Tuesday, September 20, 2011

World's Funniest Analogies.



I  laughing hard reading  these. Thanks to Bill Gross for them.


Annual English Teachers' awards for best student metaphors/analogies
found in actual student papers:


His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy
who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those
boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at
high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one
of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just
before it throws up.

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling
ball wouldn't.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie,
surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and
Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry
them in hot grease.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the
grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left
Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at
4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had
also never met.

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East
River.

Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one
that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law George. But unlike George,
this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating
for a while.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a
real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or
something.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg
behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with
power tools.

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if
she were a garbage truck backing up

Monday, September 19, 2011

New Online Crossword Puzzle Generator

The people at VocabularySpellingCity have added a great new game. They now have 25 different activities that you can use with whatever list that you enter. The newest and coolest one yet, if you ask me, is the New Online Crossword Puzzle Generator.


Premium Crossword Instructions: Premium Crossword is an online crossword puzzle game using the words and content from your list*. Make a crossword puzzle that uses content created especially for your students by entering your word list and customizing the sentences!

To begin, read the first clue in the Across box, then click in the first box for that clue and begin typing your answer (make sure that the correct direction - across or down - is highlighted). You can also click in the first box for any clue on the puzzle, and the clue will be highlighted in the Across or Down.

 Click the Hint button to be given one letter of the word. When you finish entering all of the words, click Check Answer to see if you have successfully solved the crossword puzzle! Click the speaker icon for instructions. Click the up and down arrows to scroll through the clues.


Its highly interactive and is fun as a group activity on smart boards and Promothean Boards.