Identify a noun

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — Hearing "My brother left his boots by the door," your child picks out brother, boots and door.
• — Your child checks a word by putting a or the in front of it, like "the door," and hearing whether it names something.
• — Your child counts kindness and friendship as nouns too, even though nobody can pick them up.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Start with things you can point at

   Walk around the kitchen and name what you see: cup, table, window, dog. Tell your child every one of those words is a noun. A noun is a word that names a person, a place, a thing or an idea.

2. 02

   Add people and places

   Mom, neighbor and baby are nouns because they name people. Kitchen, library and backyard are nouns because they name places. Names like Sarah or Chicago are nouns too, and they start with a capital letter.

3. 03

   Then add ideas you cannot touch

   Kindness, bravery and friendship are nouns as well. They name an idea or a feeling instead of an object. This is the part most children miss, so give a few examples and ask your child to think of one more.

4. 04

   Try the a or the check

   Put a, an or the in front of the word. If "the table" or "a friendship" makes sense, the word is probably a noun, and "the ate" does not make sense, so ate is not one. Names like Sarah skip this check, but a name is always a noun.

5. 05

   Find them inside a sentence

   Say a short sentence about your day and ask your child to catch every noun in it. Keep the sentences short at first, with two or three nouns each.

You will need: Everyday things around the kitchen to point at

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Say: "The dog ran across the yard." Ask your child to name the nouns.

   Listen for  Dog and yard. Ran is what the dog did, so it is not a naming word.

2. Try 2

   Say: "Grandpa planted tomatoes in the garden." Ask for every noun.

   Listen for  Grandpa, tomatoes and garden. Grandpa counts because a name is a noun.

3. Try 3

   Say: "My sister showed great kindness to the new puppy." Ask for the nouns.

   Listen for  Sister, kindness and puppy. Kindness is the stretch, because it names an idea you cannot touch.

4. Try 4

   Give your child three words, eat, spoon and happy, and ask which one is a noun.

   Listen for  Spoon. You can say "a spoon," but "an eat" and "a happy" do not make sense.

Watch for

• — Calling only touchable things nouns. If kindness or bravery gets left out, remind your child that ideas and feelings have names too.
• — Words that change jobs. Jump is a noun in "a big jump" and an action in "I jump." If your child is unsure, the sentence decides.

If it is not there yet

• — Go back to pointing at real objects in the room and naming them. Once that is quick, add one person and one place, then try sentences again.
• — Say sentences with only one noun in them, like "The cat slept," until finding that one noun is sure every time.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 2

  Common and Proper Nouns

  Needs it because A child has to see the noun before deciding which kind of noun it is.

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 3

  Singular and Plural Nouns

  Needs it because only nouns take these endings, so the word has to be a noun before the rule applies.

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 5

  Concrete and Abstract Nouns

  Needs it because the sorting question is asked about a noun, so the noun must be spotted first.

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 6

  Pronouns: Words That Stand for Nouns

  Needs it because A pronoun is chosen to stand in for a particular noun, which has to be located first.

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 15

  Adjectives: Words That Describe Nouns

  Needs it because an adjective is found by finding the noun it is attached to.