The teacher could well be right. Have a look at this Wiki link on The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Sorry I was being daft. I now know it's the hungry caterpillar.

But we looked at the word apple and decided it was A for apple, P for pears, P for plums, L for lemons and E for elderberries.

Commander, Colonel , Caretaker and Dashing.  Each word begins with a punctuation mark – Colon – Comma etc.

GJ, I don't have a clue, but I found this ^^^^^^, so the answer might be caretaker.

Thanks! Just going to have me tea. Don't understand caretaker but otherwise it makes sense!

Seargent ????????????? Just remember at school doing country dancing ..............The Dashing Seargent.

Ignore me ....................i'll get me coat!

I'm the same.

Whilst eating we were trying to remember more punctuation marks and wondering if it was a complex way of doing a smiley face? They'll be expecting these poor  ten year olds to do the Times Crossword next.

Caret is the name for ^

Once again I thank you El Loro!!

Lottery numbers for next week please.......

 I hate to plead ignorance, but what does a ^ or caret mean or do?  

Yay, I got it right - even though I didn't know why it was right.

Edit: I found this:

Caret - A proofreading symbol (‸) used to indicate where something is to be inserted in a line of printed or written matter.

Oh one of them "I missed out an important thing I wanted to say in a sentence thingies" it goes under a sentence.

Thanks  xx,  I am learning all the time.

Thanks also for starting us in the right direction Yogi. I'm in and out of this room and forgot.

You're very welcome, GJ.

This was actually a recent question on "Only Connect".

I'm guessing that's where the teacher got it from...

If it's any consolation, the contestants didn't get it right either, and tended to assume it was something to do with fruit machines...