ENGLISH - Task 18

GRAMMAR:
Figures of speech

Grade: 6
Presented By:
Mrs N Chetty
Pitlochry Primary School Educator 1
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 Activity 15: Similes
1. Explain the meaning of the following similes:
1.1 Her attitude is as cool as a cucumber.

1.2 He is a fighter who is as hard as nails.

1.3 My cousin is as tall as a skyscraper.

1.4 It was as hot as hell in Dubai.

1.5 I was so scared that I was as white as a sheet.

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 Activity 16: Personification
Explain the meaning of the following personifications:
1. The wind howled through the forest.

2. The sun glared down from the sky on that hot summers day.

3. The waves lashed out on the ocean.

4. My alarm clock loves to disturb me every morning.

5. The moon peeped through the clouds in the sky.

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 Activity 17: Metaphors
Explain the meaning of the following metaphors:
1. The snow was a blanket of white on the ground.

2. My next-door neighbour is a real old dragon.

3. My sister is a night owl.

4. My wife is an old dinosaur.

5. The dancer was a swan.

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 Activity: Alliteration

Underline the alliteration in each of the following sentences .

1. Fran’s friends fetched fajitas for food on Friday.

2. Rudolph the red nosed reindeer rode along a rickety road.

3. Martin made a mountain out of a molehill.

4. I sat by the babbling brook to read my brilliant book.

5. Sammy swiftly sheared seven silly sheep.

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 Activity: Assonance

Underline the assonance in each of the following sentences .

1. How now brown cow.

2. The creek looked bleak.

3. A certain person hid behind the curtain.

4. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

5. The sun rose high in the bright sky.

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 Activity: Hyperbole
Explain the hyperbole in each of the following sentences.
1. This job is going to take me forever.

2. I am stuck on a level which is impossible.

3. That man is as old as time.

4. This bag weighs ten tons.

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1. He showed a cruel kindness.
2. The living death.
3. The walking dead.
4. We saw a comedian last night, he was seriously funny.
5. The model who won the competition was awfully pretty. 16
Listening skill:
Poetry
Grade: 6
Presented By:
Mrs N Chetty
Pitlochry Primary School Educator 17
 Activity: Poetry Listening Skill
You are going to listen to a poem called The railway train.
In this poem, a train is compared to a living animal.
The indigenous American people referred to a train
as an iron horse. After you listen to the story,
answer the following questions in complete sentences.
Questions:
1. Which words in the first part of the poem make the train seem like a living
creature?
2. Do the phrases “lap the miles” and “lick the valleys up” suggest that the train
is moving quickly and easily or slowly and heavily? Substantiate your answer.
3. ‘To pare’ means to cut. How is the quarry pared to fit the side of the train?
4. Omnipotent means to be all-powerful. In what way is the train omnipotent?
5. Do you think that a horse and a train are similar? Explain your answer. 18
Reading Study:
Poetry
Grade: 6
Presented By:
Mrs N Chetty
Pitlochry Primary School Educator 19
 Activity: Poetry Reading Study 1
Read the poem The Highwayman which is in the Platinum English Textbook on
page 220. After you read the poem, answer the following questions in complete
sentences.

Questions:
1. What is a highwayman?
2. Write down and explain the metaphors used in the first stanza of the poem.
3. What atmosphere does the description of the setting of the poem create?
4. Why do you think the poet repeats the word riding?
5. Why does the poet describe the dress of the highwayman in such detail?
6. Explain what is meant by “the jewelled sky”.
7. Why do you think the highwayman has come to the inn? How do you know
this?
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 The Highwayman
The wind was a torrent of darkness
among the gusty trees,
The moon was ghostly galleon
tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight
over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding-
Riding-riding-
And the highwayman came riding,
up to the old inn-door.

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He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead,
a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet,
and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle:
his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle,
under the jewelled sky.

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 Over the cobbles he clattered
and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters,
but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window,
and who should be waiting there
But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord’s daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot
Into her long black hair.

by Alfred Noyes
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 Activity: Poetry Reading Study 2
Read the poem Fair game which is in the Platinum English Textbook on page
222. After you read the poem, answer the following questions in complete
sentences.

Questions:
1. Why do you think Chrissie is taking the long way home?
2. Do you think that her route home is pleasant or not? Substantiate your
answer.
3. How does the poet describe her movements in the first stanza?
4. How does the word yearns make you feel about Chrissie in the second
stanza?
5. Find a simile in the second stanza and explain whether it is an effective
comparison.
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 Fair game
Chrissie’s taking the long way home
Through a maze of streets and alleyways
She scurries, close to the walls,
A little cringing ghost in a grey school uniform.
No-one sees her flitting by.
She blends in with the concrete and the rain-washed sky.

She yearns to be invisible-

For then, there’d be an end to running scared,
A rest from fear: “What’s that?”
She’s frantic as a hare that hears the baying hounds.
They must have tracked her down!
Stalked her, sniggering, through the back streets of the town.
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 For she’s fair game to them-
Those three girls who make her life such a misery.
An easy victim,
Uniting them in power and superiority:
“And it’s real good fun!”
“I mean, how can you feel sorry for any kid that dumb…!”

But there’s pain and dread in Chrissie’s eyes

Deeper than you can measure
Like any gentle creature
Pursued for others’ pleasure.
by Susan Gates

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 Writing:
Poetry
Grade: 6
Presented By:
Mrs N Chetty
Pitlochry Primary School Educator 27
 Activity: Writing Poetry
Write a poem about a place. You can choose from a :
jungle, shipwreck, construction site, funfair
Write at least 4 stanzas. Each stanza need to be 5 lines long.
The poem does not need to rhyme, but it should flow and have rhythm.

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Before you write:
1. Spend a few minutes looking at these four photographs. Decide which one interests you the
most.
Jungle

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Shipwreck

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Funfair

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Construction site

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Before you write:
2. Use the questions below to help you draw a mind map.
* Is it warm or cold?
* Are there other people there too?
* Are you in a city or the countryside?
* Is it peaceful or noisy?
* What can you see, hear, touch, smell and feel?

3. Re-read all the ideas and descriptions you have jotted down so far. Now try
to improve your sentences by adding alliteration, metaphors and similes.

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For example:
Children’s screams on the funfair rides sound like hadedas
could become-
The rollicking rides at the fabulous funfair filled the air with happy hadeda
sounds

The scuba divers swam down to the shipwreck

becomes more poetic as-
The glugging scuba divers burbled their way down to the creaking shipwreck

4. Re-read your poem, listen to the rhyme and rhythm.

5. Revise and edit your work. Check your spelling, punctuation, the number of
stanzas and the number of lines in each stanza.
6. Write your final copy. 34
 Grammar:
Simple, Compound and Complex
Sentences

Grade: 6
Presented By:
Mrs N Chetty
Pitlochry Primary School Educator 35
 Activity: Simple sentences
Rewrite the following sentences. Underline the subject and circle the verb.
1. Ella walked to the store.
2. The phone rang loudly in the office.
3. Joshua and Jenny gazed at the stars in the sky.
4. Trees sway gently in the breeze.
5. The sleepy child crawled to bed. 36
• Is made up of two simple sentences, F For
• These sentences are joined using
co-ordinating conjunctions to make it A And
one sentence.
N Nor

B But

O Or

Y Yet

S So
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 Activity: Compound sentences
Join the two simple sentences and make it a compound sentence.
Use the conjunctions in brackets. Remember to omit words that are repeated.

1. I will go to the park. I will meet Jerome. (and)

2. Veronica enjoys ballet. She does not like to attend practice. (but)

3. Janet cut the cake. We all sang the birthday song. (then)

4. Paul did not go to the mall. Paul was too ill. (because)

5. I bought a new skirt. I can wear it to the party. (so)

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Complex sentences

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 Activity: Complex sentences

Underline the Independent clause in each sentence.

1. We had a bag of popcorn for dinner because we had nothing else to eat.

2. My kitchen roof leaked whenever it rained.

3. She returned the computer after she noticed it was damaged.

4. Wherever you go, you can always find beautiful scenery.

5. The actor was happy he got a part in a movie, although the part was a small

one.

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