Proper Nouns (Days and Months)

Introduction:

Start by showing cards that have sentences with proper nouns on them. The cards will include the following proper nouns:

The Cat in the Hat

Dragon Elementary

Walmart

Emily

Christmas

McDonalds   

Ask students: What do all of these cards have in common?

Listen and discuss student answers. If needed, guide students to the realization that the cards all start with capital letters.

Say to students: These words are capitalized because they are Proper Nouns.

Lesson:

1. Begin the invitation process by showing the group of students a sentence that says, “I lost the sweater I wore Thursday to school.”
2. Ask students to tell you what they notice about the sentence.
3. The students may say many different things they notice about the sentence (i.e. sweater, Thursday, school has two "o"s, there is a period, etc.).
4. Show them another sentence that says, “Every Monday in February I go to soccer practice.”
5. Begin the Invitation to Compare and Contrast. Teacher will ask them to compare and contrast the two sentences. This is when the focus of the lesson will be known. Say to students: Days of the week and months of the year are also proper nouns, so they are capitalized in sentences, as well.
6. Have students name out other days of the week and months of the year and express to students they are all capitalized in sentences. 
7. Once the students understand, allow students to show what they have learned. Give them a worksheet that has three incorrect sentences and they will rewrite them capitalizing the days and months.
8. They will then write a sentence of their own using what they learned.
9. Give each student the opportunity to either share the sentence they created, or share a sentence they corrected and how they corrected it.
10. Invite the students to edit their sentences. You will review their sentences and make small corrections as needed (capital letters, periods, misspellings, etc.) 

Reflect and Summarize 
As students seem to be finishing up editing their sentences, have students go around and tell one another something they learned today.
Teacher will have the students look around the room and notice all the things that are capitalized (even days of the week and months of the year) and have each of them name one. You will discuss how these are called proper nouns and in their writing, no matter where the word is, it must be capitalized. Have them turn their worksheets into you as a graded assessment.

This lesson is intended for small group purposes, but can be adjusted to fit whole-class as needed.

Have students turn in their worksheets and grade them for correction.