Scottish History Nouns Quiz

This free-to-download quiz helps children learn about notable aspects of Scottish history, in particular about Robert the Bruce,  as well as learn about nouns. Do it anytime, though is is also a great Burn’s Night activity (25th January).  This quiz also accompanies the latest Spid the Spider adventure, Spid the Spider Meets Hamish McSpid. The story reimagines parts of 13th and 14th century Scottish history, in particular, a spidery tale involving Robert the Bruce. In the story, Spid and friends visits the Highland after reading about King Robert the Spid of Glenthistle in a history book, Spid decides to visit his cousin, Hamish McSpid, who lives there. However, Spid and his friends have hardly arrived when strange things begin to happen. Of course, the fearsome monster of Loch Monroe is nothing more than a legendary beast … Or is it …?

What is a noun?

A noun is a naming word. Examples include names of things, ideas, people and places.

Proper nouns are a subset of nouns, names of specific things, such as brands, people and places.

In English, proper nouns are capitalised; they start with capital letters. Other nouns are common nouns.

There are also types of nouns called pronouns; pronouns take the place of nouns in sentences. They are used to describe either individuals or groups of people, rather than using their name or names. Examples of pronouns include ‘it’, ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘you’, ‘we’, ‘they’, ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Notes for parents and teachers

Download our free resource and ask your children to spot the nouns in the following phrases or sentences about Robert the Bruce.

Just ask them to underline the words or groups of words that are common nouns (not pronouns), and to double underline the proper nouns. Note too that sometimes you may find more than one noun in a sentence! There are ten phrases/sentences to review.

1. Robert the Bruce was born on the 11th of July 1274 and died on the 7th of June 1329.
2. He was crowned King of Scots on the 25th of March 1306.
3. In 1306 he raised an army to fight the English
4. Prior to battling the English, he hid in a cave.
5. From watching a spider persevere to spin a web he learned an important lesson.
6. He made up his mind to keep trying to free Scotland from the English.
7. He fought many battles to regain Scottish castles from the English.
8. His most notable victory was at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
9. As a result, he is viewed as a great military leader.
10. Today, Robert is buried in a churchyard in Stirling, near Bannockburn.

Scoring spot the Scottish history nouns

After completing the exercise, ask the children to call out the answers in each line, and then discuss the answers. You’ll find the answers on the second page of the download.

Top marks, score 24
Very good, 17-23
Can do better, 8-16
Make sure you understand what a noun is, 0-7

If children score less than 23, remember that feedback is the food of champions. So, go through where they have gone wrong and explain why. To check they understand, go through the quiz again on another day 😊.

Additional note

Robert the Bruce = one person, proper noun, as opposed to three
Ayrshire, Scotland = one place in Scotland, proper noun, as opposed to two
Battle of Bannockburn = one battle, proper noun, as opposed to two or three

You’ll also find a free-learning resource on adjectives and on collective nouns.