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by Jane Oh
Topics: Fifth Grade, Reading, Writing
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  • Design a new book jacket. How do you imagine the book? Is it dark and scary, or bright and light? Consider genre, such as mystery, romance, historical ficion, and non-fiction. How do you feel these different genres, and the themes that they address, should be visually represented? How about typeface, and color? This activity not only gives your child a creative outlet to express his ideas: it also entails a careful consideration of character, plot, tone, theme, and genre!
  • Draw a cartoon strip. By encapsulating his ideas into cartoon characters and dialogue, your child will be practicing an important skill: distilling a single theme, scene, or character interaction from a larger work, and using it as a jumping-off point.
  • Create an illustrated-only book. This will further develop your child's eye for scene and tone, as well as build skills in visualizing literature that are relevant in film, photography, and fiction.
  • Write favorite phrases and make a mobile. By incorporating favorite phrases, your child is developing one of the most important skills in the study of literature: the identification and extraction of interesting or pertinent quotes from a work.
  • Create a book box diorama. By using a shoe box or other box, encourage your child to construct a scene from his favorite book. Anything, from doll furniture to popsicle sticks to cotton balls and colored paper, can be used to set the scene. Not only will your child be using her imagination, she'll also be practicing the rudiments of stage-design and direction!
  • Design a storyboard. Used in film production to plan how a scene unfolds, shot by shot, a storyboard is a great way to get any aspiring movie-maker, or visual learner, into literature. Encourage your child to imagine a scene in a book as if it were a movie, with him as the director. Have him draw as many frames as he wants to use, and encourage him to play with perspective, lighting effects, body language, and more to convey the meaning of the scene.

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