Punctuation: Commas

Age

6

Materials

• Set B: Used to illustrate commas. It is constructed as for Set A. (As presented on Punctuation: Capital Letters and Periods).
  

Preparation

This is an individual presentation.

Presentation

1. Bring the child’s attention to the commas by saying: “I see two little red marks. These are called ‘commas’. Can you say comma?”
2. Have the child read the sentence. Bring to the child’s attention that the sentence is very long.
3. Tell the child that commas tell us to pause just for a short breath by saying: “Sometimes in a very long sentence, we have to stop to take a breath. And we can take our breath whenever we see a comma.”
4. Have the child read the sentence with these pauses.
5. Bring the child’s attention to the words that come between the two comas. Tell the child that the words between the commas give us additional information.
6. Tell the child that we can read the sentence without the words between the commas.
7. Read the sentence without the words between the commas.
8. Tell the child that although it makes sense, the words between the commas give us some additional information that helps us understand the sentence a little better.
9. Have the child read the sentence again.
10. Read all of the cards before putting them away.
11. Take out the second set of cards.
12. Lay out the commas in a row.
13. Take one sentence at a time, help the child conversationally place each punctuation mark where needed.
14. Have the child check his work against the first set.
    

Control Of Error

The sentence written with the correct punctuation written in red.

Purpose

• To make the child aware of basic sentence punctuation.
• To help the child write and read.