vocabulary strategies grades 3-6. figurative language

Vocabulary StrategiesVocabulary StrategiesVocabulary StrategiesVocabulary Strategies

Grades 3-6Grades 3-6

Figurative Language

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.

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.

More MetaphorYou 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!

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!

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!

Onomatopoeia• These are the

words that capture the sound of the sounds.

BZZZZZ

SPLOSH

SNIFF.. PANT PANTBAM

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.

It Figures! Fun FiguresOf Speech

By Marvin Terban

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.

Using Picture Storybooks to Teach

Literary Devices: Recommended

Books for Children and Young Adults

Volume Two (Using Picture Books to

Teach)by Susan Hall

GETncm/justsaycust-recrate-itemcommunittg/stores/dtg/stores/d-favorite-listruejust-say-no

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

Multi-Meaning Words

GETncm/justsaycust-recrate-itemcommunittg/stores/dtg/stores/d-favorite-listruejust-say-no

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.

Draw

Draw

Draw

Dress

Dress

Dress

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.

How many ways can you use down?

• Noun: The goose has down.

The thing in the sentence.

• Verb: The lumber jack will down the tree.

The action in the sentence.

• Adjective: The down comforter was warm.

Adjective describing the noun.

• Adverb: He fell down.

An adverb modifies the verb.

• Preposition: The man went down the steps.

Prepositions are words that we use to indicate location, usually in the physicalworld.

Homophone Riddles

Eight AteA Feast of Homophone Riddles

By Marvin Terban

What did the fancy flying machine callthe undecorated one?

A plain

plane.

What is an animal with a rough-sounding voice that cowboys ride?

A hoarse horse.

What do you say in the evening to a soldierin shining armor?

Night-nightknight!

How does Moose begin a letter to his cousin?

Dear Deer…

What is a smelly chicken?

A foulfowl.

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.

Idioms

Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms

By Marvin Terban

In a Pickle orMad as a Wet Hen

By Marvin Terban

IdiomsIdioms 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.

The King Who Rained• Written by Fred

Gwynne

Putting the cart before the horse.

She was really putting on the dog.

He was sitting on top of the world.

He put his foot in his mouth.

Idiom Cards- Front SideWrite the idiom and illustrate the literal meaning.

Back

Origin:

Meaning:

Sightings:

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.”

Word Play

• GREEN- Homophone• BLUE- Multi-Meaning• YELLOW- Both• RED- Neither