National Punctuation Day: September 24th

www.someecards.com



National Punctuation Day is on September 24th. Punctuation is a skill that needs to be taught in school according to the CCSS ELA Literacy Standard L.2.2. Literacy research has demonstrated that students need to learn about grammar in the context of real reading and writing (Learning at the Primary Pond, 2015).

When I was taking a college grad. class, I developing a lesson plan with a team of fellow students. I still use the lesson with my students on National Punctuation Day. It is a lot of fun, and it focuses on important skills that the students can then utilize the rest of the year. Please feel free to use or adapt the lesson to best suit your class. Also, on Twitter, please share with others what you do in your classroom to celebrate National Punctuation Day.

Thank you Education.Com for the free Worksheet and Answer Key. Punctuation can't take a vacation with us around! Please check out Education.com for more exciting language arts worksheets and activities like this!

Don't Let Punctuation Take Vacation

Objective: Students will be able to recognize when to use a period, exclamation point, and question mark. Students will be able to recognize the importance of starting a sentence with a capital letter.

 

Standard: CCSS ELA Literacy Standard L.2.2.

 

Materials: Punctuation Takes a Vacation By: Robin Pulver Illustrated By: Lynn Rowe Reed, 3 Shirts (One shirt draw periods on the shirt, One shirt draw exclamation points on the shirt, and One shirt draw question marks on the shirt), Power Point Introduction, Worksheet and Answer Key, and Student Journals. 

 



Assessment: Writing Journals- Select a writing passage to check for proper use of punctuation and capitalizations.

Procedure:
1. Introduce the different kinds of sentences and punctuation marks. Select 3 volunteers. Have the volunteers wear the punctuation shirts. Show the PowerPoint. Talk about it as a class. As a class come up with a hand motion and sound that represents the different punctuation marks.
2. Read aloud Punctuation Takes a Vacation By: Robin Pulver Illustrated By: Lynn Rowe Reed
3. I display the last slide of the Power Point on the projector. We talk about how it is confusing to read something that does not include punctuation or capitalizations. We correct it together as a class. We use the hand signs and sounds when we read through the corrected sentences.
4.We are a 1:1 school with ipads so I have the students open the worksheet that I post in Schoology. Then the students annotate on the document using PDF Cabinet. I put the students in partners to practice completing the worksheet. We go over it as a class. We use the punctuation sounds and hand motions at the end of the sentences too.
5. Students are encouraged to apply what they learned to a passage in their writer's notebook. Later, I collect the journals to check to see if the students mastered the use of punctuation and capitalization.