Hyperbole

I think I mentioned in my first-ever blog post that Pinterest gives me a serious inferiority complex. However, my 5th grade team decided to have a poetry rotation for Valentine's Day, which consisted of each teacher teaching one mini-lesson on a poetic element. The kids rotated through all of the teachers. In anticipation of seeing all 155 or so 5th graders in one day, I found myself hunting Pinterest for a worthy lesson on hyperbole. I didn't find anything I liked, so I made my own lesson, actually used the die-cut machine for the first time this year, and went to it.

The truth is, I often use and learn from things other teachers post on the internet, so I hope maybe this time I can give a resource to someone else who is desperately googling "hyperbole" and "hyperbole lesson" and "hyperbole activity."

I started with a Powerpoint that gave the definition of hyperbole and a few examples (boring part.) Then we "spiced up" a few simple sentences by adding hyperbole to them. For example, "I'm really tired," became, "I'm so tired I could sleep for years!" (Pro tip- don't use the sentence, "My sister is pretty." Many 5th graders find their siblings rather stinky.)

Next I played song clips that contained hyperbole and showed the students the lyrics, and they identified the hyperbole. (Pro-tip 2- Don't use YouTube unless your school system's internet has greater buffering power than mine does.)

Finally, since it was Valentine's Day, the kids all used hyperbole to write a sentence or two about something or someone they really loved (giving the directive to NOT talk about boys/ girls at school. No love allowed in 5th grade). Once I checked it over, they wrote it on a die-cut heart and we glued them all to a banner to hang in the hall. Out of the whole day, I only had to veto 2 kids for writing something about a girl in the class, which isn't too bad.

Here is the final banner. "5th Grade Loves Hyperbole (a Million Times More Than Anything!)"

A couple of favorite hearts: 

   

"If swim wasn't invented, then I would die of boredom."

"I love wings so much I could eat them 24/7." (I hear ya, kid. I hear ya.)