Have elementary students use personification to create descriptive sentences. Provide students with the name of an inanimate, or nonhuman object and encourage the students to compose a sentence that brings the object to life. For example, if you've supplied a student with the word "wind," the student may write a sentence that says, "The wind cried like a baby." This sentence illustrates personification because it states that the wind, an inanimate object, is crying like a baby, a human characteristic. Through this activity, elementary students practice using personification on a small scale, which they can then apply to a larger pieces of writing, such as essays, poems or creative stories.
Cartoons are an ideal example to use when teaching elementary students about personification, as the cartoons use this literary device to bring nonhuman, or inanimate objects to life. Another benefit of using cartoons as a means of teaching personification is that cartoons appeal to elementary-aged children, automatically sparking an interest in the topic. Provide children with comic books, cartoon books or comic strips from the newspaper. Encourage children to read the cartoons and discuss how personification is used to give human qualities to nonhuman things.
A child can use personification while composing his own books. Encourage your a student to use the writing process to compose a creative story. Prompt him to use personification to create the characters in his stories. Have him draw pictures to illustrate his use of personification. For instance, a child may draw a picture of a tree with arms and a mouth. Assemble children's stories into books, complete with covers and have the authors share the stories with the class. Place the books in the classroom library to allow students to read later.
Children's literature is another excellent source of personification, as the characters in children's stories are often nonhuman, yet the possess human qualities. Examples of works of literature to read with your students include one of the many renditions of the "The Three Little Pigs" or "The Gingerbread Man," or you could read a more original title, such as "Bear Snores On" by Karma Wilson. While reading the stories, ask children to point out how personification is used and ask for examples.