Punctuation & Grammar
A Tyrannosaurus Rex stomps into the cafeteria and screams, "Give me all the pizza!" What part of speech is the word "Rex"?
What is a proper noun? (Because it's his name, and he deserves respect).
The evil Dr. Onion vows to make the entire city cry. If he wants a synonym for the word sad, should he choose melancholy or ecstatic?
What is melancholy?
Finish this analogy: Astronaut is to space as Fish is to...
What is water (or ocean)?
If the Big Bad Wolf tells Little Red Riding Hood, "My, what big teeth you have," and she replies, "Your mouth is a giant cave," what type of figurative language did she just use?
What is a metaphor?
The school cafeteria posts a poster saying: "9 out of 10 doctors agree that our mystery meat builds super-muscles!" This is an example of what persuasive advertising technique?
What is a testimonial (or expert opinion)?
If a Velociraptor writes an essay but uses absolutely zero periods, question marks, or exclamation points, its writing is suffering from a massive extinction event of this specific type of punctuation.
What is end punctuation? (Accept: terminal punctuation).
Captain Laziness has the superpower of putting people to sleep. His arch-nemesis is Hyper-Girl. Their relationship is a real-life example of this vocabulary term for words with opposite meanings.
What are antonyms?
Solve this synonym analogy: Friendly is to kind as Terrifying is to...
What is scary / spooky / frightening?
Cinderella's fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a carriage. If an author writes, "The pumpkin smiled warmly as it turned into gold," what device gives human traits to the vegetable?
What is personification?
If a lunch menu uses the words juicy, crispy, golden, and heavenly to describe a basic chicken nugget, the author is using loaded words to create a highly positive what?
What is connotation / tone?
A Stegosaurus is trying to join two independent clauses: "I have a brain the size of a walnut" and "My tail spikes are highly dangerous." What tiny, hook-shaped punctuation mark does it need before adding the word "but"?
What is a comma?
Use context clues to figure out the villain's weapon: "The villain sprayed a noxious gas that made everyone cough, choke, and hold their noses." What does noxious mean?
What is poisonous, harmful, or foul-smelling?
This is an antonym analogy. Earth is to heavy as Space is to...
What is weightless (or light)?
If Goldilocks walks out of the three bears' house and says, "That porridge was hotter than the surface of the sun!" she is using this device of extreme exaggeration.
What is a hyperbole?
A billboard in the hallway says: "Don't be the only loser left out! Everyone is eating the square pizza on Friday!" What is the name of this peer-pressure advertising technique?
What is the bandwagon technique?
Identify the adverb in this sentence: "The Brachiosaurus chewed the treetops lazily while watching the meteor approach."
What is lazily?
A villain named "The Prefix" changes the meaning of words by standing in front of them. If he stands in front of the word interpret and turns it into misinterpret, what did he just do to your understanding of the word?
What is wrongly or badly interpret? (The prefix mis- means wrong).
Solve this object-to-function analogy: Spaceship is to fly as Laser blaster is to...
What is shoot / zap?
The phrase "The wicked witch wanted white water" repeats the initial "W" sound, making it this poetic device.
What is alliteration?
: If the school newspaper only interviews students who hate the cafeteria food and refuses to talk to anyone who likes it, the article shows a heavy amount of this 4-letter word meaning prejudice or favoritism.
What is bias?
If a Pterodactyl says, "I flyed over the middle school yesterday," it has totally butchered the irregular past-tense form of the verb "to fly." What should it have said instead?
What is flew?
The Latin root "mal" means bad or evil. Name a vocabulary word that a villain would love that uses this root.
What is malicious, malevolent, malfunction, or malice?
Solve this part-to-whole analogy: Ring is to Saturn as Crater is to...
What is the Moon?
If a wizard forgets the magical spell for a word that means the exact same thing as "abracadabra," what specific book of synonyms should he look in?
What is a thesaurus?
To find out exactly how much sugar is in the school's chocolate milk, a 6th grader shouldn't read the advertisement—they should look at this specific informational nonfiction text feature on the back of the carton.
What is the Nutrition Facts label (or ingredients list)?