7 Interesting Ways for Teaching Pronouns to Kids
Pronouns for kids are a major milestone for their learning and speech-language development. It helps them use appropriate substitutes for a noun or a noun phrase in case of repetitions. For example, he, her, they, them.
In today’s evolved era, using a person’s pronouns correctly is also about showing them respect as it is important to never assume a person’s pronouns. If this purpose of learning pronouns is deeply rooted in children’s value books, they will not only learn it for the sake of English grammar but will also understand its standing in inclusivity.
Here are 7 interesting ways for teaching pronouns to your little ones –
- Help Me to Sort
This one is great to comprehend and express pronouns for kids like his, her, mine, your, their, etc. on daily basis.
You can ask them to help you with sorting clothes after laundry by finding out which clothes belong to whom so that you can put them in ‘his, her, or their’ cupboard.
It is a simple and effective exercise to not only enhance kids’ grammar skills but also to involve them in routine chores of the house!
2. Guess Who This Is?
Time to teach the kids how to use the pronouns ‘he’, ‘she’, and ‘it’.
Start by sitting in a circle of 5 to 8 people. Now, place secret chits in a bowl with the names of family members, friends, famous people, or even objects. Ask one person from the circle to pick a chit and start describing the name in it with the help of pronouns. Speaking the name itself is taboo. Other people have to guess the name from the description. Similarly, everyone picks a chit turn by turn and describes the name for the rest.
For example, “It is a fruit that I eat every morning. It is long and yellow, and we have to peel it before eating.”
(Answer – Banana)
Related Read: Teaching in Mother tongue to your child aids in his success
3. Create Your Story
Give your child 1-2 pictures of a main character for the story, and 4-5 pictures for elements to be used in the story. Then, ask them to create their own story out of it and narrate it for you.
For example,
Main character: A woman
Elements: laptop, tiffin, book
So, the story could be, “A woman has many things to do. She prepares tiffin for her kids, reads books as well as works on the laptop every day.”
Take turns with your child to make it more exciting.
4. Pronoun Scavenger Hunt
Teaching pronouns is never going to be as enjoyable as this!
Give a pronoun to your child or a team of kids. And then ask them to find hidden pictures of people or objects that can represent that pronoun. You have to hide these pictures secretly before beginning the activity.
For example, you give the pronoun ‘it’. Now, your child can only bring you pictures such as dog, cat, apple, plate, etc. If they bring a picture of a schoolboy, then they would lose a point.
5. Pronoun Card Game
Make two sets of cards – one with pronouns and one with pictures of objects or people. Now give any one of the cards to your kid and let them see it. Place the other cards facing down. Turn these cards one by one and ask your kid to match them with the card in their hand.
You can make multiple such cards and keep them for any time your kid feels like playing an indoor game.
6. Pronoun Quizzes
Without questions, there is no learning. And therefore, we have quizzes!
Create your own worksheet and let your kid play online games and quizzes like –
Classify pronouns, fill in the blanks with suitable pronouns, sort singular and plural pronouns, etc.
7. Jump For Pronouns
Now you can harness your kid’s enthusiasm for jumping and leaping for all the right reasons.
For this, you will need a little floor space. Place stickers of various pronouns at a jumping distance in the floor area. Now ask your kid to stand at the ‘start’ card. Write or draw a noun on the board (example, a group of cats, a tree, a doctor, etc.) and ask them to jump on a suitable pronoun.
This one is a great activity to make your child practice pronouns, have fun, and also get some physical exercise!
Pronouns for kids can be practised by playing many such exciting games and activities. Further, you can start conversing in English regularly with your child to improve their speaking skills.
About the Author:
Samidha Raj works as part of the content marketing team at PlanetSpark, a platform that provides online classes to K8 learners on “New Age Skills” like English Communication, Public Speaking, Grammar, Creative Writing, Debating, etc. She is passionate about empowering the youth by educating parents about the importance of 21st-century skills. In her free time, you can find her watching documentaries or animated movies and organizing game nights (board games are her thing)!