Extension Activities
Summary based on http://www.litcircles.org/Overview/overview.html
Projects: ABC Book
Directions: Create an alphabet book that focuses on key events,
characters, ideas, and information from your book. Include an illustration on
each page as well as one to two sentences explaining each letter of the
alphabet. For a whole-class ABC book, each student can be given a letter
of the alphabet and asked to find a word using that letter that is important in
the book.
In the example below, the letter is C
and the book, Dear Mr. Henshaw by
Beverly Cleary. The student selected the
word, "creative" to describe the main
character's solution to getting his lunch
stolen repeatedly. At the bottom of the
page, the student selected a significant
quote from the book using that word,
and on the right side, wrote a short
explanation of why that quote was important in the story.
Teacher: Lori Scobie, 4th grade, North City Elementary, Shoreline,
Washington.
Project: Accordian Book
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Directions: Choose five to seven significant
scenes from your book. Make an illustrated
accordion-shaped book that reveals the
sequence of your book's storyline. Include
some written descriptions, such as: What's
happening in the scene? Why is this scene
important to you?
Project: CD Cover
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Directions:
Design the front and the back cover for a CD to
capture the theme or spirit of your book. Be sure the name of the
book, plus the title of the hit single, appears on the front cover along
with an appealing sketch or design. On the back, list the other songs
from the CD, making sure they relate to the book and to the
characters' experiences. [Adaptation: Write lyrics to the hit single.]
The CD covers below include students' songs based on Julie of
the Wolves by Jean Craighead George and Island of the Blue
Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. Teacher: Kristin McNabb, 5th grade, St.
Joseph School, Seattle, Washington.
Project: Character Bookmark
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Directions: Create a bookmark featuring either your favorite character or the
character you consider to be most significant in your book. Be sure to include
the book title and author as well as the character's name and "portrait" or
illustration. On the back of the bookmark, describe your character and explain
why he or she is important in your book and how you feel about this character.
Project: Collage
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Directions: Using magazine photos, create a collage of images that
symbolize important ideas, events, or themes in your book. On the back,
explain what each image symbolizes and how it draws on key material from
the character's experience.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That beautiful pair
of eyes gazing at you from the top of this page signifies
perspective. This book was written through the eyes of
a rambunctious teenager living in a world quite unlike our own.
The way Shabanu deals with her problems and
perceives her feelings is represented in the diamond
because its beauty shines from the center of a rock like
Shabanu. She has so much beauty in her heart but she
saves some of it inside where no one can reach it.In
the background is a footprint in the sand, showing not
only the terrain that Shabanu lives in in Pakistan, but
also the footprints she has to follow. Her ancestors long
ago made these prints and everyone is forced to follow.
The mouth located in the middle of the collage represents
the fact that Shabanu is not afraid to speak her mind.
The sparkly shirts represent the wedding of Phulan to Murad.
All the relatives of the bride dressed up in beautiful mirrored
skirts and shawls.
Blue flowers were placed in clumps at the top of the page
because they show the four experiences that Shabanu endured
and also show that there was a shadow left behind that will always
be with her. The loss of Guluban, the loss of Murad, her betrothal
to an older man, and her final scheme to run away are the experiences
that the roses represent.From Shabanu by Suzanne Fisher Staples
Project: Commemorative Stamp
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Directions: Select a key character or scene, or
focus on an important theme from your book,
and develop a stamp to commemorate that
character, scene, or theme. Include a picture, a
selected phrase, and the stamp's value.
The first stamp shown below was designed from Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My
Cry and depicts symbols of racism, segregation, and reconciliation. The second stamp is based
on Patricia Polacco's The Trees of the Dancing Goats, and the third is from Waterman's Boy by
Susan Sharpe.
Project: Game Board
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Directions: Create a board game based on the
characters, events, or theme of your book. Be sure that
the game is playable and that participants must rely on
their knowledge of the book in order to succeed!
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The example shown below, The Shakespeare Dealer, is based on several books in a literature
circle unit on William Shakespear's time. Teacher: Janine King, 6th-8th grades, Brighton School,
Lynnwood, Washington.
Project: Setting Pamphlet
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A setting pamphlet is just one of many possibilities for an extension project
using a pamphlet or brochure format. Students select four or five key
settings for significant events in the book or places that had major impacts
on the characters' development. Each panel of the pamphlet can represent
a different setting with an illustration and short written explanation of how
that setting influenced the story or affected the characters' lives.
The example shown below is based on Let the Circle Be Unbroken, by Mildred Taylor
Project: Main Idea Belt
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Directions
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1. After students have finished reading a book, have them brainstorm
five significant events in the plot (or five stages of character
development).
2. Using cups or a compass (or any circular object), trace six “larger”
circles on black paper and twelve “smaller: circles on white paper. The
exact sizes are not critical; the white circles should fit inside the black
ones. Cut these out.
3. Glue a white circle to each side of each black circle.
4. Have students think of a symbol to use as a border around the edge
of one of the white circles on each disk.
5. On the first disk, write the title and author of the book inside the
symbolic border. On the back the student writes his or her name.
6. On the remaining five disks, create an illustration inside the symbolic
border to depict each of the main events.
7. On the back of each of these disks write a sentence to describe the
main event and another sentence to explain its importance to the story.
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Pictures of Main Idea Belt
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As you can see in the photos below, the Main Idea Belts can be
strung together with yarn or string and hung on the wall or bulletin
board. The example below on the left (from Roll of Thunder, Hear
My Cry by Mildred Taylor) shows a close-up of belt segments with
images on one side and illustrative quotes from the book on the
other.
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The example on the right shows three main idea belts based on Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, A Place to Call
Home by Jackie French Coller, and Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt.
Project: Story Hat (Primary grades)
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Directions: Make a "newspaper hat" out of a piece of white butcher paper.
At the top of the hat's front side, write the name of your book and the author.
Divide the front brim into three sections. In the first section draw something
that happened at the beginning of the book. In the middle section, draw
something that happened in the book's middle. In the last section, draw the
problem of the story. Then divide the brim on the back of your hat into two
sections. In the first section, draw how the problem was solved. In the last
section, draw something that happened at the end of your book.
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The example shown below is the model made by a first grade teacher based on Audrey Wood's Little Penguin's Tale.
Project: Story Quilt
Directions
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After students have finished reading a book, have them choose a key scene, main event, character, chapter, or
theme to illustrate.
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Squares can be made from paper or cloth. The simplest format is white construction or copy paper cut into a
square with dimensions of nine to 12 inches. The size of the square and the number of students will determine
how large your final quilt will be.
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We suggest that you guide students to draw a draft of their quilt square on scratch paper. This will help them plan
the spacing and arrangement of their visual and written responses.
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Around the edges of the square, students draw a one-inch border.
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Inside the border the students create their illustration. We suggest that you have them include a sentence or two
explaining the significance of the illustration, or a quote directly from the book that supports the illustration.
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Students can create their quilts with their literature circle group (so that each group uses a common motif for the
border but each student creates his/her own square). You can also create the quilt with the whole class. In that
case, students brainstorm ideas for symbols to go around the border and then vote for their favorite.
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As a final touch, every student draws in the border.
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You then mount all the squares on a long strip of butcher paper. If you don’t have the right number of squares to
make even rows, you can have a student (or group) create an extra square with the title of the book and author. If
you need yet another square to even things out, you can ask another student to create a square that identifies the
class that made the quilt and include the date.
REMEMBER: An important part of extension projects is having each student
present their project to the class. With the quilt it is fun to sit in a circle and have
each student lay their square on the floor as they talk about their process. This
way students get to see the quilt slowly come together into one complete work of
art.
Project: Themed Images
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Theme images are illustrations of key concepts related to a thematic
literature circle unit. Students select one word that represents a
central concept important to the theme of the book. They illustrate
the concept, weaving the word itself into the image in some way.
Students then write an explanation of how the image and the word
they've selected relate to the theme in a meaningful way.
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The examples below are from a literature circle unit on the internment of Japanese Americans
during World War II. The students selected Swallowed by Injustice as the theme that tied the
books together.