ShmoopTube

00:04

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:13

Look to your left.

00:15

Look to your right. [Man looking around]

00:16

Look up.

00:17

Look down.

00:18

Look in the mirror.

00:20

Hi, there. [Man smiles in the mirror]

00:21

Now close your eyes.

00:22

Think of the last thing you ate.

00:24

The last thing you held. [Man holding a teddy bear]

00:25

The last thing you smelled. [Man with smelly arm pits]

00:27

All that stuff has one thing in common.

00:29

Any guesses?

00:31

All right, we’ll tell you.

00:33

They're all nouns.

00:34

Crazy, huh?

00:35

Most of the stuff you interact with in your day-to-day life are good ol' fashioned nouns. [Items appear]

00:38

They’re things that you can touch, smell, taste, and hold.

00:41

But what about the nouns that you can't pick up with your bare hands? [A hand picks up a football]

00:43

And, no, we’re not talking about elephants or cars or other really heavy nouns. [An elephant walking across a field]

00:47

We mean abstract nouns. [Man carrying an arm chair]

00:49

The phrase “abstract nouns” might make you think of some weird shapes and colors, but [Girl painting]

00:53

that’s not exactly right. [The painting is a mess of colours]

00:55

Abstract nouns are nouns that refer to ideas, qualities, or concepts. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

00:59

Any noun that isn't a physical thing in the world, any noun that you can’t interact [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

01:03

with – well bingo!

01:04

That’s an abstract noun.

01:05

So let's play a game shall we…

01:08

All right, here we go.

01:09

We've got two buckets. [Two buckets appear]

01:11

One is for common nouns and one is for abstract nouns. [Labels are stuck on the buckets]

01:14

We'll name a few nouns and you try to put them in the right bucket.

01:18

Horse?

01:19

Yep, you can definitely touch a horse.

01:20

You can even ride a horse. [A horse appears]

01:22

Into the common bucket. [Post-it with horse on is thrown into the common bucket]

01:23

Taco?

01:24

Yep, if you can eat it, it's probably a common noun.

01:27

Maturity.

01:28

Ooh, that’s a tricky one.

01:31

Maturity is definitely a noun, but good luck trying to touch or eat “maturity.” [Maturity in the dictionary]

01:34

It's a human characteristic, not an object.

01:37

Abstract it goes. [Post-it with maturity is thrown into the abstract bucket]

01:38

Luck.

01:39

Yep, you got it.

01:41

Abstract.

01:42

Pants?

01:43

All right, now we're just making it easy for you.

01:44

Okay, last one: love.

01:47

Into the abstract bucket it goes.

01:48

Don't you just love this game? [Love hearts appear from the abstract bucket]

01:50

So now that we've nailed down the difference between common and abstract nouns, now we can

01:54

move on to abstract poems.

01:55

"What are abstract poems??" you probably didn't just ask.

01:59

We're going to tell you anyway. [Student looks bored]

02:00

Simply put, abstract poems are 6-8 line poems that start with your choice of an abstract [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

02:05

noun as the heading.

02:07

Each line after that links your abstract noun to one of the five senses.

02:11

It's best to choose an abstract noun that you feel connected with so you have lots to [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

02:15

write about.

02:16

Actually, that’s a good tip for poems in general.

02:18

So let's give it a shot!

02:19

How about we write an abstract poem for “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing?” [A folder of the poem appears]

02:23

We're going to write from Peter's perspective in Chapter 2, when he's getting really annoyed

02:27

with his little brother, Fudge.

02:28

So if we were Peter at that time, what abstract noun might we be feeling connected to?

02:32

Well, Peter is probably thinking that his little brother, Fudge, is mighty evil right now. [Peter stood with his little brother in front of a fish tank]

02:36

So let's go with evil.

02:38

Muahahahaha." [Fudge doing an evil laugh]

02:40

First step - let's write “evil” at the top of the poem.

02:42

Next, we need to link the word “evil” to different human senses. [Pictures of eyes, ears, hands etc appear]

02:46

Evil sounds like...

02:47

Fudge banging loudly on Mom's pots and pans. [Fudge drumming on pans]

02:50

Evil looks like...

02:51

Fudge making a big mess in Peter's bedroom. [A bedroom left in a mess]

02:53

Evil smells like...

02:55

Fudge's gross baby burps. [Fudge burping]

02:57

Evil feels like...

02:58

Fudge's sticky hands getting gunk all over Peter's stuff. [Dirty marks all over Peter's stuff]

03:02

And - voila! – our very own abstract poem written about Fudge.

03:05

Pretty fun, huh?

03:07

Now it's your turn.

03:08

Choose any abstract noun you – or your favorite character - feels connected with.

03:12

The possibilities are endless. [Teacher smiling next to a blackboard]

03:14

Hm…anyone else feel like fudge right about now…? [Boy burps and looks sick because he's eaten too much fudge]

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