Homophone
This evening I was reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to Riley before bed and had the following exchange…
Elise: (reading) “‘And when Lucy was tired of eating, the Faun began to talk. He had wonderful tales to tell of life in the forest.‘ (pause) Riley, do you know what ‘tale’ means?”
Riley: “Yes, it’s a homophone! It’s like what an animal has on its butt, like a mouse or a cat or a dog, and it’s also a story. It sounds the same but it means two things and it’s spelled differently.”
I made her repeat it again for Sage because I was so impressed. She is going to be totally set for SATs in 14 years. She said she learned about homophones from her teacher, Lerenik. Her preschool is pretty great, they really have making-learning-fun figured out, and Riley loves it.
That’s awesome. I hadn’t even heard the term ‘homophone’ myself before now. I thought ‘homonym’ was the only term for that. Kids today!
Quite extraordinary! – But why am I still surprised by things she says and knows?
BTW – I shared this story with my 4th graders yesterday and they LOVED it – maybe a teacher saying the word butt was what amazed/amused them! Don’t worry – it was anonymously told!