Monday, January 14, 2008

Day 85

We're doing idioms. The kids are having trouble understanding the difference between figurative and literal meanings. They've been charged by Lukie with finding the idiom in a passage. They keep pulling the title "Little House on the Prairie" out.

"No," I explain, "that's the title of a book and a TV show. Look for an expression in this paragraph that you've heard a million times. Something you understand, but when you think about what the words actually mean it doesn't really make sense."

"Crack of dawn!" Kevin says triumphantly.

"You got it! What does crack of dawn mean literally?"

"Up early in the morning?" Kevin asks.

"No--that's the figurative meaning. Think about the verb crack. What cracks?"

Shontrice says: "A egg."

Kevin says: "A whip."

Richard says: "My butt."

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