Language Conventions Using Commas to Separate Items in

Language Conventions Using Commas to Separate Items in a List Year One Language Conventions | Using Comma to Separate Items in a List

Using Commas to Separate Items in a List

Using Commas to Separate Items in a List Introductory Activity Independent Focused Activity Review Activity Consolidation Activity Assessment

Aim • Help readers by separating items in a list with commas. Success Criteria • I can find and count commas. • I can write my own commas. • I can use commas instead of ‘and’ when writing a list. • I can use commas only where they are needed.

Introductory Activity

What is a List? Lets play Grandmother’s Attic – a list game. (Play in small groups or as a class. ) 1. The first player says, "In my grandmother's attic, I found (name something that starts with “a”). 2. The next player says the same phrase, repeats the object beginning with the “a” and then something that begins with a “b”. 3. The game continues. with each player reciting the previous items and adding another, all the way through the alphabet to “z”. 4. If a player makes a mistake, they could be eliminated or lose a life. For example: Player 1: In my grandmother’s attic I found an abacus. Player 2: In my grandmother’s attic I found an abacus and a box kite. Player 3: In my grandmother’s attic I found an abacus, a box kite and a coat hanger.

What is a List? A comma looks like this: You need to know how to write one! Draw a line on a piece of paper and draw a massive comma at one side of it. Move along your line drawing your comma smaller each time, until it is the size of your normal handwriting.

What is a List? Commas are one of the most commonly used punctuation marks in English. A comma tells a reader to take a short pause when they are reading but not as long as a full stop. Practise reading out loud with the following paragraph, thinking about what to do when you reach a full stop or a comma. The parrot was bright, blue and beautiful. He had green wings, a silver beak and yellow feet.

Commas vs Full Stops Comma hunt – pick a page of your reading book and see how many commas you can count. Which are there more of commas or full stops? Commas Full Stops Read the words in your head – can you pause in the right places for the right amount of time? Commas have lots of uses in English - today we will be looking at how commas are used to separate items on a list.

What is a List? A list is a collection of items, words or phrases. Can you think of any occasions when we use lists? When we use lists in our writing, we need to turn them into full sentences. • • Could you get to the end of the sentence without running out of breath? Did the sentence sound nice or have a boring rhythm to it? We could do this using ‘and’ to link all of the items together but there are problems with this. Read the list below out loud: Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like a bike and a laptop and a dog and a horse and a teddy bear and a building brick set and a pencil sharpener and a trumpet.

Commas to the Rescue! Replacing the ‘and’s with commas will give your reader a pause for breath and give your sentence much more character. Always use ‘and’ just before the last item in the list, to finish your sentence correctly! Try this example: The superhero wore a cape, and gloves , and a mask and boots. The superhero wore a cape, gloves, a mask and boots.

Independent Focused Activity

I would like to go shopping, for, some, trousers, a, top, some, joggers, and, a, cap. Don’t use too many!

Commas to the Rescue! Work independently to complete the ‘Commas to the Rescue’ sheet. Replace the ‘and’s with commas, to save the sentences. Don’t forget that there needs to be just one ‘and’. This needs to be just before the last item in the list.

Review Activity

Create Your Own List Choose a sentence starter or roll a dice to pick one: 1. In my lunch box I have… 2. My favourite things are… 3. If I won a million dollars I would buy… 4. Yesterday my dog ate… 5. For my birthday I was given… 6. When I looked in the teacher’s drawer, I saw… Shuffle the Review Activity List Cards and turn over three in a row to finish the sentence. Everyone writes down the list sentence into their notebooks, using commas in the right places!

Consolidation Activity

Shopping Lists Look at the Shopping Lists Activity Sheet and complete the list sentences to match the pictures.

Assessment

Shopping Lists Use all of the information you have learnt and practised about using commas to write lists. Work on your own to complete the Mini Test.

Sentences of Three Use all of the information you have learnt about using commas to write lists. Work on your own to complete the Application Activity.

Aim • Help readers by separating items in a list with commas. Success Criteria • I can find and count commas. • I can write my own commas. • I can use commas instead of ‘and’ when writing a list. • I can use commas only where they are needed.