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Stir Up a Character Analysis Recipe
What ingredients make up a character? A cup of honesty, a dash of humor, a pinch of cynicism? Based on real cookbooks they review in class, learners at any grade level three and up write recipes to describe characters familiar to your...
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Creative Writing - Research and Letters
Here's a fresh approach that combines research, business and personal letter writing, and creative story telling. Student groups research different decades in the life of a famous Japanese astronomer. They then craft a decade fact sheet,...
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Character Traits in Fables
Combining art, music, dance, and reading comprehension, this lesson is geared to reach all ability levels. After reading a variety of fables and discussing story elements and character traits, class members select a moral to use as the...
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Novel Character Study
Students complete a character study using a database to compile information from a novel. They design a five slide presentation highlighting the character's reaction to different situations in the book. They write an acrostic poem using...
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Developing a Topic for Writing Using an Idea Web
Teach your upper graders how to use an idea web to develop a topic for writing. After reading a variety of stories about friendship (a list of stories with the theme of friendship is included), model using an idea web. Class members...
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Character Bust: Ceramics Lesson
Whether it is a protagonist, antagonist, hero or heroine, characters are a must in any story. Learners analyze a character from a narrative they are reading, then use that character as inspiration. They create a ceramic bust depicting...
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Lesson Plan 4: Creating Main Characters
Creating a good main character is a must when writing a creative narrative or novel. Elementary aged writers create main characters for the novel they are writing. They first use themselves as a models, then create a character as a...
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Do You Have Character?
Sixth graders read Katherine Paterson's novel, Bridge to Terabithia, and watch a video of Maurice Sendak's book, Where the Wild Things Are. They examine the characters in both stories that share similar characteristics. Students use the...
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Inferring Character Traits
Here is a lesson which is "flexible," and can operate as an individual or whole class activity. After reading a book of their choosing, with the use of a semantic map, learners identify character traits. They infer how their feelings...
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Supporting Character Worksheet
Where would Harry Potter be without Ron Weasley? Where would Holmes be without Watson? Where would a good narrative be without an interesting supporting character? Encourage character analysis with this resource, which includes six...
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Shakespeare 2000
Young thespians can try their hand at writing a script and acting out a scene, while gaining a deeper understanding of the universal topics presented in Shakespeare's wide array of plays. Begin the lesson by conducting a compare and...
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CAN WE SWITCH GENDERS OF STORY CHARACTERS?
Analyze characters and stories to identify stereotyping. Learners will examine the concept of character gender to evaluate bias in classroom story books. They are asked to read a story or play and change the gender of the character to...
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Animation Pre-Production
Does your class love reading cartoons? Use their talents and interests to examine the process of writing a story they wish to tell through a cartoon. They develop the beginning, middle, and end of a story based on their original...
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Descriptive Character Analysis
Students visualize a character or event and personalize it through drawings.
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Teaching Peace through Literature and Song
Negative effects of bullying come to light through listening to the book Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. Class members identify philanthropic acts portrayed in the story and make illustrations to connect them to their own...
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Sharing My Older Friend With Others
Elementary learners explore the difference between aged characters and young characters in literature. They use Venn diagrams to compare and contrast the attributes given to both younger and older characters in different pieces of...
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Summer of the Monkeys
While reading the book Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls, the class ties together the core reading objectives, which are making predictions, comprehending new information, reading for author's purpose, independence in reading,...
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Find a Character, Tell a Story
Fourth graders choose a character from a magazine, complete a character sketch, and develop a short story placing this character in a situation. They utilize a worksheet imbedded in this plan which guides them through creating their...
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Biopoem: Bud, Not Buddy
Young poets focus on one character from a story they are reading, collect details, and use a biopoem template to analyze this character. The activity can be used with any text.
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Using Dreams in Writing
C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength provides the model for using dreams in narrative writing. After a discussion of the purpose of dreams in Lewis’s tale, class members craft a story in which their dreams play an essential role.
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Clay Heads
Sculpting can be a rewarding way to accent a lesson plan in any subject. This project requires learners to design and sculpt a head out of clay. The entire process is outlined in this resource; including photos and suggested materials....
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Acronyms--Characters in The Hobbit
Have your class create acrostic poems for characters in The Hobbit. First, define acronyms and work together to complete sample acronyms for their own first names. Students then research specific characters in the novel and create...
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Writing a Personal Letter Using the Short Story "Eleven"
Challenge your class to connect to the text of "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros with this activity, which prompts them to write a personal letter from the main character's point of view. The story, prompt, and letter template are all included...
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Dear Diary
Work on narrative writing with this lesson, in which middle schoolers analyze the characters from a selected piece of literature and write narrative diary pieces as the character. They work to understand the point of view of the...