Name ______________Day __ Pd ___

Date ______

Language Arts
Personification

PERSONIFICATION

Personification is giving human qualities to animals or objects.

Example:
a smiling moon, a jovial sun

Goal: Students can identify personification and determine when to use it in their
writing.

Focus: Identifying the use of personification

Examples:

"The ancient car groaned into third gear."

"The cloud scattered rain throughout the city."

"The tropical storm slept for two days."

The nonliving objects in the above sentences (car, cloud, storm) have been given
human qualities (groaned,
scattered, slept). Adding meaning to nonliving or nonhuman objects in this manner
is called personification.

Personify the following sentences. Change the words in parentheses to words that
would describe a human's
actions:

1.My bedroom door (opened).

2.The puppy (barked) when I left for school.
3.The leaf (fell) from the tree.
4.The flashlight (went on).
5.Hair (is) on my head.
6.The CD player (made a noise).
7.The net (moves) when the basketball goes through.
8.The player piano keys (moved up and down).
9.The space shuttle (took off).
10.The little arrow (moves) across the computer screen.

Write your own original sentences that describe objects through personification.

"Listen to the Sea"

Use to write a poem about nature. Choose a word from List A or a

different word that names something in nature.

Choose a word from List B or another word that names an action. Write
this word next to the word from List A.

List A
sun
moon
stars
sky
sea
stone
night
mountain
dawn
morning

List B
tells
shows
reminds
teaches
listens
remembers
brings
looks
dances
dreams
guides
takes
Example:

stone listens

Then expand your words into a sentence.

Example:

The stone listens carefully to the grass as it grows around it.

Write on one subject, or describe other objects in nature. Select favorite

lines to put together in a poem. You may need to drop the "s" on the end of the verbs.

Example:

Night, it reminds me of yesterday.

The sun listens to the messages of the clouds.
Moon, look for me on the field.
Sea, guide me to you.
Dawn, bring me to the new day.

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/7lesson.htm