Teaching, Reinforcing, and Practicing Noun Identification

Hi friends,
 
     How are you?  Earlier this month, I wrote about fact families, an important beginning math skill. This week, I thought I would write about identifying nouns, an important beginning language arts skill.
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     Once we start learning about letters, letter sounds, and simple words, often one of the next skills is to identify nouns.  Nouns, as we know, are people, places, and things.  It might seem simple to us, because we know it.  Yet, for students just starting out, it may not be quite so easy.  It may take practice and a variety of activities to get the idea of what constitutes a noun and what doesn’t. 
 
     I have used a variety of ways to teach and reinforce noun identification.  The first way that I will tell you about to teach, reinforce, and practice the skill of identifying nouns is to make it fun.  You can make up simple silly stories leaving out the nouns and having students come up with nouns to complete the stories. (Yes, there was a product that was out when I was growing up that was very much like this.)

     Another way to teach, reinforce, and practice the skill of identifying nouns is to have word sorts.  For a simple sort, have just noun and verb sorts.  Don’t make the words too difficult at first.  Have simple nouns like, “man, boy, cow, book, car” or simple verbs like “jump, run, clap, read, eat”.
  
     Believe it or not, some words that may seem like simple nouns or verbs may be a little confusing.  For example, when I was writing the examples above, I originally had toy as a simple noun. However, if a student has ever been told, “Don’t toy with me” he or she may wonder why it is a verb in this case and a noun when it refers to something with which to play.  I also had hide down for a simple verb, but a student who has heard of animal hide, may not understand why it is a noun in that case and a verb when playing and trying not to be found.

     You may decide to use the words that may be a little tricky, however, I do feel that it is worth considering before you teach them.  This may be especially true when teaching the skill to those whose first language is not English.
  
     A third way to teach, reinforce, and practice nouns is to have students do activities in which they color in words a certain color based on the type of speech.  I actually created an activity where nouns are colored in blue.  It seems to be one that people enjoy.

Now, it is your turn.
     How do you teach, reinforce, and practice the identification of nouns?  Please, comment below.  I look forward to your ideas. 
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P.S.- Did you know that DUO Inspirations creates educational materials?  If you are interested in having me create an activity for you, please contact me.  Also, some are given free, especially if you are on the email list.  Thank you.

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