Possessive Nouns Background Information for Teachers, Parents and Caregivers
This page provides information to support educators and families in teaching K-3 students about possessive nouns. It is designed to complement the Possessive Nouns topic page on BrainPOP Jr.
Remind your children that a noun is a person, animal, place, thing, or idea. We recommend screening the Nouns movie for review. Explain to your children that to possess something means to have or own something. Possessive nouns show that a person, animal, place, thing, or idea has or owns something. This movie will explore different ways to make singular and plural nouns possessive by adding an apostrophe and an “s” at the end of a word, or just an apostrophe. You may wish to screen the Plural Nouns movie to review singular and plural nouns and discuss different irregular plural nouns before exploring this topic.
What is a noun? Guide your children to identify different people, animals, places, things, or ideas. Have students point out singular nouns, which name only one, and plural nouns, which name more than one. A possessive noun shows that a person, animal, place, thing, or idea has or owns something. Write the following sentence on the board: “Annie has black hair.” Explain that Annie possesses, or has, black hair. So, you can rewrite the sentence with a possessive noun: “Annie’s hair is black.” Continue writing different sentences together. Some children may find a spelling pattern. To make a singular noun possessive, you can add an apostrophe (‘) and an s to the end of the word (i.e. “Moby’s hat”, “dog’s tail”, “a bird’s wings”).
Now write the following sentence on the board: “Carlos has a blue pen.” How can you write the sentence with a possessive noun? “Carlos’s pen is blue.” If a singular noun ends in “s”, you can still add an apostrophe and an “s”. But, you can also just add an apostrophe at the end of the word: “Carlos’ pen is blue.” Work with different examples and have children write the possessive nouns both ways.
Remind your children that a plural noun names more than one. Many plural nouns end in “s”, such as “picnics”, “rakes”, and “bushes”. To make a plural noun possessive, simply add an apostrophe at the end of the word, after the final “s”. Write the following sentence on the board: “The birds have black feathers.” How can you write the sentence with a possessive noun? “The birds’ feathers are black.” Point out that the apostrophe comes after the final “s”. Write more sentences with plural nouns together.
Some plural nouns do not end in “s”, such as “children”, “women”, and “sheep”. To make them possessive, you can add an apostrophe and an “s” to the end of the word: “children’s books”, “women’s bathroom”, and “sheep’s coat”. Brainstorm more plural nouns that do not end in “s” together and create possessive forms.
Forming possessive nouns may be challenging or confusing for some children. However, many children use possessive nouns without even realizing it. Exposing early readers to a print-rich environment and introducing new vocabulary help children find patterns and exceptions in spelling and empower young students.