How to Teach Nouns to Elementary Students
Common and Proper Noun Primary Language Arts Grammar Lesson Plan
Mar 12, 2009
Using children’s books to teach elementary students grammar adds interest and relevance to language arts lessons. Brian P. Cleary’s A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun? [Carolrhoda Books, 1999] can be used by elementary teachers to teach common nouns and proper nouns to students.
Common and Proper Noun Elementary Language Arts Lesson Objectives
- Elementary students will correctly identify common and proper nouns in a story.
- Elementary students will correctly use proper nouns in a composition.
What is a Noun? Elementary Grammar Lesson Introduction
The elementary teacher introduces the noun lesson by reading the book A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun? by Brian P. Cleary. After reading the story the teacher asks the class if they can answer the question, "What is a noun?", at the end of the book.
The teacher has the elementary students look at the final page and name all the nouns they see in the drawing. The students then reread the story and make a list of all of the nouns in the book. The teacher brings up how ideas are also nouns and gives examples to the students. The class brainstorms idea nouns such as imagination. Students use the noun list to write their own definition of a noun.
Teach Common Nouns and Proper Nouns to Elementary Students
The teacher rereads the story with the elementary class. She points out the page that shows proper nouns and discusses what proper nouns are. The class highlights the proper nouns on the noun word list.
The class then creates a common noun and proper noun chart at the front of the classroom. The common nouns from the story and from the classroom are listed in the first column. The students generate specific proper nouns for each of the common nouns.
The teacher has the students copy the chart into their grammar or language arts notebooks for reference. The students use the chart to write a class definition of a common noun and a proper noun under the chart in the notebooks.
Teach Elementary Students to Use Proper Nouns
During a Writer’s Workshop mini-lesson the teacher will ask the students to recall what a proper noun is using their grammar notebooks if necessary. The group discusses how using specific proper nouns adds detail and interest to their writing.
The teacher helps the students choose writing that would benefit from more descriptive proper nouns. The students identify common nouns in the story and choose some that they would like to make proper. They discuss their choices with a partner or the teacher and rewrite their compositions using proper nouns for more description.
Elementary students learn to identify common nouns and proper nouns by reading A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun? and making a list of and categorizing the nouns in the story. The students then apply the noun information they learned in the grammar lesson to their writing. Then during Writer’s Workshop time the students add interest and description to their writing by using proper nouns.
For more language arts lesson plans elementary teachers can read: Writer’s Workshop for Elementary Kids, Teach Kids to Write Paragraphs, and Word Splash Vocabulary Strategy for Primary Kids.
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