Even upper-grade students sometimes still struggle with locating and identifying nouns in sentences and let’s face it. Creating a nouns lesson that is engaging and interesting for students can be difficult! I’ll admit it, nouns is not an easy topic to make interesting and fun.
So, I’ve gathered together some of my favorite ideas and activities for putting some fun in teaching nouns. Here are 5 ideas for teaching nouns that I hope that you and your students will enjoy!
Why is Teaching Nouns Important in Upper Grades?
Teachers may think of nouns as a concept or skill that is covered in first, second, or third grade and not consider it important to review for upper grades. However,upper-grade students need to understand the importance of nouns, especially in their writing. Often, students do not utilize specific nouns in their writing which is an important writing skill that can help students improve their writing.
Using specific nouns is an important skill for upper-grade students to learn because when writers replace general nouns with specific nouns, the writing becomes clearer and more vivid for the readers. It is these specific nouns that can help create a picture in the reader’s mind.
Because using nouns is important to writing, a review of nouns is usually important, even for upper-grade students. Here are some quick and easy ideas for teaching nouns or reviewing nouns in your language arts classroom.
Ideas for Teaching Nouns in Your Upper-Grades Classroom
Here are 5 simple and fun ideas for teaching nouns in your language arts classroom.
One: Common and Proper Nouns Circles
Divide students into groups of 4-6 students.
- Have students sit in small groups in a circle.
- Give each group a general topic such as nature, school, sports, space, etc.
- Instruct each student in the group to name a common noun and a proper noun related to that topic.
- Each student in the circle will take turns sharing a common noun and a proper noun.
- Once everyone has shared with the group, call on a few students to share their nouns with the entire class.
- Then continue the process by giving groups another topic.
Two: Concrete and Abstract Nouns Cards
Pair students and give each pair an index card labeled with a concrete and an abstract noun such as school/education, heart/love, girls/friendship, etc.
- Paire work together to form and write sentences using the pair of nouns on the card.
- Students identify the concrete and the abstract nouns in their sentences.
- Continue by having pairs swap index cards and repeat process.
Three: Specific Nouns List
Divide the class into groups with 3-4 students. Students choose one student to be the recorder. All students will participate in this brainstorming activity.
- Announce a topic such as school, softball, Thanksgiving, family, fall, etc.
- Each team has one minute to brainstorm and record as many nouns as they can think of related to that topic.
- At the end of one minute, see which team wrote the most nouns.
- Continue with another sports topic, if desired.
An alternate idea to this activity is to ask the recorder to create a T-chart on their paper. Label one side common and the other side proper. Students can brainstorm nouns about the topic and categorize them correctly on the T-chart.
Four: Nouns Interactive Journal Freebie
Use these free Nouns Interactive Notebook Pages with your students for a fun journal activity. Choose from 3 different pages to review nouns, common and proper nouns, or concrete and abstract nouns. Students simply cut out the pages and place them in journals. Then they will use the pages to define and identify each type of noun.
Five: Common and Proper Nouns PowerPoint
One of the quickest and easiest ideas for teaching nouns is using a PowerPoint lesson. For a quick and easy review of common and proper nouns, try my Common and Proper Nouns PowerPoint. I personally love using PowerPoints to teach and/or review topics, especially in grammar. The colorful slides and graphics usually capture the students’ attention, and I like to include an interactive element in my PowerPoints as well.
PowerPoints are great to teach skills to your whole group, use in small groups, or for assigning digitally for independent review or practice. They are also easy to assign to students who were absent.
Just look what buyers have said…
“Just the type of product I am looking for and appreciate. Easy to use, ready to implement in class … Project and discuss grammar was made clear and precise. I highly recommend, students were engaged and supported in their learning.“
“Excellent activity. Thanks for taking the time out to make my job easier.”
“Such a fun way to engage the students in Nouns. They loved it.”
I hope that you have found at least one or two of these ideas for teaching nouns that you can use in your classroom. Enjoy teaching/reviewing nouns, and have a blessed day!
