Punctuation Is Fun. Punctuation Is Fun? Punctuation Is Fun!

Continuing with our gala Electric Company celebration...

Today's post gets its power from 'Matching Marks Punctuation Match-Ups,' a game that teaches kids all about the miracles of punctuation (unless it concerns the possessive, apparently) and how one little squiggle at the end of a sentence can change that sentence's entire meaning. It's true? It's true! I don't know from Matching Mark but the other characters whose cartoon likenesses are featured in the game were all Electric Company regulars. From J. Arthur Crank to the Movie Director to the Mad Scientist.

The game was simple enough... three identical sentences are printed three times on three different jigsaw pieces. On each card the sentence ends with a different form of punctuation, either a '.' or a '?' or a '!' Should I have put a period at the end of that sentence? There are three pictures printed on three different jigsaw pieces that correspond with the different sentences' meanings and it's up to the players to match words to picture. For example: the sentence "Be careful with that Xacto knife." would be illustrated by Jennifer of the Jungle handing Paul the Gorilla an Xacto knife (handle first for safety!) while the cartoon for the sentence "Be careful with that Xacto knife!" would show Paul howling in pain while clutching the spurting stump of his missing left index finger.

Here are the official rules for official-minded folk-

Simple enough, right? Right! Now you really, really want to play this game at home, don't you? Well, having anticipated your every want & desire, as is so often the case with me, I've scanned all the cards and posted them below in handy groups of three (or six actually.) Just print, paste and cut (be careful with that Xacto knife...) and let the merriment begin-

It's fun and educational! It's fuducational!

Questions and observations-

• What is Jennifer pointing out to Fargo about his decoder machine?
• Does it have anything to do with why Jennifer refuses to believe Fargo's subsequent weather report?
• 'The Movie Director' should be capitalized.
• The Movie Director should probably seek help for her anger management issues. That camera was probably expensive.
• What exactly did Julia Grownup do to that second cake?
• After The Electric Company was cancelled, Pedro auditioned for a part as one of Busch Gardens' mascots, but there was no 'Mexico' in the park so he didn't make the cut.