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3rd grade · English Language Arts · Unit 4 of 13

Punctuation Power

Commas, apostrophes and quotes

What your child practices

Choosing end marks, using commas in lists and dates, writing contractions and possessives with apostrophes, and putting quotation marks around speech.

Alaska content standards learning standard: L.3.2 · commas, apostrophes and quotation marks

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. End a statement with a period, a question with ?, and strong feeling with !
  2. Use commas between things in a list.
  3. An apostrophe takes the place of missing letters: do not → don’t. Quotation marks go around the exact words someone says.

Example: What is the contraction for “cannot”? Join the two parts: can + not. The apostrophe stands for the missing letters. Answer: can’t

Punctuation Power in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 4 of 13 in 3rd grade English Language Arts, after Word Jobs and before Spelling Patterns.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which sentence uses commas correctly?

    • We saw a moose, a heron, and two frogs.
    • We saw a moose a heron, and two frogs.
    • We saw a moose, a heron, and, two frogs.

  2. Question 2

    What is the contraction for “we are”?

    • w'ere
    • were
    • we're

  3. Question 3

    Which date is written correctly?

    • may 2, 2027
    • May, 2 2027
    • May 2, 2027

  4. Question 4

    Which sentence uses quotation marks correctly?

    • “Where are” my boots? asked Amir.
    • “Where are my boots? asked Amir.”
    • Where are my boots? “asked Amir.”
    • “Where are my boots?” asked Amir.

  5. Question 5

    Which sentence uses quotation marks correctly?

    • “Can I help you? asked Leo.”
    • “Can I help you?” asked Leo.
    • “Can I” help you? asked Leo.
    • Can I help you? “asked Leo.”

  6. Question 6

    Which end mark belongs in the box?

    Bats sleep during the day

    • .
    • ?
    • !

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