Punctuation Pasta Project

This is a Punctuation Pasta Project for big kids!

This project is focused on commas, parentheses, and dashes with a bonus quotation mark review included.

I love room transformations; students are going to remember moments and therefore, the content associated with those moments much more easily.

Create an Italian restaurant in your classroom with plastic tablecloths or red and white butcher paper. I bought glass candleholders & electric tealights at the dollar store that I repurpose for other room transformations. Italian music/photos on the board, a crockpot full of simmering tomato sauce & some breadsticks on the tables hit all the senses!

Place a table tent and one punctuation card per pair of students on each table. You will also need a plate or bowl full of dried pasta.

For this particular lesson, you will need spaghetti or fettuccini for the dashes, small elbow macaroni for commas & quotation marks, & large elbow macaroni for parentheses.

Students simply place the pasta in the spots on the cards where the punctuation is missing.

I do one activity at a time (have students complete with their partner and then go over answer key before distributing next card).

Early finishers can work on pasta plate practice activity.

This lesson was specifically designed for 6th grade, and the accompanying PowerPoint teaches L.6.2a, but the pasta punctuation cards can work with L.4.2a, and L.5.2a, as well.

There is a companion slideshow that will provide rules, practice and examples!

28-slide PowerPoint

16-page PDF