parentheses, dashes, fully planned and resourced lesson, brackets, semi-colons, games, US version

There are two useful resources here:
1. A carefully planned lesson about parentheses using dashes, exploring how different types of extra information can be added to a sentence. This includes a detailed lesson plan and 3 activities (the final one is a team game, with clear differentiation). All resources are included. The lesson covers these Year 5/Year 6 objectives:
I understand the terms dash and parenthesis/parentheses;
I can explain some uses for parentheses;
I can use parentheses creatively for lots of different purposes.
This is perfect for a demonstration lesson or an observed session. There is minimal ‘teacher talk’ and lots of active pupil engagement.

2. I have also included a further punctuation game: ‘Punctuation show-offs’.
I can use brackets, dashes (parentheses) and semi-colons in my sentences.
Would you like the writers in your class to be ‘punctuation show-offs’? Me too. I created this dice activity to encourage children to add extra information to sentences using parentheses (brackets and dashes) and also to separate closely related main clauses using semi-colons.

I have also provided teacher and - more importantly - child friendly explanations and examples of all concepts.

Children may incidentally find out about Usain Bolt, Picasso, Stephen Hawking and a 1000kg bowl of cereal. Have I caught your interest yet?

This whole activity has a ‘show-off’ theme and it’s fun. After playing this, you can remind your class to be ‘punctuation show-offs’ in their own writing.

Finally, I have added a ‘Victorian’ version of the same game, to show how it can be adapted to different themes.