Play a game to assign the proper punctuation. Separate your classroom into four groups to represent the types of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. Give each group a large poster showing the appropriate punctuation mark for their sentence type. Call out a sample sentence for each type of sentence. Tell the classroom which type of sentence it is and explain the type of ending punctuation the sentence type always receives.
To play, read aloud a sentence. Have the students raise their hands if they know which type, declarative, imperative, interrogative, or exclamatory, it is. The group that gets it right should also hold up their punctuation sign. Read the sentence again so that the entire class hears the answer. The group with the most correct answers should win a prize.
Create a worksheet for the students to use that allows them to create a Mad Libs-style story. Leave some of the nouns and adjectives blank, and create blank spaces for punctuation as well.
Pair each student up with a partner. Have one child call out the missing parts of speech and punctuation marks. The other student should provide the answers to fill in. When done, the first child should read the pair's worksheet in front of the class. Have the student explain the ending punctuation that was used and how the story might have changed had other ending punctuation been used. Send the students back to their pairs at least once more so that each child can have a turn.
Create a worksheet for your students, with some sentences that are missing the subject and some that are missing the predicate. Indicate the classification of each sentence below.
Have them fill in the missing sentence part and add ending punctuation. Tell the students that you want them to make their sentences as silly as possible, but that the ending punctuation must be correct for the type of sentence indicated on the worksheet. Grade them according to agreement with ending punctuation.
Separate your children into pairs. Provide each child with a stack of ending punctuation, with a size similar to playing cards. Each child should have at least 5 cards, with a mix of ending punctuations. As in foreign language classes, have the children carry on a conversation together, using the cards to determine each sentence spoken.
If the first child holds up an exclamation point, the other child must say an exclamatory sentence next. This ends the turn for the second child. The second child should then hold up his card that might be a question mark. Now the first child must use an interrogative sentence in his turn. Allot sufficient time for the activity to make sure each child gets at least 10 turns. Since a period is used in both declarative sentences and imperative sentences, the child can decide which of those to use when a period is presented.
Have your children sit in a circle on the floor. Pass an object around as you play music. When the music stops, the child holding the object must make up a sentence, according to your chosen sentence classification. If you have chosen imperative as the sentence type, the child holding the object when the music ends must make up a sentence that ends with a period and is imperative in nature.
If one of the children stumbles over a sentence type, take the time to help her without criticism. Continue the activity until each child has had a turn and each sentence type has been covered numerous times.