Teaching figurative language year-round is a great way to help our students understand it as readers and writers! The more students understand figurative language as they read, the more they will use it in their writing! When students use different forms of figurative language in their writing, their writing is instantly elevated!
What is figurative language?
✅Figurative language is a word or phrase
that does not have a literal meaning.
✅Figurative Language helps readers create a
mental image in their mind of what they are reading. Authors use different
forms of figurative language to bring their writing pieces to life.
What forms of figurative language do you focus on?
Here are the figurative language forms I teach:
How do you get started with figurative language in your upper elementary 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms?
1. Figurative Language Coloring Pages
There is no better motivator for our upper elementary students than coloring! In the last few years, I have noticed a huge increase in students wanting to color and be creative. It is so exciting to watch! You can harness that artistic excitement with coloring pages that focus on different forms of figurative language. What I especially LOVE about these figurative language doodle coloring pages is that they serve as a great visual for each form of figurative language. And since each page has word work and writing tasks, your students will try out writing with figurative language and not just coloring!
2. Figurative Language Reading Passages
3. Figurative Language Descriptive Writing Projects
The change of each season offers a great opportunity to explore figurative language and imagery. I love using seasonal descriptive projects that tie together writing, figurative language, and art.
Each descriptive writing project we do at the start of each season allows students to revisit different forms of figurative language. We practice each type in isolation and then work on adding them to our descriptive writing pieces that focus on a setting or character. The students' writing always wows me! And bonus...the students' final art and writing pieces make the best bulletin board display!
4. Figurative Language Hunt Reading Activity
When teaching figurative language, I like to encourage students to think
like both readers and writers. As readers, they learn to recognize when and how authors use figurative language to bring stories to life. As writers, they
discover how to weave those same techniques into their own work to make their
writing more engaging.
One of my favorite ways to reinforce this is with "Frequent Figurative
Language" punch cards. These cards challenge students to spot figurative
language in the books they read and then apply those techniques in their own
writing. It’s a simple yet effective way to keep them actively engaged with
texts while strengthening their writing skills!
💡BONUS: Figurative Language Lesson Idea
You ARE ready to get started!
Figurative language is so much more than just a lesson! It
is a powerful tool that young writers love to infuse into their writing! By
using engaging activities like doodle-style coloring pages, themed reading
passages, and hands-on art and descriptive projects, we give students the tools
to recognize figurative language and use it to improve their
writing. Encouraging independent reading with a “frequent figurative language reader
card” keeps our upper elementary students on the lookout for similes,
metaphors, personification, and other figurative language techniques in the
books they read. This easily ties together students’ reading and writing skills and is a fun motivator for our kids!
