Help students uncover deeper meaning through figurative language with this engaging five-day text exploration pack built around the original mentor text, The Old Playground.

Designed for Years 7–8, this pack explores how authors use personification to give non-living objects human qualities and create emotional connections with readers. Through the story of an ageing playground gradually being forgotten, students learn how figurative language can communicate powerful ideas about change, belonging, care, and community.

Across five carefully structured lessons, students revisit the text multiple times, developing their understanding of vocabulary, personification, inference, symbolism, author's purpose, themes, and evidence-based responses. Students are encouraged to move beyond literal meaning to explore what the playground may represent and why the author chose to present it as if it were alive.

This pack includes:

• Original mentor text
• Five days of structured learning
• Explicit WALTs and success criteria
• Vocabulary and figurative language investigations
• Personification analysis activities
• Inference and interpretation tasks
• Theme and author's purpose exploration
• Evidence-based response scaffold
• Student self-reflection pages
• Comprehensive teacher guide with answers and alternative interpretations

Perfect for:

• Whole-class reading
• Guided reading follow-up
• Literacy rotations
• Independent literacy tasks
• Figurative language instruction
• Explicit comprehension teaching

Students will learn how personification helps authors create mood, build emotional connections, and communicate themes. By the end of the week, students will be able to identify personification, explain its effect on readers, and use evidence to discuss deeper meanings within a text.

Curriculum Focus: Figurative Language, Reading Comprehension, Author Craft, Inference, Symbolism, Themes, Evidence-Based Responses

Year Level: Years 7–8

Lesson Length: 15–20 minutes per lesson

Pack Focus: Figurative Language

Week Focus: Personification

Theme: Belonging, Change, and Community

Key Learning: Students explore how authors use personification to help readers connect emotionally with a setting and consider broader ideas about care, memory, change, and the things we choose to value.