Hyperboles can make your writing better than Shakespeare’s. Okay… maybe I’m exaggerating, but that’s exactly what hyperboles are! Hyperboles are exaggerated statements used to enhance and intensify descriptions in writing. They allow your students to take their writing skills to the next level by incorporating powerful figurative language. Here are 24 creative and engaging activities to help students practice recognizing, deciphering, and using hyperbole.
1. Give Everyday Examples
There are some hyperboles that students are likely to hear or use in everyday language. You can showcase these examples to help reinforce the concept of hyperboles. One common example is, “I slept like a rock.” Pssst… rocks can’t actually sleep!
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2. Show Visual Examples
Visual examples can be a hilarious and engaging way to illustrate hyperboles to your students. “My feet are killing me!” is a hyperbolic version of “My feet are sore.” This image shows feet brewing up poison for their owner.
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3. Identify the Hyperbole
Before your students can start using hyperboles in their own writing, they should be able to identify them. You can write hyperbole statements on flashcards before inviting students to try and identify which exact words convey hyperboles.
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4. Unscrambling Hyperboles
Learners can form small teams to attempt to unscramble three hyperbole sentences. This task can be challenging for students who are just learning about hyperboles, but the group effort can make it easier. Whichever team completes the unscrambling first wins!
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5. Say It Quick
In this classroom activity, students can practice creating their own hyperbole sentences. You can hold up task cards containing common hyperbole phrases (such as “My whole world”). Then, invite students to think of a sentence that incorporates the phrase.
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6. Compare Literal to Hyperbolic Statements
You can create a literal and hyperbolic version of the same statement to present to your students and see if they can recognize the difference. You could also have students match the literal and hyperbolic statement variations.
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7. Draw a Hyperbole
Gr4s drew examples of hyperbole. Using visual arts encourages critical thinking, makes the abstract concrete, supports ELLs, & motivates. #artsintegration ##4thgradereading #4thgradewriting #languagearts #elementaryteacher #hyperbole #figurativelanguage #elementatyschool pic.twitter.com/42tY1JjY0D
— Jeff Fessler (@2seetheglobe) July 19, 2020
One of the first activities I listed was teaching hyperboles with visual examples. Once your students have become masters of hyperboles, they can create their own hyperboles with illustrations. You might be impressed by their creativity with this one!
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8. The Hyperbole Challenge
This challenge involves choosing a common hyperbole and writing a short, absurd speech. The funnier and wackier the writing, the more brownie points! Those who are comfortable can read their speech at the end of the activity.
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9. Hyperbole Blag Battle
“Blagging” is the art of persuading someone to believe or do something. In this creative activity, two students can try to blag each other over a claim using hyperboles. For example, one student might say, “I can jump over the school,” and the other might reply, “I can jump to the moon.”
Learn More: Study
10. Role-Play
Role-play can be an entertaining way to spark your student’s imaginations. Why not add a challenge by having them speak exclusively in hyperbolic language? For example, if they role-play being a pilot, they can say, “It took me forever to graduate flight school.”
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11. Describe Emotions
Keep in mind that hyperboles can add intensity to written words. After all, what’s more intense than emotions? You can instruct your students to think about any topic that they have strong feelings about. Then, invite them to use hyperbole magic to write a description of their emotions.
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12. Task Cards
Task cards can be an effective teaching resource for almost any topic! You can create your own hyperbole task cards or download a set online. This set includes various hyperbole keywords and statements for your students to decipher.
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13. Read a Tall Tale
Tall tales are stories written with extreme exaggerations. And what’s a good technique to exaggerate writing? Hyperboles! There are plenty of tales your students can read for some hyperbole inspiration. You can check out a list at the link below!
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14. Write Tall Tales
After your students read tall tales, they can try writing their own. They can begin by writing a tall tale and arranging their text in a pre-made, narrow printable template. Next, have them tape the printed pieces of paper together and craft a character representation.
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15. Poetry Scavenger Hunt
Figurative language, including hyperboles, is often used in creating poems and other creative writing. Students can become detectives and search for hyperboles and other figurative language examples (e.g., metaphors, similes, alliteration) in poems.
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16. Hyperbole Search
For your next homework assignment, you could send your students to search for hyperboles in daily items, such as magazines, advertisements, and songs. They could then bring their examples to class for show and tell.
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17. Idiom-ade And Hyperbol-tea
If you’re teaching hyperboles, it’s likely that you’re also teaching other figurative language techniques, such as idioms. Can your students differentiate between the two? In this activity, they can color the glasses containing idioms yellow (like lemonade) and the glasses with hyperboles brown (like tea).
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18. Whack-A-Mole
For some after-school practice, your students can play this online hyperbole game. In this fast-paced activity, players are challenged to whack the moles that feature a hyperbolic phrase!
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19. Hyperbole Match
This digital activity requires students to complete the common hyperbolic phrases by selecting the matching picture. The pictures can help them better visualize the meaning of the hyperbole.
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20. Jeopardy – Hyperbole (Or Not)
Classroom competition can be one of the best ways to engage your students. Teams of students can select questions based on the category and the prize value. Each question is a statement and students can determine whether or not it includes a hyperbole.
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21. Hyperbole Sentence Worksheet
This five-question worksheet includes prompts to describe objects using hyperboles. Your student’s answers will vary, so it can be great practice for everyone to share their sentences after completion.
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22. Hyperbolic to Literal Worksheet
Instead of writing hyperboles, this worksheet involves transforming hyperbolic statements into their literal form. It contains six hyperbolic statements that your students can re-write using literal language. There should be less variation in the answers to this worksheet, although still room for creative expression.
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23. Hyperbole Bingo
Who doesn’t love a game of Bingo? This is a pre-made version for your students to practice hyperboles. This resource also contains randomized calling cards you can use during gameplay. Whoever gets a complete line across their card first wins the game!
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24. Listen to a Hyperbole Rap
Wow! Have a listen to this clever rap and you’ll see why I’m so impressed. It features a catchy tune with excellent descriptions and examples of hyperboles. Invite your students to rap and dance along!
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