Teaching Singular and Plural Nouns

Teaching plural and singular nouns to kindergarten and first graders seems easy at first... until you realize there's no such thing as foxs and teeth are not tooths. 

It's actually fun to teach, I think, because you get to realize how silly English can be when a kid asks you why you can have cows but not sheeps. And your answer is probably, "That is a great question." :)

Irregular plural nouns can make it tricky BUT most words do follow some pretty basic rules so using pictures to give a lot of examples of each rule is my favorite way that I recommend to teach plural nouns.

Start with simply introducing a word that you have a picture card of (for example: cats). Then, ask them if you would say, "I have three cat." They'll giggle and say nooo, so you'll ask them what you say then. "Cats!" Repeat, "Ohh catSSSS. What did we add to the end of cat?" and hopefully they say "S!" If not, reinforce the "s" sound really quick. Introduce the "cats" card. Have them look at the 2 cards. Ask them how the words are different. They'll point out the S and you can explain how, with many words, all you have to do is add an S to the end to make it mean more than one. Tell them that is called plural. Plural is when there is more than one of something.

Repeat this with a few more words. Look at the picture above for examples. 

"If you can read dog, you can read dogs!" so now you know 2 words.

Give a handful (10-15) of singular and plural versions of simple nouns and have them match them. As they match each one, have them say it: "Car... cars"

You can also play a fun matching game where you put all the cards upside down in a grid pattern (if you used 12 cards, do 4 x 3 for example). Then take turns flipping them over to make a singular/plural match. If they make a match, they keep the cards. If they don't, they flip them back over and it's the next person's turn while they try to remember where the matches are.

That's super fun practice!

Make sure to use the word "singular" to describe only one while learning this lesson so they learn both vocabulary words. I also recommend using the headers I show above while sorting/matching so they get used to the new terminology. 

That's also a really quick sort they can do to review those terms. Give them the headers and have them sort pictures as to whether the picture noun is singular or plural.

The next lesson is to introduce words that become plural by adding -es to the end of it. 

Let them know that sometimes you add -es to a word to make it mean more than one.

I recommend starting with foxes and boxes since those are probably words they can spell, so they can see the "es" on the end of it. Break "es" into short e + ssss so they hear essss. Say "lunches" and ask if they hear "lunchs" or "lunchES" - repeat with benchES. CouchES. Let them hear the "es" and the difference to "cats." Say "CatES" and ask them if that sounds correct. Be silly, they'll love it :) 

Now, have them sort the PLURAL cards as to whether they have "s" at the end or "es." I recommend giving them the words with the pluralizing suffix already on it.

Although you can make it more difficult (or differentiate for more advanced students) by giving them the singular cards and have them decide if they think it's -s or -es like this:

That's pretty tricky! This is a great assessment, though, if you want to see whether they understand the rule.

They should know the rule where, typically, if a word ends in X, S, SH, CH... you add -es to make it plural.

Practice this a lot before moving on. This is possibly several lessons and rounds of practice before you move on to -ies words.

You can also give them a lot of support by giving them both versions of the card so they can properly sort it but also self-check it. This makes it a much more independent activity (since they can verify if they are correct) while also providing a lot of support.

There are so many ways you can do it - it really depends on where you feel your learner is.

I like this approach because they can see exactly how the word changed.

Words that end in Y add IES

Once they've solidified -s and -es words, start with words that end in y!

There are several smaller lessons for this rule. I recommend starting with simple 2 syllable words that end in y: bunny, puppy, cherry, candy.

Ask what you have if you have more than 1 puppy... puppies!

What do you have if you have more than 1 cherry? Cherries!

Have them hear the IES sound at the end of the word & tell them it's spelled -ies.

Do another match to show how the y turns into -ies at the end of the word.

I recommend ONLY using words that make the long E -ies sound at first to keep it simple for younger students. Skip the long i -ies words for now.

For example: candies, bunnies... NOT fries, flies. Not yet at least. :) More on that later!

Now that they have learned the 3 plural endings to words, I recommend doing a sort of TWO of them. You can do 3 if you really want to, but sorting -es and -ies is a great lesson.

Then, you can sort all 3 that you've learned!

You can do this by giving them the already plural version of words (cats, buses, bunnies) for them to sort by the word's ending OR you can give them the singular version of the word (cat, bus, bunny) and have them decide how to make it plural.

You could also do it with the plural words first then later without to assess/practice more.

Having the word already be plural (buses) definitely gives a lot more support but it is still great practice, especially when first learning these rules. 

Important Note: The picture above shows long I -ies words (example: flies). I still would only include -ies words with the long e sound (skip words like flies) for this sort at this point.

You can also make this sort easier by giving both versions of each word like we did for the -s -es word sort:

This is my favorite way to do the sorts because they can see both ways and how the word changes. It's a great visual representation of what they're actually doing when they add a plural ending. 

Once they've really internalized those 3 concepts (add S for most words, add -ES if the word ends in S X CH SH, and replace the Y with IES if it ends in Y)... NOW is when I would introduce long E -ies words. 

Long E -ies Words

These are words like fly and fry that turn into flies and fries.

When introducing dropping Y to add IES words, you only did Long E sounds. Now you can include words where IE makes the long I sound.

I recommend a simple sort like this to show them how Y can say eeee or I & when they change it to IES, it follows what the Y did.

Quick note - if you already learned the 3 Sounds of Y, then you could include them all from the beginning. If you need help teaching that skill, I have a lot of Sounds of Y resources! I have this awesome set of picture cards so you have a lot examples. I also have a HUGE pack of worksheets and no prep activity pages all focusing on Vowel Sounds of Y if you need to introduce and practice it. If you've already learned it and just need a super quick review, I have this free little worksheet to practice Sounds of Y. I prefer using word cards if you haven't already explicitly taught it. 

Plural nouns are usually taught before knowing those phonics skills, though, so that's why I think the Long I -ies words should be saved for well after you've learned the foundation skills for singular/plural nouns. It's just too confusing to do them both at the time time, I feel.

Same with how you're probably teaching this skill way before learning the IE sound that -ies uses. If you need help with that skill, I have a giant IGH and IE No Prep Pack as well as IGH and IE picture cards and IGH IE Clip Cards! I *love* phonics so I have fun stuff for every sound honestly. If I have something for one sound, I probably have it for all of them :) 

I don't recommend doing all of those vowel sounds of Y and IE activities with this. I'm simply pointing out how those are sounds they'll learn later and probably don't know yet. Eventually they'll learn how there are both long E and long I sounds for Y and IE. 

All they need to know right now is how Y can say eeee or I and the IES will say whatever the Y did.

For now, I'd simply tell them how Y can say E or I & that, in both cases, they drop the Y and add -IES to make it plural.

ADVANCED!

This is a somewhat advanced rule. It's helpful though. If you're teaching kindergarten, I'd probably skip this lesson entirely.

You don't always drop the Y to add -IES. Only if the Y is after a consonant.

If the Y has a vowel right before it, you simply add an S.

Again, this is a pretty advanced rule but I wanted to include it for the sake of being thorough.

There are a lot more random rules!

Words that end in E add S

Another time you simply add S is when the word already ends in E. So, technically, the words does end in -ES but you only added -S to the word to make it plural.

For example, cake becomes cakes. It technically ends in es but adding an S is what made it plural.

Once you're ready to get a bit more complicated, you can show them how sometimes there is ALREADY an e at the end of a word, so all you do is add an s! 

For example, above, "cake" becomes "cakes" not "cakees" which they will think is funny if you say cake-es :)

If you haven't learned long vowel CVCe words, then I would wait until then and bring this out then. By then, it'll seem really easy to them and can be a fun review. Plus you'll have all these cards for learning long vowels!

It's not just CVCe words, though. If you notice in the picture above, words like "apple" also apply to this rule.

Plural F to VES

Another random seeming rule is how words that end in F often drop the F and add VES.

This is another skill you can choose to do now or address later or if it comes up. I wouldn't overwhelm a child with all of these rules at once unless they're an older student and you want to make a quick list of all the possible rules.

I like learning to be organic so while you're teaching -s -es -ies... if they happen to come upon wolf and you need to explain why it's not wolfs, then you could do this as a quick 10-15 minute activity to explain this rule.

and then there are the totally, completely...

Irregular Plural Nouns

Nouns that don't follow the rules at all! :) They enjoy finding these!

I have a lot of games I like for practicing these words! 

I recommend bringing the "Singular" and "Plural" headers out again and have them simply place the singular version of the word and plural version of the word side by side like they did when you introduced -s -es and -ies. 

Tooth & teeth. Person & people. Woman & women.

This is a great lesson to play the matching game I talked about earlier where you flip all the cards over and try to make matches. The pictures are obviously a huge help, but make sure they're saying both "ox" and "oxen" when they make a match.

I also include a "Same" header so you could put that at the top and use it as a column where words stay the same (such as fish, sheep, deer). This is a fun column you could throw into any sort (-s and Same... -es and Same) to teach the concept of how some words stay the same.

Irregular plural nouns are simply ones they have to memorize. You can point them out when you come across them in conversations naturally. This is another easy way to make the concept of plural nouns silly and fun. Call mice meeses and deer deeries and let them correct you :)

I hope you found this post helpful!

If you want these picture cards I am using as examples, they are here:

Singular and Plural Nouns Pocket Chart Activities

All of the cards you see in this post are from that pack. It includes A LOT of cards and a lot of sorts with the headers already made for you. You can use these to simply introduce the concept, use them to play games, have kids sort them, have kids write them... I have heard of so many different ways people use my grammar and phonics pocket chart centers so it's really up to you! 

I also show more ideas for plural nouns in my Prefixes and Suffixes Teaching Ideas blog post including my plural nouns puzzles and posters if you want to explore this topic more :)

I am very excited that I have been posting a blog post every week this summer, starting at the beginning of July. I absolutely love sharing ideas with you and it has been a fun challenge! It has definitely been a challenge but one that I have enjoyed.

If you want to read my most recent posts... So far this summer I have posted:

Long Vowel Games for First Grade and Kindergarten

Teaching Letter Sounds

Amazing Tech Tips for Teachers

Secret Words: Short Vowel Word Families Games

CVC Word Families Word Rolls

I also have A TON of blog posts where I share my favorite ideas that you can find organized here:

Miss Giraffe: Organized List of Posts

Thank you for stopping by! I appreciate you coming to my little corner of the internet for a bit and hope you come back again soon! :)

Prefixes and Suffixes Teaching Ideas for First Grade and Kindergarten

Prefixes and suffixes in first grade? Kindergarten? What?! I'm not sure who decided teaching them so early was the way to go but never fear, you're a teacher (a.k.a. superhero who does the impossible on the daily). We've got this.

Teaching prefixes and suffixes in first grade and kindergarten does seem a little crazy to me BUT there are lots of ways to make them more comprehensive and fun for your students.

Having kid friendly pictures of prefixes and suffixes that present them in a simple way is a big help! All of these ideas would work even in second or third grade - all kiddos love need visuals!



I made a ton of prefixes posters in both full page and 4 to a page format.
I print the full page posters like above (1 of each prefix and suffix - just one for re-, one for pre-, one for -able, etc.) to hang up and then I print all of the 4 to a page cards as little reference cards. I'm thinking of laminating the little cards and putting them on a binder ring as well! They're a great tool to keep at your small groups table for reinforcement.

I tried to make them simple but information-ful :) Yes, I know that's not a real word but I figured it's festive. Each card has the prefix, its meaning, an example, and a picture of that example. 

You can get them here: Prefixes Posters and Visual Cards

I also have them for suffixes:

There are A TON!!

You can get them here: Suffixes Posters and Visual Cards

I love them because they have a visual to go along with each suffix to show how the word changed and how the suffix gives the root word a new meaning.

The little reference cards are easy to have students grab a couple and use them to write sentences at a center or in small groups as well. You can also hang them around the room and have students use them to write the room. If you're unfamiliar with writing the room, all you do is hang some picture and/or word cards around the classroom and give students a sheet of paper. Then, they go around the room finding the cards you hung and writing down what they say. I have them in my store for various things like shapes, frog life cycle, etc. They're just a fun activity that gets kids moving around but learning - I recommend trying it out if you haven't before! You can do it with anything - sight words, spelling words, math problems (they write the answer), anything!

If you need more visuals or need something to hang up in your writing center that's a bit more compact, I also have Prefixes and Suffixes Word Charts in my store that come in both full color you can hang up or a black/white version your students can color and keep in their writing folder.

You know what I'm going to say by now, right? 

PUZZLES! Puzzles, puzzles for everything :)

I love puzzles! They're challenging, hands-on practice that look like a game - win, win!

You can get these here: Prefix and Suffixes Puzzles

These puzzles are a super fun way to practice because the kids get to build the prefixes and self-correct by making sure the picture matches the word they built.

You can easily differentiate them by choosing which puzzles and how many to put out at a time. For young learners, I would just give them 2 or 3 at a time.

I made a ton of them so you can use them in centers or small groups for weeks and weeks for a lot of practice if you want to! 

I also like to make this little book to practice sorting and reading words with prefixes. You can print it already made where all of the words are already sorted and they just color, cut, and assemble but I totally recommend adding the extra step of them sorting the little pictures under the correct flap to tell which prefix the word has in it. The already made one is good for you to print as an example book to keep in the library or somewhere they can take it to read.

So what they do is color and cut out the pictures. Then, they sort their words into 3 piles: words with the re- prefix, words with the un- prefix, and words with the dis- prefix. 5 words go under each flap (15 words total).

When they're all done, they have a little book they can read to their friends or take home to read to their family or keep in their desk to read to themselves. I have little sorting books like these for a lot of different topics (phonics sounds, math concepts, grammar concepts, etc.) and I just love making them!

You can get it here: Prefixes re- un- dis- Book

The sounds of -ed are often some of the first suffixes taught so, going back to the prefixes and suffixes puzzles, this is an easy way to practice whether the -ed in the word says d, t, or ed. These are fun because they take the word and figure out which sound of ed to add to the end of the word.

It's also good to have some visuals to use as little reference cards to practice the inflectional endings.

I also like to make a little book for this skill! Students color, cut, and sort the 15 picture words as to whether the -ed in the word says d, t, or ed to make a fun book to read!

You can get it here: Sounds of ED Book

An easy way to practice the sound of -ed in small groups is to have students separate their board into 3 sections with lines and write (or use magnets like here) d, t, and ed at the top of their columns. Give them a base word (walk, jog, etc.) and have them say it out loud to figure out which sound the -ed makes when they add it to the word then write it in the right column - it's great practice!

I also love to practice skills with cutting and pasting activities. They're fun and kids know glue is "permanent" so they think before they glue a lot more than they think before they write, or at least I think so!

This page is from my Grammar Sorts cutting and pasting activities pack! There are 2 sounds of ed sheets in there for practice.

For a review of reading -ed words in context (that's the tricky part!), I wrote a passage that practices all 3 sounds -ed can make. I recommend having them go through and highlight the words with -ed before reading like this:

Then, have them read each sentence, figuring out which ed sound the word uses (d, t, or ed). As you can see below, you can also have them write a little d, t, or ed above it for help. The thing I love about my reading passages are that each one focuses on a target phonics sound/skill found in the corner (in this case ed) and use that phonics sound to also practice fluency and comprehension. They're great quick checks because even though they're trying to read fluently, you'll know if they understood what they read by their answers to the questions below.

You can get this passage free here: Sounds of ED Reading Fluency and Comprehension Passage

If you want more, I have a ton of these! I have a huge bundle of reading fluency and comprehension passages that have all the different phonics sounds, short vowel word families, long vowel word families, beginning blends, ending blends, etc. - if you need a passage for it, I've got you covered!

Another little chunk of the puzzles I like to use for practice are the plurals puzzles. They're in the prefixes and suffixes puzzles pack as well. For these puzzles, students look at the base word and figure out if they'd add -es or -s to the end to make it plural - your kiddos will think it's soo silly to try to say brushs (brushes) and beees (bees) so they're fun practice :)

They can also practice by sorting/reading/referencing the little prefix poster plural cards:

Some fun cutting and pasting activities from my Grammar Sorts pack again...

And obviously a book :) Students sort 5 pictures under each flap whether they end in -s, -es, or -ies.

You can get it here: Plurals Book

There are a ton of puzzles included in the prefixes and suffixes puzzles pack though so you can practice as many prefixes and suffixes as they can handle!

I also love making little books for things because a) they're fun, b) kids love making them, c) kids love reading them, d) kids love sharing them with others, and e) they actually keep them!

Here are some fun little books I like making:

Get it here: Prefixes Book

Get it here: Suffixes Book

Each page has an example of a word with that prefix (or suffix for the suffix book) that they write a sentence using and then illustrate. Then, on the next page over, they fill in a base word to create their own word using that same prefix they just practiced, write a sentence using their word, and illustrate. Simple targeted practice!

A fun review is to give students mini white boards and pick a prefix or suffix to practice. Here, re- is being practiced. You could have them come up with as many words that start with re- as possible OR even race to write as many as they can.

You can also have them draw a line down the middle of the whiteboard and write a prefix on each side (or a suffix on each side) and then give them words. Have them put the prefix in front of it and decide which one is the real word.

For example, they write re- and un- at the top and you give them the word read and they decide whether reread or unread is the real word and write it in the right column. They'll think the nonsense words are funny so it's a fun activity!

I hope this gave you some good teaching ideas for prefixes and suffixes! I know it's a difficult thing for the littles but with a lot of pictures and hands on activities, I think they can get it! :)

How do you teach prefixes and suffixes and in what grade? Share in the comments!

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