Lesson Planning of Singular and Plural Nouns
Subject English
Grade 8th
Students` Learning Outcomes
- Recall changing number of simple naming words by adding and removing‘s’ and ‘es’. Identify and change the number of nouns by adding ‘es’ after words are ending in ‘y’, ‘o’, etc.
Information for Teachers
- Recognize and apply spelling change in plural form of nouns.
- When a noun means only one, it is said to be singular.
- Examples: boy, girl, book, lamp, box, etc.
- When a noun means more than one, it is said to be plural.
- Examples: boys, girls, books, lamps, boxes, etc.
- Rules for changing number of nouns:
- Rule 1: the plural of nouns is usually formed by adding –s to a singular noun, as; lamp/ lamps, flower / flowers, fork / forks, pen / pens, cat / cats, school / schools, king / kings, horse / horses, hare / hares, girl / girls, beggar / beggars, cap / caps, mat / mats, cow / cows, dog / dogs, eye / eyes, etc.
- Rule 2: nouns ending in ‘s’, ‘ss’, ‘x’, ‘o’, ‘ch’, ‘z’, ‘sh’ form the plural by adding ‘es’, as; moss / mosses, box / boxes, buzz / buzzes, potato / potatoes, dish / dishes, lunch / lunches, hero / heroes, class / classes, gas / gasses, mango / mangoes, bench / benches, bush / bushes, match / matches, mosquito / mosquitoes, topaz, topazes, etc. note: in some cases this rules is omitted such as; bamboo, piano, stomach, monarch is add just ‘s’ to convert into plural.
- Rule 3: nouns ending in ‘y and there are no vowels before ‘y’ are made plural after changing ‘y’ to ‘I’ and then adding ‘es’ at the end, such as; baby / babies, story / stories, lady / ladies, hobby / hobbies, fly / flies, family / families, enemy / enemies, duty / duties, etc.
- Rule 4: nouns ending in ‘y’ and there are vowels before ‘y’ then ‘y’ is not omitted, and made plural by adding ‘s’, such as; essay / essays, ray / rays, boy / boys, toy / toys, key / keys, monkey / monkeys, day / days, play / plays, etc.
- Rule 5: nouns ending in ‘f’, ‘fe’, or ‘ff’ then these are changes into ‘ves’, such as; knife/knives, wolf/wolves, calf / calves, leaf / leaves, life/lives, etc.
- Rule 6: in some nouns, vowels are changed to convert into plural, such as; man/men, foot / feet, tooth / teeth, woman / women, goose / geese, mouse /mice, louse / lice, ox /oxen, child / children, etc.
- Rule 7: some nouns are formed plural without changing the form of noun, such as; deer, fish, sheet, pair, and poor, rich, these are used in both form in singular and plural.
Material / Resources
Writing board, chalk / marker, duster, 2 bags, worksheet, charts, textbook
Introduction
- Start your lesson by asking two students to bring their school bags to you. Hold one bag so that all students can see it.
- Ask the whole class the name of the thing that you are holding. After eliciting the word ‘bag’ from the students, ask for its spelling.
- Ask one of the students to write the spelling of ‘bag’ on the board.
- Ask the students if there is one or more than one bag over there in the class.
- Ask the students to tell the difference between singular and plural nouns.(Tell them what a singular noun is and what a plural noun is if there is any need to explain)
- Repeat this activity by using some real life objects of the students like, book; pencil, page, ponies, eraser, scale or sharpener. Take one or two examples from the students also.
- Now repeat the activity with the noun which takes ‘es’ to make it plural such as; glass, box, fox, brush, bench, dish, etc.
- Ask the students how these words are different from the previous words.
- Ask them to focus / pay attention on the sounds of the words.
Development
Activity 1
- Tell students that when a word ends with s, x, o, sh, ch, or z, we add ‘es’ to make it plural. (See the rule information for teachers). Write a few examples on the writing board (gas / gases, box / boxes, potato/ potatoes, lunch / lunches, brush / brushes)
- Divide the class into two teams: ‘A’ and ‘B’. writes ten singular words on the board (make sure you have a good collection of words ending with s, x, o, sh, and ch) Words for the convenience for the teacher.
Singular Words 1. Box 2. Class 3. Potato 4. Bus 5. Match 6. Mango 7. Brush 8. Tomato 9. Gas 10. box |
- Ask one student from team A to write the plural of the first word on the board.
- Call a student from team B to write the plural of the next word on the board.
- Continue playing the game for all words written on the board.
- The winning team receives coloured stars on the notebooks.
- Ask the whole class to write singular plural in their notebooks.
Sum up / Conclusion
- Give students a quick recap by asking them what letters are added to make plural of the words ending with s, x, o, sh, ch, or z.
Assessment
- Ask the students to add‘s’ or ‘es’ at the end of each word to form the plural individually in their notebooks.
- You can change the words according to the level of your class.
- Involve the students in solving problems given in exercise at the end of unit / chapter.
- Flower ___________
- Tool ____________
- Box ____________
- Tree ____________
- Fish ____________
- Lunch ___________
- Apple ___________
- Peach ___________
- Blanket _________
- Tax __________
- Dog __________
- Egg ___________
- Beach _________
- Wish _________
- Cloud ________
Follow up
- Divide the students into groups.
- Distribute worksheets among the groups of students or write on the board.
- Ask the students to read the sentences carefully and underline the noun in each sentence.
- Ask them to write in the blank whether the noun is singular or plural.