1. Vocabulary Strategies Grades 3-6

2. Figurative Language

3. Similes are like… A simile will contain the words “as” or “like” and point out some quality or characteristic (color, shape, movement, texture, smell, action, emotion, taste, etc.) that the two different things have in common. My room was as cold as ice. It is a comparison between the coldness of your room and the coldness of ice.

4. Metaphors are… A metaphor describes a person, place, thing, feeling, idea, or action by comparing it to something else. A metaphor says that one thing is another thing. My dog’s fur is a shag rug. His stomach is a bottomless pit.

5. More Metaphor You don’t even need to use “is” or “was” to make a metaphor. The event or description alone should paint a picture in the reader’s mind. All of these are metaphors too! My sister sleeps in a toaster oven and I sleep in an icebox. We all have to cross dark mountains. Your readers will use their mental picture to get the picture!

6. Amazingly Awesome Alliteration Putting together 2 or more words that begin with the same sound is alliteration. “Help!” hollered Harry as he hung helplessly from the helicopter in the hurricane. Now kneel, noble night on your knobby knees!

7. Hyperbole is the BEST thing EVER invented in the ENTIRE world! “Hyperbole” comes from the Greek and means “excess” or anything that goes beyond normal, believable limits. When you use a very big, extravagant, unbelievable exaggeration to express yourself, you’re using hyperbole. I am so tired, I could sleep forever. I opened the window and ten billion mosquitoes flew in!

8. Onomatopoeia These are the words that capture the sound of the sounds. BZZZZZ SPLOSH SNIFF.. PANT PANT BAM

9. Personification is your friend When a writer gives a thing the qualities of a person, that is personification. I am the desert. I am free. Come walk the sweeping face of me. Through canyon eyes of sandstone red, I see the hawk, his wings outspread.

10. It Figures! Fun Figures Of Speech By Marvin Terban

11. Literary Terms Scavenger Hunt Record the book title and author. Identify the literary device or literary devices used in the selection. Record the “evidence” from the story to demonstrate the literary device or devices you have identified.

12. Using Picture Storybooks to Teach Literary Devices: Recommended Books for Children and Young Adults Volume Two (Using Picture Books to Teach) by Susan HallSusan Hall

13. Today’s Book List Pssst! It’s Me the Bogeyman- Barbara Park Once There Was a Bull…(Frog)- Rick Walton Double Trouble in Walla Walla- Andrew Clements The Giving Tree- Shel Silverstein Heartland, Sierra, and Mojave- Diane Siebert Yo! Yes?- Chris Raschka Bad Dog- Nina Laden Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day- Judith Viorst What Charlie Heard- Mordicai Gerstein Miss Penny and Mr. Grubbs- Lisa Campbell Ernst Animalia- Graeme Base Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky- Faith Ringgold Old Black Fly- Jim Aylesworth Knots on a Counting Rope- Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault Each Peach Pear Plum- Janet and Allan Ahlberg In the Small, Small Pond- Denise Fleming White Snow Bright Snow- Alvin Tresselt Swimmy- Leo Lionni The BFG- Roald Dahl Balloon Farm- Jerdine Nolen and Mark Buehner Saving Sweetness & Raising Sweetness Diane Stanley and G. Brian Karas Henny Penny- Jane Wattenberg

14. Multi-Meaning Words

15. Write a complete sentence that uses the word as it is shown. You may not change the form of the word. You must write a complete sentence. Follow correct conventions.

16. Draw

19. Dress

22. Extensions Identify and define parts of speech. Challenge students to use the word as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and preposition. Integrate multiple meanings into daily shared reading selections.

23. How many ways can you use down?

24. Noun: The goose has down. The thing in the sentence.

25. Verb: The lumber jack will down the tree. The action in the sentence.

26. Adjective: The down comforter was warm. Adjective describing the noun.

27. Adverb: He fell down. An adverb modifies the verb.

28. Preposition: The man went down the steps. Prepositions are words that we use to indicate location, usually in the physical world.

29. Homophone Riddles Eight Ate A Feast of Homophone Riddles By Marvin Terban

30. What did the fancy flying machine call the undecorated one? A plain plane.

31. What is an animal with a rough-sounding voice that cowboys ride? A hoarse horse.

32. What do you say in the evening to a soldier in shining armor? Night-night knight!

33. How does Moose begin a letter to his cousin? Dear Deer…

34. What is a smelly chicken? A foul fowl.

35. A Daily Dose of Homophones Record homophone pairs on index cards and put them on a ring. Write the homophone, a sentence correctly capturing the meaning, and an illustration if needed on each side of the card. Prepare overhead riddles as they apply or have students illustrate their own. Prepare weekly or bimonthly quizzes or have students use the homophones in various projects.

36. Idioms Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms By Marvin Terban In a Pickle or Mad as a Wet Hen By Marvin Terban

37. Idioms Idioms are words that really don’t mean what they say. What they actually say can seem silly, and if you drew a picture of the actual meaning, it would be pretty ridiculous. Idioms are confusing because each one has a special meaning. If you don’t know the special meaning, you won’t understand what someone is saying.

38. The King Who Rained Written by Fred Gwynne

39. Putting the cart before the horse.

40. She was really putting on the dog.

41. He was sitting on top of the world.

42. He put his foot in his mouth. Idiom Cards- Front Side Write the idiom and illustrate the literal meaning.

43. Back Origin: Meaning: Sightings:

44. Classroom Application Provide direct instruction on idioms. Introduce new idioms as they appear in stories. Use the cards and rings to “collect and record idioms.”

45. Word Play GREEN- Homophone BLUE- Multi-Meaning YELLOW- Both RED- Neither