Literacy Targets Punctuation Year 1
MUST
SHOULD
COULD
I can recognise a sentence in my
reading, and say where it starts
and ends.
E.g.
Once upon a time there was a boy
called Jack. He lived in a cottage in
the woods. He was rather a stupid
boy.
I can use capital letters and full
stops when writing a sentence.
E.g.
The harp sang loudly.
I can use commas to separate items
in a list.
E.g.
Jack and his mother went to market
to buy bread, butter, bacon and eggs.
Literacy Targets Punctuation Year 2
MUST
SHOULD
COULD
I can use capital letters and full
stops when writing a sentence.
E.g.
The harp sang loudly.
I can use commas to separate items
in a list.
E.g.
Jack and his mother went to market
to buy bread, butter, bacon and eggs.
I can use a comma when I add
detail to a sentence with a clause
at the end.
E.g.
Jack ambled down the road, whistling
as he went.
Literacy Targets Punctuation Year 3
MUST
SHOULD
COULD
I can use commas to separate items
in a list.
E.g.
Jack and his mother went to market to buy
bread, butter, bacon and eggs.
I can use a comma when I add
detail to a sentence with a clause
at the end.
E.g.
Jack ambled down the road, whistling
as he went.
I can use a comma after starting a
sentence with an ‘ed’, ‘ing’ or ‘ly’
word.
E.g.
Smiling suspiciously, the man put his hand
into his pocket, rummaged about and pulled
out a handful of glossy, red beans.
Mooing gently, Daisy’s big brown eyes
looked at the strange man’s face.
Dressed all in black, the man appeared
very strange to Jack.
Literacy Targets Punctuation Year 4
MUST
SHOULD
COULD
I can use a comma when I add
detail to a sentence with a clause
at the end.
E.g.
Jack ambled down the road, whistling
as he went.
I can use a comma after starting a
sentence with an ‘ed’, ‘ing’ or ‘ly’
word.
E.g.
Smiling suspiciously, the man put his hand into
his pocket, rummaged about and pulled out a
handful of glossy, red beans.
Mooing gently, Daisy’s big brown eyes looked at
the strange man’s face.
Dressed all in black, the man appeared very
strange to Jack.
I can combine three ideas and
demarcate the first two with
commas.
E.g.
Jack clambered down the beanstalk. He picked
up his axe. He shouted, “Timber!”.
Jack clambered down the beanstalk, picked up
his axe and shouted, “Timber!”
Literacy Targets Punctuation Year 5
I can use a comma after starting a
sentence with an ‘ed’, ‘ing’ or ‘ly’
word.
MUST
SHOULD
COULD
E.g.
Smiling suspiciously, the man put his hand into
his pocket, rummaged about and pulled out a
handful of glossy, red beans.
Mooing gently, Daisy’s big brown eyes looked at
the strange man’s face.
Dressed all in black, the man appeared very
strange to Jack.
I can combine three ideas and
demarcate the first two with
commas.
E.g.
Jack clambered down the beanstalk. He
picked up his axe. He shouted, “Timber!”.
Jack clambered down the beanstalk,
picked up his axe and shouted, “Timber!”
I can use commas to demarcate
clauses accurately.
E.g.
The giant, howling with rage, raced
after Jack.
Literacy Targets Punctuation Year 6
MUST
SHOULD
COULD
I can combine three ideas and
demarcate the first two with commas.
E.g.
Jack clambered down the beanstalk.
He picked up his axe. He shouted,
“Timber!”.
Jack clambered down the beanstalk,
picked up his axe and shouted,
“Timber!”
I can use commas to demarcate
clauses accurately.
E.g.
The giant, howling with rage, raced
after Jack.
I can use a semi-colon to separate
two closely related main clauses in a
sentence.
E.g.
Jack was pleased with the beans; he
was sure they were magic.
(The missing conjunction here is
“because”).