Part and whole
Objective
To explore the way that nouns can point to parts and wholes of things.
Activity 1
Read the five sentences below: what do the words in blue have in common?
- The hunter proudly showed them the antlers he had collected.
- The fins are used for swimming and for keeping balance.
- The udder looked very heavy.
- We wanted to know how the hump had evolved.
- The long trunk pushed the grass into the mouth.
Each word is a noun which refers to a part of a different animal:
- antlers with male deer,
- fins with a fish,
- udder with a cow,
- hump with a camel and
- trunk with an elephant.
There are many words which denote a part of something, and the more we know the parts of an object by name, the more we understand their nature, what they are for and how they work.
Activity 2
Thing we see in everyday life can be broken down into their parts. For example, think about a person's face.
Draw a picture of a face. Think of and label as many parts of the face as you can; then, compare with a partner.
Activity 3
Read the five sentences with a missing word. Work out what each noun forms a part of.
E.g. A stone is a part of a cherry.
| A heel is part of a ____. | foot |
| An elbow is part of an ____. | arm |
| A beak is part of a ____. | bird |
| A drawer is part of an ____, ____. | desk, piece of furniture |
| A pip is part of an ____. | apple, pear |
Choose three words from this list of seven objects and write down as many part nouns as you can think of. Compare with a partner and see who can think of more!
- book
- car
- house
- computer
- classroom
- shoe
- flower
This lesson is adapted (with permission) from Words and Meanings: A Systematic Guide for the Teaching of English Vocabulary, by Gabriele Stein.
