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English lesson plan · 5th grade (Year 6 in England) · 30 minutes

Figurative language: personification, hyperbole, alliteration, onomatopoeia

Vocabulary

CCSS L.5.5.ACCSS RL.5.4England: Y5/6 Reading (figurative language)England: KS2 SATs ReadingEngland: 11+ English

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Figurative language: personification, hyperbole, alliteration, onomatopoeia.

  • I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
  • I can explain each step and say why it works.
  • I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: Similes and metaphors

Leads to: Allusion, irony, oxymoron and pun; Descriptive and narrative techniques; Sound devices: alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia

Materials: Word cards, A thesaurus or dictionary, A short text with the target words, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 4 min

  • Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Similes and metaphors). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
  • Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.
  1. Which kind of figurative language is this? The lake was like a mirror. (simile / metaphor / personification) → similePrompt: Does it use 'like' or 'as' to compare?
  2. What does this metaphor mean? Her voice was music to his ears. (He could not hear her. / She was singing a song. / She spoke very loudly. / He was pleased by what she said.) → He was pleased by what she said.Prompt: A metaphor is not literally true.
  3. Which kind of figurative language is this? He ran as fast as a cheetah. (simile / metaphor / personification) → similePrompt: Does it use 'like' or 'as' to compare?

Hook · 3 min

  • Show an interesting word in a sentence and ask what it might mean from the clues around it.
  • Share the objective: Figurative language: personification, hyperbole, alliteration, onomatopoeia. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 7 min

  • Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
  • Example: Which technique is used here? The stars winked at us from the sky.
  • Step 1: Writers use these techniques to make writing vivid and memorable.
  • Step 2: So the answer is: personification
  • Answer: personification
  • Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 6 min

  • Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
  • Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.
  1. Which technique is used here? The angry sea swallowed the little boat. (personification / simile / alliteration / onomatopoeia) → personificationPrompt: Is it an exaggeration, repeated starting sounds, a sound word, or a thing acting like a person?
  2. Which technique is used here? Sally's six silly snakes slithered south. (alliteration / personification / onomatopoeia / hyperbole) → alliterationPrompt: Is it an exaggeration, repeated starting sounds, a sound word, or a thing acting like a person?

You do: independent practice · 7 min

  • Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
  • Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 3 min

  • Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.
  1. Which technique is used here? I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. (simile / onomatopoeia / personification / hyperbole) → hyperbolePrompt: Is it an exaggeration, repeated starting sounds, a sound word, or a thing acting like a person?

Watch out for

  • Picking a "bigger" synonym that doesn't fit the meaning.
  • Ignoring the clues in the rest of the sentence.

Support and stretch

Support

  • Review first: Similes and metaphors.
  • Use concrete materials: word cards.
  • Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
  • Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

  • Move on to: Allusion, irony, oxymoron and pun; Descriptive and narrative techniques; Sound devices: alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia.
  • Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
  • Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-5.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

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Figurative language: personification, hyperbole, alliteration, onomatopoeia

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The Moon's Night Walk (a poem)

The moon puts on her silver coat and tiptoes up the sky. She hums a tune to sleepy owls and winks at clouds nearby. She paints the rooftops pearly white, she lights the cat's way home, she peeps into the children's rooms to check they're not alone. She counts the stars like sleeping sheep, she sings the sea to rest, she hangs a lantern on the hill for travellers in the west. And when the sun yawns in the east and stretches out his rays, the moon slips off her silver coat and hides away for days. But look up on a quiet night when all the town's asleep: she's tiptoeing across the sky with promises to keep.

  1. Question 1

    Read "The Moon's Night Walk (a poem)". The poet writes that the moon "tiptoes up the sky". Which technique is this?

    • A. personification
    • B. alliteration
    • C. simile
    • D. onomatopoeia

The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter

The storm had been building all afternoon. By the time the sun set, waves as tall as houses were hurling themselves against the rocks below Gull Point Lighthouse, and the wind screamed around the tower like a wild animal. Nell pressed her face to the window of the little cottage. Her father had rowed to the mainland that morning to fetch the doctor for Mrs Penrose, and the sea had turned before he could return. Now, for the first time in her twelve years, Nell was alone at the lighthouse. She knew what that meant. Every night at dusk, the great lamp at the top of the tower had to be lit. Without it, ships would have no warning of the rocks. Nell grabbed the lantern and her father's oilskin coat, which hung down past her knees, and pushed open the door. The wind nearly knocked her flat. Bent double, she stumbled across the yard and into the tower. There were one hundred and twelve steps to the top. Nell had climbed them hundreds of times, but never in the dark, never with the whole tower trembling. Halfway up, her lantern flickered and almost went out. She stopped, cupped her hand around the flame and whispered, "Not now. Please, not now." At the top, her fingers were numb with cold. She trimmed the wick the way her father had shown her, filled the oil and struck a match. Nothing. A second match. Nothing. With the third, a tiny flame caught, grew and then blazed, and the great lens began to turn, sweeping its beam across the furious sea. Far out in the darkness, a ship's horn sounded twice. Nell did not know whose ship it was. But she knew that, tonight, it would find its way home.

  1. Question 2

    Read "The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter". "The wind screamed around the tower like a wild animal." What does this simile suggest?

    • A. An animal was near the tower.
    • B. The storm was ending.
    • C. The wind was loud, fierce and frightening.
    • D. The wind was gentle.

Message in a Bottle (a poem)

I am a bottle, empty and light, tossed from a boat on a bright summer night. No note inside me, no secret to tell, just plastic and air and a sea-salty smell. The ocean is patient, the ocean is wide; it rocks me and rolls me from tide to tide. A turtle swims near me and stares at my shine. I am not a jellyfish. Please, don't you dine! I'll drift for a lifetime, I'll drift for a few, I'll crumble to pieces too tiny for you. But somebody somewhere could carry me back, a hand on the beach and a bin in a sack. So here is my message, though no one wrote it: the sea keeps whatever we throw. Don't forget it.

  1. Question 3

    Read "Message in a Bottle (a poem)". In verse 3, the bottle will "crumble to pieces too tiny for you". What idea does this show?

    • A. Plastic breaks into tiny bits that are hard to see or remove.
    • B. The bottle will become a jellyfish.
    • C. The bottle will grow bigger.
    • D. The bottle will turn into sand and disappear safely.

  2. Question 4

    Read "Message in a Bottle (a poem)". "The ocean is patient" is an example of…

    • A. personification
    • B. onomatopoeia
    • C. alliteration
    • D. a simile

My Grandmother's Hands

My grandmother's hands are brown and wrinkled, like a map of rivers that have been flowing for eighty years. When I was small, I used to trace the lines with my finger and ask her where each one went. "This one," she would say, pointing to a deep crease across her palm, "goes back to the farm where I grew up, where I picked cotton until my fingers bled." Then she would point to a thin white scar on her thumb. "And this one leads to the night I learned to cook for eight brothers and sisters." Her hands have kneaded thousands of loaves of bread. They have stitched every quilt in our house and plaited my hair before every first day of school. They once caught my baby brother when he slipped from the top of the slide, faster than anyone thought an old woman could move. These days her hands shake a little when she holds her teacup. Sometimes she drops a stitch and has to start a row again. But when she takes my hands in hers, they are still the strongest hands I know.

  1. Question 5

    Read "My Grandmother's Hands". The narrator compares Grandmother's hands to "a map of rivers". What does this suggest?

    • A. She likes to travel.
    • B. Her hands are always wet.
    • C. The lines on her hands tell the story of her long life.
    • D. Her hands are covered in ink.

The Climbing Wall

The climbing wall at the leisure centre was twelve metres high, and from the bottom it looked like a mountain covered in brightly coloured sweets. Jaya had watched her older cousin, Ravi, scramble to the top of it a dozen times. Today was her first turn. The instructor clipped the rope to her harness and checked the knot twice. "Remember," she said, "use your legs, not just your arms. And don't look down until you're ready." The first few holds were easy. Jaya climbed quickly, buoyed by Ravi's cheers. But halfway up, the holds grew smaller and farther apart. Her arms began to burn. She looked down – and immediately wished she hadn't. The floor seemed impossibly far away, and her legs began to tremble. "I want to come down," she called. "You can," the instructor answered calmly. "Or you can rest. Lean back into the harness. The rope's got you." Jaya didn't believe her. But slowly, she let her weight sink back. The rope held. Her breathing steadied. She looked at the wall in front of her, not at the floor, and noticed a small yellow hold to her right that she hadn't seen before. Ten minutes later, she slapped the top of the wall. The leisure centre erupted in cheers – or at least Ravi did, which felt like the same thing.

  1. Question 6

    Read "The Climbing Wall". The writer says the wall "looked like a mountain covered in brightly coloured sweets". What does this suggest?

    • A. The wall is huge but also inviting and fun.
    • B. The wall is dangerous and dark.
    • C. The wall is made of food.
    • D. The wall is very small.

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Answer key: Figurative language: personification, hyperbole, alliteration, onomatopoeia

  1. 1. A. personification

  2. 2. C. The wind was loud, fierce and frightening.

  3. 3. A. Plastic breaks into tiny bits that are hard to see or remove.

  4. 4. A. personification

  5. 5. C. The lines on her hands tell the story of her long life.

  6. 6. A. The wall is huge but also inviting and fun.