'Plurals' tutor notes

The plurals spelling rules topic area aims to help learners revise and remember the rules that govern the spelling of plurals.

How does this tie in with the curriculums?

• England
  Ww/L1.1 - know and apply some spelling rules to help spelling
  Ws/L1.2 - change nouns and verbs from singular to plural
• Wales
  As England.
• Northern Ireland
  As England.
• Scotland
  See www.aloscotland.com for details of the Scottish curriculum.

In the Skillswise module you'll find:

Plurals game
This is a fishing game, where learners choose their gnome and 'fish' for the correct plural. The learner can choose which rule they want to practise, or do a mixture of all the rules together.

TOP TIP! To see the game completely full screen, press the F11 key on the keyboard. This takes away the distraction of the top browser bar. To bring the browser bar back, just press F11 again!

Plurals quiz
The learner can choose their level. Level A is the easiest, level C the hardest.
We have now put in place a system that will allow the student to print out a certificate if they score 50% or more in the quiz. This will appear as a link on the results page - click on the link and the certificate will appear in a new window. A learner can write their name in once the certificate is printed.

Plurals factsheet
The rules for spelling plurals, with examples, on one 'print-out-and-keep' sheet.

Plurals worksheet
There are two printable worksheets in this section (each has a printable answersheet). On each sheet there is a selection of pictures. Students have to complete either the plural or singular word for the item pictured.

Technical help:

To get the most out of this topic area you need the following 'plug-ins':

• Flash
  The game in this topic section uses Flash. This is free to download and should only take a few minutes. You can follow the BBC WebWise instructions to download it to your machine.
  Find out more.

If you don't have Flash the same learning points are covered in the quiz and in the worksheets and factsheets.
If you are new to the web, why not try the BBC WebWise online course, Becoming WebWise? It's free, you can do it in your own time from any computer and it will take you through everything you need to know to use the web successfully in your teaching.
Get WebWise.

You can find out more about the technical requirements for Skillswise in our Help - Technical Information section.

Taking it further:

With Skillswise
Don't forget to visit Lesson plans and Teaching inspirations for more ideas for teaching plural spelling rules.

With the web
Here's a few suggestions of other places on the web that you might find useful resources that you can adapt for teaching plural spelling rules.

• Plural nouns
  A bizarre little site that looks at English grammar and the history of Mesopotania (!), but this is a good list of nouns that have irregular plurals. There is also an exercise that you can print out.
  
• More plural nouns
  Learners can do this quiz online. Choose the right spelling of the plural nouns from the dropdown.
  
• Plural rules
  More examples of how words change according to the different spelling rules, from Georgia State University.
  

Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content of other websites.