What to do with this activity?
The comma is a punctuation mark that is used in sentences. It is like a pause in speaking, and helps the meaning. A comma can make a lot of difference. For instance, look at these two sentences.
1) "John likes boxing his little brother and football."
2) "John likes boxing, his little brother, and football."
The first one sounds as if John likes boxing his little brother! The comma rescues the meaning.
So when do we use commas? Here are some of the important rules:
1) To separate items in a list. For example "John enjoys swimming, boxing, football, and hurling."
2) To separate different parts of a sentence that have a subject and verb of their own, known as clauses. For example, "The dog barked at first, but then it became friendly."
3) Where a phrase gives you some additional information. For example, "John, who is 14 years old, likes football."
If you would like to read more, have a look at this link from The School Run.
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Why am I doing this?
Writing is like a muscle – the more your child practises it the stronger their writing ability will become. Your child is also more likely to write about things they like or are interested in – writing is a way to express yourself and using writing in this way can be more meaningful to a child. Word searches and crosswords can help with pattern recognition and spelling, and help build vocabulary and spelling.
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How can I do more?
Give your child lots of opportunities to write - notes, birthday cards, emails or text messages. Encourage your child to make and write their own books about something they are interested in, for example, cars, dinosaurs, fairies or dogs. They can draw or stick in their own pictures.
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