The Punctuation Police are in town! That’s right, we’re solving punctuation crime and catching those punctuation punks. My students loved walking into our classroom on Monday and seeing a total classroom transformation.
The classroom was filled with flashing lights, police hats, badges, and police tape. This activity is perfect for reinforcing the proper usage of end marks, and it is something your students will never forget! Oriental Trading has a number of police themed supplies to turn your classroom into a police headquarters! Let’s grab our supplies and catch those punctuation punks!
Supplies
– Bold & Blue Police Hats
– Police Car Photo Stand-Up
– Police Party Latex Balloons
– Police Party Light-Up Badges
– Police Badge Name Tag Stickers
– Police Party Hanging Swirls
– Child’s Black Robe
– Flashing Mini Blue Beacon Light
– Police Officer Craft Bulletin Board
– Punctuation Police TPT Bundle by Elizabeth Hall
The entrance to my classroom is one of my favorite parts! This Police Car Photo-Stand Up really brings this classroom transformation to life. I added police caution tape and a custom Punctuation Police Academy sign printed on heavy-duty outdoor vinyl from Vistaprint.
I setup my classroom with all of the supplies for our lesson on my red table in the back of the room. This includes small clipboards for each of my students, baskets filled with citations for my students to fill out, and mini blue beacon lights.
I created a punctuation bulletin board for my students to refer to as they are solving punctuation crime! These posters are part of Elizabeth Hall’s Punctuation Police Bundle on TeachersPayTeachers. The large exclamation point and question mark posters are from ReallyGoodStuff. The Police Party Latex Balloons from Oriental add that special touch to any classroom bulletin board!
Every student in my class had a bold and blue police hat sitting on their table when they entered the classroom. I created a coloring page for my students to work on while I took attendance and had my students order lunch.
The most important part of this lesson was explaining the different jobs. I had four different jobs: An officers, offenders, judges, and students finding punctuation punks that were hiding throughout the halls. I created this PowerPoint so my students would know exactly where they needed to go.
I had two baskets in back of my classroom filled with “Punctuation Citations.” If the child was a police officer they would head to the back of the classroom and grab a clipboard and a citation.
This is the setup that I had for my students when they entered the room. They were so excited to find out what they were doing and why the classroom was transformed into a police headquarters!
My students loved these police hats from Oriental Trading. They’re durable and a perfect size for my kindergarten students.
These police badge stickers are perfect for adding that special touch to any police officer’s uniform. What police officer is complete without a badge?
At each table I had a black waste basket full of laminated sentences. I found these black waste baskets at the Dollar Tree. Students were partnered together as one officer and one offender. The children would pick a sentence out of the waste basket and identify the improper use of an end mark on their citations.
After the officer and offender identify the improper use of an end mark on their sentence, they bring it to the judge tables located in the front of the classroom.
Here is a picture of my students hard at work solving punctuation crime! My students were so engaged as well. This lesson helped to reinforce this concept and my students worked together as a team to find those punctuation punks!
Here’s an officer hard at work! She’s about to take her citation back to her table and work with her offender to correct the sentence.
Here’s an offender and officer working diligently to identify the correct end mark that should be at the end of the sentence, “What time is it?”
As soon as the officer and offender fill out the citation, they bring their sentence and citation up to the judges. The judges determine if the offender and officer identified the correct end mark and take appropriate action.
If the judge finds that the officer and offender did not identify the correct end mark, they must sound the alarm and send the offender to “jail.” I designated my classroom library as my jail. The offender must stay in the library for one minute. The judges are in charge of stamping each citation with a “CONFIDENTIAL” stamp and placing it in the orange basket for filing.
A number of students explore the halls to find the punctuation punks. They must work together as a team to read the sentence and correct the end mark.
How cool are these police party light-up badges? My students loved that they flashed when pressed!
A day at the Punctuation Police Academy is not complete without a picture behind our police car photo stand-up. This lesson was perfect for reinforcing the concept of using the correct end mark at the end of each sentence and reviewing the different types of sentences. This is something that I hope my students will never forget!
Happy Patrolling,
