Explain to your second grade students that when someone describes something non-human as having human characteristics, it is called personification. Use examples they can understand such as talking cars or animals.
Play 10 to 15 minutes of a children's movie that uses personification. Use clips from films such as "The Brave Little Toaster," "Cars" or "Beauty and the Beast." Discuss the inanimate objects that displayed human traits in the film. Ask the students if those objects are able to talk, move and feel in real life.
Explain to the students that they are going to put on a show. Allow each child to take an object of his choosing from his desk, such as a book, pencil box or eraser. Call the students to the front of the class three or four at a time. Instruct the students to create a dialogue between their objects; the dialogues can be serious or silly.
Read a book or a poem that uses personification to your students like "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. Explain that they are going to write their own poems or short stories using personification. Allow the students 20 minutes to work on their poems and stories. Place students who finish early into small groups and instruct the groups to read their poems and stories to each other quietly. Tell the students to provide feedback to their peers.