1st Annual National Punctuation Day Celebration 2009

"Near the end of this past summer, I went on an internet exploration, hunting for more interactive ways to teach punctuation than I had used in the past; I didn’t want to bore my students for the third year in-a-row with a quarter-long unit on period and comma usage. In the process of this research, I found an article about a sparsely-recognized national holiday: National Punctuation Day. I did a bit of brainstorming and decided to celebrate this holiday with the 8th grade English class.

Each student chose a partner for the festivity. Each group was then assigned a piece of punctuation (the “guests of honor”). What did they do with their guest of honor? They defined it, and wrote an example of a sentence in which it was used correctly. They gave an “interesting fact or detail” about it, and brought in an edible item that was shaped just like it. We had half-donuts and cashews for the comma; blow pops for the exclamation mark; cookies for the colon; and cupcakes with frosted punctuation… the list go on. Needless to say, the students were feeling a little on the sick side as they rolled on to their next classes. I also promised extra credit to students who wore an article of clothing that was decorated with their punctuation. (My personal favorite would have to be the socks with gum-drop dots for ellipses around the cuff—thank you, Zach Smith!) Overall, the First Annual National Punctuation Day outsoared my expectations and I cannot wait until the 2nd Annual National Punctuation Day celebration! (written by Mrs. Wojczynski)

More Pictures from our day ... , ( ) ; " : - {} [ ] ! -- .