Common and Proper Nouns

 Common nouns are people, places, things, or ideas that have lower case letters. They are not certain people, places, or things.

                     Examples: cat, dog, pencil, pizza, house, school

Proper nous are specific nouns and are capitalized. 

                    Examples: Joe, Ticonderoga (brand of pencil), Dominos, White House, St. Ann School

When you write about certain (specific) holidays, days of the week, months of the year, states, countries, and oceans, they are all capitalized.