In Audrey Wood's book Quick as a Cricket, a boy uses similes comparing himself to a variety of animals. This is a fun book well suited for working on similes, word associations, opposites, adjectives, and figurative language. Each animal is paired with a descriptive word: Quick as a cricket, busy as a bee, gentle as a lamb. Nicely enough, many of these are also common idioms or figures of speech. Here is a list of the adjectives and the animals in the book:
Small / large Sad / happy Nice / mean
Cold / hot Weak / strong Loud / quietTough / gentle Brave / shy Wild / tame
Lazy / busy Quick / slow
Lizard / bee / monkey / poodle / tiger / lamb / shrimp / rhino / clam / lion / buffalo
cat / fox / frog / shark / bunny / lark / basset / whale / ant / cricket / snail
Watch a Youtube video of this book.
Activities:
1. Read through the book discussing the vocabulary as needed. Classify types of animals: pets, wild, tame, ocean, bugs, etc. (It is always fun to print photos for sorting. I will try to upload my boardmaker pages that go with this story later.)
2. Print the printables found at this link to kidzclub.com. Discuss which adjective goes with each animal and why. This will help the student begin to understand word associations and how to interpret figurative language.
3. Brainstorm other animals or adjectives that might go together and why.
4. Act out some of the words: Dramatic play / experiential learning.
5. Cut out the word boxes found in the printable link at kidsclub.com and match opposites.
6. Think of new associations: "What could we say about a snake? A porcupine?..." or "What other animal is quick?"
7. Have the students make up a book that illustrates some of their own qualities.
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