Noun worksheets are used in practically every elementary school and English classroom across the nation, since nouns are one of the most basic building blocks of the English language. Noun worksheets are appropriate for all levels of language development. Younger students and ESL learners are introduced, for perhaps the first time, to the concept of the word "noun." More advanced students can use noun worksheets as refreshers about the proper usage of the English language.
Resources for Noun Worksheets
Ideas of Worksheets to Create
What follows are some suggestions for creating worksheets based on nouns.
- Distribute a handout with sentences. Ask students to underline or circle the noun. Discuss the answers with the class. Sentences should vary by grade level. More simple sentences are appropriate for beginners, while more complex sentences are appropriate for advanced learners.
- Distribute a handout with three columns labeled "person," "place," and "thing." Have students walk around the classroom in groups, and list nouns that fall into each of these categories.
- Distribute a handout with three columns labeled "person," "place," and "thing." List a number of nouns on the bottom of the handout, and ask students to write them in the correct columns.
- Distribute a handout with sentences containing blanks. Direct students to fill in an appropriate noun word in each blank. For more advanced students, have some "trick" questions, where no noun is needed, and see if students pick up on the discrepancy.
Links to Free Online Worksheets
Pre-made worksheets are also helpful. Be sure to review them for accuracy before you use them with your students.
Having a wide variety of worksheet sources will add flavor to lesson plans, and prevent the same worksheets from being used over and over again with the same students.
- Common and Proper Nouns - Students are given examples of a common noun, and they need to write a proper noun that correlates with it.
- Nouns - Students have to both identify the noun and decide whether the word is person, place, or thing.
- Possessive Nouns - This interactive activities allows students to search for nouns around the classroom, and understand how the possessive case is used.
- Noun Review - A very simple activity, best for beginning learners, students are asked to write whether or not each word on the list is a noun.
- Irregular Plural Nouns - Students are given sentences to complete which use either -s or -es to make the word plural.
- Nouns on the Farm - Students are given a list of nouns to use to fill in simple sentences about living on a farm.
Considerations About Noun Worksheets
Noun worksheets are very important to the development of grammar skills. Practicing skills is much better than simply listening to someone else recite the grammar rules.
Using a variety of worksheets and learning tools will be an effective way to diversify the curriculum. Some students learn concepts more quickly by walking around the classroom and touching physical objects while other will best learn the concept by completing a worksheet.