Create life-sized models of two of your favorite characters and dress them as they are dressed
in the book. Crouch down behind your character and describe yourself as the character. Tell
what your role is in the book and how you relate to the other character you have made.
Create a sculpture of a character. Use any combination of soap, wood, clay, sticks, wire,
stones, old toy pieces, or any other object. An explanation of how this character fits into the
book should accompany the sculpture.
Interview a character from your book. Write at least ten questions that will give the character
the opportunity to discuss his/her thoughts and feelings about his/her role in the story.
However you choose to present your interview is up to you.
Write a diary that one of the story's main characters might have kept before, during, or after
the book's events. Remember that the character'sthoughts and feelings are very important in a
diary.
If you are reading the same book as one or more others are reading, dramatize a scene from the
book. Write a script and have several rehearsals before presenting it to the class.
Prepare an oral report of 5 minutes. Give a brief summary of the plotand describe the
personality of one of the main characters. Be prepared for questions from the class.
Give a sales talk, pretending the students in the class are clerks in a bookstore and you want
them to push this book.
Build a miniature stage setting of a scene in the book. Include a written explanation of the
scene.
Make several sketches of some of the scenes in the book and label them.
Describe the setting of a scene, and then do it in pantomime.
Construct puppets and present a show of one or more interesting parts of the book.
Dress as one of the characters and act out a characterization.
Imagine that you are the author of the book you have just read. Suddenly the book becomes a
best seller. Write a letter to a movie producer trying to get that person interested in making
your book into a movie. Explain why the story, characters, conflicts, etc., would make a good
film. Suggest a filming location and the actors to play the variousroles. YOU MAY ONLY USE
BOOKS WHICH HAVE NOT ALREADY BEEN MADE INTO MOVIES.
Write a book review as it would be done for a newspaper. ( Be sure you read a few before
writing your own.)
Construct a diorama (three-dimensional scene which includes models of people, buildings,
plants, and animals) of one of the main events of the book. Include a written description of
the scene.
Write a feature article (with a headline) that tells the story of the book as it might be found
on the front page of a newspaper in the town where the story takes place.
Write a letter (10-sentence minimum) to the main character of your book asking questions,
protesting a situation, and/or making a complaint and/or a suggestion. This must be done in the
correct letter format.
Read the same book as one of your friends. The two of you make a video or do a live performance
of MASTERPIECE BOOK REVIEW, a program which reviews books and interviews authors. (You can even
have audience participation!)
If the story of your book takes place in another country, prepare a travel brochure using
pictures you have found or drawn.
Write a FULL (physical, emotional, relational) description of three of the characters in the
book. Draw a portrait to accompany each description.
After reading a book of history or historical fiction, make an illustrated timeline showing
events of the story and draw a map showing the location(s) where the story took place.
Read two books on the same subject and compare and contrast them.
Read a book that has been made into a movie. (Caution: it must hve been a book FIRST. Books
written from screenplays are not acceptable.) Write an essay comparing the movie version with
the book.
Create a mini-comic book relating a chapter of the book.
Make three posters about the book using two or more of the following media: paint, crayons,
chalk, paper, ink, real materials.
Design costumes for dolls and dress them as characters from the book. Explain who these
characters are and how they fit in the story.
Write and perform an original song that tells the story of the book.
After reading a book of poetry, do three of the following: 1) do an oral reading; 2)write an
original poem; 3)act out a poem; 4)display a set of pictures which describe the poem; 5)write
original music for the poem; 6)add original verses to the poem.
Be a TV or radio reporter, and give a report of a scene from the book as if it is
happening "live".
Design a book jacket for the book. I STRONGLY suggest that you look at an actual book jacket
before you attempt this.
Create a newspaper for your book. Summarize the plot in one article, cover the weather in
another, do a feature story on one of the more interesting characters in another. Include an
editorial and a collection of ads that would be pertinent to the story.
Do a collage/poster showing pictures or 3-d items that related to the book, and then write a
sentence or two beside each one to show its significance.
Do a book talk. Talk to the class about your book by saying a little about the author, explain
who the characters are and explain enough about the beginning of the story so that everyone
will understand what they are about to read. Finally, read an exciting, interesting, or amusing
passage from your book. Stop reading at a moment that leaves the audience hanging and add "If
you want to know more you'll have to read the book." If the book talk is well done almost all
the students want to read the book.
Construct puppets and present a show of one or more interesting parts of the book.
Make a book jacket for the book or story.
Draw a comic strip of your favourite scene.
Make a model of something in the story.
Use magazine photos to make a collage about the story.
Make a mobile about the story.
Make a mini-book about the story.
Practice and the read to the class a favourite part.
Retell the story in your own words to the class.
Write about what you learned from the story.
Write a different ending for your story.
Write a different beginning.
Write a letter to a character in the book.
Write a letter to the author of the book.
Make a community journal.
Compare and contrast two characters in the story.
Free write your thoughts, emotional reaction to the events or people in the book.
Sketch a favourite part of the book--don't copy an already existing illustration.
Make a time line of all the events in the book.
Make a flow chart of all the events in the book.
Show the events as a cycle.
Make a message board.
Make a map of where the events in the book take place.
Compare and contrast this book to another.
Do character mapping, showing how characters reacted to events and changed.
Make a list of character traits each person has.
Make a graphic representation of an event or character in the story.
Make a Venn diagram of the people, events or settings in your story.
Make an action wheel.
Write a diary that one of the story's main characters might have kept before, during, or after
the book's events. Remember that the character's thoughts and feelings are very important in a
diary.
Build a miniature stage setting of a scene in the book. Include a written explanation of the
scene.
Make a poster advertising your book so someone else will want to read it.
Keep and open mind journal in three or four places in your story.
Write a feature article (with a headline) that tells the story of the book as it might be found
on the front page of a newspaper in the town where the story takes place.
Make a newspaper about the book, with all a newspaper's parts--comics, ads, weather, letter to
the editor,etc.
Interview a character. Write at least ten questions that will give the character the
opportunity to discuss his/her thoughts and feelings about his/her role in the story. However
you choose to present your interview is up to you.
Make a cutout of one of the characters and write about them in the parts.
Write a book review as it would be done for a newspaper. ( Be sure you read a few before
writing your own.)
Make a character tree, where one side is event, symmetrical side is emotion or growth.
Choose a quote from a character. Write why it would or wouldn't be a good motto by which to
live your life.
Learn something about the environment in which the book takes place.
Tell 5 things you leaned while reading the book.
Retell part of the story from a different point of view.
Choose one part of the story that reached a climax. If something different had happened then,
how would it have affected the outcome?
Make a Venn diagram on the ways you are like and unlike one of the characters in your story.
Write about one of the character's life twenty years from now.
Write a letter from one of the characters to a beloved grandparent or friend.
Send a postcard from one of the characters. Draw a picture on one side, write the message on
the other.
If you are reading the same book as one or more others are reading, dramatize a scene from the
book. Write a script and have several rehearsals before presenting it to the class.
Make a Venn diagram comparing your environment to the setting in the book.
Choose birthday gifts for one of the characters involved. Tell why you chose them.
Draw a picture of the setting of the climax. Why did the author choose to have the action take
place here?
Make a travel brochure advertising the setting of the story.
Pretend that you are going to join the characters in the story. What things will you need to
pack? Think carefully, for you will be there for a week, and there is no going back home to get
something!
Make up questions--have a competition.
Write a letter (10-sentence minimum) to the main character of your book asking questions,
protesting a situation, and/or making a complaint and/or a suggestion.
Retell the story as a whole class, writing down the parts as they are told. Each child
illustrates a part. Put on the wall.
Each child rewrites the story, and divides into 8 parts. Make this into a little book of 3
folded pages, stapled in the middle (Outside paper is for title of book.) Older children can
put it on the computer filling the unused part with a square for later illustrations.
Teacher chooses part of the text and deletes some of the words. Students fill in the blanks.
Make a chart of interesting words as a whole class activity. Categorize by parts of speech,
colourful language, etc.
Make several sketches of some of the scenes in the book and label them.
Describe the setting of a scene, and then do it in pantomime.
Dress as one of the characters and act out a characterization.