Classroom Activities
Included here are three activities you might use to extend the discussions outlined above for read-aloud time. These activities will help to address the multi-modalities (or multiple intelligences) of young students. The procedures surrounding accountable talk during read-aloud described previously are dependent on the verbal, oral, and aural transfer of information. I want to expand on that curriculum here with a few ideas for activities that bring in dramatic play, gross motor action, and artistic representations.
Activity One: Acting Out Emotions
Objectives
The goal of this activity is to create a feelings chart that the whole class can reference when trying to interpret characters' expressions in illustrations, as well as each other's expressions in everyday interactions. It will also introduce the vocabulary of emotions and provide a concrete example of what that emotion might look like. This tool will not only be helpful in making inferences while reading, but will allow students a reference when trying to add emotion into their writing.
Materials
- Poster board
- Camera
- Printer
- Glue
- Marker
- Copies of the Elephant & Piggie books already read
Procedures
After reading the first two or three books in the Piggie and Elephant series, the students will have had exposure to the facial representations of a few common emotions, such as happiness and sadness. At this point it will be a good time to devote some time to making a classroom feelings chart.
I would begin by gathering a small group of children (about 5 or 6) on the rug, perhaps some who can easily decipher facial expressions and some who are not so skilled. You will not be able to include all the students in this activity, as the feelings chart should be focused on just a few familiar and easily recognizable emotions. Remind the students of the work you have been doing with Mo Willems' books: "We have been looking closely at character's facial expressions, especially Piggie and Gerald's. In Watch Me Throw the Ball! we saw Gerald was happy (show the illustration). In Should I Share My Ice Cream? we saw a sad expression on Gerald's face. Today we are going to make a chart with pictures of your faces showing different emotions. It will help our classmates better identify emotions shown on people's faces. I was thinking that this chart should definitely have a happy face and a sad face. Then I thought we could add anger, fear, confusion, and surprise to our chart. Let's practice acting these out." Start a discussion of when and why someone might feel each of these emotions. Set up a scenario for each one, so that the students can better embody each emotion. It can be difficult for young children to name emotions, but they have felt these common emotions many times. Draw on their prior experiences to help them act out each emotion together as a group. As they do so, you will be able to get a sense of who is best at expressing which emotions. Assign each child an emotion and take a photo of their face while they are acting it out. If their body also helps to portray the emotion, you could take a longer shot of the child.
Write "Feelings" or "Emotions" at the top of the poster board. Print out each photo and affix them to the poster board. Write the emotion under each photo in print big enough to be seen from across the classroom. Find a place to hang the poster where it is easily accessible.
Activity Two: Dramatic Interpretations of Watch Me Throw the Ball
Objectives
This activity is designed to give students the opportunity to retell one of the selections from our read-alouds. Young students need to move their bodies as well as to rehearse life scenarios through play. Additionally, acting out this text will allow them to take on the perspective of the characters in a more concrete and accessible way. When asking young children to consider how a character feels, it might be helpful to set up an opportunity for them to truly feel what it is like to be in a certain situation.
Materials
- Two to six copies of Watch Me Throw the Ball (or you can photo copy sections of the book for each set of partners)
- A soft ball to throw
- A large space in which it is safe to throw a ball
Procedures
You could have 2 to 3 partnerships perform different sections of Watch Me Throw the Ball. You will want to break up the text into sections that allow the students to practice portraying more than one emotion. A suggestion might be to have one set of partners perform pages one through twenty-one, another set do pages twenty-two through forty-four, and a final group do the last third of the book.
Give each set of partners a copy of their section of the text. Allow them to spread out into their own spots around the room to practice. Encourage them to think about using their faces and bodies to show how their character feels. Their goal is to make the characters' emotions over the top and obvious. You may need to model this for the students by acting out a part of the book yourself and over-emphasizing your facial expressions. Let the partners go off to practice for 5-10 minutes, while you float between the groups to listen in and offer advice. You may need to allow them multiple opportunities to practice throughout the week. When you feel they are ready, gather the rest of the class to sit as an audience and watch their classmates perform.
To follow up, you may want to meet with all of the partners to discuss how it felt to be Gerald or Piggie. It is during this time that you could ask questions such as, "What was Gerald feeling when Piggie said that the secret to throwing was to have fun? Why do you think he felt that way? What clues in the illustrations made you think that?" or "When Piggie was gloating about throwing the ball all the way around the world, why do you think she did that? What was she feeling? And how do you think it made Gerald feel when she bragged like that? What clues in the book make you think that?" As you have this discussion it is likely that the students will draw upon their own prior experiences to help them sympathize with the main characters. This will lead to conversation that may seem off topic as they share experiences and say things like, "One time…" Let the students make the personal connections, but then make sure to pull them back to the text and search for evidence to support their ideas with the question, "What clues in the illustrations/text make you think that?" Readers need to rely on their personal experiences to make a text come to life, but they also need to support their inferences or predictions or conclusions with evidence from the text. Hopefully, being able to act out the story will make the plot more concrete and relatable to the students opening up the chance to discuss the feelings and motivations of the characters in a more in depth manner.
Activity Three: Illustrating in Response to Elephants Cannot Dance!
Objectives
Students will try to apply their ability to interpret facial expressions to a text by making their own illustrations. Elephants Cannot Dance! will be read without showing the illustrations and the students will have the opportunity to predict what the characters' facial expressions are, which will also show what they think the characters are feeling throughout the book.
Materials
- four sheets of white drawing paper for each student and the teacher
- crayons and colored pencils
- one copy of Elephants Cannot Dance!
Procedures
As students sit at their desks, distribute paper and drawing materials to each child. Prepare to read the selected text while standing up and moving around the classroom. Explain to the students that they are going to help illustrate the book. You are going to read the text out loud to them and at key points throughout the book you are going to pause and let them draw what they think the characters look like in that moment. They should not worry about drawing just like Mo Willems; in fact they can just draw stick figures if they want. Give them a bit of practice drawing before you start reading. Reference the feelings chart and say, "Let's practice. We're all going to try to draw a stick figure with a happy face. Hmmm. If I look at the happy face on our chart I see his eyes are wide open, his eyebrows are up, and his mouth is in a really wide, open smile. It might look like this. (Draw a crude stick figure with a happy face on the board.) Now, you try to draw a happy character." Then practice sad, angry, and embarrassed. Next ask them to label the top of their papers with the numbers one, two, and three. This will help you so that when you collect their drawings you can see which illustration matches each section of the story.
Begin to read the book, reminding them not to draw until you ask them to. Stop when Gerald says, "I would love to learn how to dance. But elephants cannot dance." and ask them to think how Gerald might feel at this moment. 3 3 Reread the section to give them support, making sure to read Gerald's words with sadness and disappointment. Then tell them to take their first piece of paper and draw how Gerald feels right here. The second place to stop is after Gerald says, "You are right, Piggie! I can try to dance! I will try to dance! LET'S DANCE!" They can sketch what they think Gerald looks like here on page two. The last place to stop might be after Piggie tries many times to teach Gerald and he keeps getting it all mixed up. He yells, "ENOUGH! I HAVE TRIED! AND TRIED! AND TRIED! AND TRIED! AND TRIED!" 3 4 Again, have the students sketch what Gerald might look like here on page three. Give them time to share their drawings with their desk partners after each stopping place.
Also, as they are sketching Gerald, you may want them to try to consider what Piggie feels at each moment, too. This is harder because in all the moments above, Piggie is not talking. However, it might be a great way to see if they can infer what Piggie feels based on Gerald's reactions and Piggie's prior words. You could also focus solely on drawing Gerald the first read through, and then reread the book and have the students add Piggie to each drawing.
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