Understanding Narrative Paragraphs
In a narrative paragraph, you tell a story about a personal experience. You try to pull your readers into the story and keep them wondering what will happen next. Be sure to include specific details to make your experience come to life.
Read a narrative paragraph.
Note how the author catches your interest in the topic sentence, describes the event, creates suspense, and closes the paragraph.
Listen to "Climbing Contest"
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Topic Sentence Last Tuesday, I invited Danny, Julio, Renatta, and Mishiko to ride over to climb my favorite oak tree. We’ve all climbed the tree together before, but this time we decided to see who could climb the highest. Julio and Renatta climbed a little bit higher than usual, and I climbed almost to the end of one huge limb. Body SentencesMishiko climbed even higher than I did, but Danny won our little contest. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize how high he had climbed, until he looked down. He froze. He clung to the limb he was on and was afraid to climb down. What if he had to stay up in the tree all night? Renatta took off on her bike to tell her mom. Her mom called the fire department, and before long, an engine—with sirens blasting—arrived to rescue Danny. Ending Sentence It was very exciting, but we also learned a lesson about climbing contests.