Activities to Teach Figurative Language
Figurative language is describing something by comparing it to something else. This type of description brings writing to life. Understanding various types of figurative language is a critical part of a student's education. There are many fun activities for teachers to use in their classrooms to get students to understand and create figurative language.
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Alliteration
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Use tongue twisters to teach the repetition of alliteration. Provide your students with an example such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." Then, have students come up with five of their own creative tongue twisters. Advise students to add more adjectives or adverbs if they are having trouble making their tongue twister long enough. Tell students to consider using celebrities in their examples. Then, have students draw a picture to go with each of their tongue twisters.
Personification
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Have students use their acting skills to show their understanding of personification. First, have students write an example of personification. For example, "The leaves danced in the wind." Then, have students act out their use of personification.
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Simile
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Teach students to use similes through advertisement commercials. Have students create their own products to advertise and make their own commercials. They must describe their product using a simile, such as "Honey Candy Bars are like a party in your mouth."
Metaphor
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Teach the concept of a metaphor through reading a poem and coming up with examples. Read aloud the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes. Discuss the comparisons made. Talk about how life is used as a metaphor. Come up with a list of things that life can be compared to. Create a life metaphor as a class, such as "Life is a race." Have students come up with their own examples.
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References
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