Commas in a Series

Here are some activities I have done recently to teach commas in a series. This seems to be a standard that spans many grade levels.

I made this cute anchor chart.  I recommend laminating it BEFORE you add your sentence. That way, if you use an erasable marker, you can change the sentence out periodically for a quick review. I also cut out the commas, and let the kids stick them on with tape. You could do this as part of a morning routine.

I love this book. It is one of my favorite books for introducing commas.

Next, we practiced placing missing commas in sentences using a modified Kagan Fan and Pick cooperative learning structure. I started by making these handy sentence cards. I copied them onto colored card stock and laminated them. Each table got a different color so I wouldn't have to worry about them getting mixed up.

I love using Fan and Pick with my students.  In groups of four, each student has a role. The steps are below:

Student #1- Fans the cards and says "Pick a card, any card!"
Student #2- Picks the card and reads the sentence as written.
Student #3- Uses a dry eraser marker to add the commas in a series.
Student #4- Checks and rereads the sentence with fluency.

If you want to check out the sentence cards, you can grab them here:

Check it out! It has the file contains the graphics for the anchor chart and 15 sentence cards. 

Happy punctuating!