Using Quotation marks

Is it Thursday already? My spring break is almost over. It totally flew by! It's been really great having more time with my boys so I can't complain. Wouldn't it be weird to have a job where you didn't have a break every 3 months? I sometimes forget that everyone isn't on spring break.

Before I left for spring break I told myself that I would start focusing more on quotation marks with my kiddos. They are starting to experiment with them in their writing, which is pretty exciting. Although I do have a few kids who want to put quotation marks all over the place! I'm also trying to get them to pay attention to quotation marks while reading to help with their comprehension (following along with who is talking when.) I have a couple of activities in mind.

I've already done the preliminary like pointing out quotation marks during read alouds/guided reading and using them during shared writing. So they do have some background knowledge.

I was planning on doing a whole class activity using the pocket chart. I'm going to write a little paragraph on sentence strips and put it in my pocket chart. Then we'll read it together and add in the quotation marks. I'll take pictures when I do it because I'm not explaining it very well!

I also made this little worksheet. They read the sentences, decide who's talking and fill in the speech bubbles. I made two versions (one is just slightly longer than the other.)

clipart by thistlegirl designs and KPM doodles.

You can download this here.

A lot of my students are wanting to read chapter books and several are ready, but I know it always gets confusing for them keeping track of who's talking. So I'm hoping to find/think of some good activities to help with that.

What do you do to teach quotation marks? I'd love to hear from you! :)