Personification Writing Activities for Kids

We wrote personification poetry and short stories.

When animals or objects take on human traits they are being personified. Children's books and poetry are full of personification as there are often talking animals.

Personification Poetry

We began by reading several poems with personification such as The Table and the Chair by Edward Lear. Then we each selected a topic and spent several minutes just listing things our object might do. For example, I created the following list for the topic computer.

sucked away my energy
played a tune
made me sit for hours in a chair
glowed brightly
greeted me
trapped me
changed the subject

Using our lists as inspiration, we took about 15 minutes to free write a personification poem.

Here's my 12 year old daughter's poem free write.

Cake
"Ouch!" said the cake and jumped out of the oven
"Why is it so hot in there?"
"I've been many places,
into all kinds of spaces,
but that's the hottest of anywhere!"

"Where is my cake?" asked the hedgehog Vanilla.
"Has it been stuffed up all nice and round?"
"I want it for dinner.
It'll make me feel thinner,
I'll eat the biggest cake in the town!"

"No!" screamed the cake. "I don't want to be eaten!"
And leapt from the counter down running over to the fan.
"Goodbye miss Vanilla!
Don't be a gorilla."
And it ran away like the gingerbread man.

Personification Short Stories
In Katy and the Big Snow, Katy, the snow plow saves the city during the snowstorm. She feels proud and likes to work hard.

In The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge the lighthouse feels very important. He calls to boats to warn them as the fog tries to grab them. One day a bridge is built over his head and he feels sad until he discovers he is still needed.

After reading these two books filled with personification, we spent 15 minutes free writing our own personification stories.

The kids really like sharing their work with each other. Here's my son's personification story.

Pencil-Pencil-Pencil-Pencil
Once upon a time there was a pencil. The pencil had a pen for a dad and a marker for a mom. The penicl was a boy, so the dad said, "be a good pencil and someday you'll be a pen."

The time passed so slow that pencil thought he'd never become a pen. One day when he turned 20, he went to the mirror and saw he was a red pen. The dad was happy because now he had a different color to color with. You see, if a dad pen has a kid pen, that turns 20, he'll have his color and his 20 year old son's also.

So now the dad pen had red and black. When the 20 year old pen moved away the dad pen was sad. So was mommy. So the teenager pen called him. "Hello! he said.

"Hi!" said daddy pen, "how are you?"

"Good," said the teenager pen. "Would you like to visit me?"

"Yes," said daddy pen and mommy pen.

The End