Punctuation Games

 

            Today's Snack: Next time you go to a health foods store, you should be able to buy just one or a handful of the following kinds of nuts and seeds. They make a great snack with a glass of milk:

 

Almonds

 

Brazil nuts

 

Cashews

 

Chestnuts

 

Filberts

 

Flax seeds

 

Macadamia nuts

 

Peanuts

 

Pecans

 

Hickory nuts

 

Pine nuts

 

Pistachios

 

Pumpkin seeds

 

Sesame seeds

 

Sunflower seeds

 

Walnuts

 

Black walnuts / butternuts

 

 

 

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Supplies:

 

At least one of several of the nuts and seeds listed above

A favorite book

Paper or cardstock

Scissors

 

 

 

Here are three games that give great practice on using punctuation marks properly:

 

 

 

1. Nuts and Seeds

 

·         Print out the symbols, below, so that they show up well on a page or two.

 

·         Put a different nut or seed under each of those punctuation symbols.

 

·         Get one of your favorite books.

 

·         Get someone else to read it aloud.

 

·         That person should stop every time there's a punctuation mark.

 

·         That's your cue to lift up the nut or seed that represents the missing punctuation mark, and say, "I'm NUTS about writing right!"

 

 

 

2. Cue Cards

 

·         Print out these punctuation marks onto paper or cardstock.

 

·         Cut them into flash cards.

 

·         Give them to another person, perhaps your parent or your child. When you read aloud and come to one of these punctuation symbols, pause.

 

·         Look up at the other person to cue him or her that it's time to hold up the card with the punctuation mark that should go there.

 

·         Then trade places. Let the other person read aloud to YOU, and YOU hold up the right card when your child pauses.

 

           

 

 

3. Crazy Conversation

 

·         For another game using these cards: print out two sets and cut them apart into cards.

 

·         Now carry on a conversation with your parent, or another child, only as you speak, you have to hold up the punctuation mark that fits what you are saying.

 

·         So if you ask a question, at the end of it, you have to hold up the question mark. Or if you finish a sentence, hold up the period.

 

·         See how long you can carry on a conversation this way. It's a little maddening, but it'll pay off in making your mark as a master of punctuation.

 

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