B3.3. Capitalization and Punctuation
During Grade 2, the focus was on:
- Capital letters for proper nouns (e.g. My family travelled from Brantford to Toronto by train.)
- Commas to separate items in lists (e.g. I like to skate, sled, and snowshoe in the winter.)
- Apostrophes for possessives (e.g. Ira’s sister was late to meet him for lunch.)
- Quotation marks for direct speech (e.g. Maia said, “I am busy now.”)
New for Grade 3:
In addition to continued consolidation of the skills listed in Grade 1 & Grade 2, in Grade 3 students get initial explicit instruction in:
- Capital letters in dialogue (e.g., The woman exclaimed, “We are so happy that you enjoyed your day.”)
- Capitals for words in titles (e.g., The book was called The Journey across Canada.)
- Commas and quotation marks to direct speech and direct quotations from texts (e.g., “Free bus passes for all students,” said Mr. Bond.)
- Apostrophes for contractions (e.g., It’s a nice day outside.)
Note: This is not an exhaustive list of all expectations in this strand. For a more detailed view, please see the official Ontario curriculum.
Further Reading
- See Further Readings in B3. Language Conventions
Suggested Resources
See Suggested Resources in B3. Language Conventions
