Book of Chance: What Will Your Story Hold?
Activity Objective:
In third and fourth grade, students learn how to identify different elements of a story and how to follow a story's plot.
This project's goal is to help students better understand how different elements of a story effect the plot. To help students understand this, this project allows kids to create different story plots by changing certain elements of their story.
Materials:
One 12x18-inch sheet of paper
One 9x12 inch piece of paper
Markers and crayons
Scissors
Eraser
Optional Materials:
Decorating materials (such as stickers and glitter)
Instructions:
Students should orient their 9x18 inch paper vertically and hold it in half, pressing firmly on the crease.
Then students should open their paper and fold the left side of their paper inwards to the crease line made in step 1. Students should press firmly on the fold. (see video example)
Students should repeat step two with the right side of the paper. Once completed, students should have made four vertical columns on their paper.
Next, student can open up the folds made of their paper. Student should fold their paper in half again, this time bringing the bottom half of their paper to the top half. Students can press firmly on the fold- do not open the folded paper once this step is completed. (see video example)
Students should fold the paper in half again brining the bottom half of their paper to the top half- do not open the folded paper once this step is completed.
Students should repeat step five. Once completed, students can open up their folded paper. They should have eight horizontal rows, in total there will be 32 boxes made from the crease lines.
On the bottom row, students can write "START" in large letters. (see photo example)
Next, students can outline the horizontal and vertical crease lines on their paper. Make sure to omit the crease lines in the bottom row where "START" was written.
In the first row of boxes, above the "START" students can write ideas of protagonists in each on of the four boxes. (see ideas below)
In the second row of boxes, students can write ideas of settings in each one of the four boxes. (see ideas below)
In the third row of boxes, students can write ideas of an event in each on of the four boxes. (see ideas below)
In the fourth row of boxes, students can write ideas of antagonists in each on of the four boxes. (see ideas below)
In the fifth row of boxes, students can write ideas of conflicts in each on of the four boxes. (see ideas below)
In the sixth row of boxes, students can write ideas of point of views in each on of the four boxes. The point of view will be the perspective in which the story is being told from. (see ideas below)
In the seventh row of boxes, students can write ideas of titles in each on of the four boxes. The titles can be written in a mad libs style. (see photo example)
On the 9x12 in paper student can draw seven shapes. Additionally, they can write the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. Students can cut out both the shapes and numbers.
Sample Discussion:
Students can flip over their numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. Students can start at the "START." Then, they can move to the first row and pick one of the flipped over numbers. The number will correspond with a box, with one being the leftmost box and four being the rightmost box. Students can put their cut out shape on the box that corresponds with the number they chose. Students can repeat this for each row. Once completed, students can tell the story that corresponds with the boxes the picked.
Example (story goes along with the photo example below):
This story is called A Small Surprise. Once upon a time, I was swimming at the bottom of the ocean and I saw a big metal item with a clock and many buttons on it. I did not know what it was, so I did not touch it. But, suddenly, a grandma swam right pass me and touched one of the buttons. The clock started spinning very fast and the next thing I knew, the grandma and I were in a big white room. The grandma pointed to something and yelled "Run!" I turned to see what she was pointing at and I saw a scientist in a white coat who was holding a beaker with a green bubbling liquid running towards us. Before we could run away, he laughed evilly threw the green liquid on us. Suddenly, everything went dark, then the scientist and everything else in the room looked very, very big. "Oh no, he shrunk us!" the grandma yelled. She was right! We both were two feet tall. The evil, giant scientist started walking towards us and we tried to run away but he was too big and we could not run fast enough. He took his giant hand and picked us up. I did not know what to do, but the grandma acted fast and bit his finger. The evil scientist yelped and dropped us. We fell from his hand onto a lab table where the beaker of the green bubbling liquid was sitting. There was still green liquid in the beaker. Before the evil scientist could grab us again, the grandma tipped the beaker over so the liquid spilled on the table. The grandma, then, grabbed my hand and dragged me into the liquid. As soon as we touched the liquid, we grew back to our normal size. Then, the grandma grabbed the beaker which stilled had a few drops of liquid in it and she threw it on the evil scientist. The evil scientist shrunk and we were saved!
Furthering the Lesson:
Mad Libs is a fun game in which kids can create their own stories. Below are links where you can find Mad Libs books.
Brainstorming Examples:
