Figurative Language Wins With Thunder Boy, Jr. on Book Talk Thursday

Have you ever wanted to change your name? What about your students? Would they like to have a name that defines them better? On one of the last days with my fifth graders, we read Thunder Boy, Jr. and used it for the tricky skill of figurative language. {Affiliate links provided to fund future book purchases.}

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Book Talk Thursday ~ Similes

I continue to work with my fourth and fifth graders on using figurative language.  They have had so much fun with this, and I just had to share another book and activity we have done with similes for Book Talk Thursday.

I found the coolest book that I used with my students recently.  It is My Dog Is As Smelly As Dirty Socks: And Other Funny Family Portraits.

In the book, a little girl has drawn a picture of her family for her teacher, but she says it is not really what her family is like.  Throughout the book, she depicts each member of her family by comparing them to various objects and then uses them to create a picture of the family member.  She says her dad is as bouncy as a spring, and her baby brother is as loud as a whistle.

After I read the book to the students, they created their own similes about family members.  Here are their examples.

"fiesty as a snake"

"funny as a clown"

hungry as a pig

hops like a bunny

What a fun book to help students understand similes and their comparisons!  My students really had a fun time with all of them!

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Book Talk Thursday ~ Who Let the Cat Out of the Bag?

It is no secret that I love teaching the comprehension lessons, and that the upper grades are much easier for me!  For the last few weeks, the 4th and 5th grade students have been working on author's purpose, one of the major weaknesses in our school.

This week we started to work on figurative language and discussing WHY the author uses it in their writing.  When I took my position as the reading specialist, I inherited a lot of books.  I found this wonderful book to help the students understand various different idioms ~ Who Let the Cat Out of the Bag?

It was written by a group of 4th graders in Reseda, California way back in 2002.  Each student created a picture of the literal meaning of an idiom and then wrote what the idiom meant.  Their drawings were perfect!

When I read it with my students, we laughed at the literal pictures.  I even had one of my fifth graders act them out!  It was riotous!  After I read each one, the students tried to figure each one out.  I was amazed at how many they actually knew!

One of the things I am going to get my students to do is to choose an idiom not in the book and draw a picture of it. Then they will tell everyone what it means, just like the book did.  Then I can put them all together in our own book of idioms to revisit and share with others.

We are also going to look at similes and metaphors and other aspects of figurative language.  Once we learn about those, we will look at various different poems, books, and articles to find figurative language.  They will decide WHY the author used it in what they are reading.  That is much more meaningful to them.

I can't wait to see what they have learned!

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