Personification II

After writing the letter to the object, the students are asked to imagine THEY ARE the object and write a reply to the first letter :)
They have had so much fun being in someTHING else´s shoes that results have been hillarious !!

Personification I "Thanking an object"

After discussing with your young students what personification is, ask them to choose an item of their own or from the classroom. Then, tell them to write a letter to that object thanking it for what it has done for them :) Guide your students into expanding reasons, situations, anecdotes etc. Help them see the objects beyond the obvious ;) 
I have read AMAZING letters throughout the years and, as an example, I leave you one of my students' as a gift :) 

PS: As a closure, you can ask them to "be" that object and write a reply letter to them :) It also works marvellously !! 

"A Thank You for Friends" Rodney Bennett

 A Thank You for Friends

There are all kinds of men
Who have done me good turns,
That I still never think about,
Not for a minute;
Yet if I were making up
That sort of grace,
They would all of them have
To be in it.

One man made up stories
Another wrote verses
I found, and I liked,
And I read till I knew them.
Another one saw
All the things they had written,
Then, being an artist,
He drew them.

Another took wood
And a saw and some glue,
And put each of them just
In the place that would need it —
So that is the chair
Where I sit with my book
And am so much at ease
As I read it.

I'm forgetting the one
Who read tale after tale
When I was too young
To know letter from letter,
And the other who taught me them,
Till in the end
I could read for myself —
Which was better.

by Rodney Bennett

Activities

1. Let's read it aloud in one go. Do not worry about words you may not understand. We'll deal with them later. By telling students IN ADVANCE that you will work on the unknown words later, you release their anxiety and, therefore, they can enjoy the poem. 

2. Let's discuss: what have his friends done? How has the poet received those actions? Why is it good to thank friends? You may write down their answers on the board so that those who might find it difficult to follow can relay on those notes :) 

3. Moving ideas: what about your friends? what have they done for/to you? How would you thank them? What would you do? Students can relate the "old poem" (according to them) to their own life, experiences, etc. 

4. Let's get creative!! Write a poem thanking some of your friends in 3 stanzas. Try to rhyme words. Follow Bennett's poem as a guide and always work with a dictionary. Then we will share them with the class. By giving them the number of stanzas and showing them that their poem will be shorter than the original one, we lower the feeling of "I wont be able to do it." 

Walk around the class to help them with the rhyming. Provide synonyms, etc. 

Working with dictionaries gives students a sense of independence. It may take longer but it is totally worthy ! 

Try not to force students if they do not want to share their creations with the class. Instead, you may offer yourself as a reader without mentioning the name of the writer :)

My teenage students have created IN CRE DI BLE poems and every time they or I have read them aloud, claps have filled the classroom. 

Try the activities and share the wonderful results with more ESL teachers like me ;)