Today was one of my favorite read-aloud days! We read I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll. If you don't have the book, you can see a really great read-aloud on Storyline Online!
We discussed the difference in character traits and character feelings/emotions. I was a little worried about how this would go over, but the kids did a really great job sorting the sticky notes inbetween the two categories. I had written character traits and feelings/emotions about the main character, Ethan, on sticky notes in advance. This helped keep our time focused and smooth-moving! We agreed that a couple of the sticky notes could fall in either category.
After reading the story and discussing the difference in character traits and feelings/emotions (I kept this very simple- traits: how a character is, their personality and feelings/emotions: describe how a character feels at a certain time and can be temporary) we broke into small groups. I had students work together to create one of the monsters from the book. Working in partners on crafts really help things move quick! Two people cutting speeds things up tremendously! I needed a bag for each monster (excluding Gabe) so we just glued the monster onto a paper bag!
Then we went stirring around for character traits in eyeball soup! I put a spider web package, which is basically cotton balls, and eyeball bouncy balls into a cauldron. Then, I folded up character traits and put those in between the layers. Students had to scoop out a piece of paper and unfold it for all of us to see.
We decided which character it belonged to and placed it in their bag.
After we all had a turn, we took out the character traits and made sure that we placed them with the correct monster.
If we had any questions, we looked back into the book for textual evidence! You can grab the character traits HERE. If nothing else, you could sort on a pocket chart :)
Let me tell you... this entire activity was a HIT! They loved making their monster bags (from October RIR) with a partner. They definitely had a blast with the eyeball soup. AND let me tell ya... they were anticipating taking home an eyeball all day long, ha! Most importantly, they thoroughly enjoyed the book and learning more about the monsters.
If you haven't heard... Amanda Noll wrote a sequel to the story. Check out Hey, That's My Monster HERE! I hope your students enjoy this book as much as I do!
