Let’s Get Irregular

Second Grade Reading, Writing

by Lily Jones March 22, 2017

Second graders know about plural nouns, but things get trickier when they are introduced to irregular forms. In
this lesson, students will receive an introduction to irregular plural nouns.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to form and use irregular plural nouns.

Materials and preparation

Class set of the Plural Noun Sort worksheet

Class set of the Getting Irregular worksheet
Index Cards
Paper
Pencils

Attachments

Plural Noun Sort (PDF)

Getting Irregular (PDF)

Introduction (5 minutes)

Write the word “elf” on the board. Ask, “What do you call more than one elf?”
After students answer, write the word “elves” on the board.
Explain that regular plural nouns end with “s” but irregular plural nouns follow different rules.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling (5 minutes)

Tell students that when nouns end with “f,” their plural form ends with “-ves.”
Have students brainstorm a few words that end with “f” and make the plural forms together (leaf, loaf,
half, etc.)
Explain that when nouns end with “y” there are two rules to make the plural form:
If a vowel comes before the "y," add an "s."
If a consonant comes before the "y," you drop the "y" and add an "ies."
Show a few examples of these rules (spy, library, toy, etc.).
Finally, tell students that there are additional types of irregular plural nouns, like fish and people.

Guided Practice (10 minutes)

Hand out index cards to the students and have them write as many irregular plural nouns as they can
(one word per card).
When students finish, they can trade their cards with a partner to check their work.
After the entire class is finished, call on a few students to share some of the irregular plural nouns they
formed.
Ask students to think about how they could use their irregular plural noun in a complete sentence. Have
them turn and share their sentence with a partner.

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 Request that volunteers share their sentence with the whole group.

Independent working time (15 minutes)

Pass out Plural Noun Sort and Getting Irregular worksheets. Have students complete the worksheets
independently.
Afterwards, have students share their answers in partnerships. Instruct students to share every other
answer. For example, have one partner say, "What is the plural form for the word fish?" Then, have the
other partner provide the requested information. Next, have them switch question and answer roles after
the shared answer.
Remind students to use complete sentences in their answers (e.g., "The plural word for fish is fish.")

Differentiation

Enrichment:

Have students write sentences featuring more than one irregular plural noun.

Support:

Help students to see the rules of irregular plural nouns by underlining the ending of the nouns.
Provide sentence frames and teacher modeling during partnership sharing and presentations.

Assessment (5 minutes)

Assess students’ understanding by observing how they are forming irregular plural nouns and how they
are distinguishing between regular and irregular plural nouns. Also, note how they used the irregular
plural nouns in a sentence when sharing with partners.
Pay attention to their work on the worksheets, particularly how they are writing plural nouns.

Review and closing (5 minutes)

Have students popcorn share irregular plural nouns using a complete sentence.
Write the following sentences on the board and have students form and use the correct irregular plural
noun to complete the sentence:
There are 20 ____ in this class. (children)
I love the famous song about the three blind ____. (mice)
How many ____ have you lost in your mouth? (teeth)
Can you hop with both ____? (feet)
My aquarium has twelve ____. (fish)

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Name: Date:

Plural Noun Sort

When nouns end with “f,” their plural form ends with “-ves.”
When nouns end with “y” there are two rules to make the
plural form:
- If a vowel comes before the Y, add an S.
- If a consonant comes before the Y, you drop the Y
and add an "ies."

Make the plural forms of the words below.

Write the plurals forms in the cloud with the same ending.
Elf
Baby
Shelf
Boy
Fly
Toy
-ves
Play
Wolf
Sky
Calf

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-ies

-s

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Name: Date:

Getting Irregular
Let’s make some plural nouns!
Write the plural forms of the nouns below.

Fish
Spy

Person
Wolf

Birthday

Copyright © 2017 Education.com LLC All Rights Reserved

More worksheets at www.education.com/worksheets
Library

Mouse

Tooth

Dog

Book
Calf

Copyright © 2017 Education.com LLC All Rights Reserved

More worksheets at www.education.com/worksheets