Capitalization Rules for Primary Education

A boy in primary school.

Rules for capitalization can often confuse adults, not to mention children who are being introduced to the conventions. Building a foundation of proper capitalization will serve children well when the rules get a little trickier as they progress in language arts.

Fundamentals

The first capitalization rule usually taught is that every sentence should begin with a capital letter. Along with the rule, should follow the reasoning behind it: the rule makes it easier for readers to follow written material.

The Pronoun "I"

The next logical step in capitalization is to teach students the fairly straightforward rule that the pronoun "I" is always capitalized.

Moving on to Proper Nouns

Capitalization of proper nouns, such as a child's own name or the names of his teachers, is next. Confusion begins to reign, however, when titles are introduced. "Aunt Pat" is a proper noun, but "my aunt" is not. A common noun like the "king" is not capitalized, yet "King Lear" is.

Capitalization Confusion

Capitalization rules for days of the weeks and months are clear-cut, but other rules are not. Seasons should not be capitalized, nor should subjects in school, unless the subjects are languages, as in French, English or Spanish.

The Finer Points of Capitalization

When children are ready, capitalization rules for book titles, songs, movies and plays are introduced. Tackle appropriate punctuation and capitalization for quotations after that.

References

• Lexington 1: Capitalization and Punctuation
• Sanchez Class: Capitalization and Punctuation Rules

Resources

• ItSchools.org: The Capitalization Rules