Year 1 English · Key Stage 1 · Writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation

Year 1 punctuation: capitals for names, days and ‘I’

Punctuation is how writing shows where a sentence starts, where it ends and what kind it is. In Year 1, children begin to punctuate their sentences with a capital letter at the start and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark at the end. They also learn which words need a capital letter: names of people and places, days of the week and the word “I”. Teachers use simple grammar words to talk about their writing.

Capitals for names, days and I, explained

A sentence is a group of words that makes sense on its own. In writing, it begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark. Most sentences end with a full stop, the small dot that tells a reader the sentence has finished. Children are taught to check every sentence they write for these two things. At first they often remember one but forget the other, and the aim in Year 1 is to begin to do it, not to do it perfectly every time.

Not every sentence ends with a full stop. A question mark is used at the end of a sentence that asks something, such as “Where is my coat?”. An exclamation mark is used for a sentence that shows strong feeling or surprise, such as “What a big dog!”. Children learn to choose the mark by thinking about what the sentence is doing: telling, asking, or exclaiming. They don’t need the formal names for these sentence types yet, which are taught later, but they do need to recognise a question and an exclamation when they say or read one.

The second part of the topic is knowing which words need a capital letter, besides the first word of a sentence. Year 1 children are taught to use capitals for the names of people (Amir, Grandma Jo), the names of places (London, Wales, the name of their street or school), the days of the week (Monday, Tuesday) and the word “I”, which is always written as a capital letter. These words keep their capital letter wherever they come in a sentence, at the start or in the middle.

Year 1 children are also introduced to the language for talking about writing, in line with the terms listed in the national curriculum for this year: letter, capital letter, word, singular, plural, sentence, punctuation, full stop, question mark and exclamation mark. Teachers use them naturally: “Can you find the capital letter in your sentence?” or “Which punctuation mark do we need here?” Using the same words at home, and explaining them simply, helps. Children also begin to use some features of Standard English in their writing, for example “we were” rather than “we was”.

Words your child will hear

Capital letter: A large letter used at the start of a sentence and for names, days and the word I.
Full stop: The dot at the end of a sentence that tells something.
Question mark: The mark ? at the end of a sentence that asks something.
Exclamation mark: The mark ! at the end of a sentence that shows strong feeling or surprise.
Punctuation: The marks we use in writing to show where sentences start and stop and what they mean.
Sentence: A group of words that makes sense on its own and begins with a capital letter.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 1, pupils should be taught to:

Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English appendix 2 by beginning to punctuate sentences using a capital letter and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark
Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English appendix 2 by using a capital letter for names of people, places, the days of the week, and the personal pronoun ‘I’
Use the grammatical terminology in English appendix 2 in discussing their writing

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: fixing the punctuation

Add the capital letters and punctuation: “on monday i went to bristol with sam” and “what a fun day”.

Read the first sentence aloud and listen for where it stops. It stops after “Sam”, so that is where the full stop will go.
Start with a capital letter. The first word “on” becomes “On”.
Check for names and days. “Monday” is a day of the week, so it needs a capital M. “Bristol” is a place and “Sam” is a person, so they both need capitals too.
Check the word “I”. The word I is always a capital letter, so “i” becomes “I”.
Add the full stop after “Sam”. The sentence tells us something, so a full stop is right.
Read the second sentence. “What a fun day” shows strong feeling rather than telling a plain fact, so it begins with a capital and ends with an exclamation mark. A sentence that asked something, such as “Did Sam have fun?”, would end with a question mark instead.

On Monday I went to Bristol with Sam. What a fun day! Every sentence starts with a capital, the day, place, person and I have capitals, and each sentence ends with the right mark.

Common mistakes and how to help

Using a full stop at the end of every line, or none at all

Children often put a full stop where they run out of room on the line, or where they stopped for a rest, rather than where the idea ends. They may also not yet hear the end of a sentence in their own writing.

What helps: Read the writing aloud together and listen for where each idea is complete. Tap the table at each end. Put the full stop at that point, wherever it falls on the line.

Writing a lower-case ‘i’ for ‘I’

It looks like a small letter on its own, and young children write ‘i’ in words like “in” and “is”. They think it is a letter, not a word, so they do not see that it needs a capital.

What helps: Teach that “I” is a one-letter word that always stands up tall. Spot it in books and signs, and fix it together on the page each time it appears.

Putting capitals on random words, or on every noun

Children notice capitals on the names of things in picture books and signs, and some start to put them on words that feel important, like “Dog”, “Cake” or “Bike”.

What helps: Keep to the short list: the start of a sentence, names of people and places, days of the week and I. For now, if a word is not on the list, it usually uses a small letter.

Putting an exclamation mark everywhere, or using a question mark for a telling sentence

Exclamation marks look exciting and children enjoy using lots. Children also link the question mark with the idea of a question, so they may add one to a sentence that mentions a question without asking one, such as “I wonder who it was?”

What helps: Ask what the sentence is doing. If it asks something we expect an answer to, use a question mark. If it tells us, use a full stop. Save exclamation marks for strong feeling or surprise.

How to help at home

Punctuation detectives. Look at a page of a favourite picture book and find all the capital letters and full stops. Ask your child to spot a question mark or an exclamation mark and read the sentence aloud in the right voice.
Fix my sentence. Write a sentence with the capitals and full stop missing, such as “we went to the shop on tuesday”, and ask your child to fix it. Put in a mistake on purpose and see if they catch it.
Names and days. Write the names of family members, friends, pets and your town on cards, and the days of the week on a calendar. Check that each starts with a capital letter. Practising real names is more motivating than a worksheet.
Asking, telling or strong feeling? Say sentences in different voices and ask your child which mark would fit: “Where is my hat?”, “It is on the chair.”, “What a mess!” Then ask them to say a sentence for you to decide.
Reading with expression. When you read together, point out how your voice changes for each kind of sentence: it sounds like you are asking when there is a question mark, and it is stronger or more surprised when there is an exclamation mark. Reading with the punctuation helps children use it in their own writing.

Leads on to

Year 2: Punctuation and types of sentence
Year 2: Noun phrases, tenses and joining words