Lesson video

Hello, welcome to this lesson on punctuating lists.

In today's lesson, you are going to need a pen or a pencil, as well as something to write on.

So that could be a notebook, or just the piece of paper.

So whatever you can find, it would be a really good idea, If you could find somewhere that's completely free of distractions, and if that's a little bit difficult to find, then try and find a place that's at least quite quiet, So you can concentrate fully on the lesson in hand.

When you're ready, let's begin.

Here is another opportunity, for you to make sure you have everything you need and you're ready to learn.

So press pause, if you need to grab everything you need, and then press play when you're ready to go.

Excellent.

So let's get started with the lesson.

We will begin with a reminder, about subordinate conjunctions before moving on to looking at lists, and what kind of thing we mean when we talk about lists.

The next part, will be the super important part, for today's lesson in terms of activity.

So we will learn about how we punctuate lists in our writing.

So where we put the commas, and the rules that we need to remember for that, before moving on to our writing activity, and then celebrating at the very end, all of the incredible work that you will have completed in the lesson.

To start off with then, we have a sentence on the screen.

Each pink box has the exact same sentence, Even though it's expensive, I would love to go to Walt Disney world.

However, in each box, there is a different part of the sentence underlined.

Your job is to choose, which box has the subordinate conjunction, underlined.

For those of you who have done these lessons with me, you are going to be feeling really confident, and you can pause the video here, and have a go straight away, If you would like to, for those of you who may not have done those lessons, or who may not have remembered it as well, I will very quickly run through what a subordinate conjunction is.

A subordinate conjunction is a word, or a few words together that link, or connect the independent clause.

So that's the clause that makes sense by itself, with the subordinate clause, the part that does not make sense by itself.

So the part that does not make sense by itself, will always have a subordinate conjunction in it.

So what I would recommend would be to read the sentence, decide which part of the sentence, is the subordinate clause.

So which part of the sentence does not make sense by itself, once you've decided that, choose which part of that part, is the subordinate conjunction.

So pause the video here, and then press play when you've chosen the correct answer, Great work really, really well done.

So the correct answer was "A", even though is our subordinate conjunction.

That's because, it introduces our subordinate clause.

The part of the sentence that does not make sense by itself.

Now let's begin having a look at lists.

I would like you to take some time now, to have a think about why we use lists.

There are some images on the screen, to help prompt you think about how we use lists, or why we use them.

So press pause now, and just jot down somewhere or think about all of the times in your life, When you might read list, or write your own lists.

Press play, when you're ready to start the lesson again, You might have come up with some really interesting ideas for how we use lists.

There also might be a few of you, who are wondering about the music note image.

The thing that prompted me to include a music note image, was when people ask you what your favourite song is, or maybe your favourite musician, or band favourite type of music, and you can never just choose one, You might give a list of the different things that you like, and that includes not only music, but maybe your favourite books, your favourite TV shows, your favourite food.

We use lists a lot when we're talking to other people around us.

And what that means is that, we automatically will then need to use lists in our writing.

Here are some ways that we've used lists in writing.

So we have, John ordered a milkshake, a burger, and a salad.

He enjoys singing, dancing, and acting.

Elephants are big, grey, intelligent, and powerful.

The girls, ate cakes, read books and played football.

So here you can see that the list, is the part of the sentence.

That is the items you talking about.

So a list is not necessarily the entire sentence.

As you can see here, we have John ordered.

So we have the subject John, ordered the verb, and then the nouns milkshake, burger, and salad, the nouns are making up the list.

With this example, We have the subject, he, the verb enjoys, but then the verbs singing, dancing, and acting are the parts that make up the list.

So it is not the entire sentence, it is just the things that you are talking about.

Again, we have the girls, who are our subject to this sentence, and then straight away we have the list.

They ate cakes, they read books and they played football.

So we're talking about the three things that they did.

The whole sentence is not the list.

It's just the part that we're talking about.

The rule that we need to remember, for when we are adding punctuation to our list, is as follows: in a list, replace all the ands with commas, except the last one.

I will explain what I mean by that in more detail, At the top you can see, we have Sally wore jeans, and a tee shirt and new trainers.

Our list is about what Sally is wearing.

So our list is made up of jeans, T-shirt, new trainers.

We've joined them with an and, to show that there is more than one thing.

As you can see in the second sentence, I've highlighted and underlined the, ands that we've used.

But if we remember the rule that I just told you about, in a list, we replaced all ands with a comma, except for the last one.

So in the sentence, after the second arrow, Sally wore jeans, comma a tee shirt and new trainers.

You can see that I've replaced the and with a comma except for the last and which I've left the same.

A top thing for you to remember, is at the bottom of the screen right now You only need a comma, when there are more than two things included in your list.

So if you were to say, Sally wore jeans and a tee shirt, you would not need a comma there because you only need your and.

You wouldn't join them with a comma.

You just use your, and as normal.

Here is an opportunity for you to have a go.

Each option is the exact same sentence.

The dog was frightened of the doorbell, the cat and the fish.

However, in one of the options, the comma and the punctuation in general is correct.

In the other three options, It's incorrect.

So I would like you to pause the video here, and choose the option with the correct punctuation, and then press play when you're ready.

Excellent work.

A lot of you definitely will have chosen option four, which is a hundred percent correct, well done.

The dog was frightened of the doorbell comma the cat and the fish.

Our list starts with the doorbell, the doorbell, the cat, and the fish.

We know that we need to replace all ands with a comma, except for the last one.

And that's what we've done instead of the doorbell and the cat and the fish.

We have replaced the first and with a comma.

Some of you may have chosen option one.

This is a very common mistake, that people make with commas.

The dog was frightened of the doorbell comma the cat comma and the fish.

The reason we do not need that comma, is because we have the and already.

If you remember the rule all ands need to be replaced with the comma, except for the last one.

So the bit of the rule we need to remember is except for the last one, we do not need the comma because we're not replacing the and, the and is still there.

Some of you may also have chosen option two.

The problem with option two, is that there is no punctuation.

You can even see that I've circled the lack of full stop at the end of the sentence as well.

So there is no punctuation whatsoever, which we know cannot be correct.

And finally, option three may have been chosen.

The dog was frightened comma of the doorbell comma the cat comma, and the fish.

We have already discussed.

Why the comma after cat is incorrect.

However, the comma after frightened is not necessary.

It's not replacing an and, it's not part of the list, it has just been put in there completely randomly.

So option three would be incorrect as well.

Now it's your turn, to add punctuation to the following lists.

There are five sentences on the screen.

Each sentence includes a list.

Some of the lists come at the end of the sentence, like in question one, some come at the beginning, like in question two and some come in the middle, like in question three, regardless of where your list is in the sentence, the same rule applies.

wherever there should be an and in your list, there should be a comma replacing it, except for the last one.

Take your time now to pause the video here, add punctuation to the following list.

And then when you're ready for some feedback to see how well you've done, press play, and we'll have a look together.

Brilliant, huge well done from me to you, for having a go at those five sentences.

Let's see how well you've done.

Number one, Freya's three favourite subjects were history, comma geography and maths.

We have just one comma we need to include in between history and geography.

Number two, we have the list at the beginning of the sentence, Teddy, Ryan, and Rajesh played football together every weekend.

We don't really want to say Teddy and Ryan.

And Rajesh because it sounds strange, We wouldn't say that.

So when we write, we definitely don't want to write it.

Teddy comma Ryan and Rajesh.

So we're replacing our first and with a comma.

In number three, we had our list in the middle.

There were lions, tigers and bears in the woods.

Again, we do not want to say there were lions and tigers, and bears in the woods.

We replace our first and with a comma.

Number four, It is important to sleep comma eat, and drink water.

Yet again, we are removing the first and that would be in the list, sleep and eat and drink water.

And we are replacing it with a comma, but we're leaving the final and, in like the rule tells us to.

And finally, number five, the students were interested comma focused, and happy.

We do not want to see interested and focused and happy, so we have replaced the and with a comma, except for the last one, which we have left in.

Now we turning to our final activity, which is a writing activity.

You will see a picture on the right hand side of your screen, of lots of animals.

There are some animals in a tree, there are some sitting on a leaf, and then the part with the zebras, and the giraffe and the rhino that you can see they're in a watering home.

Now what I would like you to do, is to write three sentences with lists, using that picture.

My example would be, the frog, lizard and spider sat on the leaf.

So I'm taking information from the picture, to give me inspiration for my sentence.

In my sentence, I have made sure to include more than two things, so that I can include a comma.

If you were to write about only two things, the frog and lizard sat on the leaf, for example, you would not need the comma.

If you would like to take this opportunity, to rewind and recap the rule you can do.

If you feel really comfortable and confident to have a go press pause, write down your three sentences with correct punctuation and then press play when you're ready, have fun.

Excellent work.

I am sure there are loads of incredible sentences out there, and I'm really sorry, I'm not going to be able to hear them.

I have a feeling, that you will be much more imaginative than I have been, and there's going to be be some really funny sentences that you've come up with.

So well done for that.

Here are some of my examples; The one at the top of the screen you're already aware of, because we've spoken about that previously.

The second one I have is the zebras, giraffe and rhino stood by the water.

I have replaced the first and with my comma, like the rule tells me to, and then I've left my last one there.

The zebras comma, giraffe and rhino.

Finally I have in the tree, there was a monkey, a snake and parrot.

My list in that sentence begins with a monkey, a snake and the parrot.

So my punctuation for the list, is only focused on those three animals, and it's a hundred percent correct.

I've replaced the and in between monkey and snake with a comma, but I've left the last and in as the rule tells me to.

some of you will have noticed, that there's a comma at the beginning of this sentence as well.

My sentence begins with a subordinate clause, In the tree.

It's telling my reader about where something is.

If you have done lessons with me in the past, on here, you will be really comfortable with this already, and you will know that a subordinate clause, if it starts a sentence has to be followed by a comma.

In which case you will have already spotted this.

And you'll be way ahead of me.

So well done.

If you haven't done those lessons with me, or maybe it's been a little while and they've kind of fallen out of your head a little bit, completely understandable.

So I just wanted to make sure you're aware of why that comma is there.

if a sentence begins with a subordinate clause, so that's a clause that doesn't make sense by itself, and adds extra information, It has to be followed by a comma.

You can see here that I've started my sentence with in the tree.

I'm giving you more information, and I'm starting it with a chunk of sentence, that doesn't make sense by itself.

Therefore I've had to include a comma after it.

So that comma after tree, is not related to our punctuation of lists, that is related to our punctuation of subordinate clauses.

That brings us to the end of our lesson today.

You've done some incredible work, and I hope you're just as proud of yourselves as I am of you.

There is an opportunity, if you would like to ask your parent, or carer to share your work on social media.

So there's Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and if you would like to, please do ask your parent or carer to share that for you.

Your parent or carer, could also share some of the work you've been doing with teachers at school.

I know they will be really, really excited, to see what you've been getting up to at home as well.

That's us for today, enjoy the rest of your day, and I really, really hope to see you again for some more learning soon.