Crazy Adventures ....

Last week my daughter brought home a picture she drew after her class read a Curious George book in the media center. While she was telling me all about her picture, I realized she was giving me a pretty good summary of the story. (She also told me the list of words on the side of the picture are words you are supposed to find in the picture on the other side of the picture .. but that is a topic for another post). I later found out from the teacher that they were focusing on setting and characters when they completed this activity.

I wondered if I could find other things related to Curious George that might interest her. I went to one of my favorite resources, Thinkfinity.org, to do a search and found a great k-2 lesson from ReadWriteThink:

Taking Photos of Curious George: Exploring Character Through Images:

What would Curious George do if he visited your school? What crazy adventures would he have? These and many other questions provide the framework for students to create a digital class book about Curious George’s adventures in their school. In this lesson, students begin by exploring a familiar character (Curious George) by using books, a website, and a graphic organizer. Students extend what they have learned by imagining what George would do if he visited their school. Students work in pairs to discuss locations in the school George might visit and what he might do in each location. Next, students take George on a trip to each location and take a photo of him posed in a humorous way. After taking pictures of the funny monkey in a variety of poses and locations, students work together to create a storyboard and then a digital "book" that tells their story.

I see ways the ideas in the lesson could be used with other storybook characters besides just Curious George. Have students think about the main character in the book he or she just read and consider some of the questions listed in the description above ... and then build off of that.

The  ReadWriteThink  lesson plan pulls in the possibility for using many technology tools (adapt this lesson to use the idea with the tools you have):

• digital camera 
• computer with internet access
• digital storytelling sites
• presentation resources/sites
• websites 

Many of the ideas in this lesson go along with the Information and Technology Essential Standards as well as the ISTE NETS for Students, while also meeting various reading and writing standards.

Think about all the creative thinking this would encourage ... and even require. In my mind, creative thinking is a form of critical thinking as well.

Just because this lesson is designated as a k-2 lesson, that does not mean that it would not also have wonderful results with older children. This could be used as a great prompt for the creation of a story and some digital media.

Imagine all the crazy adventures that story character could have with students ...