Students will brainstorm a list of popular sayings, proverbs and quotations, then discuss how they may have come into existence (fables, etc). Next, students work in groups to complete the crossword puzzle, using the resources suggested in the Resource List. This lesson is designed to increase student attention through the use of a variety of instructional methods.

LIBRARY MEDIA SKILLS OBJECTIVES
The student will use reference materials to locate meanings and origins of sayings, proverbs, and quotations.

CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES:
This activity may be incorporatd into a unit on proverbs, sayings, and fablies

MOTIVATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
The student will:
-become interested in the research process.
-understand the importance of information skills.
-experience increased confidence in research ability.
-achieve satisfaction in research accomplishments.

Resource List
Crossword Puzzle

 

Credits:

School Library Media Activities Monthly Adapted for SOS by Kori Gerbig School of Information Studies, Syracuse University

Sources:

School Library Media Activities Monthly September 2003; 20(1); 12-14 http://www.schoollibrarymedia.com

 

INSTRUCTIONAL ROLES
-The classroom teacher initiates and completes the lesson and activity with assistance from the library media specialist in locating materials and sources of sayings.

ACTIVITY AND PROCEDURE FOR COMPLETION
-The classroom teacher may introduce the activity with apples and ask what comes to mind from the fruit. Do people ever have the associations with the word “apple” other than eating them? Share one saying and ask the students what it means.

Examples:
-Rotten to the core (A goodly apple rotten at the heart. Shakespeare.)
-Apples for the teacher.
-God didn't make little green apples, if it don't rain in Indianapolis.
-When the apple is ripe, it will fall.
-A is for apple.
-Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the apples in a seed.
-You're comparing apples to oranges.
-As American as apple pie.
-New York is the big apple.
-She's the apple of her daddy's eye. (Old Testament)
-He's a bad apple.
-Upset the apple cart.
-Adam's Apple.
-Apple polisher.
-One bad apple spoils the bunch.
-Sweet as apple pie.
-Sweet as apple cider.
-They had cheeks like apples.
-The apple never falls from the tree.
-It'll be with you in apple-blossom time.
-Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me.
-He's a crab apple.
-It's Newton's apple.

-Discuss how sayings may come into being and how such sayings sometimes take on a meaning. Some become part of lessons to be learned from stories such as fables.

-Provide students with the worksheet and explain that they may work in pairs or small groups to find the missing words in the sayings. These words will be used in completing the numberless crossword puzzle.

-The library media specialist and teacher may show students how to use the references available. Highlight the best search strategy for each.

FOLLOW-UP
The student may:
-write a short story to illustrate a selected saying.
-make up sayings for other fruits.

EVALUATION
-Each student will identify the missing words from the saying and complete the puzzle correctly. A brief explanation will give a correct interpretation of one of the sayings.

School Library Media Activities Monthly
September 2003; 20(1); 12-14
http://www.schoollibrarymedia.com