Snow Comes Alive

Overview

Students are introduced to personification by using yesterday’s snow day as a shared writing prompt. They will notice how writers give human actions, feelings, or speech to non-human things, then plan and draft one vivid sentence about snow.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify personification in a sentence.
• WALT explain how personification makes writing more interesting.
• WALT use notes and sensory ideas to plan a personified sentence.
• WALT draft and share a sentence about yesterday’s snow day.

Success criteria

• I can explain that personification gives human qualities to something non-human.
• I can spot the human action, feeling, or speech in a personified sentence.
• I can make brief notes about what I saw, heard, felt, or imagined in the snow.
• I can write a sentence that gives snow or another non-human thing a human quality.

Curriculum links

• English Writing — planning and drafting from shared reading, relevant experiences, and discussion.
• English Writing — building enough knowledge about a topic to plan and write about it.
• English Writing — using notes to record key ideas during planning.
• English Writing, Years 4–6 — reducing information into key words and phrases when making notes.

Lesson structure (30 minutes)

1. 0–4 min · Snowy hook. Teacher opens the snow-day hook slide showing a striking image of snow with the question, “If the snow could speak, what might it say?” Briefly invite students to recall yesterday using prompts such as “What did the snow do?” and “How did it make people feel?” Students think silently, then share one memory with a partner. Explain that today’s writing will make the snow act like a person.

2. 4–9 min · Discover personification. Teacher uses the personification teaching slides to display three examples: “The wind whispered through the trees”, “The snow hugged the rooftops”, and “The boots stomped through the snow.” Read each aloud and ask, “Could this thing really do that?” and “What human action, feeling, or speech has the writer given it?” Clarify that personification is when a writer gives a non-human thing a human quality. Students identify the non-human subject and underline the human quality orally or on fingers: thing, human quality, image created.

3. 9–14 min · Teacher model and shared notes. Teacher displays the shared planning example and models turning the shared experience into key words rather than full sentences: “snow — soft — covered paths — glittered — children laughed — roofs wore white hats.” Think aloud: “I am collecting useful ideas first; I am not trying to write the perfect sentence yet.” Students contribute sensory details and imaginative ideas, while the teacher records concise words and phrases in a class bank. Ask students to suggest one human verb for snow, such as “danced”, “whispered”, “laughed”, or “marched”.

4. 14–21 min · Individual planning and drafting. Teacher distributes the snow-day personification worksheet and explains that students choose snow, the wind, a puddle, a tree, or another non-human winter subject. They complete short planning boxes for what it looked like, sounded like, and might do or feel, then draft one sentence using a human action, feeling, or speech. Circulate and prompt: “What is your subject?” “What human quality will it have?” “Which word will help your reader picture it?” Students may use the class word bank but should create their own sentence.

5. 21–26 min · Partner improve. Teacher uses the partner-check slide to display the routine: read your sentence, name the human quality, and suggest one stronger word if helpful. Model kind feedback: “I noticed the snow is given the human action ‘danced’. Could ‘twirled’ make the picture even clearer?” Students read their sentence to a partner. Partners identify the personification and offer one specific improvement; writers revise if they choose.

6. 26–30 min · Share and exit check. Teacher displays the plenary slide and invites three or four students to share. Class listens for the non-human subject and human quality. Students complete the final question on the reflection and exit section: “Personification is…” and write their own short example about snow. Collect worksheets to identify who can recognise and create personification.

Resources

• the snow-day personification slide deck
• the snow-day personification worksheet
• Whiteboard or chart paper
• Whiteboard markers
• Pencils and erasers
• Optional classroom word bank of winter verbs

Assessment

• During discussion, check whether students can distinguish a literal action from a human quality given to a non-human subject.
• While circulating, check that each plan contains key words and that the drafted sentence includes a clear personified action, feeling, or speech.
• Use the worksheet exit response to group students for the next lesson: identifying personification, developing vocabulary, or extending imagery.

Differentiation

• Support learners with a visible word bank, oral rehearsal before writing, sentence starters such as “The snow _____” and “The wind _____”, and permission to draw before recording words.
• Provide EAL learners with picture prompts, gestures for action words, partner talk, and explicit modelling of “thing” and “human quality”.
• Support students with writing or fine-motor needs through scribing, speech-to-text, larger writing spaces, or allowing them to dictate their sentence.
• Extension learners write two connected personified sentences, use a precise or unusual human verb, or give the snow a voice with speech marks while keeping the writing clear.