Teaching apostrophes
Aim: Use apostrophes for missing letters and to show that something belongs to someone.
How to explain it
An apostrophe does two jobs. In a contraction it shows where letters are missing: do not becomes don't. For belonging, add 's for one owner (the girl's coat) and just an apostrophe after the s for more than one owner (the girls' coats). A plural that doesn't end in s still takes 's (the children's toys). Its with no apostrophe means 'belonging to it'; it's always means 'it is' or 'it has'.
Starter (5 minutes)
Write 'do not', 'can not', 'I am' on the board. Children squash them into one word and point to the letters the apostrophe replaced.
Main activity
One owner or more? Show pictures of one dog with a bowl and three dogs with bowls. Children write a label for each (the dog's bowl, the dogs' bowls) and explain where the apostrophe goes. Finish with an its/it's sentence sort.
Dictation sentences
- It's time to find the dog's ball.
- We can't go to the boys' party.
- The children's coats are in the hall.
Watch out for
- Apostrophes in ordinary plurals (banana's for sale).
- Mixing up its and it's.
- Putting the apostrophe where the gap isn't (do'nt).
Quick check
Ask children to spell these without help:
- wasn't
- cat's
- teachers'
- its
Example words
- don't
- can't
- I'm
- it's
- we're
- didn't
- dog's
- girl's
- girls'
- children's