Personify

Scripture: Proverbs 1-4,8-9,26,30

Learning Objectives:

  • Students will learn what it means to have wisdom.
  • Students will learn what personification is and how it is used in Proverbs.
  • Students will write their own examples of personification.

Guiding Question: What is personification and how does it help me understand Proverbs better?

Materials: paper, pencils, a creative art tools such as: water color paints, paint brushes, chalk, etc.

Procedure: Review the Proverbs of wisdom and foolishness. Emphasize Proverbs 1:20-33. Reread these verses and ask students what seems strange about how they are written. Who is the main character? Wisdom. Explain that personification is giving human characteristics to nonhuman things. It is important to understand literary devices such as this in order to better understand the Bible.

Encourage students look around their environment. Have them chose an object to describe with personification. Ask: What characteristic does it have that reminds you of a human characteristics?

Examples: Tree branches are like arms/fingers. Dancing wind. Stars wink. A squeaky door moans.

Give students a piece of paper. Draw a picture of an object on a board for students to see. Then let students tell you how to personify it. Add to the picture so that it visually has the human characteristics. For example: Smiling sun. Draw a sun. Then add a smiling face. Give them something unique besides regular crayons/markers so that it feels more unique, special, and creative.

Give students paper and art tools. Have them write their personification on the paper using sentences. Then have them illustrate the object with human characteristics. Let students present their creations to their peers.

Additional Question: What other books in the Bible are written poetically?

Supplemental Activities:

  • Have students research other examples of personification in the Bible.
  • More advanced students can select an abstract concept such as “joy,” “peace,” etc. Students then write a story or poem about this concept as though it were a person. Students should look at the example of Wisdom in Proverbs for inspiration.

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