http://www.makingbooks.com/indexcard.shtml
When I was doing a poetry project with middle school kids last spring, I came across a poem with the word nice in it and cringed. I remembered that one of my children's teachers banned the use of the word in her classroom. While life would be way too exhausting if we always had to come with a creative and appropriate word every time we wanted to give a little positive acknowledgment, we certainly should avoid nice and other neutral and nondescript words in writing. This month's project is a book to keep track of forbidden words and come up with alternatives.
I made my book with just four pages instead of the 8 in the directions. I used one half of the side panel of a grocery bag for the accordion and pieces cut from a pancake mix box for the cards. I wanted to use the design on the box as a border so I wrote the words on cut pieces of paper (with writing on the other side) and glued them to the cards. You could also make a longer book to hang in the classroom with each student contributing a word.
LINKS
Word choice advice for writers: Forbidden words
Advice about avoiding overly used words in writing.
http://www.helium.com/items/418530-word-choice-advice-for-writers-forbidden-words
Wordy Wise
One teacher's take on forbidden words plus other ideas to expand vocabulary.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/teaching_with_style/45695
Online Thesaurus
http://thesaurus.reference.com/
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