MTDFPPPILQ

Mom took Dad from Peter Piper’s Pizza. I love quiet![FD1]

Used for checking capitalization!

M- Months of the year (Ex: My birthday is January 6th.)

T- Titles…of books, movies, stories, and people!

***Remember to capitalize the first, last, and all important words in a title. Do not capitalize words like “a, an, the, of, and, on, in ” unless they are the first word in the title!***

(Ex: Mayor Brown told the crowd that Snakes on a Plane was his favorite movie.)

D-Days of the week (Ex: I am going to the movies on Friday.)

F- First word in a sentence (Ex: My dog is named Skip.)

P-People/Pets(Ex: Jane and I took her turtle Flash on a walk.)

P-Proper Nouns…the names of particular people, places or things

***Remember that proper nouns tell us exactly which person, place, or thing they’re talking about. “School” is not a proper noun, but “Windsor Village Elementary” is a proper noun. “Teacher” is not, but “Ms. Dilber” is. “Toy” is not, but “Tickle Me Elmo” is. ***

(Ex: Max bought a new toy truck at Walmart.)

P-Proper adjectives…..or cultural names

(Ex: Joe is African-American and his friend Maria is Mexican.)

I- “I” stands alone & with contractions

***Remember these common contractions: I’m, I’ll, I’d, I’ve***

(Ex: I know that I’m a good student.)

L-Letter opening and closing

***Remember to capitalize ALL words in the opening and only the FIRST word in the closing***

(Ex: Dear Susan,

I miss you.

Your friend,

Keisha)

Q-First word in quotations(Ex: Mom shouted, “Watch your step!”)

AWEYDLCSAQ

Awe, your dad loves cookies, sleep, and quiet!

Used for checking punctuation!

A-Apostrophe…possessives and contractions

***Remember we use apostrophes to show ownership (that’s called possessives) and when we shorten two words into one (that’s called contractions).***

(Ex: Lucy’s dog just can’t seem to sit still!)

W-Words in a series (Ex: I love to eat,sleep, and play baseball.)

E-End marks (Ex: I am so excited to see that play! Are you excited too?)

Y-Yes/No/Well/Transition words

***Remember that these always show up at the beginning of sentences***

(Ex: Yes, I think I would like to go to the park with you. John, can you take out the trash?)

D-Date with the year (Ex: I was born on December 9, 1993.)

L-Letter opening and closing.

(Ex: Dear Susan,

I miss you.

Your friend,

Keisha)

C-City, State (Ex: I grew up in Houston,Texas.)

S- Said words….followed by quotation marks.

***Remember when you see a word that means the same thing as “said,” such as “shouted, exclaimed, yelled, asked, questioned, told” put a comma between that word and the quotation marks that come after it.***

(Ex: Marcus asked, “Do I have to eat my vegetables?”)

A-Abbreviations (Ex: Dr. Davis moved from Polo St. to West Fuqua.)

***Remember when you shorten a word, you must put a period at the end, EXCEPT with the abbreviations of states. So, “Street” becomes “St.” but “Texas” becomes “TX”***

Q-Quotation marks(Ex: My Mama always said, “Life is like a box of chocolates.”)

***Remember to use quotation marks whenever you are quoting exactly what someone said.***

YDSSFS

Your Dad sings silly funny songs!

Used for checking spelling!

Y- Y rule

If you want to make the plural of a word that ends with “y”, you may need to change the “y” to an “i” and add “es.” Just follow these easy steps.:

  1. Does the word end with “y”?
  2. Look at the letter next to the “y”. If that letter is a vowel, just add “s” and you’ll be finished. If that letter is a consonant, go on to step 3.
  3. Change the “y” to an “i” and add “es.”

So, if you’ve got a word like monkey or toy, you can make these plural just by adding “s” Monkeys like to play with toys.

But, if you’ve got a word like baby or fly, you can make them plural by changing the “y” to an “i” and adding “es.” Babies hate when flies get in their soup.

D-Double the consonant rule

If you start off with a word like “drop,” you may need to double the consonant before you add “ing” or “ed.” Follow these steps:

1. Is the word only one syllable? (Yep, “drop” is just one syllable.)

2. Does the vowel make a short vowel sound? (Yep, the “o” makes the /aw/ sound.)

3. Is there only one vowel in the word? (Yep, just the letter “o”)

4. Is the vowel next to the last letter? (Yep, “o” is next to the “p”.)

If you answered “yes” to all four questions, then you need to double the consonant!

So, “drop” becomes “dropped” and “dropping.”

S-Silent “e” rule

Some words have a silent “e” on the end, such as “smile, come, hike, take.” If you want to add “ing” to these words, you’re going to need to drop the silent “e” from the word before you add “ing.”

So, “smile” becomes “smiling,” “come” becomes “coming,” and “take” becomes “taking.”

S-Sound alike rule

There’s no trick to this rule, you just have to learn the most common homophones. Remember, just because words sound alike, doesn’t mean that they are spelled the same way and mean the same thing.

The most important sound alike you need to know are:

It’s and its

  1. It’s is a contraction of the word “it is”. Use “it’s” wherever “it is” would make sense. Ex: It’s a beautiful day for swimming.
  2. Its is a possessive which means it shows ownership. Use “its” whenever you’re trying to show that one thing belongs to another. Ex: The dog wagged its tail. (The tail does belong to the dog, right?)

Their, there, and they’re

1. Their also shows ownership. Use “their” when you want to show that

something belongs to a group of people. Ex: The students love their teacher.

  1. There means “in that place.” Use “there” whenever you want to refer to a

place. Ex: I see a man over there.

  1. They’re is a contraction for “they are”. Use “they’re” wherever “they are”

would make sense. Ex: They’re taking a long time to serve me my pizza!

Two, to and too

  1. Two is a number right in between one and three. Ex: I ate two eggs for breakfast.
  2. To means “in the direction of.” Ex: I walked to the store. (That’s a direction!) But, it can also be used right before a verb as well. Ex: I can’t wait to eat a bowl of ice cream. (Here, “to” goes right before the verb “eat”.)
  3. Too means “also.” Ex: I want a new bike too! You can also use it like “too much.”

No and know

  1. No is the opposite of “yes.” Ex: No, I won’t do your chores for you! No can also mean “not any”, like “I have no more chips” or “Math is no problem for me!”
  2. Know means to be able to do something or to have a lot of knowledge about something. Ex I know how to tie my shoes and brush my teeth.

You’re and your

  1. You’re is a contraction for “you are.” Ex: You’re in a crazy mood today!
  2. Your shows ownership, meaning that something belongs to you. Ex Your cat bit my dog!

F-F and Fe rule

When a word ends with “f” or “fe” you may need to do some switching before making the word a plural. Before you add the “s” don’t forget to change the “f” to a “ve” and the “fe” to a “ve.”

So, “wife” becomes “wives.”And instead of one “loaf” of bread, you get two “loaves”.

S-Es rule

For most words, you can make a plural—that means more than one— just by adding “s” to the end. There are some tricky spelling patterns, however, that require an “es” at the end. If a noun ends with “s, x, ch, or sh” you’ll need to add “es.”

Bus busesFox foxesLunch lunchesWish wishes

[FD1]These are often nonsensical and can certainly be changed.

My students wrote these acronyms on all of their papers and would check off each letter as they scanned their papers for errors.