Tips to Teach Simile to Kids with Examples

There are different concepts of grammar that children, sometimes, find dreadful to understand. When kids don’t understand the concepts, they keep making errors. However, there are some easy ways to help children understand different concepts of grammar, especially the ones that they use in their daily lives but fail to recognise. A simile is one of those concepts that is frequently used by everyone, which sometimes seem like a foreign concept for children. Let us understand how parents can teach similes to children in an easy and effective manner.

What Is a Simile?

A simile is a type of figurative language used to describe something by comparing it to something else, using the words “as” or “like”. Similes are used in different forms of writings, ranging from stories to poetry. They can help one make their conversations accurate, engaging, or funny by enabling people to imagine and understand what they are saying.

How Is It Different From a Metaphor?

It might be confusing for the children to distinguish between the literary devices in a piece of writing. Metaphor and simile are two of them; it can be confusing to distinguish between the two, but once one understands why and how they are used, it is fairly easy to explain to kids.

In a simile, two objects, which the listener is familiar with, are compared, to explain how one is like the other. In the case of a simile, you will often find the words “like” or “as” used to put forth the comparison. For example, “Your eyes are like twinkling stars.” Here, the comparison is straightforward; the eyes (or the sparkle in the eyes) are compared to twinkling stars.

A metaphor is a symbolic thing or a thing regarded as representative of something else without the use of the words “like” or “as”. For example, “Her eyes were twinkling stars.” In reality, the eyes and twinkling stars are different objects, but they are compared to express how beautiful they are.

Examples of Similes for Kids

Let us see various interesting similes for kids to learn from:

• She worked as hard as an ant gathering his harvest.
• Her teeth were as white as pearls.
• My sister is silent like a mouse.
• My bag is smelling like garbage.
• My mother is as kind as an angel.
• The temple was grand, like a big mountain rising above the clouds.
• Your uniform is as white as clouds.
• The clouds are covering the sun and the sky like a thick blanket.
• Her face was as beautiful as the moon.
•  The dog growled like a bear.
• One of my classmates is as tall as a giraffe.
•  I am so hungry that my stomach is growling like a lion.
• The sky is as black as coal.
• Occasionally, I sleep like a dog.
• My friends fight like cats and dogs.
• My father is as strong as a wall.
• His expression is as cold as ice.
• Even after working for long, she is as fresh as flowers.
• She has to work every day, like a Monday.
• Life is very unpredictable, like sea waves.

Simile Poems for Kids

Similes are best used in poems. Children can use similes in a lot of different forms to compare two things in descriptive language. They can describe various things in a poem through similes like animals, birds, their hobbies, or interests. It can be used both in serious as well as funny poems. Let us look at some poems that are great examples to teach simile to kids:

1. Your Teeth by Denise Rogers

Your teeth are like stars;
They come out at night.
They come back at dawn.
When they’re ready to bite.

2. My Family By Stacy Zeiger

My mom is like a fire.
She’s always warm, but sometimes she gets too hot.

My brother is like a tornado.
He always moves fast and spreads destruction wherever he goes.

My sister is like a snowstorm.
She’s pretty to look at and icy at times, but with a little sunshine, that iciness melts.

Together we are like a partly cloudy day.
We have our moments of darkness and gloom, but the sun always peeks through.

3. The Old Man and the House Mouse by Kelly Roper

The little mouse scurried around the house,
Like a thief who snuck in one night.
His munching and crunching made so much noise,
The old man woke up and turned on the light.

He went into the kitchen and saw the mouse,
Which gave him a terrible fright!
The mouse squeaked in surprise and ran away,
Like a coward trying to avoid a fight.

The old man baited a mousetrap with cheese,
Like a hunter going after the big game.
Once that mouse munches this midnight snack,
He will never again be the same.

Tips to Teach About Similies to Kids

Here are a few tips that can be useful when teaching simile to children:

• Use their favourite games to let them know what they are similar to through similes.
• Tell them their favourite stories and ask them where they found the similes.
• Create some drawings and ask them to match the nature of the objects with other things they can think of and write them down.
• Tell them to write something on a topic of their choice and add similes into their writings.

While children may find it hard to learn the correct use of grammar, it is effortless if practised effectively. With more activities and real-life examples, learning grammar can not only be easy but fun also.

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