Nouns Worksheet: Person Place Thing or Idea, Greek Myths, Grades 3-5
Most noun worksheets hand a child a definition and a list. This one starts on a mountain, with a god, a city, a throne, and the courage it took to walk up to a monster, and then asks which of those four is which kind of noun.
By the end of this
- If a word names a person, a place, a thing, or an idea, it is a noun. If it names nothing, it is not.
Your child is ready for this if they
- Read a short paragraph on their own and can say what it said
- Know that a sentence opens with a capital letter and closes with a mark
- Will write a sentence of their own rather than only fill in a blank
That list matters more than the age we printed on it. You know which of the two is true of your child.
A noun is a word that names something. Every noun names one of four kinds: a person, a place, a thing, or an idea. Those four kinds are the four columns you will sort nouns into. A word that names nothing is not a noun.
To find a noun, read the sentence and ask one question at each word: is this word naming something? Try it on this sentence. Zeus sat on a gold throne on Mount Olympus. Zeus names a person, so Zeus is a noun. Throne names a thing, so throne is a noun. Mount Olympus names a place, so it is a noun too. Sat is not a noun, because sat tells what Zeus did. Gold is not a noun here, because gold tells what the throne is like. One sentence usually holds more than one noun.
The person column takes every who. Zeus and Athena are gods, not humans, but a god is a who and not a what, so a god goes in the person column. A hero goes there too. The place column takes every where. Athens is a city, and a city is a place. Mount Olympus is a place. So is a road, a room, or your own yard.
The thing column takes what your senses can reach: what you can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell. A throne is a thing. So is a shield, a torch, or an olive tree. The idea column takes what is real but no sense can reach. Courage, hope, fear, and honor are ideas. A hero shows courage, but nobody can hand you a box of it. An idea noun is still a noun, because it still names something.
Sorting proves your work. Write each noun you found under the column that fits it, and say why it fits. If a word will not sit in any of the four columns, look again, because it was probably not a noun at all.
What is inside
- 01Nouns: Words That Name a Person, Place, Thing, or Idea — the teaching page
- 02Nouns: Words That Name a Person, Place, Thing, or Idea — the work page, answerable from the teaching page
- 03Take it outside: Step outside and stand still.
Standards alignment, for a portfolio or a state filing
2 alignments. Copy what your state asks for and ignore the rest — this is here for the paperwork, not for the teaching.
| Framework | Code | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| CCSS | CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.A | |
| CCSS | CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.1 |