Ideas for Teaching Collective Nouns and a List

There are many fun ways to teach collective nouns. Teaching collective nouns will expand on student’s vocabulary and communication skills. Ultimately, everything is tied to reading comprehension and writing skills. These are often part of state language standards often. Collective nouns are listed under the Common Core Standards for second grade. I am going to include some fun and engaging ideas, activities, and a list below. However, I think you will find that naming groups of animals alone is just naturally attention grabbing for young learners. I myself find them fascinating, and I think you will find the list of collective nouns below interesting too.

Teaching Collective Nouns and Activities

First, I recommend giving a mini-lesson with collective nouns. Start that mini-lesson by tapping into some prior knowledge by asking students what they name a group of birds. Then lead students to the concept that there are special names for groups of animals, people, or things called collective nouns. Give some examples, and let students come up with some examples too. You can also have students identify a collective noun in a sentence you tell them. Once students have been introduced to the concept of collective nouns, intertwine some activities into centers or as a lesson as a whole to expand their understanding, vocabulary, and use of collective nouns.

Collective Noun Activity #1: Go Fish Collecting

You can create some simple game cards for students to match the group names with the animals, people, or things in that group. First, write the group names of collective nouns on some index cards. Then write the names of the animals, people, or things on the other. Let students play a game of go fish with the cards. Having the pictures on them help with self-checking. You can also have students record these on a sheet or paper or recording sheets for assessing and accountability.

Find the collective noun playing cards here.

Collective Noun Activity #2: Collect the Collective Nouns

Let students discover collective nouns as they read. If you have students keep a grammar or vocabulary journal, you can have students store their collective noun collections there. Have students put the title, “Collective Nouns,” on the page. Then let them keep their notebook handy as they read and record any collective nouns that they find right after they finish reading. If you would like to add an extra layer of fun to it, let students write their collective nouns in fish bubbles.

Collective Noun Activity #3: Task Cards

Task cards are another great way to teach collective nouns. Students see some models of the collective nouns being spoken in sentences, so it helps them build up their communication skills with using them later when you give a writing assignment.

You can also incorporate technology with these by opting for the digital task cards I have here.

Click here or the picture to get to the digital task cards.

Collective Noun Activity #4: Write with Collective Nouns

Give students a fun writing prompt that encourages them to write a story that is packed full of collective nouns. Here is a writing prompt idea:

The fish of Pet Town have forgotten to use their collective nouns as they shared a historical story of the first Pet Town settlers. Write a story telling this historical story, and make sure to include many collective nouns to describe the different groups of animals that first settled in Pet Town.

If you would like to save some time on preparing all these components, I have a Collective Nouns unit that includes everything you need to teach collective nouns. It includes a mini-lesson, journal pages, interactive notebook entry, printable task cards, no prep printables, reading comprehension passage, writing prompt with rubric options, quick check, and assessment. Please note, the bundle includes printable task cards, and digital ones are offered separately.

Click here or the image to go to the bundle.

List of Collective Nouns

•Army of Soldiers
•Band of Musicians
•Band of Gorillas
•Batch of Cookies
•Bed of Oysters
•Bed of Snakes
•Bouquet of Flowers
•Bushel of Apples
•Chain of Islands
•Choir of Singers
•Class of Students
•Cluster of Grapes
•Cluster of Spiders
•Collection of Dolls
•Collection of Stamps
•Colony of Ants or Army of Ants
•Colony of Bats
•Colony of Penguins
•Crew of Pirates
•Crowd of People
•Deck of Cards
•Fleet of Cars
•Fleet of Ships
•Flock of Birds
•Flock of Sheep
•Flight of Stairs
•Forest of Trees
•Gaggle of Geese
•Galaxy of Stars
•Herd of Cattle
•Herd of Deer
•Herd of Elephants
•Library of Books
•Lion’s Pride
•Litter of Kittens
•Litter of Puppies
•Orchard of Apple Trees
•Pack of Dogs
•Pack of Wolves
•Pod of Dolphins
•Pod of Whales
•Range of Mountains
•School of Fish
•Set of Tools
•Sloth of Bears
•Stack of Hay
•Stack of Papers
•Swarm of Bees
•Swarm of Flies
•Team of Horses
•Team of Players
•Troop of Kangaroo
•Troop of Monkeys