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| From Happy Songkran Day - Used with permission by the author/illustrator |
This month, I've been discussing Dow Phumiruk's picture book, Happy Songkran Day! The Thai New Year Celebration, to explore how students of all ages can use the story to celebrate the Thai New Year from April 13-15. This week, I'm using one of the illustrations from the book, graciously provided by Dow, to show how picture books can be used to teach both simple and compound sentence structure.
If you've read my Story Frames PLOT ANALYSIS of this story, you will know that this illustration depicts the moment when Tida and her mother are washing the stain out of Tek's new sash, which Tek plans to wear at the dance celebration that evening. Tida accidentally spilled peanut sauce on her sister's sash and was afraid she had ruined it. Read the book with students first to provide the context. For students both young and old, check out the compound sentences activity that follows.
"I think about the water washing away my mistakes, and my breathing slows."
The sentence from the text above is considered compound because it consists of two simple sentences (independent clauses) combined with the coordinating conjunction "and."
An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence. It contains a subject and a predicate (verb). See below how the two parts of the sentence could each be a sentence on their own.
I think about the water washing away my mistakes.
My breathing slows.
Complex Sentences
While the example from the text is a compound sentence (Two independent clauses joined by the coordinating conjunction and), the example below is a complex sentence.
Example: Tida washed the sash because it was dirty.
A complex sentence contains an independent clause (Tida washed the sash) and a dependent clause (because it was dirty). The second part is dependent because it depends on the first part to make sense. A dependent clause is introduced by a word like because, although, so (that).
The diagrams below from The Raven Remix Activity Book illustrate the difference. Sign up HERE to get these two PDF graphics for FREE in my March 27, 2026 Newsletter.
Note: The Raven Remix Activity Book: 50+ Activities and Games for Decoding, Reading Comprehension, Writing, and Speech includes 15 different activities to work on sentence structure.
Compound Sentence Activity
The illustration and sentence example above from Happy Songkran Day can be used to introduce the process of creating compound sentences.
Both parts of the sentence in the example could stand on their own. This is what makes them independent clauses. When independent clauses are combined with a coordinating conjunction, one of the FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, (and) so), they create a compound sentence.
Teaching sentence combining is one of the best ways to improve reading comprehension. It is often at the sentence level where comprehension falls apart, even for older students. Picture book illustrations provide an excellent opportunity to work on this concept, especially with struggling readers. The class can orally create two simple sentences based on the illustration and then use one of the FANBOYS to combine them. Consider how the sentences below, inspired by the illustration, could be combined. Which of the FANBOYS would you use? Which examples create compound sentences? Hint: Both parts of a compound sentence must have a subject and a predicate (verb).
Sentences: Tida spilled peanut sauce on her sister's special sash.
Tida washed out the stain.
Combined A: Tida spilled peanut sauce on her sister's special sash, but she washed out the stain.
Combined B: Tida spilled peanut sauce on her sister's special sash but washed out the stain.
A is a compound sentence because both parts contain a subject and a predicate. There is a comma separating the two independent clauses. B is still a simple sentence because the subject, she, has been removed.
Deeper Dive for Older Students - Or Stop Here if it's TMI
But wait! Isn't breathing a verb? What about washing?
Although washing could be considered a verb, in this context, it is part of the noun phrase, "the water washing away my mistakes."
A noun phrase is defined as a group of words that functions like a noun, including any words that describe the head noun, such as adjectives. A noun or noun phrase may be replaced by a pronoun (it, he, she, they, you, etc) without changing the meaning of the sentence.
Washing helps to describe which water we are talking about. It's not the sewer water, the ocean water, or even the water in my glass. It's "the water washing away my mistakes." How do we know this is a noun phrase and not an independent clause? The whole phrase could be replaced by the pronoun "it."
I think about it.
Also, note that the phrase "the water washing away my mistakes" is NOT an independent clause because it cannot stand alone as a sentence.
Those Tricky Verbs
In my book, Story Frames for Teaching Literacy, the late William Van Cleave wrote an excellent chapter on "Function Trumps Form: Sentence Level Instruction." He discusses how, rather than categorizing specific words into parts of speech, we need to look at the function of the word in a sentence.
For the example of washing, observe how the word can represent different parts of speech:
1) Tida is washing out the stain. (verb - present participle with the helping verb is)
2) Bob put the pants in the washing machine. (adjective - to describe the type of machine)
3) Washing is hard work. (noun - gerund)
The Never-Ending Sentence Game
Note that a simple sentence can be quite long. The example in Combined B above contains the verb phrase "washed out the stain." Without the subject, it is just a phrase. With the subject, it would be a clause: "She washed out the stain."
This sentence also contains the prepositional phrase "on her sister's special sash." A simple sentence may contain any number of phrases (noun, prepositional, verbal) as long as it only has one independent clause (subject + predicate combination).
For fun, use the illustration above and add as many prepositional phrases as possible to create a ridiculously long sentence.
Example: Tida washed the sash with the water in the bucket on the grass next to her mother in the backyard during the Thai New Year in April...
Complex Sentences
In my next blog post, I will share a truly "simple" activity for creating complex sentences. But wait! Can a complex sentence writing activity actually be less complex than our exploration of simple sentences above? Yes, and I will show you how.
Remember the complex sentence - Tida washed the sash because it was dirty.
Compare that sentence to our never-ending sentence above, and stay tuned for my next activity.
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