How to teach punctuation to first graders
Each day, the students practice punctuation with two daily editing sentences. Some teachers put sentences on a board and have the students correct and write the sentences in a notebook or on a piece of paper. In my classroom, I used to use daily editing papers from a book, but then to follow the Montessori Method better, I created my own editing pages for first, second, and third grade. There are 36 weeks for each grade level. Each page is for one week. It has Monday through Friday on it and each day has 2 sentences to edit. The students usually complete this work first, because it is the work in my classroom they need to complete before eating snack, so that way I know that they are practicing their punctuation, handwriting, and spelling each and every day. The students have to show me the sentences so I can see that they have edited them correctly. They also read them to me, so it is an extra way to practice reading. You can access these editing sentences for free at my Montessori Resources hub at the link below. You can also edit these sentences so that they work for your class.
Before a new concept comes up on the editing sheets, I will have a group with the students about the new punctuation topic.
The first month: weeks 1-4:
We focus on putting a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and a period at the end. The words are mostly short vowel words or blends at this point, but I do throw in some more difficult words so that I can challenge the students. Obviously, some first graders are more advanced, so if it is too easy for them to read, that is okay, because I am trying to isolate the difficulty of capitalizing the first letter and putting a period at the end.
Week 5-12:
I introduce the question mark. From week 5 through 12, they still practice the capital letter at the beginning of the sentences and then having to choose if they use a period at the end of the sentence. Obviously now all year they have to capitalize the beginning of the sentence and decide between period and question marks.
Week 13-17:
I introduce that months, days of the week, and names of people need to be capitalized. At first I only put the people’s names at the beginning of the sentence, so they would have to capitalize it anyway because they have to at the beginning of sentences. So from weeks 13-17 they are practicing everything from the weeks before, put the capitalization of days and months.
Week 18:
I introduce capitalization of names are added into other points in the sentences. Also at week 18, I introduce apostrophes in contractions. Many first graders take all year to remember this skill, but I still like to introduce it and make sure they have a strong foundation, even if I have to remind them add in the apostrophe each time.
Week 19 and beyond:
By week 19, I would have already told them that the letter i needs to be capitalized when it is referring to yourself, but now I start to add them into the middle of sentences, so that the realize it needs to be capitalized anywhere it is in the sentence.
At week 20, I introduce the exclamation point. Since exclamations points are optional at the end of the sentences in writing, since you could technically just use a period, if the sentence wasn’t clear, I like to use sentences like “Oh (add the exclamation point, then on the editing sentence paper, the next letter is capitalized for them already, so that they realize that after an exclamation point, or any other punctuation for that matter, they need to make a capital letter.
The rest of the school and weeks through week 36, the editing sheets I have created just have the practicing on repeat all the punctuation skill I have mentioned above. The words get more challenging at the year progresses.
If you want the free first grade editing sheets, join the free Montessori Resources hub I have created and many resources for Lower Elementary Montessori Classrooms.