Figurative Language Game for Years 5 and 6: Mystery Tiles
This figurative language game for Year 5 and Year 6 is Figurative Language Face-Off, a Mystery Tiles interactive whiteboard game by Teach This aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Students identify similes, metaphors, personification and idioms and explain the effect of imagery. The board has three categories, Simile or Metaphor?, Personification and Idioms, with four tiles in each worth 100 to 400 points. Questions range from spotting the simile in 'Her smile was as bright as the sun' to turning 'The rain fell' into personification. The teacher taps Reveal answer to show the answer with a short explanation. Points chips drop into each team's scoreboard automatically.
It opens in Microsoft PowerPoint on any interactive whiteboard, panel or projector, with no macros, no student logins and no student data collected. A game takes 12 to 15 minutes with two teams, which suits the warm-up before a narrative or poetry writing lesson.
Learning goals
- We are learning to examine the effects of imagery, including simile, metaphor and personification and sound devices in narratives, shape poetry, songs, anthems and odes.
- We are learning to identify authors’ use of vivid, emotive vocabulary, such as metaphors, similes, personification, idioms, imagery and hyperbole.
- We are learning to understand, interpret and experiment with sound devices and imagery, including simile, metaphor and personification, in narratives, shape poetry, songs, anthems and odes.
- We are learning to investigate how vocabulary choices, including evaluative language can express shades of meaning, feeling and opinion.
Curriculum alignment
Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.
Differentiation
Modifications
Display an anchor chart that defines simile, metaphor, personification and idiom with one example of each before the game starts. Let teams start with the 100 and 200 point tiles so they build confidence before the 400 point questions.
Extensions
Ask the winning team to write their own simile, metaphor and personification sentence about the classroom and challenge the other team to identify each one. Students can rewrite a plain paragraph from a class novel using at least three figurative devices.