Written by Lori Toney, English teacher, educational writer and mother of three school children

When introducing pronouns to first graders, be prepared to deal with some confusion. Students will need to make sense of the different categories of pronouns, and all the words that fall within each group, which could make pronouns looks like a big intimidating topic. However, often little learners get to love pronouns realizing that they function almost like a shortcut. Instead of repeating someone’s name over and over, one can just use a small word called a pronoun! 

In this article we review the theory on each type of pronouns relevant for Grade 1 and offer some free interactive learning resources for your students to practice this topic.

Teaching Pronouns for Grade One

Pronouns are words that substitute for nouns or noun phrases in sentences. They help make writing more concise by  improving clarity and reducing repetition.

There are many types of pronouns, but first graders just learn the basics, which include personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns. Let’s have a closer look at each of the groups and some learning materials that come along.

Personal Pronouns

These words make it possible for us to refert to other people and things without constantly saying their names.

Personal pronouns are words that substitute for the names of people and things. Personal pronouns include the following words: I, me, we, us, you, he, him, she, her, it, they, them.

For example, instead of writing a sentence such as, “Jenny threw the ball, and then Jenny sat down”, it is easier and less repetitive to say, “Jenny threw the ball, and then she sat down”. By inserting the pronoun “she”, the sentence sounds smoother without having to repeat the name in the same sentence.

To help your first grader master personal pronouns, Kids Academy has free drill-styled worksheets that help children identify personal pronouns in a rapid-fire fashion.

Drill tasks are short and quick and help students build fluency as they progress through each exercise. Each tabbed section (Pre-assessment, Skill Development, and Review Quiz) offers a number of drills that were designed to build understanding, practice the skill directly, and assess mastery at the end.

For more practice, we offer a Personal Pronoun Quiz here that has a more traditional feel, with illustrations and fill-in-the-blank questions.

Possessive Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives

Possessive pronouns are words that substitute for a possessive noun or a whole possessive noun phrase. Possessive pronouns include the following words: mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs. These words are normally used at the end of a phrase and are not followed by a noun.

Example 1: Instead of saying "This is Jack's book", we can say "This book is his". (here the possessive pronoun "his" substitutes for the word "Jack's").

Example 2: Instead of saying "This is Jack's book", we can say "This is his". (here the possessive pronoun "his" substitutes for the word "Jack's book").

Instead of saying, “The ball Jenny threw is Jenny’s”, we can say “The ball Jenny threw is hers”. Once again, a pronoun is used to reduce repetitive language and help the sentence to be clearer and smoother.

Possessive adjectives also substitute for possessive nouns. However, possessive adjectives are always followed by a noun. Possessive adjectives are the following:  my, our, your, his, her, its, their.

E.g. Instead of saying "This is Jack's book", we can say "This is his book".

You're welcome to use our free collection of drill worksheets on possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives to help your children master this concept.

For more practice use this Possessive Pronoun Assessment Quiz located in the quizzes section of our website:

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns refer to people or things in general and not in a specific way. These are words like everyone, nobody, or anything.

Most indefinite pronouns start with:

• no-
• every-
• any-
• some-

And end with:

• -body
• -one
• -thing.

There are also indefinite pronouns that don't have the above structure:  all, each, either, none etc. For first graders, however, it's better to stick to the indefinite pronouns that are more common in their speech and reading, like those bulleted above.

Because indefinite pronouns are tough, we have various levels of drills available to help learners ramp up their skills and improve upon previous learning.

Each level offers ample practice identifying indefinite pronouns in a variety of ways. For instance, some tasks require students to compare word pairs before progressing to identifying them in whole sentences.

Finally, when students are close to mastering this skill, assess their knowledge using our engaging Indefinite Pronoun Quiz. These exercises are slightly more difficult in that some items task students with filling in multiple blanks across a brief paragraph.

Pronouns may seem like a big, broad concept that could be tough for first graders to learn, but it becomes much easier to grasp when children realize they already use most of these words in their speech and will now just learn to categorize them. Additionally, drill exercises and quizzes from Kids Academy gives them the added boost they need to truly master this crucial grammar topic.

Finally, don’t forget to check out our website at www.kidsacademy.mobi to find a plethora of other grammar drills, worksheets, quizzes, videos, and much more! Or use our web-based Kids Academy Classroom to create curated classes on different topics and share them with your students!