Subject Area: Language Arts

Reading Level: 2.5

Book Summary
Sick at home with a cold, Sage makes a mistake with her spelling homework — with hilarious results. True to her Mom's comforting words, however, "there's gold in every mistake." A clever, funny, and inviting vocabulary tale.

Objective
Students will broaden their understanding of various literary devices and strengthen their vocabulary skills.
Standard: Students will gain an understanding of the ways in which language is used in literary texts (e.g. personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, imagery, hyperbole, beat, rhythm).

Before Reading
Vocabulary Rules!
Help your students stretch their vocabulary muscles.

• Ask each student to give you one word — be it a noun, adjective, or verb. (You may need to give a little bit of guidance so the words are sensible.)
• Write each word on your chalkboard.
• When each student has provided a word, ask your students to list the words on a piece of paper.
• Next, have each student provide a synonym for each listed word. (Explain that a synonym is a word that has the same meaning.)
• For fun, if you have time, you might also ask students to go back through the list and provide a word that begins with the same letter as each of the original words from the chalkboard. Hold a short classroom discussion about alliteration.

Teaching Plan

Activities
26 Sentences
Challenge your students to match Sage's feat!
1. Perform a second reading of the book, this time simply reading the vocabulary sentences found along the sides and bottom of each page.
2. Ask your students to complete a similar assignment. Depending on the abilities of your students and/or the time you have, you may wish to reduce the number of words they must use or assign fewer sentences.
3. When the time is up, have each student read his or her sentences aloud to the class.
4. Were there many duplicate words chosen? Talk about any unusual words selected. Try to ensure that every student is sure of the definition of each word used.

Miss Take
How many other words are out there waiting to trip up your students?

• Talk about the mistake that Sage made with the word miscellaneous .
• As a class, come up with a list of other words that start with mis-.
• Write the list on your chalkboard
• Ask each student to pick one word to illustrate.
• Using paper, crayons or markers, and their imaginations, ask your students to draw acostume for their chosen word. Remember: the object is to have fun and be inventive — just as Sage was.
• When students have finished illustrating, ask each to present his or her picture to the class. Have classmates guess which word is pictured.
• Post artwork on a classroom bulletin board.

Other Books About Wordplay The Word Eater
by Mary Amato
A lonely girl and a tiny worm wreak havoc when they discover an astounding fact: when the worm eats a printed word, that object disappears!

A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun?
Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What Is an Adjective?
To Root to Toot to Parachute: What Is a Verb?
by Brian P. Cleary
Fun and engaging explorations of various parts of speech.

Other Books by Debra Frasier
On the Day That You Were Born
Out of the Ocean
A Paradise Called Texas

Lesson Plan by Rebecca Gómez