Figurative language worksheets
Aligned with Common Core L.5.5
Printable fifth-grade figurative language worksheets: a chart, naming personification, hyperbole, alliteration and onomatopoeia, what figurative sentences really mean, finding figurative language in a story, writing your own, synonyms and antonyms, and homographs.
The worksheets
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Figurative Language Chart
Personification, hyperbole, alliteration and onomatopoeia, plus similes and metaphors as a reminder, each with what it is and an example, and synonyms, antonyms and homographs.
Name the Figure of Speech
Sentences using personification, hyperbole, alliteration or onomatopoeia, with the four choices to circle. Fewer, Standard or More give 6, 8 or 10. Includes an answer key.
What Does It Really Mean?
Sentences with personification or hyperbole, each with three meanings to choose from, like "The backpack is very heavy" for "This backpack weighs a ton." Fewer, Standard or More give 5, 6 or 7. Includes an answer key.
Find It in the Story
Three short original stories, each with personification, hyperbole, alliteration, onomatopoeia, a simile and a metaphor to find. New sheet gives a different story. Includes an answer key.
Write Your Own
Prompts like "Exaggerate how tired you are" to answer with a sentence of your own. Fewer gives the four new kinds, Standard adds a simile and a metaphor, and More adds two extra prompts. The answer key shows sample sentences.
Synonym or Antonym?
Pairs of fifth-grade words like furious and irate or generous and stingy, to mark as synonyms or antonyms. Fewer, Standard or More give 8, 10 or 12 pairs. Includes an answer key.
Homographs
Homographs like wind, tear and present, each with two meanings and two sentences to match. Fewer, Standard or More give 4, 5 or 6 words. Includes an answer key.
Print the whole packet
One copy of every sheet above, in order. Tap + for more copies (up to 10).
For the parent or teacher
What it is
In 4th grade, students learned similes, metaphors, idioms and proverbs. This topic adds four more kinds of figurative language: personification (giving human actions to things), hyperbole (big exaggeration), alliteration (repeating first sounds) and onomatopoeia (sound words). Students also look at how words relate: synonyms, antonyms, and homographs, which are spelled the same but mean different things, like the wind and wind the string.
What comes next
The 4th grade Similes, metaphors and idioms topic reviews similes, metaphors, idioms and proverbs.
How to teach it
- Teach in order or jump to whatever your student needs. A student may spot figurative language quickly and still be building the habit of explaining what it really means.
- For each example, ask what the words say and what they really mean.
- Hunt for figurative language in books, songs and ads, and name the kind together.
- Read homograph sentences out loud. Hearing the two pronunciations helps a student choose the meaning.
Common mistakes
- Taking a hyperbole literally, like thinking a backpack really weighs a ton.
- Calling any sentence about a thing personification, even when the thing does something it really can do.
- Counting words that only share a letter, not a sound, as alliteration.
- Choosing a homograph's meaning without reading the rest of the sentence.