Singular and Plural

Rachel Strandquist

OBJECTIVES:

1. To get students comfortable with the concept of singular and plural nouns in English.

2. To teach students the singular and plural forms of some common nouns.

PROCEDURE:

1. Start with whichever warm-up you usually like to use (review, phonics, song, game etc…).

2. Next, introduce some singular and plural nouns. I start with the simple –s ending (eg. cat/cats, elephant/elephants, desk/desks), and then I explain that with many nouns (those ending with a voiced sound), the –s is pronounced –z (eg. dog/dogs(z), pencil/pencils(z), hand/hands(z)) and then move on to a few common irregular plurals (eg. mouse/mice, foot/feet). I put flashcards on the board and write the words underneath so that the students can see the change in the word.

3. Concentration/Memory: Once the students are comfortable with the idea of singular and plural and the words you’ve taught them, it’s time to play a game. You’ll need to have made sets of singular/plural playing cards. Divide students into small-ish groups and give each group a deck of cards. Lay the cards out face down. Have the students do “rock, paper, scissors” to see who goes first. Students should turn over two cards, trying to make a matched pair of a noun and its plural (eg. one card would have a picture of a cat, the matching card would have a picture of two or more cats). When they turn over a card, they must say the word (ie. cat or cats). If they can’t say the word, they lose their turn.

NOTES:

• This lesson takes a bit of preparation. You’ll need to make flashcards for the singular and plural of each noun you decide to use, as well as some decks of matching cards.

• If you need to, you can make this lesson easier for a lower-level class. You could leave out the irregulars, or gloss over the explanation of –s vs. –z. My main goal with this lesson is to make the students aware that in English, there is a difference in the shape of the word between one noun and more than one noun. I don’t worry too much if they forget some of the specifics. That said, however, most of the classes I have used this with have caught on really quickly. One fifth grade student even started applying the –s rule to words I hadn’t taught! While explaining the game, I said “Please pick up one card…” and Nobukazu cried out “Two cards!!”. It was a proud moment.