The House With Chicken

Legs

A Too-Heavy Blanket
Lesson Plan

1. Reading exercise
2. A Too-Heavy Blanket
3. Figures of Speech
a. What Are Figures of Speech?
b. Personification
c. Metaphors
4. Let’s Learn More About The House With Chicken Legs
5. Enter Vocabulary Into Your Dictionary
Reading Exercise
 15 mins
The Evolutionary Story of Peaches

1. Go to Readworks.org
2. Login with the Class Code your teacher will give you.
3. Use the password 1234.
4. Select your name.
5. Go to Assignments, and click on the assigned task.
6. Complete the reading assignment, and submit.
10 mins Write down five words that you
don’t know in your notebook
while we read!

Let’s Read the Chapter “A Too Heavy

Blanket”
 20 mins

Figures of Speech
What Are Figures of Speech?

On the first page of the chapter, the author writes these sentences:

● “The chimney sighs loud.”

● “Butterflies are battering my insides with excitement and panic.”

Question:
● Can a chimney really sigh? And, are actual butterflies flying inside
Marinke’s stomach?
What Are Figures of Speech?

The answer is, of course, NO.

In the first sentence, “The chimney sighs loud,” a house is given human
characteristics. We call this figure of speech, personification.

Definition of personification:
● When a non-living object is given human characteristics.
Examples of Personification

● Lightning danced across the sky.
● The wind howled in the night.
● The car complained as the key was
roughly turned in its ignition.
In The House With Chicken Legs,
the house is personified
throughout the story. It functions
as an actual character in the story. It
has a personality and feelings.

Can you think of an example of personification? If you can’t, search for

one on the internet. Write your example down in your notebook, and
show it to a student next to you.
What Are Figures of Speech?

The second sentence, “Butterflies are battering my insides with excitement and
panic,” is an example of a metaphor. The nervous sensation in her stomach is
compared to the fluttering of butterfly wings, without using the word “like” or “as.”

Definition of a metaphor:
● A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes something by saying it's something
else (You are the light of my life).
● Similes are indirect comparisons that use the word “like” or “as” (You are like a
star). Metaphors are direct comparisons that state one thing is another.
Examples of Metaphors

● I am drowning in work.
● My mother is a night owl.
● My heart was broken after he left me.

Can you think of an example of a metaphor? If you can’t, search for

one on the internet. Write your example down in your notebook, and
show it to a student next to you.
 What Are Figures of Speech?
Figures of speech form part of figurative language, which is the opposite of literal
language.
● Literal language is straightforward language/writing that you see every day on
road signs, office memos, and science textbooks. The words literally mean what
they say.
● Figurative language, on the other hand, should not be interpreted literally. It uses
techniques like comparison and overstatement to give meaning to words other
than their simple dictionary definitions.
● Figures of speech include similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, and
idioms.
Let’s Learn More About The House With
Chicken Legs

Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga, in Slavic folklore, an ogress
who steals, cooks, and eats her victims,
usually children. A guardian of the
fountains of the water of life, she lives with
two or three sisters (all known as Baba
Yaga) in a forest hut that spins continually
on birds’ legs. Her fence is topped with
human skulls. Baba Yaga can ride through
the air—in an iron kettle or in a mortar that
she drives with a pestle—creating tempests
as she goes. She often accompanies Death
on his travels, devouring newly released
souls.
7 mins
Sophie, tell us a little bit about what
inspired The House with Chicken Legs?
My grandmother told me fairy tales
about Baba Yaga and her house with
chicken legs when I was young. Some
of the stories were terrifying, but they
fascinated me too. Baba Yaga is much
more than your average fairy-tale
witch. She can be cruel, but also kind
and compassionate. I wanted to explore
this side of Baba Yaga, while giving
her a role that explained people’s fear
of her, and her links with death.
Slavic Culture 13 mins

There are many references to Slavic culture in the story.

● What is Slavic?
● Can you find write down five words that refer to Slavic culture in the
chapters up to the end of “A Too-Heavy Blanket?”
● What is:
○ Borsch
○ A balaika
 25 mins
Let’s Take a Look at the main
Protagonist/ Heroine of the
novel

Marinka

Complete this character

sheet
Enter the 5 words you don’t
know, plus their meaning, in
your dictionary