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KS1 English · Writing sentences · Year 1

Capital letters and full stops

Every sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.

About 15 minutes

Step 1 · Wonder why it matters

Hook

Where does it stop?

Try reading this out loud without taking a breath: “the dog ran to the park he saw a duck the duck flew away”.

Tricky, isn't it? Capital letters and full stops show us where each sentence starts and stops, so we know when to pause.

Step 2 · See it

Picture

See a sentence

A sentence is like a sandwich. The capital letter is the top slice and the full stop is the bottom slice.

  1. Capital letter
  2. The words in the middle
  3. Full stop .
The dog ran to the park.

Step 3 · Understand how it works

Logic

The rules

Start every sentence with a capital letter.

End every sentence with a full stop.

The word “I” is always a capital letter, and so are names of people and places, like Amir, London and Monday.

Sentence
A group of words that makes sense on its own.
Capital letter
The big form of a letter, like A, B and C.
Full stop
The dot (.) that shows a sentence has finished.

Worked example

Fix this: “my cat is called sam”

  1. 1The sentence starts with “my”, so make it “My”.
  2. 2“Sam” is a name, so make it “Sam”.
  3. 3Put a full stop at the end.

Answer: My cat is called Sam.

Step 4 · Have a go

Do

Have a go

You need a pencil and paper.

  1. 1Write three sentences about your favourite animal.
  2. 2Go back and circle every capital letter in one colour.
  3. 3Now circle every full stop in another colour.
  4. 4Check: does each sentence have one of each?

Step 5 · Remember it

Recall

Quick quiz

Spot the sentence that is written correctly.

0 of 4 answered

  1. 1.Which sentence is written correctly?

  2. 2.Which word always needs a capital letter?

  3. 3.What goes at the end of a sentence that tells you something?

  4. 4.Which is right?

Step 6 · Link it to your world

Reflect

Think about it

Capital letters help readers understand us.

Write one sentence about what you did today — with a capital letter and a full stop!

Saved to your notebook on this device only.

Finished all six steps?

Mark it complete to collect 3 stars. That's the last lesson in this course for now.