C Curriculum Explorer
English·Grammar & Punctuation·procedural

Apostrophes: Contraction and Possession

Use apostrophes in writing for both contraction (marking omitted letters) and singular possession, distinguishing the two uses

Suggested ages 6–7

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Learning journey

Your child is learning important grammar skills — understanding how to build more complex sentences, use punctuation correctly, and choose the right words to make their writing clearer and more interesting.

Evidence of understanding

  • Use apostrophes correctly in both 'don't' and 'Sam's bag' within the same piece of writing
  • Explain the difference between apostrophe for contraction and apostrophe for possession
  • Correct misplaced or missing apostrophes in a set of sentences

Assessment prompt

When Apostrophes: Contraction and Possession writes a word like "don't" or "it's", do they put the apostrophe in the right place — and can they also write something like "the dog's bowl" to show the bowl belongs to the dog?

Standards alignment

No external standards are linked to this topic.