I'm always looking for creative ways to teach writing lessons. Some children are natural born writers, and others need a little direction. I've found that children are often better writers than they think they are. Sometimes it just takes some out of the box teaching! When teaching creative writing such as narratives or poetry, it's important to include a lesson on similes and metaphors. Great authors gift us with the use of similes and metaphors to allow the reader to compare and visualize objects that they are writing about. 
If you need a quick review on these types of figurative languages, just remember that a simile typically uses like and as to compare two things that are generally not alike. Whereas a metaphor implies a comparison between two things. The student's backpack was as messy as a pigpen. (example of a simile)My stomach was a swarm of bees when the teacher passed out the test. (example of a metaphor) 
I've found that a fun way to teach the difference between these two is to have student create a self portrait using similes and metaphors. Their task is to compose a combination of five to six similes and metaphors that describe their face, hair, ears (you get the point). They then have to play the part of artist and draw a self portrait that coordinates with the sentences they came up with. Look at these great student examples for inspiration. We framed our portraits with Christmas cards that were about to be tossed. That makes this a great Earth friendly project too! Students could use their moms as their muse and turn it into a cute Mother's Day gift! 
