sentences.

2nd Month of School

Month 2, Week 1

We continue working on improving sentences.

Start proofreading/editing instruction and practice.

Month 2 , Week 2

Review the process for writing excellent sentences.

Finish proofreading/editing instruction and practice.

Month 2, Weeks 3-4

Writing simple paragraphs (include color-code)

3rd Month of School

Month 3, Weeks 1-2

Planning & writing body paragraphs (include color-code)

Month 3, Weeks 3-4

Teach introduction paragraphs

Writing introduction plus body paragraphs (include color code)

Transition teams

4th Month of School

Month 4, Weeks 1-2

Teach students how to write conclusion paragraphs.

Students will write their first full five paragraph essays this week.

Month 4, Weeks 3-4

Write 5 paragraph essays with a variety of basic prompts.

Have students proofread/edit other students’ essays.

Provide mini-lessons on grammar structure or other issues you are noticing in students’ writing.

5th Month of School

This is where our winter break falls, so I only have two weeks to teach this month.

This is a great time to review what we’ve been working on all year and assign some fun journal prompts.

Also, writing mini-lessons are good fillers for this time.

This Winter Writing Project is a student favorite right before winter break!

6th Month of School

Month 6, Week 1

When we come back from winter break, I like to teach the research report process. I spend a week teaching the process and giving students time to research while I’m there to help.

Month 6, Week 2

Student complete their research reports, including outlines, citing sources, and etc.

I ask my students to do super quick presentations on their research topics. It’s 1-2 minutes max. I don’t want them to read their reports aloud because that’s boring. Instead, I want them to quickly highlight what they learned about their topics and what was fascinating to them.

Month 6, Week 3

We review the five paragraph essay process and write/proofread/edit an essay with a simple prompt.

Month 6, Week 4

I start opinion writing this week. You’ll find that students will slide into opinion writing easily because they already know five paragraph essay structure.

7th Month of School

Month 7, Week 1

Continue working on opinion writing. By the end of this week, students should be able to write an opinion essay using a prompt.

Month 7, Weeks 2-3

We spend two weeks on narrative writing. By the end of the second week, students should be able to write a narrative essay using a prompt.

Month 7, Week 4

This week, I teach the process of writing an informative essay.

8th Month of School

Month 8, Week 1

Continue working on informative essays. Students should be able to write an informative essay using a prompt by the end of this week.

Month 8, Weeks 2-3

Teach students how to write an essay using paired passages.

For more information on how I teach the steps above, visit this blog post: How to Teach Writing Using Paired Passages

Month 8, Week 4

Now that students know the process of using paired passages, I provide a set of paired passages and ask students to answer prompts in a variety of genres, like opinion, narrative, informative, poetry, and etc.

This resource makes it easy:

Paired Passages with Writing Prompts and Activities Bundle

9th Month of School

Month 9, Week 1

Continue working on using paired passages to write in a variety of genres.

Talk about last minute standardized testing tips to help students with their writing tests.

The rest of the month is taken up with standardized testing, so I do a lot of review activities, free writing, and etc.

I do have a set of suspense stories that my students love to write during this month. Check them out here: Suspense Stories Bundle

10th Month of School

During this month, we are wrapping up the year. Students participate in multiple activities and field trips, so there’s not much teaching time.

If you are still feeling overwhelmed, don’t dismay. Instructing young, inexperienced writers is a challenge. Just work on one step at a time to avoid overwhelming yourself and your students. Once you’ve taught writing for a year or two, you’ll feel like an old pro. Promise! 

If you’d like to keep this blog post for later, simply save this pin to your teacher Pinterest board!

Are you that teacher saying, “oh my goodness, please just give me the print ‘n go pages so that i can start teaching writing tomorrow” it’s all here for you:.

I’m not a teacher, perhaps in my heart I am. I am an older Mom who adopted late in life as God gave us our newborn in our 50’s! By His grace, we are healthy, fit, youngish 50’s LOL! I love your stuff and have always supplemented Fi’s education., for I find the California standards quite low. Now that I have her in a college-prep school (5th Grade) I find she is much more prepared because of your wisdom! Thank you. Sophia Joy is someone who has always had to work hard at school, but it is paying off! Thank you and God bless you richly for being so generous with your wisdom,it will all come back to you 100-fold! Sincerely, Susan, Sophia Joy’s Mom

Thank you so much, Susan! You certainly have a heartwarming story with your precious girl 🙂

Hello When you do the back to school journal prompts, where do you have students complete these? On single paper, google classroom?

Hi Sarah! Usually, I have students complete the prompts in their social studies interactive notebooks. This year, however, we were virtual at the beginning of the year, so I had students type their entries onto Google Docs.

Hi! I am a new 5th grade teacher, and I’m wondering if your school uses a particular writing curriculum? Your website has been so helpful – thank you!!

Hi Jenny! We don’t use a particular writing curriculum at my school. I use my own resources to teach writing. Please reach out to me at [email protected] if I can help or answer any questions for you 🙂

Do you have any resources in Spanish?

Hi Danielle! The only resources I have in Spanish are my Parent’s Guide to Reading resources, grades K-5.

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Teaching Topic Sentences

By Mary Montero

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I am so lucky to be working side-be-side with the creator of an incredible writing program this year, and this topic sentences lesson is one big reason why!  She and a former colleague (who I taught 3rd grade with) created the entire school-wide curriculum, and it is so cohesive!  I’m LOVING it.  I love having something that I can turn to and an excellent scope and sequence for writing.  It’s especially fantastic because, as a school-wide program, the kids build on what they are learning year to year… which is why when I started teaching topic sentences this time, almost ALL of the kids were already familiar with the concept and the types of sentences we use. You can read more about the writing curriculum here.  

Teaching Topic Sentences Anchor Chart and Lesson

We started off with a quick introduction lesson on topic sentences.  The Write Now Right Now curriculum has four types of topic sentences they teach, and they are great starters for kids.

The four types of topic sentences we teach are If…Then, Even though, Since, and When.  They catch on VERY quickly to these types of sentences!

They each wrote in their notebook the four types of sentences (here is a picture of my teacher notebook that I projected on the board).   They wrote an example of each and they also wrote their own for a different topic (recess).

Now, even though our overall topic was mountain biking, we had a discussion about what the specific topics that go with each of these topic sentences would be… We wrote out the specific topics for each.  The next step would be outlining the details to support the main topic.

Here’s another example to use as part of your teaching topic sentences lesson.

Topic Sentences Practice Activity

The next day, we did an activity inspired by Stephanie at Teaching in Room 6.  Read her original blog post HERE , because it’s great and covers so many topics!

Since I didn’t have the same cards she used (or anything like it), I quickly typed up eight paragraphs.  One set of paragraphs included topic sentences and the other didn’t.  Most of my kids were doing really well, so I only used the one without topic sentences.  You can use them however you like, but I designed them to be good for differentiating.

I put one paragraph each on a paper bag and put them around the room.  In partners, the students rotated around the room, writing one of each type of topic sentence (as seen above).  Then, they put it into the bag.  So at the end, we had TONS of topic sentences in the bags, and the best part of it was that they were all unique! We pulled several from each bag to read and discuss.   Nobody saw other people’s sentences until the end when we pulled them out, so they weren’t inspired by others… This is also a GREAT main idea assessment.

There are two almost identical sets.  One without example topic sentences and one with.   You can download the topic sentence cards for free HERE to use next time you’re teaching topic sentences.

Topic Sentences in Writing

When it’s time for students to apply topic sentences to their own writing, I love using mentor texts. Using text exemplars as mentor texts to help students identify specific parts of all three writing genres will be a game-changer in your instruction! Every time I teach a specific component of writing — like creating the topic sentence in an informative text — I end up writing my own example as a mentor text for students to dissect.

After doing this for years, this incredible set of mentor texts was designed specifically to help you teach students about specific parts of writing . I have provided a model text, annotation guides and questions, and components that will help your students clearly identify and emulate the important parts of writing! This bundle includes informational text, narrative text, and opinion text lessons.

Looking for more writing tips? Read these posts !

Mary Montero

I’m so glad you are here. I’m a current gifted and talented teacher in a small town in Colorado, and I’ve been in education since 2009. My passion (other than my family and cookies) is for making teachers’ lives easier and classrooms more engaging.

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I love this activity! Providing sentence structures for kids is such a great way to grow their writing skills and stretch their language. They have to be thoughtful to decide which would work best for their piece. Thanks for sharing this!

Buzzing with Ms. B

Thanks so much! I've adapted for middle school in prep for provincial exams! Love the differentiation and active involvement:)

Fantastic! Thank you for sharing! This is my first year teaching 4th (previously kinder) and I can use all the help I can get. These are perfect!

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

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How to Write a Strong Topic Sentence + Examples

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What’s Covered:

• What Is a Topic Sentence?
• 5 Steps to Writing a Good Topic Sentence

Elements of a Good Topic Sentence

Common pitfalls to avoid.

• Where To Get Your Essay Edited For Free

Crafting the perfect essay takes time and dedication. There are so many elements you have to worry about, such as tone, purpose, and correct spelling and grammar. Writing a strong topic sentences is another critical part in writing a cohesive essay. 

Without a strong topic sentence, you risk losing your reader and perhaps part of your grade. If it’s a college admissions essay, then you need it to be as strong as possible to back up your application. Learn about what steps you should take to write a strong topic sentence.

What Is a Topic Sentence? 

People often confuse a topic sentence with a thesis statement. A thesis statement is typically at the end of your opening paragraph, that dictates the main argument you’ll be making in your essay. 

Throughout your essay, you’ll have multiple topic sentences, as each paragraph should start off with one. This beginning sentence is used to direct the topic of the paragraph and outline the flow of the following sentences. It’s used to help guide your reader and to continue to keep them hooked on your overall essay. Without topic sentences, your essay will be unorganized, lack transitions, and sound very choppy. To write a good topic sentence, there are several steps to take.

Writing a Good Topic Sentence: 5 Steps

Step 1: decide what you’re going to write about..

When you see the essay prompt, you’ll have some time to think through what you want to say and why. You have to decide if it’s a persuasive essay, informative, narrative, or descriptive. Determine your purpose for writing the essay after reading through the prompt. Whether it’s an assignment for school or if it’s to get into college, you need to make sure you have that purpose clearly outlined. 

Step 2: Create a thesis statement.

One of the first things you need to do is create a thesis statement. This is typically a sentence with three points that you’ll back up throughout your essay. 

For example: The Office became a cultural phenomenon because it spurred the careers of many of today’s successful movie stars, it talked about situations that most American workers can relate to, and even 15 years later, offers funny, relevant content that helps to break down prejudices. 

You then use that thesis statement to create an essay around the points you want to make. 

Step 3: Make your essay outline.

Once you have the points you want to make within your thesis statement hammered out, make an outline for your essay. This is where you’ll start to create your topic sentence for each paragraph. You want to clearly state the main idea of that paragraph in the very first sentence. From there, you back up that main idea with facts and reputable sources. Make sure your topic sentence is clear, but does not just announce your topic. 

For example, do not write something like: “In this paragraph, I will discuss why it’s bad that poachers are killing giraffes.”

Instead, write something that clearly states your idea with a reasonable opinion and that gives direction to the paragraph: “Giraffes are a key part of the African ecosystem, so it’s important to enforce regulations against the poachers who are killing them for their body parts.” 

You’d then follow that up with reasons why giraffes are a key part of the African ecosystem and how poachers are destroying their population.

Step 4: Begin writing your essay.

Once you have your thesis statement and you’ve created an outline with supporting paragraphs and their topic sentences, you can begin writing your essay. It’s important to make that outline before just jumping in–a disorganized essay can spell disaster for you as you continue to write, and could result in a poor grade. Many times, teachers will even require you to turn in your outline as part of your overall essay grade. 

Step 5: Proofread and check your resources.

After you’ve written the essay, go back through it with a fine tooth comb. Read through each topic sentence and the paragraphs that follow to ensure that you’ve written clear, solid topic sentences throughout and that the paragraphs with them make sense. During the proofreading phase, you also need to recheck the sources you’re using. Make sure each source is reputable. In other words, do not use sites like Wikipedia where anyone can go in and edit an article to add misinformation. Use sites that:

• Are actual reputable news sources, such as the New York Times , CNN, CBS News
• Have domain names that end in .edu or .gov
• Come from an encyclopedia, such as Encyclopedia Britannica

Using sites that are not reputable could jeopardize the validity of your argument. 

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Now that you know the steps to set yourself up for success when writing a topic sentence, there are certain elements that go into a quality first sentence. Always make sure that your topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph. You don’t want to make your reader hunt for the point you’re trying to make. Check out some key elements of a good topic sentence:

Make sure your topic sentence isn’t too vague.

You need a topic sentence that has some specifics to it. It also needs to hook in your reader in some way with an opinion. A vague sentence makes it harder to write a paragraph that can clearly backs up your thoughts. For example:

DON’T: “In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bingley seems like a nice guy.”

DO: “When Mr. Bingley is first introduced, he comes across as a kind person because he speaks to everyone and doesn’t immediately pass judgment.”

Choose a reasonable opinion.

Your topic sentence should clearly outline whatever point you’re trying to make in the paragraph, but you want to pick a reasonable opinion that you can easily reinforce with facts and statistics. Here’s an example of what you should and should not do:

DON’T: “It’s obvious that Mr. Bingley was a total loser with no backbone.”

DO: “Mr. Bingley could have shown more confidence in his choices and stood up to Mr. Darcy when he found himself in love with Jane Bennet.”

You can then back that up with facts, saying that he was a wealthy Englishman and thus one of the key players in society at the time, which should have given him more confidence. If he’d been more confident, perhaps he would not have left and devastated Jane.

Use your topic sentence as a transition.

Along with telling the reader the point of your next paragraph, your topic sentence should also serve as a transition from the previous paragraph. Without a transition, the essay can feel like it’s choppy and disjointed. For example:

DON’T: “Mr. Bingley is a good man and here’s why.”

DO: “Although Mr. Bingley did break Jane’s heart by leaving, he ended up redeeming himself by returning to Netherfield Hall.”

Keep your topic sentence short.

A long, drawn-out topic sentence can risk losing your reader. Many times, it’s hard to determine the point of a sentence when it goes on for too long. You want a clear, concise sentence that draws in the reader but also leaves some room for you to expand on it in the following paragraph.

DON’T: “Throughout the novel of Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bingley was often quite different from Mr. Darcy as he would treat all people in a friendly manner, considering them all his friends and acquaintances, even agreeing to throw a ball after Elizabeth’s sisters rudely demanded he do so and was gracious to Mr. and Mrs. Bennet as well despite their manners.”

DO: “Overall, Mr. Bingley served as a foil to Mr. Darcy throughout the story by treating everyone around him equally with dignity and grace.”

Writing an essay can be overwhelming at times, but so long as you avoid some of these common pitfalls, it can be easier to get it done on time. 

Don’t wait until the last minute.

If your teacher assigns you an essay or tells you that you have an essay test coming up, don’t wait until the day before to do anything about it. You have to plan or study and you need to give yourself time to do that. If you know it takes you a while to write something, then start planning it as soon as you get the assignment.

Don’t forget to write an outline.

Along with planning, make sure you have that outline written up and planned out well. It will serve as your guideline for writing the essay. Without it, you’ll face the risk of a disorganized essay that does not clearly illustrate your point.

Ask for help if you need it.

This may be the most important pitfall to avoid. If you get in over your head while writing, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Ask a friend to review the essay or ask your teacher for guidance. 

Where to Get Your Essay Edited for Free

Once you’ve finished your essay, you may want additional input. There are tools out there to help, but CollegeVine’s free peer essay review tool can provide you with actionable feedback from students just like you. CollegeVine’s tool has helped many students and may be able to help you, too! Asking for peer feedback can help to refine your essay and it never hurts to have an extra set of eyes read through what you’ve written. Check out the free tool today!

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Topic Sentence: What’s the Topic?

About this worksheet:.

In this fun writing worksheet, students are provided with a list of topic sentences. Using context clues, they are asked to write the topic for the paragraph of each sentence. “Topic Sentence: What’s the Topic?” is ideal for grades 4, 5, and 6.

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25 Things Every 5th Grader Needs to Know

How would your 5th graders do when it comes to knowing these common lessons in science, reading, writing, geography, history, art, music and math?

Core Knowledge starts from a proven premise: Knowledge builds on knowledge. The curriculum outlines content that helps you help students build strong foundations of knowledge, grade by grade.

Fifth grade is a major transition year for students. From beginning to grapple with pre-algebraic concepts to conducting research for essays, this is the year students enter the realm of deeper study in writing, reading, history, math, science and the arts. Compare our checklist of essential fifth grade curriculum items with your lesson plans to see if you’re hitting all the top concepts.

READING AND WRITING

1. Write different kinds of essays.

Fifth graders should write often, and in different forms—reports, descriptions, research essays, essays that explain a process, essays that persuade, and more. Make sure they understand the basic structure, with an introduction, body and conclusion. To get students comfortable with the format, begin by choosing opinion topics that don’t require much research, such as this Best Restaurant essay prompt from a fifth grade teacher and blogger.

2. Gather research from at least three sources.

Choosing a topic and then pulling in information from a variety of sources such as encyclopedias, magazines, online sources and atlases is a crucial fifth grade skill. Learning how to synthesize information and summarize it—not simply copying the sources—is essential. You can also provide students with an easy-to-follow anchor chart to help guide them through the research process .

3. Dig into a novel.

As independent readers, most fifth graders should be ready to read a meaty full-length novel, whether classics like The Secret Garden and Tom Sawyer or more contemporary fare—there are so many great choices! You can suggest titles from the many online lists like this one on Good Reads or this one on Great Schools of recommended novels for fifth graders. And students can go beyond the basic book report with these fun and creative activities .

4. Explore and use figurative language.

Some of the most delightful language arts lessons are those that help students understand imagery, idioms, onomatopoeia, metaphors and similes. Search YouTube for clever teachers’ pop-culture-filled compilations of metaphors and similes and share them with your class.

5. Enjoy the language of poetry.

Once they’ve learned about figurative language, fifth graders can start noticing how poets use devices such as simile, metaphor and alliteration. They can also have fun using figurative language in writing their own poems.

6. Grasp sentence structure.

By fifth grade, students should understand and be able to identify a complete sentence, and to distinguish a sentence from a fragment. They should understand the concepts of subject and predicate. This is a good time to begin diagramming short sentences as a class—using different-colored dry-erase markers on the board will help students identify different sentence elements.

7. Meet the Bard.

All the world’s a stage, and the play’s the thing! So wrote the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare. Fifth graders should learn about his significant impact on our language and society. The magical comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream provides a great introduction . The play is available in adaptations for young readers , and the Folger Shakespeare Library offers fun resources.

The title page from an antique book of the plays of Shakespeare.

GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

8. Explore the world’s great lakes.

Fifth graders can probably name the world’s major oceans and some of the biggest rivers, but do they know about great lakes? Lakes serve as a habitat for many animals and provide water for drinking, irrigation, and hydroelectric power. Lakes are also valuable to people as travel routes and as sites for recreation. Check out this free curriculum on great lakes of the world.

9. Explore Mesoamerican history.

Fifth graders should learn about the great native cultures of Mesoamerica (Central and South America) before moving on to learn about European exploration of the Americas and the clash of cultures. Check out this free curriculum on Maya, Aztec and Inca civilizations.

10. Explore the European backgrounds to American history.

In the 1400s, Europeans set forth in a great wave of exploration and trade that eventually led to the Americas. Fifth graders can benefit from learning about the social and religious movements that pushed Europeans across the Atlantic, including the Renaissance, Reformation, and England’s Golden Age and Glorious Revolution. Core Knowledge Language Arts provides free teaching guide downloads for the Renaissance and the Reformation .

11. Delve into the Civil War.

Fifth grade classes should study the American Civil War and its causes, conflicts and consequences. Students should compare and contrast the cultures and economies of the North and South, and learn about slavery and abolition. The breadth of the Civil War lends itself to in-depth learning stations through which small groups can rotate in the classroom.

A pair of cannons at sunset on the Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

ART AND MUSIC

12. Revel in the Renaissance.

Studying the paintings and sculptures of Renaissance artists is a great way to integrate art and history in fifth grade. Look for Renaissance resources available here .

13. Get a perspective on artworks.

Renaissance artists introduced perspective —the illusion of depth in a flat painting or drawing. Fifth graders can learn how foreground, background and the horizon line work, and they can have fun making their own perspective drawings .

14. Understand basic music notation.

Remember learning EGBDF and FACE ? Many lively videos are available to help students see and comprehend the written language of music, starting with notation on the treble clef.

15. Know fractions frontward and backward.

Building on their work with fractions in previous grades, fifth graders should continue to solve problems with fractions and relate fractions to decimals and percentages. Check out these online games to add some fun to fractions practice.  

Three colored fraction die to use in elementary classrooms to teach math.

16. Master common factors and multiples.

Fifth graders should be able to identify the greatest common factor (GCF) and the least common multiple (LCM) of given numbers. To make the mastery enjoyable, have students work together in pairs to quickly collaborate on GCF and LCM problem sets.

17. Determine and express simple ratios and percentages.

Learning common equivalences between ratios, fractions, decimals and percentages is a key skill for fifth grade. This multi-week unit breaks down the relationships between these measurement groupings for students.

18. Deepen their knowledge of geometry.

Calculate area. Use a compass to determine the diameter, radius and circumference of circles. Identify and measure angles. The fundamentals of geometry are essential, and the real-world applications of geometry are everywhere. Have students write their name in large capital letters and then identify and measure the angles the letters create .

19. Dip toes into pre-algebra.

Time to bring out the x’s! In this grade, students will be introduced to variables and solve basic equations using them. They will be able to find the value of an expression when they are given the replacement value for a variable (“What is 7–x if x is 3?”). Invite students to write their own world problems to help them synthesize the variable concepts (“Joe has 70 Pidgies in his Pokédex, transfers X to the Professor, and now has 50 Pidgies left. What does X equal?”) and then share with their classmates.

20. Learn the concepts of mean, median and mode.

Building on probability, fifth graders will learn to define and differentiate between means, medians and modes in a series of numbers. Using decks of Uno cards, have groups of students determine the mode, median and mean of the cards in their hands .

21. Understand probability.

Using simple models, students should be able to express the probability of a given event as a fraction, percent and decimal. Dice games are an easy and effective way to predict outcomes and grasp probability math. SCIENCE

22. Learn the structure of cells.

Understanding that all living things are made up of cells, students will learn the structure of cells, both plant and animal. Get out the microscopes and slides so your fifth graders can see firsthand the membrane, nucleus, cytoplasm and organelles of different organisms’ cells. And check out these printable worksheets .

23. Probe photosynthesis.

This important life process not only allows plants to make their own food, it produces oxygen for us all. The simple activity of placing one plant in a dark classroom cupboard or closet and another of the same plant in sunlight, and inviting students to record and sketch their observations daily in data notebooks , can effectively demonstrate the importance and concept of photosynthesis.

24. Explore the Periodic Table.

Introduce fifth graders to the concept of elements and how they are organized in the Periodic Table . Challenge them to memorize the symbols of well-known elements (such as H, He, C, N, O, Fe, Cu, Ag, Au), and try an online quiz .

25. Learn how glands work.

At the target age of 10–11, many fifth graders’ bodies are changing, and many of those changes are triggered by the endocrine system. Explore how glands (pituitary, thyroid, adrenal and pancreas) secrete hormones that control different body processes.  

Looking for more info on what fifth graders need to know? Learn more about the book here or the starter kits here .

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70 Tips, Tricks, and Ideas for Teaching Fifth Grade

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Writing a Topic Sentence

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Here is an inventive, and easy-to-implement lesson on the writing of topic sentences. Learners review what a topic sentence is, practice identifying topic sentences in an informational article, then play a really cool game. All of the worksheets and instructions needed for the game are embedded in this engaging plan. The four-page plan would be an ideal choice when teaching this important writing concept to your elementary schoolers.

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Topic Sentences

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The topic sentence is where the main idea and topic is found. It is usually the first sentence. This activity enables you to cultivate your ability to identify topic sentences.

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Course: Grammar   >   Unit 8

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Video transcript

Father of Harmony Montgomery sentenced to 45 years to life for 5-year-old girl's murder

A New Hampshire father convicted of killing his 5-year-old daughter reported missing in 2021 was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison on Thursday.

Adam Montgomery, 34, was found guilty in February of second-degree murder, abuse of corpse, tampering with witnesses and informants, second-degree assault and falsifying physical evidence in the 2019 slaying of Harmony Montgomery , the Seacoast Sunday, part of The USA TODAY Network reported.

Authorities believe the killing took place in Manchester, a city less than 20 miles south of the state capital, Concord.

Her body has never been recovered.

The girl's father, who previously professed his innocence in court, did not attend his trial and wasn’t present when jurors returned their verdict earlier this year, according to previous USA TODAY reporting.

"Harmony was an innocent 5-year-old," Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Amy Messer told Montgomery during his sentencing hearing Thursday. "You treated her in the worst of possible ways, in both her life and her death."

Harmony Montgomery was last seen in 2019

Harmony was last seen in 2019 but reported missing only on the last week of 2021, according to previous reporting by USA TODAY.

The Manchester Police Department arrested her father in January 2022 in connection to her disappearance and he was later charged in her death.

Prosecutors said Adam Montgomery beat his daughter to death, put her body parts in bags, disposed of the bags and beat his wife Kayla Montgomery to lie for him in court. The woman is not Harmony's biological mother.

Fatal Texas targeted shooting: 4-year-old girl dies from injuries in Texas shooting that left entire family injured

Adam Montgomery would not reveal where he hid Harmony's body

Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence him 56 years to life. Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati told the judge the state would recommend a reduced sentence of 35-to-life if Adam Montgomery would reveal where he hid his daughter's body.

In court, he remained silent.

"He has just yet shown you in this courtroom, and for anybody else, that he is heartless, immoral, selfish and an unapologetic murderer of his own child," Agaiti said.

Mother indicted in children's slayings: Woman accused of stabbing young sons, setting home ablaze with them inside

Harmony's mother pledges to find daughter's remains

The girl's biological mother, Crystal Sorey, testified a part of her died when her daughter was beaten to death, called her father a coward and said, with or without his help, she will find the remains of her daughter.

"Harmony will live on through me, and you can't do anything about it," the girl's mother said.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior correspondent for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.

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Writing introductory sentences

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

This article is part of the research topic.

Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion and New Intelligent Biomaterials Design

Prevention of severe pitting corrosion of 13Cr pipeline steel by a sulfate reducing bacterium using a green biocide cocktail Provisionally Accepted

• 1 Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology, Ohio University, United States
• 2 Department of Biological Sciences, Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology, Ohio University, United States
• 3 PTTEP, Thailand
• 4 Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ohio University, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

To combat abiotic CO2 corrosion of pipelines, chromium steels (CrSs) are used to replace carbon steels, but CrSs can suffer very severe pitting corrosion caused by microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) because their passive films are not as good as those on high-grade stainless steels, and their MIC often involves (semi-)conductive corrosion product films. In this study, severe pitting corrosion (2.0 cm/a pitting corrosion rate) with a 7-day weight loss of 3.8 ± 0.5 mg/cm 2 (0.26 mm/a uniform corrosion rate) was observed on 13Cr coupons incubated anaerobically with a highly corrosive pure-strain sulfate reducing bacterium (SRB) Desulfovibrio ferrophilus IS5 in 125 mL anaerobic vials filled with 50 mL enriched artificial seawater at 28 o C. A popular green biocide, namely tetrakis hydroxymethyl phosphonium sulfate (THPS), was enhanced by biofilm dispersing Peptide A (a 14mer) to mitigate SRB MIC against 13Cr. The 7-day weight losses for coupons with 50 ppm (w/w) THPS, 50 ppm THPS + 100 nM (180 ppb) Peptide A and 100 ppm THPS were reduced to 2.2 ± 0.2 mg/cm 2 , 1.5 ± 0.5 mg/cm 2 and 0.3 ± 0.2 mg/cm 2 , respectively. The pitting rates also decreased from 20 mm/a to 12 mm/a, 8.6 mm/a, and 1.5 mm/a, respectively based on the maximum pit depth data for the 7-day incubation. Electrochemical tests using a miniature electrochemical glass cell design supported the weight loss trend with additional transient corrosion rate information. THPS was found to be effective in mitigating severe pitting corrosion on 13Cr, and the enhancement effect of Peptide A for THPS was manifested. This work has significant implications in field applications when CrSs are considered as metal choices to replace carbon steels to combat abiotic CO2 corrosion in pipelines. When SRB MIC is a possible threat, a mitigation plan needs to be implemented to prevent potentially very severe pitting that can lead to pinhole leaks.

Keywords: Microbiologically influenced corrosion, Sulfate reducing bacterium, 13Cr, Pitting corrosion, Biocide mitigation

Received: 27 Mar 2024; Accepted: 10 May 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Xu, Khan, Kijkla, Kumseranee, Punpruk and Gu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Prof. Tingyue Gu, Ohio University, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Athens, 45701, Ohio, United States

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