Common vs Proper Nouns word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Common vs Proper Nouns word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this common vs proper nouns puzzle set for my 2nd and 3rd graders during our grammar unit. The kids knew what a noun was but kept forgetting to capitalize proper nouns like names, cities, and brands. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using pairs like dog/Rover, city/New York, month/January, day/Tuesday, store/Walmart, school/Park Elementary, teacher/Ms. Smith, river/Mississippi, president/Lincoln, and book/Charlotte's Web. Nothing fancy — just puzzles to help the capitalization rule finally stick.

The PDF is four pages. Three puzzles plus one answer key page. The word search works well for quiet time after recess. The scramble gets them talking because they argue about whether "mom" is capitalized or not. The crossword I use for partners. I added a couple simple capital letter and period drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 2nd through 4th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers write two common nouns and their matching proper nouns on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.