Subscribe

2nd grade · English Language Arts · Unit 8 of 14

Word Pictures

Similes and sound patterns

What your child practices

Spotting similes (comparisons with like or as) and repeated consonant sounds, and what they add to a text.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 2.9(B); 2.10(D) · similes, descriptive language and sound patterns

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A simile compares two things using “like” or “as”.
  2. “As soft as a pillow” helps you picture how soft something is.
  3. Pick something that really has that quality: flat as a pancake, fast as a cheetah.

Example: Complete the simile: as cold as ___ (ice or toast) Which one is really cold? Ice is cold. Answer: ice

Word Pictures in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 8 of 14 in 2nd grade English Language Arts, after Grammar Gears and before Reading Detectives.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Complete the simile: as fast as a ___

    • turtle
    • cheetah
    • snail

  2. Question 2

    Which phrase repeats the same consonant sound?

    • red hot ball
    • slippery slimy slug
    • big brown bear

  3. Question 3

    Complete the simile: as soft as a ___

    • pillow
    • nail
    • brick

  4. Question 4

    Complete the simile: as flat as a ___

    • ball
    • balloon
    • pancake

  5. Question 5

    Which phrase has the same consonant sound again and again?

    • red and blue
    • pitter-patter, plip-plop
    • up and down

  6. Question 6

    Which is NOT a simile?

    • The moon is as bright as a lamp.
    • The moon is like a night light.
    • The moon is a night light.

More 2nd grade