Susan Guan

The Short Form Lesson Planner

Content Area: English Language Arts Similes
Lesson Length: ___40___ minutes
Content Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.4. With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the
development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
Learning Objective/Goal:
Students will create sentences that involve comparing two things to express their understanding of
similes.
The Lesson Plan
Introduction (2 minutes)
Begin the lesson by telling students that today they will learn about what a simile is and how to write
sentences with similes.
Write the word simile on the board so students can see how the word is spelled.
Tell students that before you tell them what a simile is, you will read them a story. While you read the
story to them, their job will be to see and listen to the patterns in the story and think about what a simile
might be based on those patterns.
Tell students to quietly stand up and meet you on the rug area.
Body (35 minutes)
Read Aloud: (10 minutes)
Introduce the book to the students. Tell students that the title of the book is called Quick as a Cricket.
Read the story to the students. Stop after pages with vocabulary that students may be confused about such
as basset, lark, and tame. Ask students if they have ever heard of the similes in the story.
Tell students to think about the patterns that they can hear and see.
After reading the story, ask students what patterns did they hear and see. Tell students that all of these
sentences are similes. Ask students what they think a simile is. Give students the definition of a simile,
which is a comparison between two things using the words as and like. Explain how in the story all
of the similes involved the word as.
Tell students that in a moment, we will make similes as a class so students will quietly return back to their
seats. Tell students that you will be looking for the students who quickly and quietly go back to their
seats.
Guided Practice: (15 minutes)
Present first sentence frame to students and tell students that here I have a sentence frame that says I am
as ____ as a _______. Tell students that we will work together as a class to make a simile using this
sentence frame.

Present some examples of adjective words such as fast, slow, tall, short. Tell students that to create our
sentence we are going to use put one of these words in our first blank. Ask a student to come up to place
one of these words in the first blank. Call on student to come up to board to do so.
Now read the sentence. Present some examples of animals such as cheetah, turtle, giraffe, and penguin
(There will also be a picture of each animal with the word). Tell students to think about which animal will
match the adjective that is chosen. Ask a student to come up to the board and place the animal in the
second blank to complete the simile sentence.
Talk about the possible mismatch of the adjective and the animal and how that can lead to not making
sense or confusing the reader.
Present the second sentence frame to students and tell students that here I have a sentence frame that says
I am _____ like a ______. Tell students that we can make a simile using this sentence frame.
Ask a student to come up and pick an adjective to put in the first box. Then ask the class what animal will
go in the second blank. Point to each animal and ask class to give a thumbs up if they think that animal
would go into the blank. Ask student to explain why the chosen animal would go into the second blank.
Tell students that they will now have a chance to make their own similes using the sentences frames and
words. Each pair will receive a packet with two sentences frames and words. As pairs, students will work
together to create similes using both sentence frames. Tell students to try making similes and try to see
how many they can make using the words.
After, ask some students to share the sentences that they created with the class.
Independent Practice (10 minutes)
Tell student that they will now get a worksheet. Show worksheet under the document camera. Tell
students that they will write their own similes in the lines provided. Tell students that they can use the
sentence frames to help them write their similes. Tell students that they need to try to come up with
different similes from the ones that they created with their sentence frames.
Tell students that after they write their similes, they will draw a picture that shows or represents the simile
that they created.
After, students will share their similes and their drawings with the class.
Closure (_3_minutes): Describe how you will prompt the students to summarize the lesson and restate
the learning objective.
Ask students who can tell you what a simile is and what words we use in writing similes. Call on students
to answer.