Rebus Puzzles

Super Specific Similes – Strong Uncle

Let’s make this simile about a strong uncle even more specific.

Super Specific Similes – Slimy Broccoli

Start with a basic simile. Now make it more specific. Now even more. Watch how much better writing gets with each round.

Super Specific Similes: Quick Baby

Let’s make this simile about a quick baby even more specific.

Super Specific Similes: Stinky Seaweed

Start with a basic simile. Now make it more specific. Now even more. Watch how much better writing gets with each round.

Idioms About Money

Five sets of idioms related to money.

Idioms About Fire

Five sets of idioms related to fire!

Idiom Tasks

Four fantastically terrific tasks for a weekly idiom study.

Idioms about Weather

Five sets of idioms related to the weather.

Idioms About Red

Five sets of idioms related to the color red.

Writing About Art: Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons

Look closely at Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Writing About Art: Impression, Sunrise

Look closely at Impression, Sunrise. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Sets of Idioms Related to Numbers

Two sets of idioms related to numbers.

Five Sets of Bird and Bug Idioms

Five sets of idioms related to birds (and bugs).

Sets of Idioms Related to Body Parts

Five sets of five idioms, all related to body parts!

Sets of Idioms Related to Food

Five sets of five idioms, all related to food.

Fancier Figurative Language: Use the Opposite

Let’s start with “As cold as fire.”

Fancier Figurative Language: Move the Simile

What if we started a sentence with the simile?

Writing About Art: The Scream

Your students will turn the iconic painting The Scream into a vivid, sensory poem.

Advanced Alliteration and Consonance

When students learn about alliteration, it’s hard to steer them away from goofy tongue-twisters. Certainly, there must be more powerful and practical ways of using alliteration. In this lesson, I draw on delicious examples from Shakespeare to show how a very advanced writer used alliteration. Then, I break those ideas down so students can try them out.

What’s In My Brain: Cute Baby vs Fast Cheetah

Can students spot similes vs metaphors?

Sets of Idioms

Why do we say ‘break a leg’? Five themed sets of idioms your students will actually remember.

Studying and Remixing “The Raven”

Ready to push kids beyond the boring, old ABAB rhyme scheme and into something a bit more complex?

Fancier Figurative Language: Start with a Cliche

We’ll start with the cliché “as cold as ice” and go somewhere much more interesting.