Lessons and Ideas

Check out the lyrics and more. Nobody wants to read boring sentences. So every writer from Charles Dickens to Lupe Fiasco uses a technique that makes their words jump off the page. They use figurative language. Figurative language means that the words you use don't have their literal meaning, but instead are meant to be imaginative, vivid and evocative. So what is figurative language? Simply, it makes writing more interesting. Our new, free figurative language song covers 11 common types of figurative language, from metaphor and simile to juxtaposition and onomatopoeia. This lesson plan uses the song as a jumping off…

Today we're featuring our new video, "Bottom of the Ninth" from our complete vocabulary curriculum, The Word Up Project. It's a vocabulary song all about baseball, and it's free for the whole month of February. So why not review the vocabulary by actually playing a round of America's favorite pastime? Word Up Vocabulary Baseball Game Materials Needed Use the Fix the Mistake or Pick the Winner worksheet for the Word Up Unit you're working on. Here's the worksheet for "Bottom of the Ninth." You can find worksheets for other units by clicking on Exercises in the right panel of each song…

Punxsutawney Phil, the world's most only famous groundhog, saw his shadow this morning. So if you believe in the prognostication powers of Phil, you've got to believe that we've got another 6 weeks of winter coming to us. But why do we believe such things? Should we? This lesson plan asks students to pick from a list of superstitions, consider where the superstition came from and then confirm their hypothesis with research.

Teach Figurative Language with Flocabulary [jwplayer file=https://s3.amazonaws.com/flocabulary/media-jrev/figurative-language-media.mp4 image=http://flocabulary.s3.amazonaws.com/images-jrev/figurative-language-image.jpg]Listen to Flocabulary's new, free Figurative Language song. You'll learn all about puns, as well as metaphors, simile and more. Some call it wordplay. Some call them puns. But whether these double meanings make you giggle or make you groan, you should know what they are. Today, our servers are bringing you a big platter of puns and wordplay from rap, literature, advertising and more. When you're done reading, let us know whether you're a wordplay lover or a pun hater. PUN Definition: Wordplay that exploits the multiple meanings of words or words…