Commas

Not many of us knew how or when to use commas at 9am this morning.  By 9.30am however, we knew exactly what to do!  First we talked about conjunctions (words that join two sentences together) and then we talked about the three different times that commas need to be used:

BEFORE A CONJUNCTION:
eg.  I was very hungry, so I made myself a sandwich.
eg.  The cows escaped from the paddock, because the gate was left open.

TO SEPARATE THINGS IN A LIST:
eg.  I went to the supermarket and bought some apples, milk, tomato sauce and jellybeans.
eg.  There were lots of people at the party, including James, John, Jim, Jock and Julia.

WHEN YOU NEED A SHORT PAUSE IN A SENTENCE:
eg.  My brother, who is very tall, loves to play rugby.
eg.  As the rain pelted down, some massive puddles formed on the road.