Ideas for making a list

(If you sort words into lists and give them titles, you are classifying.)

• People, places, things, names...
• Words: long, short, new, funny, hard to read, words with th, words with long vowels...
• Words that describe "John"
• Plant, animal, mineral...classifications
• New vocabulary words
• Synonyms for...
• Examples of spelling rules or spelling patterns
• Describing words, action words, words with prefixes, words with suffixes. words with blends
• Words I can spell, words I can’t spell
• Words with: more than 6 letters, words with less than 8 letters...
• Words with: an accent on the first syllable, second syllable, third syllable...
• Specific words and general words (cedar : tree)
• Word etymology
• Phrases that tell where: over the fence, past the house, under the couch, by the trail
• Phrases that tell when: at first, later than that, before noon, after supper, by bedtime...
• Phrases that tell what happened or relate an event: went to school, lost my pencil, lost my tooth! got a gap, got a smile from Mom (note-taking in point form)
• Phrases that demonstrate analogies; similes, metaphors...
• Phrases with other similar patterns in grammar
• Simple phrases, complex phrases...
• Words that rhyme (cat, hat; tangle, wrangle; restricted, constricted...)
• Comparing words: bigger, better, longer...
• Contrasting words: light/dark, gloomy/cheery, thick/thin, old/new, etc...
• Cause and effect: explode and flatten; fall and cry; trip and yell, read and smile...
• Plants: make a general list or sort by characteristic such as plant names, plant categories (domestic or wild, garden or field, tree or shrub or grass or herb...)
• Land forms
• Bodies of water
• Character traits
• Examples of technology (simple machines, examples of work, tools, inventions...)
• Examples of governance
• Examples of solids, liquids, and gases OR other scientific principles
• Transportation
• Animals: make a general list or a list selected according to specific chosen characteristics (appearance, habitats, behaviour, life cycles...)
• Novel study elements: characters, events, settings...

Examples

-ats words
bats
cats
hats
mats
pats
rats
vats

Places to Go
(From the song "Over the River")
over the river
through the woods
to grandmother's house

Canadian Issues: The Depression Years
New Deal
tariff
gold standard
devaluation
coalition
fascist
militarist
totalitarian
imperialist
command economy
inflation
recession
depression
deflation
protectionist
laissez-faire
communist
Gross National Product
Gross Domestic Product
relief
capitalist
sweatshop
piecework
Royal Commission
Dust Bowl
dryland farm
wheat rust
social dividend
unconstitutional
coercion
anti-Semitism

Build On Your Skills

• Arrange the words from one of your lists into alphabetical order.
• Identify list words as nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.
• Use words from lists to create couplets – two words or two lines that rhyme. Write them in poetry format. Make them as simple or as complex as you like. Write one couplet or write several.
  • bee / tree
  • royal sleep / farmyard sheep
  • Elephant near water / Bird on Noah’s daughter
• Arrange words from your lists in poetry forms. (If you need to use words that are not on your list, please do! You don’t have to use up all the words on a list.) Use one of the formats below, choose a poetry form from the suggestions given in the Poetry Forms section, choose a poetry form from a book, or create a poetry form of your own. Poetry forms don't always rhyme.