We spent a couple of days on figurative language. For sixth grade, this was all review, but for my fifth graders while it seemed to be some review, we definitely had to do some teaching too. We reviewed and made our anchor chart using these cards that I found online here.
Once we had refreshed our minds, we sorted the definitions with examples. This sort was found online here.
After much discussion of why each one fit in each category, we used photographs and figurative language examples. This activity was found here. I also added in a few photographs I found and had the students think of their own figurative language examples as I told them the type. This was a good assessment.
The next day brought some more review and some more sorts. The first set of sorts was a great review because there were so many examples. We didn't go through all examples of each type, but we got a few of each done. I found these sorts here on The Curriculum Corner.
After we did the above sorts as a whole group, we then broke into individuals to sort on our own. Each student was given their own set of cards and found a place to work. They had to match the type with the definition and with an example. This allowed me to see if there were any students who were still pretty far away from the target. This is an old sort created by another teacher and I only have a hard copy (otherwise, I would share!).
Some other resources I used throughout the week... the pink cards came from Kagan's Balanced Literacy book (5th Grade) and the Figurative Language cards came from points with Scholastic.
I also flipped through these books when we were discussing idioms.
Finally, our favorite part of the week came with a little competition. I showed this video which is so fun for figurative language. There are many of these videos out there, but I liked this one because after each clip, it showed the text of the figurative language. They were also all numbered which helped me turn it into a contest with my groups. They would discuss and then give an answer and earn a chip (pattern block). I moved the cards down to the table they were sitting at so they had a "word bank" to choose from. The students or groups with the most chips at the end were the winners. The kids loved this!