My fourth graders were working on a poetry unit. We started learning about figurative language. I knew this was something I learned in school but never really understood. I started where every teacher starts: Pinterest. I found some neat ideas, but my favorite was a lesson using the song "Roar" by Katy Perry. This stuck out to me in particular because Katy Perry came to our little college town of 20,000 last fall. Her visit was a big deal! She was on ESPN's College Gameday and picked our beloved Ole Miss Rebels for the win over Alabama.
I took a look at several of her songs and decided to go with Firework (partly because it was the one I knew the words to). I only focused on similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeia.
For the lesson, I printed off a copy of the lyrics for each of the students. I played the song for them one time through and had them underline anything they thought was figurative language in pencil. At the end of the song, I had them discuss with their group members and determine how many time figurative language was used throughout the song. I, then, passed out parts of the lyrics to each student in the class; they were numbered to help us stay in order. We used green, blue, and red markers (red and blue for Ole Miss and green for the football field) to help us color code the 3 different types of figurative language used in the song. We took the song line by line as we colored coded. Each student got to come up to the board on their turn at determine if their lyrics were a simile, metaphor, or onomatopoeia. Although some of the lyrics were repetitive, this was just reinforcement for my students. I made each student justify why they classified their lyrics the way they did.
Once we made it through the song, the students' lyrics were completely color coded. We picked a simple dance move that they could do in their seats to coordinate with each type. Then, I played the song through one last time while the students and I did the dance moves. I was able to look around the room and see my little fourth graders doing a choreographed danced. The students really loved this activity and still talk about how I dressed up like Katy Perry:
(I just happened to find a cheap, fuzzy pink sweater on sale at Forever 21 and made some velvet numbers to put on it.)
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