Using full stops

Part of EnglishPunctuationYear 1

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Watch: How to use capital letters and full stops

When we write sentences, we always use a capital letter at the start and and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark when we end a sentence.

We also use capital letters for I and for proper nouns (the names of people, places, languages, days of the week and countries).

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Watch: Capital letters and full stops

At the end of a sentence we put punctuation.

This is usually a full stop but can also be a question mark or exclamation mark, depending on the type of sentence.

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Activity 1

Play the 'Punctuation' mini game on Small Town Superheroes.

Use the yellow arrows to navigate to the Ernie section to find the Punctuation game, then choose Full stops.

If you can, open the game in a new tab. You can do this by right clicking on the window and selecting 'open link in new tab'.

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Activity 2

Next you are going to watch a video about a book called Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate.

Before watching the video, write one sentence explaining what you think it might be about. Remember to use a capital letter at the start and a full stop at the end.

Once you've written your sentence, watch the video below.

An illustration of a young boy thinking.

Actress Anjli Mohindra reads extracts from 'Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate' by Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler.

Now you've watched the video and you know what the story is about, look back on your sentence - how close were you to guessing correctly?

Now, write two more sentences that would describe the story to someone who doesn't know it. Don't forget your capital letters and full stops!

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An illustration of a young girl dressed as a pirate with a parrot on her shoulder.

Activity 3

Create a list of words that you would associate with pirates. Here are some to get you started:

  • eye-patch
  • skull and cross bones
  • parrot

Once you've made your list, try writing three sentences about pirates using words from your list. Make sure you use capital letters and full stops.

Here are some examples:

  • Some pirates wear an eye-patch over one of their eyes.
  • A pirate flag usually has a skull and cross bones on it.
  • A parrot can sit on the shoulder of a pirate.
An illustration of a young girl dressed as a pirate with a parrot on her shoulder.
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