South Carolina ELA Standards for Grades 3/4/5

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Teachers need readily available resources with rich figurative language in order to provide authentic examples for their students and deliver quality instruction about author's craft. This collection will provide an elementary school library with a good start to building an excellent collection.

South Carolina ELA Standards for Grades 3/4/5

Retrieved from: https://ed.sc.gov/instruction/standards-learning/english-language-arts/support-documents-and-resources/ela-standards-by-grade-level/

My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks by Hanoch Piven

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Piven, H. (2007). My dog is as smelly as dirty socks and other funny family portraits. Random House.

A girl is given an assignment to draw a picture of her family, but she is not quite satisfied with it.  She uses similes to better illustrate them and found objects to create a more complete picture. 

Kirkus Reviews

Library/Classroom Use:  This book, and a sister title by the same author, My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil, can be the exemplar for a collaborative unit between art and ELA. Students can use found objects to create self-portraits, family or friend portraits based on the similes that they write.  The books is also an example of the creative process as the narrator continues to add and edit her work.  The library could also provide this activity in a maker space as an extension.  Additional cross-curricular ideas can be found here.

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Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

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Yolen, J. & Schoenherr, J. (Illus). (1997). Owl moon. Philomel Books. 

A young girl goes on a magical nighttime adventure with her father looking for owls.  Won the Caldecott Medal in 1998. 

Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews

Enjoy this video version from YouTube as well!

Snow by Cynthia Rylant

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Rylant, C. & Stringer, L. (Illus). (2008). Snow. HMH Books for Young Readers.

A young girl and her grandmother enjoy the beauty and wonder of a snowy day. Snow is  described as having different "personalities." The text is in the form of lyrical poetry.

Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Review, Booklist

Cricket Magazine

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Wimberly, L. (2016, March). The secret. Cricket, 43(6), 10-15.

Cricket is a literary magazine for children that includes many genre of fiction texts, literary nonfiction, and poetry.  The story cited can be found in this sample issue and is rich with figurative language.  

Goodreads

Some Smug Slug by Pamela Duncan Edwards

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Edwards, P.D. (1996). Some smug slug. Katherine Tegan Books.

This humorous tale of a slug that is quite over confident is full of alliteration. There is a hidden "s"on each page.  Also a good mentor text for using context clues to determine meaning of unknown vocabulary.

BookList, Publishers Weekly

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena

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Pena, M. & Robinson, C. (Illus). (2015). Last stop on market street. G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers.

A young boy's grandmother gently teaches him about life through answering his many questions and helping him notice the beauty and kindness all around them.  Winner of the 2016 Newberry Medal, as well as a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor book.

Horn Book, Kirkus Reviews