Fourth Grade · Writing · week 6

Paragraphing Your Story: When to Start Fresh

Organize the narrative draft into paragraphs, starting a new paragraph for a change in time, place, or speaker, using time-order transition words.

A narrative is easier to follow when it is broken into paragraphs instead of one long block of sentences. A good rule: start a new paragraph when the TIME changes, the PLACE changes, or a new person starts SPEAKING.

Transition words help guide the reader through time: first, then, next, after that, suddenly, finally. These words work like signposts, showing when one part of the moment ends and the next begins.

📋 For the teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Read your child's draft aloud together and physically mark a slash where the time, place, or speaker changes -- each slash is a new paragraph.
  • Keep a short list of transition words nearby (first, then, next, after that, suddenly, finally) for your child to borrow from.
  • Remind them that dialogue already has its own paragraphing rule from last week -- it is the same instinct: change means new paragraph.
  • Do not aim for a fixed number of paragraphs -- a small moment might only need three or four, and that is plenty.
Talk about it:
  • What are the three reasons to start a new paragraph in a narrative?
  • Which transition word did you use to move from one part of your story to the next?
  • Did breaking your draft into paragraphs make it easier or harder to follow? Why?

Mastery looks like: They break their narrative into paragraphs at genuine shifts in time, place, or speaker, using at least one transition word.

Common stumbles: Starting a new paragraph after every single sentence, or never starting one at all, rather than paragraphing at real shifts.

See it visually

Interactive, spoken-aloud tools that show this idea in motion.

Paragraph BuilderStack a paragraph: topic sentence, details, closing.try →Transition WordsLink ideas with first, however, therefore, and finally.try →
Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
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