Capital letters: the five rules kids meet first, one sheet at a time

Every sentence my first grader writes starts with a lowercase letter, except the ones that start with her own name, which are perfect. She isn't careless. She has learned exactly one capitalization rule, and it's the one about herself.

What the sheet looks like

The capitalization worksheet prints sentences with the capitals missing. In the circle format the child rings every letter that should be capital; in the rewrite format they copy the sentence out correctly on a line below. The Focus setting picks the rule: Mixed, Sentence starts, Proper nouns (names), Proper nouns (places), Days, months and holidays, or the pronoun I. Difficulty is Easy with one rule per sentence, Medium with one or two, or Hard with longer mixed sentences. Names, pets, cities and days are filled in fresh on every print. Pages hold 8, 10 or 12 sentences with an optional answer key.

Why it works

• One rule per sheet means the child knows what to hunt for. On a Days, months and holidays page, every sentence hides a day or a month in lowercase, and finding it becomes a habit.
• Circling costs nothing in handwriting. A six-year-old whose letters are slow can show they know the rule on ten sentences without copying out ten sentences.
• The rewrite format is proofreading, and proofreading is what capitalization becomes for the rest of a person's life.

Who it suits

At six, circle format, Easy, one focus at a time. By eight or nine, rewrite format on Hard with Mixed focus and twelve sentences is a proper proofreading exercise. Once capitals are in place, the sentence types sheet adds the end punctuation, which is the other half of the same habit.

Do the circle version of a focus one day and the rewrite version of the same focus the next. The second day goes fast.