Grade Levels: K-3

This page provides information to support educators and families in teaching K-3 students about nouns. It is designed to complement the Nouns topic page on BrainPOP Jr.

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.