Commas has been on our class schedule for multiple days and each day it got pushed because something ran long. While commas are important and do have their value, as we know we often run out of time in any given school day. Anyways – the kids were excited because we finally, finally, finally got to talk about commas the other day.
Now, there are many different times we need commas and it can be a bit overwhelming. To start, we watched the Brainpop Jr. (maybe it was Brainpop) video about commas. Moby is always entertaining and the kids enjoy learning along with him.
After watching the video, we started a class anchor chart about commas. As I mentioned there are many times to use commas, but to make it a little less overwhelming on Day 1 we focused on three specific times. On the anchor chart, we talked about using commas for the date, between city and state, and when listing items or events. I put up each instance and we also came up with an example or two that matched that situation.
Then, since we were running out of time again and almost late for library, I gave a quick exit ticket type assignment. I had students go back to their seats and write down a sentence using commas as a list on their white board. I wanted something that would be quick, but also something that I could do a quick check that would be a formative assesment.
It went great! The kids wrote their sentences and headed to library. While they were at library I went around to see if they understood how to use commas correctly in a list and almost all of them did. Then, they returned from library and their sentences out with their table group.
So super quick, easy way to introduce commas and a great way to do a quick check for understanding.
If you’re looking for more comma practice, check out my Grammar Fix-It Commas product.
Grammar Skills Included:
• Commas separating single words, capitals, and end marks
• Commas separating cities and dates, capitals, and end marks
• Commas used in introductory phrases, capitals, and end marks
• Commas used in compound sentences, capitals, and end marks
• All types of commas, capitals, end marks, and apostrophes (possessive nouns and contractions)
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