Literature Activity for kids-and what we did

So with all the books we read for our studies (we are mostly CM in style, literature based kinda homeschooling folks) the boy and I can get rather bored with just a narration or some kind of book report.  It's fun to add in a project that takes the student deeper into planning and executing an idea based around one moment in the story.

Now many may know this as a diorama if it is 3D-ish, but since we were pressed for time-we chose to do a 1D-ish flatorama.  LOL

Here is the low down for creating one:

I know this is pretty basic, but ya know-

some folks may have forgotten about this sorta activity-

I know I totally did.

**The child will need to read or have a book read to them.
**They will then ponder what moment in the book really captured their attention.
**They will then draw, find/print, or collect toys/figurines/animals [with these they would be creating a 3D version] that could represent the characters in the story.
**Once those goodies are gathered, they will need to paint, draw or (as in our case) use paper to cover the background on the poster board or foam board. FYI: we used a variety of scrapbook and construction paper to create the background, the images we found via the internet.
**After that is set, adding in the details (of their choosing) will finish off the main project.

The second part is where they will need to print up a quick (this is not to be a book in of itself!) ditty on what is happening and why they chose it.

We added a book cover picture at the beginning of his description, to help pull this together. The two go side by side or with the story description below the picture.  And there you go-a nice way to shake up and stir away the boredom while engaging the student. Plus, with the 1D version, less space is taken up with the project.

My boy's story board:

 Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard

Now, mind you-my son is all manly-man and chose what may be kind of shocking to a few of you [esp. if you are blessed with princesses and not princes] but it was totally not a surprise to me.  In fact, I thought he was going to chose the moment Old Majesty pounced the three dogs. Seriously. Being a chick-I probably would have chosen a moment like when Danny was at the dog show or when the dad thought Danny was having a girl come to stay with them-which was a funny scene. But no. The animal vs animal throw down was his choice.  When reading this part, I did get all teary and totally angry at that mean ole bear when he wiped Asa out.  I was fond of that dolt of a mule. Anyway, I love when a book can provoke emotions. Which is why we seek out and prefer "living books" for our literature choices.

This moment (bear vs mule) was actually a turning point in the story so I was impressed that he chose it. We worked as a team here and there. Since he is my only student, I wanted him to have the collaboration experience as a part of this project.

To add in some artist interest and to make the grass scrapbook paper not look so darn huge-we chose to go the Eric Carle-esc way [OK so he used paint and such but same type of look] and tear and paste to create a collage look.  I am pretty pleased with the results.  He had fun and now we have this moment from Big Red plastered on our classroom wall.