EdPlace's Year 2 Home Learning English Lesson: Punctuation

Looking for short lessons to keep your child engaged and learning? Our experienced team of teachers have created English, maths and science lessons for the home, so your child can learn no matter where they are. And, as all activities are self-marked, you really can encourage your child to be an independent learner.

Get them started on the lesson below and then jump into our teacher-created activities to practice what they've learnt. We've recommended five to ensure they feel secure in their knowledge - 5-a-day helps keeps the learning loss at bay (or so we think!).

Are they keen to start practising straight away? Head to the bottom of the page to find the activities.

Now...onto the lesson!

Key Stage 1 Statutory Requirement for English

Year 2 students learn how to use full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, question marks, commas for lists and apostrophes for contracted forms and the possessive (singular).

Inverted comma or speech marks?

There is a range of punctuation that children learn throughout primary school, and by the end of Key Stage 1, they are expected to be confident in using 6 different punctuation marks. This lesson will look in more detail at what these punctuation marks are and when and how to use them correctly. Read on to find out more.

We're sure that if you follow this article through, your child will be able to:

1) Understand the different punctuation marks and know when to use them

2) Apply a range of punctuation to their own writing correctly

3) Explain if they spot a mistake and how to correct it

Step 1 - What do we already know?

In Year 1, the main punctuation focus is on using capital letters at the beginning of sentences and full stops at the end. It’s super important to keep working on these throughout year 2 and the rest of primary school alongside learning some new punctuation marks as well.

Full stops can be easily forgotten, particularly when we’re in the ‘flow’ or writing and just want to get all of our ideas on paper. If this is something your child finds tricky, ask them to read their writing back and whenever they pause to take a breath, that’s where a full stop should probably go! It’s also useful to point out full stops (and other punctuation marks) when you’re reading together, to help your child get used to seeing them!

Capital letters are easier once we remember full stops – they just come straight after! As we will learn below, there are also other occasions where capital letters are necessary.

Step 2 - What are the different punctuation marks and what do they do?

So, what punctuation do we need to be using in Year 2? Let’s have a look at the table below:

As you look at each mark, can you practise drawing it – maybe in the air or on the back of your hand?

Mark	What's it called?	When do we use it?
A	Capital letter	At the beginning of every sentence and for proper nouns (names of people, places, days of the week etc). My name is Ben. I live in England with my sister, Emily.
.	Full stop	At the end of a statement. Statements are sentences which tell us something, so most sentences end with a full stop. I went swimming with my friends today. I am going to have pizza for dinner.
?	Question mark	At the end of a question. A question is a sentence that asks something. How are you today? How would you like to go to the park?
!	Exclamation mark	At the end of an exclamation, or to show something exciting or loud. I'm so excited for my birthday! What a beautiful day!
,	Comma	To separate items in a list. At the zoo I saw lions, giraffes, hippos and penguins. At the shop I bought fruit, vegetables, milk, chocolate and juice. We use commas to separate all items in a list except for the last 2, which are usually separated by and.
'	Apostrophe	In contractions – where two words are formed to make one. The apostrophe goes in place of the missing letters. Don't, can't, wouldn't, we'll, they're ... and to demonstrate possession. The apostrophe goes after the name and before the s to show something belongs to them. I went to Sarah's house. I am playing with Max's toys.

Step 3 - Punctuation Inside the Inverted Commas

Have a look at the sentences below and see what you can spot. Can you talk about why each punctuation mark is there? If you’re unsure, check the table above for the reasons!

Step 4 - Spot the mistakes!

Hopefully, you’re feeling more confident now with using a range of punctuation – the sentences below have been written but there are mistakes! Can you find the mistakes and rewrite the sentences correctly?

Look out – some sentences have more than one mistake!

1) did you have a nice day

2) I didnt want to go to bed so I read a book

3) at the party I ate sandwiches crisps sweets and cake.

4) im so excited to see my friends tomorrow

5) I love playing with sarahs toys.

6) On wednesday Im going to my granny’s house

7) I’m going to the shop to buy clothes shoes and socks

8) We’re excited to go on holiday to france

Step 5 - Activity time

We hope your child is feeling more confident with punctuation! If so, now is the perfect time for you to put them to the test. Here are some activities which will help to consolidate their learning. We recommend doing them in this order so that the learning builds progressively.

All activities are created by teachers and automatically marked. Plus, with an EdPlace subscription, we can automatically progress your child at a level that's right for them. Sending you progress reports along the way so you can track and measure progress, together - brilliant!

Activity 1 - Know Your Apostrophes: Possession and Contraction

Activity 2 - Punctuation: Statement and Questions

Activity 3 - Revise Basic Sentence Punctuation

Activity 4 - Revise Capital Letters in Sentences 1

Activity 5 - Use Commas in Lists

Answers

1) Did you have a nice day?

2) I didn’t want to go to bead so I read a book.

3) At the party I ate sandwiches, crisps, sweets and cake.

4) I’m so excited to see my friends tomorrow!

5) I love playing with Sarah’s toys.

6) On Wednesday I’m going to my granny’s house.