Teaching figurative language in middle school can be so fun! With a little imagination, it is something that you can definitely get your students fully engaged in. Understanding figurative language not only improves literacy skills but is fun to put into use!
How do you teach figurative language to middle school students?
First, you’ll want to introduce the concept of figurative language in a way that is easy to understand. Try to explain and provide several examples of each type such as a simile, metaphor, allusion, personification, onomatopoeia, idiom, hyperbole, alliteration, and oxymoron.
I love integrating student interests into this lesson by providing examples from popular games they are playing, music they like, popular books, or movies they love. This is an excellent way to connect with students while also getting them fully engaged in the lesson!
After giving lots of examples, it’s time to bring out the engaging activities! Here are some fun ways to practice and become familiar with figurative language.
Find figurative language in a song.
This one is so entertaining! Generally, music uses a lot of figurative language so encourage students to listen to their favorite songs and find examples of figurative language in their songs. They can share what they find and explain what the singer/songwriter meant with the figurative language they used.
Play games that incorporate figurative language
What better way to get students excited to learn than by playing games? My favorite game to play when it comes to figurative language is definitely trashketball! All you need are three tape lines, a basketball, and a goal -you can even use a trashcan and a wad of paper to make it easy! It’s so fun your students won’t even realize how much they’re learning. It’s a win for everyone!
I created a Figurative Language Trashketball game resource to make it even easier to do this activity with your students! It comes with teacher directions, instructions for setup, student directions, figurative language review with examples, round 1-4 cards with 5 sentences each, and an answer key. Check it out here!
Incorporate some unique activities
I find my students usually appreciate when I shake things up and give them something other than another straightforward worksheet to work on. That’s why I love doing color-by-numbers! It’s educational and feels more relaxing for students because they get to color while they work.
That’s why I created these Figurative Language Color by Number Worksheets. They are a great way to reinforce figurative language with your students while giving them an activity they will enjoy. It comes with three worksheets that will give your students tons of practice with identifying metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, idiom, onomatopoeia, and hyperboles. I designed these worksheets to be used as station work, extra credit, homework, classwork, or even for tutoring sessions. Check it out here!
There you have it! Those are some of my favorite figurative language activities. I hope your students love these activities as much as I do! If you want more figurative language activities to do with your students, you can check out my other resources here!
What are your favorite ways to teach figurative language in middle school? Let me know in the comments!
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