“Comma” ‘Round to Correct Punctuation

Could your child use a little extra practice with how to use punctuation correctly in her writing or homework assignments? Try this fun Comma Catcher activity to help your kids learn how and when to use commas correctly. (Especially great activity for scrapbookers!)

Activity


Make a scrapbook of examples of five special uses of commas to help your child enjoy developing a solid consciousness of these everyday basics of comma use: separating in addresses, dates, letter greetings and closing, and direct addresses.

Materials

• A few pieces of mail
• Child-safe scissors
• Paper
• Paste or tape
• Colored pencils or markers

Directions

1. Collect envelopes, and cut off and save any parts of letters you receive that include any address, date, greeting, closing, or use of direct address. (Finally, a great use for junk mail!)




2. Talk with your child about how commas are needed in writing to help people understand addresses, dates and direct addresses. Have her say what town and state she lives in, and point out how we make a little pause between the town and state to make clear that they are the names of two places. Say the date (day, month, year), then ask her where she heard the pauses and why they were there.
   
   
   
   

   Give her one of your mail samples and have her find the commas used in the addresses and dates.

3. Talk about the other special places commas appear in the mail – in the greeting and the closing. Point out how these indicate a pause in how we would say those parts of the letter out loud. Talk about how commas are also used to separate the name of a person being directly spoken to. Of course, the greeting is a special example of direct address. If there is no other example in the letter, you can insert your name to show your child how direct address works.
   
   
   
   

   Have your child write each of the five kinds of places for commas on the top of a piece of paper. Encourage her to use whatever words she wants for these headings as long as there is one each for:

   • Commas in dates
   • Commas in addresses
   • Commas in greetings
   • Commas in closings
   • Commas in direct address




4. Using scissors and paste or tape, your child can cut up the letters and envelopes to put as many examples as possible of each use of commas. Supply extra paper as needed. She can mark each example in color and decorate the pages as well.

What other activities do you use to help your child practice punctuation for writing and reading assignments?