Before teaching a poetry unit, I always like to begin with a mini unit on figurative language and how to use it to enhance writing. Picture books are an amazing tool for teaching figurative language! We work through 6 elements of figurative language: similes, metaphors, hyperboles, idioms, personification, and onomatopoeia.
Over the years, I have trialed many different books with different groups of kiddos. Here is a listing of picture books I love most for teaching figurative language and some of the activities we complet for each piece of language:
Similes
Start your simile lesson off with a T-Chart on the board with “like/as” in the center. Ahead of time, make a variety of pictures and words on magnets. Students can be invited up and moved the pieces to create similes such as “busy as a bee” or “cool as a cucumber.” If you’re techie, you could make this in a Google Slide. Then, read the class a simile book like “Crazy like a Fox”. Afterward, brainstorm with the class characters and a plot to create a class simile story. Pairs of students can be assigned a page to make things go a little faster, or use half sheets of paper. Each page should include a few sentences, with at one simile.
This is another great story for teaching similes. “Quick as a Cricket” is perfect for having students create individual, personalized stories. For each page, they’ll write a simile about themselves and illustrate.
Metaphors
This story is great to read to your class even if you aren’t teaching figurative language! It’s all about a boy who can’t help but shout out and the strategy he learns to stop it from happening. I typically don’t do much beyond read the story as the students are able to easily understand having done similes first.
I have also used this book for metaphors. What I like about this one is that it has sidebars with additional information. If students are struggling to grasp the difference between simile and metaphor, this might be a good choice book to use.
Hyperbole
Again, I LOVE this story! There are two sequels as well: “More Parts” and “Even More Parts.” They are quite funny. The entire book is an exaggeration, but there’s also some idioms in here as well. Ask your students to write a short skit which uses hyperbole, and then have them act them out. So much fun!
Idioms
Start off your idiom lesson by having students wash their hands. They’ll be so intrigued just from that! When they return to their desks, have a bowl of Alpha-bits cereal on each table group. Give them 5 minutes to make as many words as they could. After, I tell them “Eat your words.” 🙂
Explain that in this situation, you actually mean “eat your words”, but that’s not what the saying really means. Clarify idioms by reading any Amelia Bedelia story, they are all full of idioms. Your students can munch on their snack while on the lookout for other things that sound one way, but actually mean something else.
Another fun idiom task is to have students act out idioms in a charades game. Ahead of time, write common idioms on scraps of paper. Students can pull one out of a hat and act it out for the rest of the class to guess.
Onomatopoeia
I don’t use a book for this one. Onomatopoeia tends to be the easiest piece of figurative language for students to understand. I do think that Batman comics would be really useful for teaching this though! If you’re looking for an onomatopoeia task, creating pop art of onomatopoeia words would be a great art integration!
Personificiation
The little red pen has a whole lot of marking to do, and none of the other school supplies want to help her. But, when she falls into the Pit of No Return (the garbage can) the supplies get together to help her out. I start off by making a chart with all the supplies as headings. Before you read, gather an actual red pen, stapler, eraser, push pin and green highlighter. Ask your students describe the items. After reading the story, add more to the chart based on how the office supplies are described in the story. Collaboratively circle any “alive” words.
At this point introduce the term personification. Students can make their own chart with the headings: noun, verb and adjective. Ask them to add at least 5 items under each. From there, they can create personification sentences such as “the wind tapped softly on my window” or “the car grunted as it slowly climbed the hill”.
What books do you use for teaching figurative language? Leave me your suggestions in the comments!
