“Mrs. Braun, you know that mark, it’s like a curve, I can’t remember what it’s called, but do I need to use one here?”
When kids get to second grade and they’re exposed to contractions, possessives, writing lists, dates, and more, they start to get really bamboozled about the difference between commas and apostrophes. They forget if it’s the mark that’s up high or the one that sits on the bottom line. Usually, they can’t even come up with the name of the mark they trying to ask a question about.
Here are two anchor charts to help them makes some sense out of it all:
The phrase “Up, apostrophe!” helps them remember that the apostrophe is the one that goes up high.
As a disclaimer, there are a lot of rules for commas that are not detailed here. This chart is for younger students that are just beginning to use commas.
Click on either picture to download these charts for free!
Thanks for stopping by!
Hannah Braun is a former teacher with 8 years of experience in the classroom and a master's degree in early childhood education. She designs engaging, organized classroom resources for 1st-3rd grade teachers.
