Differentiate Between Common Nouns + Proper Nouns

Nouns come in many different forms—concrete and abstract, singular, plural, and collective, common and proper nouns. 

This resource includes six slides of activities for students to practice identifying common and proper nouns: 

Proper nouns: the specific, capitalized name of a person, place, or thing (examples include President Biden, Washington, D.C., or Monday).

Common nouns: generic names of persons, places, or things (examples include sister, kitchen, restaurant).  

Use this resource as a whole-class activity! Display the slides to your class and use choral response or call on students to come forward and sort the words. You can also assign this as an independent practice activity or formative assessment tool in Google Classroom. 

By completing this activity, students will demonstrate they understand how to identify and use common and proper nouns when writing or speaking.

Scaffolding + Extension Tips 

We’ve included hints on each page of this activity to remind students how to distinguish proper and common nouns, and reinforce their understanding of concepts. 

Support struggling students by referring them to your parts of speech poster or an anchor chart as they complete the assignment. For students with educational modifications, use screen reading software to help students complete the activity. 

Challenge fast finishers who already understand the concept to select nouns from a sorted list and put them into sentences.  

Come together as a class to create an anchor chart or instructional poster that highlights the differences between common and proper nouns, with examples of each. 

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource.