Understanding and Using Metaphors
Teacher Name: Sharon Moore
Age/Grade Level:
4th Grade_______
Art
Objectives
DANCE: Standard 3 (Creating): The student will improvise, create, perform, and
respond to movement solutions in the art form of dance.
MUSIC: Standard 4 (Listening): The student will listen to, analyze, and describe
music.
THEATRE: Standard 2 (Acting): A student will cooperate, imagine and assume
roles, explore personal preferences and meanings, and interact in classroom
dramatizations.
VISUAL ARTS: Standard 3 (Expressing): The student will choose and evaluate
artistic subject matter, themes, symbols, ideas, meanings, and purposes.
Curriculum
Objectives/
Springboards
LANGUAGE ARTS: 5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
a. Explain the meaning of simple similes and metaphors
(e.g., as pretty as a picture) in context.
CROSS-Curriculum Tie-In
Lesson 1 - Investigate: (Music) Students will watch/listen to
songs from popular music and will define similes and metaphors
and identify them in the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1c6zF9aJxs
MUSIC Objective 2: Perceive and
respond to the messages in music
and the use of music
elements.
Lesson 2 - Analyze/Explore: (Literature/Visual Art) Read-aloud My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks, by Hanoch Piven.
ISBN 978-0-375-84052-4 (This humorous book has illustrations
that show the literal meaning of the similes and metaphors.)
Students will identify the simile or metaphor and analyze its
meaning using both text and illustrations.
Lesson 3 – Experience: (Drama/Dance) Teacher will narrate
the poem while students create movement and pantomime.
Students will create and set sequences of spatial relationships
by recalling phrases from the poem “For I Am A Metaphor” by
Kottrell Johnson http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/for-i-am-ametaphor/ Students are free to use scarves or ribbon sticks as a
variation on movement.
VISUAL ART Objective 1:
Explore possible content in art
prints or works of art.
a. Determine and explore a variety
of sources of inspiration for
making art
DANCE Objective 2: Create and
perform movement solutions
derived from movement
explorations.
DRAMA Objective 1: Develop
body awareness and spatial
perception through movement
and pantomime.
LANGUAGE ARTS: 5.
Demonstrate understanding of
figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in
word meanings.
a. Explain the meaning of simple
similes and metaphors
(e.g., as pretty as a picture) in
context.
LESSON 4 – Investigate/Apply: Either read Quick as a Cricket,
by Audrey Wood. ISBN-13:978-0859536646 or watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYWcyRHGFPo (I prefer the
video. It incorporates the actual book and adds rich vocal
emphasis.) After watching, students will create a Metaphor
Trapezoid Graphic Organizer in which they will list all adjectives
that describe themselves. Model on Smartboard. Students will
list all animate and inanimate objects that describe themselves
as well.
LESSON 5 – Investigate/Apply: Students will create a
Metaphor HTF (head, torso, feet) Graphic Organizer to create
comparisons between themselves and objects relating to that
portion of their body. They will demonstrate an understanding of
making comparisons to objects that are not alike.
LESSON 6 – Investigate/Apply: Students will distinguish
between simple and complex similes and metaphors. Using their
four favorite metaphors from the HTF graphic they will expand
the simple metaphors to create more complex. For example,
using “generous as an ATM” they expand it to “generous as an
ATM with unlimited withdraw amounts.” or “I am a forceful wave
of ideas crashing against the shore of indecisive minds.”
LESSON 7 – Create: (Visual Art) Using the Metaphor Doll
students write the metaphor or simile in the corresponding body
text section. They then draw a representation of that metaphor
in the corresponding body part of the doll. They can use crayon,
color pencil, or marker. The individual dolls sheets for the class
are collected and bound. After binding the sections are cut
horizontally to create a flip book of “morphing metaphors” by
mixing and matching different parts.
LANGUAGE ARTS: 5.
Demonstrate understanding of
figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in
word meanings.
a. Explain the meaning of simple
similes and metaphors
(e.g., as pretty as a picture) in
context.
c. Create and invent symbols to
represent ideas, moods, or
thoughts in artwork.
Objective 2: Create works of art
using the elements and principles.
*special acknowledgement to Stephanie Moorman
http://teachinginroom6.blogspot.com for inspiring the flip book for
metaphors and similes.
Connecting - Perceive and Assess (evaluate, assess, contextualize, expansion ) Students will
demonstrate on multiple levels a deeper understanding of figurative language, specifically metaphors
and similes in context.
**variation – instead of a class book of “Morphing Metaphors,” students can be given four or five
dolls to create their personal Metaphor flip book where they can mix and match and use four or five of
their favorite metaphors and similes instead of just one.
Materials, Music Suggestions, Props, Other Ideas, Teaching Aides & Vocabulary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1c6zF9aJxs
My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks, by Hanoch Piven. ISBN 978-0-375-84052-4
“For I Am A Metaphor” by Kottrell Johnson http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/for-i-am-a-metaphor/
Quick as a Cricket, by Audrey Wood. ISBN-13:978-0859536646 video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYWcyRHGFPo
Metaphor Trapezoid Graphic Organizer
Metaphor HTF (head, torso, feet) Graphic Organizer
Metaphor Doll Pages
Crayons, Markers, Color Pencils
Scarves, Ribbon Sticks