Commas in a Series Lesson Plan


Grade: 3rd
Time:  50 minutes
Subject/Topic: Language Arts/ Commas in a series
Standard:
Objective: Students will be able to insert commas in a series correctly.
Materials:
·         Smartboard Notebook Lesson on commas
·         “I have who has” Chicken Sunday cards
·         White construction paper
·         Markers/Pencil
Introduction: Have the students sit on the floor in front of the smartboard. Ask the students if they have ever played the game “I have who has.” Tell the students they are going to play it with the theme of the story Chicken Sunday.
Procedure:
1.      Pass out the Chicken Sunday cards to every student.
2.      Choose one student to read their card and if another one has it, they will read their card.
3.      This will continue on until all the cards have been called.
4.      If the students want to play it two times then you can shuffle the cards and hand them out again.
5.      Have the students hand back their cards to the teacher and sit in front of the smartboard.
6.      Open the smartboard to the first slide and read what commas in a series mean.
7.      On the third slide, ask the students where you should put commas. “This story is about Easter eggs and candy” if they only put one comma, tell them that this sentence could actually be about three things (Easter, eggs, and candy).
8.      Keep going through the slides reading off the sentences and having volunteers tell you where to put the commas. When you get to the last sentence on the smartboard pages, have a student come up and drag a comma from the blue star in the correct spot.
9.      After you finish the smartboard lesson, tell the students that they are going to be making their own restaurant menu. Tell them to remember back when they did this in Junior Achievement.
10.  Tell the students that they will need to plan for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Make sure the students only include three food items at each meal. Tell them to use their commas correctly when writing their menu.
11.  Hand out white construction paper to all the students.
12.  Tell them they can decorate it with markers however they want to.
13.  If time permits, have some students share their menu to the class.

Closure: Today we learned about commas in a series and next time we will do more activities with them.
Assessment: Have the students turn in their restaurant menus.
Management/Transitions: Students will sit on the floor quietly then transition to their desks. Students will be seated in an appropriate spot, not by their friends to disturb the class. Management techniques will include “Give me five,” ringing a bell, and clapping.
Considerations:
·         Students that are low readers will need to have the smartboard sentences read out loud to them.
·         Low readers could need help reading their “I have who has” cards.
Adaptations:
Lower level learners will be guided in the class discussion by their peers and partners.
Higher level learners could make restaurant menus with 4 or 5 items instead of 3, challenging them to put commas in the correct spots.