Welcome to our all-new Nouns Around Town educational play set. This free, printable set allows language to take the center stage, as your child’s imagination grows and they learn all about nouns!
The basic idea behind this project is to show our children that nouns are all around us, everywhere we go.
First of all, you’ll want to discuss with them what a noun is. The saying my kids all learned was, “A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.” I’m not sure where I got that definition — over the years our curriculum has morphed into a little bit from this company, and a little bit from that, a line here, a nugget there, a good book from this list or that (you get the idea) — I just know I didn’t come up with it myself.
I can remember my grandmother having these small felt boxes, with little boards and all kinds of tiny felts. She would bring them along to church and let my sisters and me play with them. The inspiration for this set probably bubbled up from those memories, combined with my love of the Montessori Farm.
Beginning this month at A Reason For Homeschool, we’re publishing a series of exclusive free downloads. This month we included six different background settings that will be familiar to your child. You could print all six, or just introduce one at a time. I simply printed mine on card stock, but they could be laminated as well, depending on your child’s age and capacity for gentle play. The six settings are: a farm, under the water, a city park, a garden, a playroom, and the forest. Included in a separate download are dozens of figures to be used as story ideas and prompts for each setting, along with a matching noun word card for each one.
You can also download a page of BLANK "Nouns Around Town" Word Cards to personalize your set as you add your own nouns. This is where you can grow this project to introduce proper nouns naming specific places, people, or things. Use your own pictures (or let your child assign names to some of the different places, people, or animals already included in the set) and then show them how those are the only words that always begin with a capital letter.
Some of the figures included in our set are scene-specific, but many could be used with multiple backgrounds.
It will take a little work to cut all the pieces out, but once you’ve done the initial work, the child can take over.
After they have set up their scene, there are several games you can lead them through.
- They can match up the word cards to the nouns in the scene.
- Do you have a child that likes to play I Spy-type games? Great! Play I Spy with them. You could say, “I spy, with my little eye, a green noun.” Then they could search around until they notice the snake in the garden; if that was what you were looking at, it is now their turn to spy a new noun.
- Maybe they like to play hide-and-go-seek? Set up the farm, hide a rabbit or another figure, and lead them around with clues about different nouns until they find it hiding behind the tractor.
- Have them tell you a story about the scene they’ve made. When they are finished, maybe you or an older sibling can make up another story with their scene, moving characters around as needed to follow the new story line.
Want to create a 3-D experience for your little learner? Make little paper stands for the people or animals, just like you would for paper dolls (click here to find out more). Lay a piece of green construction paper down in front of your farm scene, and set up the fence in a rectangle to hold some of the animals. Perhaps the gate was accidentally left open and you had an escapee that tromped through the other scenes. Perhaps the horse was smart enough to open the gate himself. Did a pig get loose in the city park? Did he find the water and use a snorkel to swim around? Maybe your horse got into your house and found the playroom. Add Lincoln Logs, LEGOs, or blocks to your settings.
Your imagination can help spark your child’s … and you can happily spend hours learning foundational grammar and writing skills together. Go wild!
Download this month’s “Nouns Around Town” printables —
and watch for future additions that will expand your play set!
"Nouns Around Town" Figures & Word Cards
"Nouns Around Town" Backgrounds
BLANK "Nouns Around Town" Word Cards
