Since winning the Caldecott Award in 1964, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are has become a children’s classic and is a great book for exploring a child’s darker emotions such as anger and fear. It travels back and forth between the real world and the fantasy world of a child’s imagination. A movie based on this book was released in 2009.
Below are some ideas to explore, a list of resources, a vocabulary worksheet, and a quiz all centered around this Where the Wild Things Are Lesson Plan.
Where the Wild Things Are Lesson Plan
Ideas to Explore:
Emotional Connections
Discuss the emotions that occur in this book (both in the words and in the illustrations) and what brought them about. This book has the negative emotions of anger, fear, and loneliness but also positive emotions like joy and love. Ask questions like: How did the mother show her anger at the beginning of the book? What illustration first shows fear? How did the mother show her love at the end of the book?
Science
Talk about the jungle. What kinds of plants grow in the jungle? What kind of animals live there? Read some books about the jungle to your students. Why would the author choose the setting of a jungle for monsters to live?
Talk about how plants grow. Bring in different kinds of seeds to compare. Dissect a large bean to see the parts of a seed. Germinate your seeds on a wet paper towel in a ziplock bag.
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Art
Have children design their own monsters with simple paper and crayons or with three-dimensional craft supplies like yarn, wiggly eyes, pipe cleaners and pieces of fur.
Or you can have your students use Lego to create monsters. Challenge them to make a monster that can move in some way.
Have children draw pictures of what their own bedrooms look like. Then have them draw another picture with a jungle taking over their room.
Language Arts
Have children make up stories about their monsters. Have them write them without help (using creative spelling) or dictate them to you. Share each other’s stories with the class.
Compare the story in the book with that in the 2009 movie (You’ll need to watch the movie together if you haven’t seen it yet). What things are the same? What things are different? Use a Venn diagram to illustrate the similarities and differences. Check the resources below for a discussion guide that goes along with the movie.
Use this book to teach story elements: setting, characters, problem, climax, resolution.
Resources
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More ideas on Where the Wild Things Are by Web English Teacher
New York Times article about Maurice Sendak
You are probably about as excited as we are that one of our favorite books of all time, Where the Wild Things Are, is going to be released as a movie in October, 2009! I cherish the memories of reading this book as a child, and I’m sure you cherish the time you get to spend with your kids now reading this wonderful book.
To celebrate the upcoming movie, we’ve gathered up some of the best links on the web to help you share this story in your classroom and home.
Where the Wild Things Are
Be sure to also check out our Harry Potter Activities and Lesson Plans and these Dr. Seuss Activities on our new sister site at Classroom Jr.!
Where the Wild Things Are Games and Activities
Where the Wild Things are Crossword Puzzle Maker
Where the Wild Things Are Floor Puzzle
Where the Wild Things Are Lesson Plans
A Guide for Using Where the Wild Things Are in the Classroom
Texture and Pattern Art Lesson
Language Arts, Science and Math Curriculum
Language Arts & Music Lesson Plan from PBS
Elements of a Story Lesson Plan
Where the Wild Things Are Movie
Where the Wild Things Are – The Movie
Where the Wild Things Are Movie Trailer
WhereTheWildThingsAre.WarnerBros.com
IMDB movie listing including trivia and reviews
Where the Wild Things are – The Book
Buy Where the Wild Things Are
I linked to your blog from mine, http://thebeazhive.blogspot.com/2010/02/its-wild-rumpus.html Thank you for posting all your great Where the Wild Things Are ideas!
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