A Brief Overview of Brush Strokes

Core Sentence Write a simple sentence on the top half of your paper. Draw a simple picture illustrating your picture.

The girl jumped.

#1: Painting with absolute phrases (peach strip) Simple definition: a noun + an “-ing” verb Example: “pigtails bouncing” New sentence: Pigtails bouncing, the girl jumped.

Simple definition: a noun that renames the noun before it (use and article – the, an, a – to be sure it is an appositive) Example: “a bubbly seven year old” New Sentence Pigtails bouncing, the girl, a bubbly seven year old, jumped. #2 Painting with appositives (yellow strip)

#3: Painting with participles and participial phrases (orange strip) Simple definition: Participle: “-ing” or “-ed” form of a verb; participial phrase: participle plus other words Example: “laughing wildly” New sentence Pigtails bouncing, laughing wildly, the girl, a bubbly seven year old, jumped.

#4: Painting with prepositional phrases (purple strip) Simple definition: a phrase with an introductory “direction, time, space” word Example: “in a field of flowers” New sentence In a field of flowers, pigtails bouncing, laughing wildly, the girl, a bubbly seven year old, jumped.

#5: Painting with adjectives out of order (blue strip) Simple definition: placing adjectives somewhere other than before the noun Example: “free and wild” New sentence In a field of flowers, pigtails bouncing, laughing wildly, the girl, a bubbly seven year old, free and wild, jumped.

#6: Painting with action verbs (pink strip) Simple rule: use strong action verbs Example: “leapt” New sentence In a field of flowers, pigtails bouncing, laughing wildly, free and wild, the girl, a bubbly seven year old, leapt.

The girl jumped.