Tony Silva

That sounds familiar….
All About Homophones
http://www.all-about-homophones.com/
$29.95 Soft Cover; $27.95 eBook.



Spelling in the English language is hard enough without the odd collection of words that sound like each other but generally don’t hang out together. If you’ve discovered too many times that there is no they’re there, you probably belong to the family of homophone victims in desperate need of relief. Take heart. Marie Rippel has come to the rescue with her book, All About Homophones. This book is a must-have resource for a complete vocabulary and spelling program.

Fun and Easy to Use

One of the most effective tools in the curriculum is graphic organizers – ways of sorting information to better understand what you’re looking at. There are several types of organizers you can print out and use in your quest for homophone pairs. Some will give the student an opportunity to identify a word, give a definition and use the word in a sentence. Others use a similar approach to identify word pairs. The graphic organizers are beautifully designed and encourage creativity.

The curriculum also includes worksheets for grades one through eight with activities that are fun, creative and designed to get the student engaged in learning about homophones. Some include interesting facts at the bottom; others tongue twisters, fun facts or writing activities.

Multiple Uses

All About Homophones worksheets can be used in creative ways to help students build vocabulary, writing skills, and creative expression. Rippel provides a list of activities to consider for use of her worksheets.

The book doesn’t stop with graphic organizers and worksheets. You’ll find crossword puzzles and card games too. I was surprised to discover how many familiar card games can be played using the word and definition cards in the book. You’ll want to invest in some heavy paper to use this feature.

Photocopying of student materials from your copy of the book is permitted for the individual classroom.

Quibbles & Bits

The collection of cards is a good example of the creativity and quality that went into All About Homonyms. It would be nice to have a version of the cards in Word or PDF format designed to print on the perforated business cards or 3 X 5 cards available for most inkjet printers. Perhaps, the publisher could offer pre-printed decks of the cards as a separate product.

If the idea of a book on homophones and homonyms seems like a radical new concept to you, check out the list of additional resources in the book. One title caught my eye – “How Much Can a Bare Bear Bear?: What Are Homonyms and Homophones?” Sound fun? There’s more. For all you fun types, skip to the end of the book, just past the worksheet answer keys for some of the best tongue twisters and twisted riddles in print.

TIP: Check out the “Homophone Machine” on the All About Homophones Web site. It converts perfectly sensible sentences into some of the garbled silliness you see in some of our reviews. Unfortunately, while the “Homophone Machine” is a barrel of hoots, we can’t blame it for any of our spelling errors.

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below: