Skip to Main Content
Lesson Plan Image

A Treasury of Words

Students will learn interesting, intriguing, and riveting facts about Peter Roget, the creator of the thesaurus and then illustrate a word and its synonyms.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

Steps

  • Step 1

    Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869) was a British physician, natural theologian, and lexicographer best known for publishing the "Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases." This 1852 work was the first modern publication of a compilation of synonyms and it contained 15,000 words. Recent editions contain over 400,000. Have students research Roget and the origin of the thesaurus.

  • Step 2

    Ask students to choose a word and write all the synonyms they can think of for it. Then have them create an illustration depicting the word and its synonyms. Have them plan an interesting way to feature them. For example, if the word is "sunny" they can draw a sun and display the synonyms on the sun's rays.

  • Step 3

    Students can begin by painting a background with watercolors. When it dries, they will add the illustrations and words with fine line markers.

  • Step 4

    When their drawings are complete, hang them on a bulletin board to create an artistic classroom thesaurus that students can refer to through the year.

Standards

LA: Add drawings or other visual displays to written text to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

LA: Apply knowledge of how language functions in different contexts to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading, writing, speaking, and/or listening.

Adaptations

Peter Roget was a founding secretary of The Portico Library in Manchester, England. Have students explore this institution, its missions, and its collections. It was founded in 1806 and is one of Manchester's longest-running institutions. Since the word "thesaurus" means" treasury" or "store house," have them create a treasury of facts they learn about this thought leader and the institution where he worked.

Challenge students to write a dialogue exchange using many different words for "say" or "said." Some suggestions include, "she replied," "he responded," "they remarked," etc.