Before I start into my most amazing post on a fun activity I recently did with my 60 writing students, I wanted to remind you that there is going to be an AMAZING SALE tomorrow on Teachers Pay Teachers. With Savings of up to 28%, you CAN NOT GO WRONG! So, after you read my post, pop on over to TpT and 'toss' some great resources in your shopping cart. Don't worry, there will be plenty of time before, during, and after the Super Bowl to 'tackle' the decision of what to buy! Don't 'fumble' the deal- REMEMBER TO USE PROMO CODE: SUPER!And now... ON WITH THE POST! WAHOO!
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If you have been following my blog (An Educator's Life) you know that I have been doing a series of posts called Journey into Poetry Land. It has been quite the experience.
As I have taught this unit, I have also focused on grammar, more specifically NOUNS! I had assumed (and let me tell you what they say about that is very true!) that my kiddos knew what a noun was, and could easily pick out a common noun from a proper noun. I made the assumption because for the past several years they were being taught out of the school grammar basal program. (We started rotating 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classes this year, so I didn't know their level of understanding). Not only that, we had spent a month learning about the SUBJECT and PREDICATE of sentences. I mean, hellooooooooooo.... the subject is a noun. Did that help? Nope... nada...blank stare... ZILCH! Sigh....
I thought they had it! BOY WAS I WRONG! Holey Moley!
Each night, during this poetry unit, I have been assigning a poem that fits the concept we are studying and then assign them different "hunts" for each poem!
Like:
Underline common nouns.
Circle proper nouns
Box onomatopoeia
(and more).
Well, we had been doing this for several days and they were underlining PRONOUNS, ADJECTIVES, anything that had letters was fair game to them. Pretty much everything BUT the nouns. S-C-A-R-Y!
So, I told myself we needed to take a break from poetry and study NOUNS! Thus, my NOUN HUNT was created. I knew that it was going to be a challenge for them, even though it shouldn't have been.
I started by handing out the poetry books:
Then I handed out this page that I whipped up for this activity:
The students had to use the poetry books to find and fill in each section of the paper. 5 of each common noun and 10 proper nouns. It literally took the entire class period to get them all on the same page with common and proper nouns. (I am offering our readers this page for free. Click HERE to your copy! This is going to be included in my soon to be released NOUN unit. Enjoy! If you download, please leave a comment so we know you were here! I would also love to hear how you used the resource as well. Thanks )
Do all my students have a perfect knowledge of nouns? Heavens no, but this activity, combined with the nightly noun hunts on each poem, have really helped the vast majority really start to grasp nouns. In fact, many are even able to pick out the "idea" nouns much more readily that I ever would have thought possible.
Now... I am going to start tackling the concept of plural nouns, so stay tuned for news on how that goes!
What about you? What strategies or lessons do YOU use to teach nouns to your students?
Cheers!
TpT
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P.S. Don't miss my Share the Wealth Freebie Linky going on RIGHT NOW over at an Educator's Life. I would love to have you stop by and 'score' big on FREE resources!
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