CCSS: ELA.W.3.6 ELA.W.3.4
Thank you to the following sources for inspiring me on this project: The Global Monster Project:
http://www.smithclass.org/proj/Monsters/index.htm
and www.teachingchannel.org/videos/3rd-grade-descriptive-writing
Monsters Under My Bed: Week One
This lesson began with my reading I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll. Students folded their 12 x 18 white drawing paper in half “like a book”. The first week, I guided them step-by-step in drawing the “cover” with a surprised child dressed in pj’s and sitting under the covers in bed. I invited them to add a tail sticking out from underneath the bed or a menacing arm reaching around the bedpost. They outlined their drawings in sharpie then colored them completely.
Students drew and colored their monsters on the inside, being sure to include lots of details like texture (scales, fur, warts, hair), appendages (tails, horns, ears, eyes, antennas, claws, shells, wings, etc) and many different colors. To introduce the pre-writing portion, I asked them to... imagine a monster that’s all mixed up with a body like a furry golden lion with huge, hairy toes and a plump, purple, warty nose. It has drooping, floppy pink ears and bulging, shiny, yellow eyes with soft, feathery pink and purple spotted wings and a slimy, black, scaly dragon-like tail. Could they picture it? I asked them to notice how the adjectives (descriptive words) made the monster much easier to imagine than if it was just a “fat, furry monster with wings and a long tail”.
Week three, we read What Faust Saw by Matt Ottley. This helped students think about the elements of a good story as well as showed a wide variety of interesting monster/aliens. The children were already eager to begin, “I know! I’m going to have my monster come down on a spaceship!” We talked about how to set up a short story including: who, what, where, why and when (but not in that order).
Story Elements:
title and author
setting = where and when
character(s) = who
plot = what happens and why
description = an actual detailed description of the monster with interesting adjectives
ending = a quick wrap up sentence or two
Students came up with some very interesting stories!