When The Earth Dragon Awakes- Figurative Language

During our novel study "The Earth Dragon Awakes" we concentrated on figurative language. This book has a lot of personification and similes. As we read, the boys and I wrote down any figurative language we came across and identified them. At the end of the novel, we made a cute dragon breathing out 'figurative language examples.' 

My boys read these two books. 

My 10-year-old decided to focus on personification and drew a dragon in his notebook with all the examples. 

Resources

1. Figurative Language Lesson PowerPoint Presentation (her resources are amazing! She has so many PowerPoint lessons and crafts)

2. Dragon Printable 

3. Dragon Directed Drawing

Examples From the Book

There are so many examples but here are just some of the ones the boys found during our reading.

My Stomach is as solid as the earth (pg. 2)

Street lamps glitter like jewels (pg. 12)

The Chest of drawers dances a jig (pg. 20)

His bed and all his furniture circle in a slow waltz around the room (pg. 20)

The tenement creaks and groans like an old giant (pg. 23)

Their bed and bureau prowl like a hungry animal (pg. 23)

They look as if they are peering over someone's shoulder (pg. 31-32)

But fear twists inside Chin like a snake (pg. 33)

Suddenly a breeze brushes his face like a soft hand (pg. 34)

You can't judge a book by its cover (pg. 37)

Flames wag out of the windows like salamander tongues (pg. 42)

The heavy machine rests on its side like a sleeping animal (pg. 43)

The Ham and Egg fire stretches one arm east and the other south. It will join its brothers (pg. 61)

The flames peer hungrily down at Henry (pg. 63-64)

Burning embers drift in the hot winds like angry butterflies (pg. 64)

It slithers across San Francisco like a dragon with red spines (pg. 71)

A tongue of fire dances on his shoulder (pg. 48)

Dust rises in ribbons like tiny ghosts (pg. 40)

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind- Plot Diagram

We recently completed our novel study The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind using Lightning Literature. For our final book project, my son made a windmill diagraming the plot of the book. 

Material:

1. Straws

2. note cards

3. a cup

4. Skewer sticks or long popsicle sticks

5. Brass fastener

We made a rough copy of our plot diagram on the whiteboard. Once we took out unnecessary information my son copied it onto the note cards. 

We assembled the windmill and added the flag of Malawi to the cup. 

You can also use this project to summarize the picture book version for younger students. 

Somebody

Wanted to

So 

But 

Then

You can also do a character trait study on William, the main character. Write one trait per card and add the evidence from the text.