That's The Trick.

THAT'S THE TRICK (commonly confused homophones) illustrated by Sarah Dunk and published by Lothian Books (March 2006). Krista's 18th book.

This fun book for readers of all ages will help sort out the differences between homophones: words that sound the same, are often spelt differently and have completely different meanings.

Knowing how to spell a word that is a homophone is one of the trickiest skills in the English language. The three hundred homophones in this book are brought alive in humorous sentences, accompanied by comical illustrations, that will provide hours of literary entertainment, encouraging the reader to enjoy words and challenging them to collect their own list of homophones. It is an invaluable educational tool recommended for mid primary to adult readers, is highly acclaimed and going into schools in class sets.

Teachers' Notes (written by Jenny Stubbs, teacher/librarian, Ipswich, Queensland).

Some ideas for using That's the Trick in the classroom:

Divide the sentences into manageable batches (eg from say A to C) and read the first batch of sentences one by one to the class, showing the illustrations (this would be best done with Power Point). Work through the book alphabetically until all 300 homophones have been shown to the class over multiple sessions.
Have sentences and images on separate strips of paper and have students (or groups of students) match them up.
Read a selection of sentences (or present them as a worksheet) and have students illustrate them.
Supply some of the illustrations with their homophones (but not their sentences) and have students create their own sentences for the images using those homophones.
Give the class a selection of just the homophones and have the students write their own sentences and then illustrate them.
Supply just the illustrations with no clues and see if the students can work out what the homophones are, perhaps choosing the easier, more obvious images, eg ate, eight/ ball, bawl/ flower, flour.

Click on an image below to view some extracts from That's The Trick