Commas word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Commas word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this commas puzzle set for my 3rd and 4th graders during our writing unit. The kids would either leave out commas entirely or sprinkle them everywhere like glitter. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like comma, list, series, items, and, or, date, address, city, state, introduction, transition, conjunction, parenthetical, pause, and separate. Nothing fancy — just puzzles to help the comma rules finally stick.

The PDF is four pages. Three puzzles plus one answer key page. The word search works well for quiet time after recess. The scramble gets them talking because they argue about whether there should be a comma before "and" in a list. The crossword I use for partners. I added a couple simple comma and list drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 3rd through 5th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers write a sentence with three items in a list using commas on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.