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Teach students to identify similes, metaphors and personification and explain how they create vivid, nuanced meaning with this complete teaching bundle. Students compare a plain and a descriptive text about the same summer storm at the footy oval, learn each device, annotate the descriptive text to find them, and then write their own figurative language about the weather.

Combining a lesson plan, a 45-slide editable teacher presentation, three differentiated student activities with a bonus task, an exit ticket with interpretation guide and a hands-on card sort, this curriculum-aligned bundle provides everything you need to teach the lesson from start to finish.

Built around the I Do, We Do, You Do model, students move from explicit teacher modelling to guided practice and independent application. They learn the words we need (figurative language, vivid, nuanced, simile, metaphor, personification), see each device modelled with a think-aloud, annotate a descriptive text together, and then write similes, metaphors and personification of their own.

What's included in this teaching bundle?

Teacher Slides (PowerPoint)

• 45 editable, ready-to-teach slides following the I Do, We Do, You Do structure
• Clear learning intention and success criteria
• Explicit explanations and worked examples for similes, metaphors and personification
• Two texts about the same summer storm to compare, then shared annotation of the descriptive text: you model the first part and the class annotates the rest, with an answer slide
• Mini whiteboard and partner check-ins throughout
• Each whiteboard and check-in slide followed by an answer slide

Lesson Plan and Exit Ticket (PDF)

• Complete I Do, We Do, You Do lesson plan for a 45 to 60 minute lesson, with a suggested time for each phase
• Diagnostic, formative and summative assessment points
• Key vocabulary, teacher notes and common misconceptions
• Check-ins for understanding linked to the matching slides
• Exit ticket (two per page) with an answers page and an interpretation guide
• Class recording sheet (Excel) to track results and plan next steps

Differentiated Student Activities (PDF)

• Activity overview to help you match each option to your students
• Three differentiated activities: Painting the Weather, Weather in Words and Set the Mood
• Students write a short text or poem that uses similes, metaphors and personification about the weather
• Bonus task: plan a figurative language poster (one example of each device, linked to a theme)
• Answer key and marking guide with model answers and evidence criteria

Hands-On Activity: Figurative Language Sort (PDF)

• A follow-up lesson or literacy rotation for pairs (15 to 20 minutes): take turns to read a card, say whether it is a simile, a metaphor, personification or not figurative, and prove it with a clue. Agreed cards score a point, tricky cards are settled with the answer key at the end, and the player with the most points wins
• Three sets of 15 cards (Set 1 short and familiar, Set 2 longer sentences, Set 3 more abstract), each with ‘not figurative’ decoys such as ‘I like swimming at the beach’, so every pair can work at the right challenge
• Cut the cards before the lesson and keep each set in its own envelope
• How to Play page, sorting board, a card page for each set and a recording sheet (with answers)
• Teacher page with set-up, a model round, what to listen for, misconceptions, differentiation and answer keys for all three sets

Ideal for upper primary classrooms, this bundle provides a structured approach to teaching figurative language, combining explicit instruction, shared annotation of a descriptive text, differentiated independent writing and an engaging hands-on sort.

Formats: PowerPoint, PDF and Excel

Aligned to Australian Curriculum: Identify authors’ use of vivid, emotive vocabulary, such as metaphors, similes, personification, idioms, imagery and hyperbole (AC9E6LA08)

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