Let's use some sophisticated words in our stories!

To do:

1. Personalize a small notebook.
2. Find weird, wacky or wonderful words, define their meanings, then classify them, for example you can use categories like: "words to describe the hero", "words to describe the world in which the hero lives", "words that describe good/bad feelings" (you can also sub-categorize them by word type: noun, adjective, verb, adverb).
3. Write down the words you have found and like in your notebook, ready to use in your story!

Here are some way-out words to help you get started:

Great place names!

To do:

1. Find the names of the places these scenes take place in.
2. Name the stories they come from.
3. Imagine some of your own place names inspired by these great place names.

Wonderland in Alice in Wonderland

Metropolis in the DC comics

 

 

 

 

Wildcat Island in Swallows and Amazons

Baa, baa, black sheep...

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes, sir, yes, sir,

Three bags full;

One for the master,

And one for the dame,

And one for the little boy

Who lives down the lane

To do/questions:

1. When does this nursery rhyme date from?
2. Translate the text!
3. Find the melody on internet and learn to sing the nursery rhyme by heart!

Humpty Dumpty

Alice meets Humpty Dumpty... Click HERE!

Click HERE to read the article from Wikipedia on Humpty Dumpty!

Click HERE to watch a 1936 cartoon starring Humpty Dumpty!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

To do/questions:

1. Who is Humpty Dumpty?
2. Describe his character.
3. What does Alice think of him?
4. Learn this famous nursery rhyme by heart!

Inventing characters for our stories

ACTIVITY: 

1. Write each of the silly sounds in the list below on little pieces of paper.
2. Throw up the pieces of paper in the air.
3. Pick up two or three without looking.
4. Put them together and see what names come up.
5. When you have come up with about twenty names you like, put the names in different piles: one pile for the hero (the protagonist), another for the villain (the antagonist), another for the sidekick, another for minor characters (who can be silly or boring or funny, etc.).
6. Pick out the names of your story's main characters (about five).
7. Imagine what the personality of each character is like just from his or her name.
8. Do sketches of each character.
9. Write down the description of each character's personality (underneath each sketch) using personality adjectives (click HERE for help!).
10. Would some of the names you have made up also make great place names?

HOCK

TWOO

PLOT

FLAM

TRUVE

SLONG

STAVE

SLACK

ERTOG

PICK

GLAS

STEE

VASC

SCHLANG

TOON

STREE

GUM

LONG

STOW

TIC

FLI

DAS

MON

GREE

STINK

BIOUS

PAP

TROM

BRON

BLEW

FLEB

NEE

CLEN

BROOM

BLOOT

LEE

STINK

MOO

LON

STAV

DOW

HECK

GLER

ATA

FLAK

GLIN

ATA

FLAKS

GLEE

PLEEK

FROL

FLA

SHTAK

STOW

FUDG

PROO

STOK

WOOSH

TOWA

CAM

BLEE

DAS

GRI

FLI

+ add a few more silly sounds to this list!

Jabberwocky

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

  Long time the manxome foe he sought --

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

  And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

  And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

  He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?

  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'

  He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.

Another great name: Geraldine Giraffe (poem by Colin West)

The

longest

ever

woolly

scarf

was

worn

by

Geraldine

Giraffe.

Around

her

neck

the

scarf

she

wound

but

still

it

trailed

upon

the

ground.

Click HERE!

Some famous names from children's literature in English ... Find the names of the books from which they come!

• Tiggy-Winkle
• Long John Silver, Cap'n Flint
• Cluny the Scourge, Redtooth, Fangburn
• Amelia Bones, Charity Burbage, Reginald Cattermole, Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank
• Scrooge, Bob Cratchit
• Dr Dolittle
• Hook
• Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera
• March Hare, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, Mock Turtle, Cheshire Cat
• Arriety, Homily, Pod
• Matilda
• Mrs Flittersnoop
• Oona
• Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy
• Brandersnatch
• Pugwash, Cut-throat Jake
• Gewain, Gwenevire

We have to find great names for our stories' characters, for example: "Jack Sprat"!

Jack Sprat could eat no fat,

His wife could eat no lean;

And so betwixt them both, you see,

They licked the platter clean.