Using Articles: A, An, The

Articles are a simple yet critical part of speech. This lesson helps your fourth graders distinguish the three articles and understand how to use them correctly in sentences.

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Learning Objectives

Students will be able to identify articles and use them correctly in a sentence.

Introduction

• Ask students to define a noun (a person, place, object, or idea), and then ask them to define adjectives (words that describe nouns). Give a few examples such as "big (adjective) dog (noun)" and "red (adjective) house (noun)."
• Ask students to consider the words a, an, and the. Ask them what part of speech these words belong to, and listen to their responses.
• Tell students that these three little words are a type of adjective, called articles or determiners, because they help us describe nouns. They tell us whether we are speaking of a specific noun or a noun in general.