What is a Simile? Worksheet

What is a simile? It is one of the first pieces of figurative language a child meets, and it is everywhere: as busy as a bee, as light as a feather, as quiet as a mouse. A simile tells how two things are alike by joining them with the word like or as, and once students can hear that joining word they start noticing comparisons in every story they read. This simile worksheet gives second graders a plain definition at the top of the page and then five sentences that put it to work.

Students read the definition, then read each sentence and choose the word from the box that finishes the comparison. Because each sentence supplies the clue — tall, busy, sweet, quiet, light — the child has to think about what the two things actually have in common rather than matching words down the list; the box order and the answer order deliberately do not line up. The last item turns the skill around and asks students to write a simile of their own on the line, which is where you find out whether the idea has really landed. Use it as morning work, a literacy center, homework, a quick pre-assessment before a figurative language unit, or review before state testing.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 1 student-friendly definition of a simile
• 5 fill-in-the-blank simile sentences with a word box
• 1 write-your-own simile line

Three things make this resource work for young readers. First, the definition sits right on the page, so a student who forgets what the word means can find the answer without stopping the lesson. Second, every sentence is short and decodable at second grade, so the thinking goes into the comparison instead of into the reading. Third, this simile worksheet ends with production, not just recognition — writing one original simile is a much better check for understanding than five more blanks, and it gives you something real to talk about with the whole class.

Teachers and parents can keep the skill going all week. Start a class chart and add a new simile every time one turns up in a read-aloud. Play a quick game where one student names an object and the next finishes “as ___ as a ___” out loud. Ask students to illustrate their own simile the way the mouse on the page illustrates as quiet as a mouse, and hang the drawings together. Then, once similes are solid, point out that a metaphor makes the same comparison without the word like or as — the contrast makes both ideas easier to remember.

Related Resources

• Similes Worksheet
• Figurative Language Worksheet
• Simile Song (Original Music Video)
• Simile Song (Have Fun Teaching)