Flower Theme Unit and Personification Activity

Figurative Language Spring Elementary Language Arts Lesson Plan

Mar 20, 2009

Use the books The Dandelion Seed and Dandelions: Stars in the Grass in a spring-themed elementary language arts lesson plan to teach personification.

The trade picture books The Dandelion Seed by Joseph Anthony [DAWN Publications, 1997] and Dandelions: Stars in the Grass by Mia Posada [Carolrhoda Books, Inc., 2000] both personify, to different degrees, the seeds of a dandelion. Use this elementary language arts lesson plan as part of a spring flower theme unit to teach students how and why authors use personification in their works, and to give students practice with using personification in their own writing.

What Is Personification?

Explain to students that personification is when a writer treats a thing or animal as if the thing or animal can do something only humans can do, such as think or feel. Discuss how personifying an object, or treating it as if it were a person, can make the thing seem more interesting or real and can help the reader relate better to the thing or feel for it more.

Show students a dandelion seed ball and blow on it so that the seeds fly off, or display a picture that shows dandelion seeds flying through the air. Discuss how the seeds must leave the dandelion and travel elsewhere so that new dandelion plants can grow. Note that plants cannot really think, but ask students to imagine what emotions a dandelion seed might feel as it leaves its parent plant and sets out into the wild.

Share Dandelions: Seeds in the Grass with the class, perhaps as part of a dandelion-themed figurative language elementary language arts lesson plan. After reading, discuss how the author personified the tufts/seeds, pointing out how the author notes that they like "a nice grassy hillside" best and how the "seed snuggles down" into the ground.

Talk about how seeds do grow well on a grassy hillside and do end up underground, but note that they do not and can not consciously like a place or "snuggle" the way a person would. Discuss why the author might have chosen to personify the seed in this way, and how the personification affects the way the reader thinks and feels about the seed.

Share The Dandelion Seed with the class, asking students to pay attention to how the author personifies the dandelion seed and makes it the main character of this narrative. Have students identify the problem facing the seed at the beginning of the story (it is afraid to leave its plant) and discuss how it feels about the world as the wind blows it from place to place, what happens to the seed once it finds its place in life, and what advice it gives one of its own seeds at the end of the story.

Have students use the information the author provides them about the dandelion seed to write a short character description of it, touching on subjects such as what matters to it in life and how it changes from the beginning of the story to the end (both physically and, more importantly, emotionally). Then have students analyze personification by discussing how the way the author personifies the dandelion seed makes the seed seem more real as a character and tells them important things about who this dandelion seed is.

Use Personification

Ask students to brainstorm character traits a dandelion seed might have that are different from the ones possessed by the main character of The Dandelion Seed. For example, perhaps the dandelion seed could be looking forward to adventure in the big world and impatient to leave its plant, or perhaps it could be lazy and unwilling to travel very far to grow.

Once students have picked some character traits for their dandelion seed character, have them use personification to write a short story about what happens to their seed as it leaves its plant, travels through the world, and eventually grows into a new dandelion plant. Invite students to share their stories with the class, and place finished works in the class Reading Center.

Using examples from a trade picture book to teach personification will help students understand better how this type of figurative language works. Students can use the examples later as models when incorporating figurative language into their own writing.

The copyright of the article Flower Theme Unit and Personification Activity in Primary School Lesson Plans is owned by Renee Carver. Permission to republish Flower Theme Unit and Personification Activity in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.