Easy Activities to Teach Personification to Elementary Students

Personification is a wonderful figure of speech that allows us to utilize our imagination and come up with novel ideas about mundane objects. The ability to give human-like qualities to a variety of objects and bring them to life leaves a lot to our creativity and plays with it to let us stretch it to a point that has never been reached before.

Introducing this concept to elementary students is not difficult, but it does require some effort. Kids in elementary school look at objects with the perception of their obvious functions.

For instance, they may not think of the agony a door has to tolerate through a day when it is opened, closed, and banged so many times. This concept has to be taught in different ways in order for them to be comprehended. As such, here are some interesting personification activities for elementary students that you can use within the classroom.

Teaching personification requires you to encourage children to think beyond the obvious. These activities help them think out of the box, use newer approaches to mundane situations, and to develop their imagination to use it in writing or any other aspect of life.

It is not a difficult concept to explain if you utilize the activities described here. They are sure to help kids make sense of it, and implement this concept in their work in the future.

The first step toward teaching personification to elementary students involves familiarizing them with the little things in life; objects that can be personified and brought to life; objects that can be given humane qualities, and whose life can be imagined. In effect, any object can be brought to life, but it is easier to personify certain things.

For instance, personifying a key, a lock, a pair of glasses, or a blackboard may be easier than personifying a window or a curtain. Introduce them to these little objects and inform them of their functions. This is the first activity that you should involve them in so that they get a basic understanding of the concept of personification.

When you conduct the activity on familiarizing children with various objects, take it a step further and have them write a small autobiography of any of these objects of their choice, to judge whether they have truly understood the meaning of personification.

While how personification is used is largely dependent on a vivid imagination, a basic understanding at the elementary level can help. This imagination can be developed over time with other activities.

For instance, have a play conducted with soft toys that could be bears, alligators, elephants, pumpkins, or any other animal or object. You could inspire from several animation movies that resort to personification, such as Toy Story, and explain this concept to them. So have children pick a toy of their choice and speak through these toys.

By regularly engaging in such activities, students will be forced to think beyond the regular functions of an object and become more creative over time.

Finally, supplement the aforementioned activities with worksheets on personification for a thorough understanding. Each exercise should have statements with personification as the prime figure of speech in them.

The task of the student is to circle the object that has been personified and the action that has been associated with the object. Some examples of such sentences include:

• The light broke through the window and hit my eyes.
• The flowers danced as the rains lashed the earth.
• The key feared going into the lock and getting trapped yet again.
• Once the pencil touched the paper, they made a pact to remain together for life.
• The pencil's worst enemy is the eraser as it can destroy all its hard work in a jiffy.

These are activities that you should begin with. The next activity can involve asking them to provide the action for the object that has been mentioned.

Instead of you telling them that the rains lashed the earth, you could provide worksheets that have sentences such as the rains _______ the earth, and allow children to fill it. This makes their imagination work a little harder and understand personification better.

The aforementioned personification activities are not only educational but also enjoyable. When used in the classroom they bring in an element of fun and also help the message get ingrained better. Use them and see the results for yourself.