Materials for the lesson

A4 sheets, A3 sheets, pencils, tambourine or claves.

Layout of the classroom

Phase 1-2: the task will be performed in the classroom.

Phase 3-4: you should create an empty space inside the classroom.

Phase 1

The teacher introduces the topic with a nursery rhyme about punctuation: If I read all at once, I can’t catch the meaning. / In presence of a full stop I take a breath, / with a comma I stop just for a tiny break. / Guillemets and quotation marks seem so formal, because they report directly and respectfully what is said. / With the colon I make a list, so I don’t forget that for my cake I need flour, eggs and yeast. / Semicolons as you please, also writers don’t think about it. / Quotation marks are for questions, / while exclamation marks are perfect for strong answers. / In a hurry you can’t read in a nice and correct way, you should use your heart and excitement to keep high the level of concentration… you will become soon a champion in punctuation!

Then the teacher reads some sentences that change according to the punctuation used (“A difficult day to forget” vs. “A difficult day, to forget!”).

Phase 2

The teacher reads a short text that contains different punctuation marks with the children.

They choose together the main paragraphs of the text and divide them into sentences, giving a colour to each sentence. Each child will receive a part of sentence and will copy it on a A3 sheet. The teacher will draw punctuation marks on A4 sheets.

When everyone is done, the teacher collects all the sheets.

Phase 3

The teacher provides each child with a sheet (some children receive punctuation marks too). They have now to walk freely in the classroom listening to the rhythm of the tambourine/claves. When the music stops the children have to organize the sentences in the correct way using punctuation marks.

Phase 4

The teacher and the children speak about the activity. The children write down the sentences on their notebooks.