Simile Monsters: How to Spark Imagination and Energize Writing

Are you looking for a fun way to reinforce teaching similes to students? Making simile monsters is always a huge hit! Students will create a fictitious monster and use similes to describe the 5 senses about their monsters.

To hook students, I love to read the text Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood (affiliate link included). We talk about similes we saw in the book, and even record some of them. Then, we come up with adjectives as a class to describe how a monster would look, act, sound, feel and smell.

The next day (or later the same day), students pick an adjective to turn into a simile to describe each sense word. They come up with 5 good sentences about their monsters, then draw a vivid picture.

While students work on their pictures, either the same day or the next day, I do one-on-one conferencing to double check their similes. You can also let students partner up to edit, if you feel their grasp on similes is strong.

Next, students publish their writing. They get to turn their creations into fun crafts shaped like monsters, and then we always spend time sharing with the group. Students love these activities and look forward to completing them year after year.

Grab the activity referenced throughout the blog post on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Drop any questions, comments or helpful resources you have in the comments below.