Nouns
Background Information & Activities

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Parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives are categories that show how words are used. When children learn about different parts of speech, they become exposed to a wide variety of words, learn how to make new words, and experiment with language. Remind your children that nouns are words that name a person, animal, place, thing, or idea. Nouns can be singular or plural.

Remind your children that nouns are naming words. Have your children take a look around them. What do they see? Have them identify nouns that name people or animals. The words man, woman, boy, girl, teacher, principal, coach, doctor, or police officer are all nouns that name people. The words dog, cat, mouse, fish, snake, and bird are all nouns that name animals. Nouns can also name places. Review with your children that a place is somewhere you can go. Words like school, museum, fire station, store, and restaurant are nouns that name places. Some nouns name specific locations inside another place, such as cafeteria, library, computer lab, or gym. Nouns that name things, or objects, include table, desk, chair, chalkboard, pencil, and rug. While most students in early primary grades are not responsible for knowing nouns that name ideas, you may wish to introduce simple words such as information, transportation, and mathematics.

Nouns can be singular (naming one) or plural (naming more than one). Brainstorm different examples of singular and plural nouns with your children, such as dog/dogs, cat/cats, and school/schools. In this movie, we do not go into the specifics of making and spelling plural nouns, but BrainPOP Jr. plans on launching a movie on plurals in the near future.

Remind your children that a proper noun is a noun that names a specific person, animal, place, thing, or idea. A proper noun always begins with a capital letter. Proper nouns include specific names of people, pets, cities, states, countries, continents, and names of special buildings or landmarks. Provide different examples of proper nouns such as Annie, Moby, Mia, Señor Maurice, New York City, Florida, Africa, or Washington Monument. Challenge your children to brainstorm more proper nouns. You may wish to screen the BrainPOP Jr. movie on capital and lowercase letters.

Nouns are incredibly diverse and we recommend creating a text-rich environment for your children to explore new words and develop a deeper understanding of language. Encourage them to look for nouns as they read and record new words in notebooks. Active reading is an important part of developing strong comprehension skills.

See more lesson plans and resources: BrainPOP Educators.

Nouns Teacher Activities

© 1999-2012 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Speedy Nouns

Give scraps of paper or index cards to small groups of students or pairs. Challenge them to label as many nouns as possible in the classroom in five minutes. One person can time, while the others label. The student who labels the most nouns in the given time can be the timer in the next round. You can then modify the activity to have students label nouns that begin with a specific letter or label plural nouns.

Nouns, Nouns, and More Nouns

Have reading partners choose a book together. Have them read along and record all the nouns they see in the book. You may wish to give them a chart and have them sort the nouns into people, animals, places, or things. There can be a special section for collecting proper nouns. If they encounter a new word, they can look it up in the dictionary to see if it is a noun.

Noun Mad Libs

Have students write a short paragraph. Then have them erase all the nouns in their stories. Have pairs come together and do Mad Libs with their stories. One student can name nouns blindly while the other plugs them into his or her story. Then have students share their Mad Libs with the whole class. You can also modify the activity by having students choose a short paragraph from a book and then having partners think of nouns to replace.

Nouns Family Activities

© 1999-2012 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Noun Hunt

Choose a noun and then challenge your child to find the same noun throughout your home. Then you can switch roles and have your child choose a noun. Have your child keep a record of all the nouns you have found together. He or she can write them on cards with drawings or pictures on the back, and bind them together into a Noun Dictionary.

Noun of the Day

Each day, choose a noun to be the “Noun of the Day” and post it somewhere in your home. Then whenever the noun comes up in conversation or in reading, stop and cheer. Your child may wish to record the number of times the noun comes up during the day.