PERSONIFICATION HIKE: I usually take this hike in the springtime after I have taught most of the literary elements. However, depending on the grade level, you might be able to take it any time during the school year. 

Before the Hike
I teach what personificaiton is and show examples of how authors and poets use this writing element. 


During the Hike

• The students are paired up. They both receive a clipboard and a note taking sheet. For the note taking sheet click here. 
  
• The students walk around the school grounds and fill out the note taking sheet. They write down an item, then personify it. The students also try writing creative word phrases for each one along with adjectives.
  
• I usually take pictures of the students during this hike. I have posted a few of them below.

After the Hike

• I like to assign a poem for this hike.  
• One year, I had the students write "ECHO" poems.  An echo poem is when the last word or syllable in a line is repeated or echoed underneath to form a rhyming line, normally ending as the last line being the title to the poem.
• We wrote poems for the chapter in the book Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. The student wrote a poem after they read the chapter where the ship is crushed and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. I told them that they needed to get the emotions of the incident into the poem. They could personify the sea, the ship, or the ice. See examples of some of their poems below. 
• For a writing sheet with instructions, and a rubric for the ECHO/personification poem click on the links below.
• Word Echo Poem Writing Sheet
• Word Echo Poem Grading Sheet

---

I chomp on the ship.
                    My catnip.
I crush it into pieces.
                   many creases.
My next victim
                   Yum, yum.
Crack! Snap! Boom! I swallow the ship.
                                               One snip.
Squashing and squishing the sails,
                                              Inhale.
Never coming back.
                       Smack!
Into the dark water,
                       Got her!

-Dougie Scheibel

I have you in my grasp
                           Rasp.
I will crush you like a toothpick over time
                                              You’re mine.
Despair floods your crew
                             Breaking through.
You moan as you endure the pain
                                      You’re my gain.
Sturdy boards snap.
                   Say goodbye to your chap.
CRACK!
The boat sinks silently into the slippery slush.
                                            As it’s crushed.
Darkness engulfs the ship.
                      Now you’re in the ocean’s grip.

-Quinn Muntzing

As I go down,
            I drown.
Tore my sails and then ripped up
                                     As  I look up,
Seeing the sunlight
                  It is like a fight.
Survival is the key to success.
                       The cargo is a mess.
The water floods my soul.
                        It breaks my hull.
I sink helplessly.
             Frantically.
The icy blue waters
                    Slaughters.
As I die,
        I cry.

-Josh Tygart    

---