• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Brown Bag Teacher

Teach the Children. Love the Children. Change the World.

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Meet the Teacher
    • Disclosures
    • Professional Development
  • My Classroom
    • Back to School
    • Differentiated Instruction
    • Distance Learning
    • Management
    • Organization
    • Technology
  • 1st Grade
    • Art
    • Daily Five
    • Guided Math
    • Reading/Literacy
    • Science
    • Writing
  • 5th Grade
    • 1:1 iPads
    • Book Displays
    • Community Building
    • ELA
    • On Demand Writing
  • Shop
  • Blog

November 8, 2013

Figurative Language Mats

We are just beginning our 5th grade journey through figurative
language, and I thought I would share an engaging and no-prep activity we did
today to focus in on similes and metaphors.
I created these figurative language mats and copied them doubled-sided –
similes on one side and metaphors on the other. The mats ask students to
identify a simile/metaphor, illustrate it, explain it, apply it to their lives,
and then, change it into a simile/metaphor. {You can grab the mats here for
free}
Then, I grouped the students (based on their mastery of yesterday’s exit
slip) and distributed a book to each table. {I used – Owl Moon, Crazy
Like a Fox
, Quick as a Cricket, Snow, and Wilfrid Gordon
McDonald Partridge
.} I had each group read the WHOLE book. They weren’t
allowed to find a simile/metaphor and quit. Nope. Not allowed.
After finishing the book, each member of the group chose a simile or metaphor
and added it to the center of their paper.
Then, the students worked together to analyze the simile or metaphor –
illustrating it, explaining it, applying the simile to their lives, and then,
changing the metaphor or simile into the other (a simile or metaphor). This
last part was definitely the hardest for my kids. It challenged their understanding
of similes and metaphors.
After all of our friends were finished, we did a few rounds of Stand Up,
Hand Up, Pair Up to share their fourth box (the translate it box). They read
the simile or metaphor that they had created, read it to their partner, and
their partner had to decide what their initial simile/metaphor was! Depending
on how much their partner struggled, the kids had to go back and edit the
phrase they created/shared.
Does this make any sense?? It was very cool to watch my kids in action, and
the activity really showed me the ‘gaps’ in my kids learning. We will debrief first
thing tomorrow morning, and ‘tweak’ our understanding of metaphors before we
move on to hyperboles and idioms. 🙂 Do you have any go-to activities for
teaching figurative language? If so, I would love to hear your ideas!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Related Posts

  • Questions I Will No Longer Answer
  • Life in Colonial America Stations
  • Main Idea in 5th Grade
  • Personalized Bookmarks – Monday Made It

Filed Under: 5th Grade, ELA Tagged With: Freebie

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kelly Anne says

    November 8, 2013 at 9:10 am

    LOVE the "apply it" idea. I think if they can do that, then they definitely know what they're talking about! Thanks for sharing your lesson AND a freebie- I love it! 🙂

    Kelly Anne
    AppleSlices

    Reply
  2. Melissa says

    November 9, 2013 at 1:14 pm

    I love that you had them change it to another simile or metaphor after finding and recording. We haven't started figurative language yet, but I'm pinning to remember this! Thanks for sharing.

    Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late
    Follow me on Bloglovin!

    Reply
  3. Flamingos and Butterflies says

    November 11, 2013 at 12:42 am

    Thanks for the great figurative language resources!

    Tina
    Flamingos and Butterflies

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

My name is Catherine Reed, and I am in Year 10 of my elementary life, residing in small-town, Kentucky.  I student taught in 1st grade and never ...

Read More

Find it Fast!

Join Me!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Don’t Miss These!

Working together to meet a goal builds classroom community & encourages teamwork. As a PBIS school, check our our 20 favorite nonfood, low-cost rewards!

20 Positive Behavior Rewards that Aren’t Food

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Guided Reading: 1st Grade Style

Weekly Lesson Planning Routine

Overwhelmed by math centers? Check out these SIMPLE ideas for create predictable patterns and routines that allow for streamlined planning!

Managing Math Centers

Wordless Picture Books

Categories

Archives

Footer

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No feed found.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to create a feed.

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Join Me!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

The Brown Bag Teacher © 2022Built with and Genesis Framework by Bellano Web Studio