Throughout the school year first grade students will be expanding their understanding of grammar learning about parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  As children learn about parts of speech they are better able to experiment with language, learn to make new words, and expand their vocabulary.  Focusing heavily on nouns first trimester, students have learned that nouns are words that name a person, place, thing, or idea.  While your child can practice naming nouns simply by looking around them and identifying people, animals, places, and things, understanding nouns as ideas can be a more difficult concept for first grade students.  In class, we are introducing nouns as ideas through simple words such as friendship, happiness, strength, and beauty.

First graders are learning that nouns can be classified as common or proper and can be singular or plural.  We have discussed how proper nouns are special as they begin with a capital letter and name a specific person, place, thing, or idea.  We also know that nouns can be singular, naming one, or plural, naming more than one. Reading aloud A Mink, A Fink, A Skating Rink, and A Cache of Jewels, students practiced distinguishing each.  They have played games, sorted pictures and words, rewritten words to capitalize correctly, and selected between given choices.  We are also searching for nouns in books in our reading folders, applying active reading skills and further developing comprehension strategies.