Where The Wild Things Are - Lesson Plans

Happy Wednesday night! I have all of these ideas for the book Where The Wild Things Are by Mauric Sendax and I want to share them. These are all activities that can be made as lessons or spin-offs and follow-ups to lesson plans. 

I really like the idea of brainstorming as a class about what is a wild thing and what are emotions before getting into the activities to get a feel of what they know and what you can expand on.

• Creating a "Wild Thing" Scrapbook. Providing pictures of "Wild Thing" - what it looks like, where it lives, what is it's name, what does it like to do, is it a scary wild thing and other characteristics? (Incorporate lots of different materials.)
• Collage of where the wild things live. Expand on different environments.
• Creating a story about their own "Wild Thing". 
• Create a classroom book with everyone's wild thing and facts about their wild thing. 

These ideas give children the opportunity to express themselves and get creative.

• Express feelings through finger paint. 
• Play music that reflects emotions, provide instruments and allow them to do what feels right to them...have a wild rumpus! 
• Create a wall of emotions/feelings. Take pictures of the children making different faces and label it with the emotion they are trying to express. 
• Act like a wild thing. How do they move and what do they sound like?
• Make masks! Using different textures and a range of materials. Include them in a wild rumpus!
• Trace students body doing different wild thing poses. 

Incorporate some science -learn about plants, plant with your children, and create a class garden. ...a forest grew, and grew and grew...
Or have them research a wild animal they would like to learn more about. They can create books, a diorama, masks, compare the animals features to the characters in Where The Wild Things Are.

Hope you found this helpful! Share your ideas with me! 

Day Care Confessions

Color Sorting with Pom Poms 

Sorting with Apples


Storytime. (Worksheet Activity On LlamaLlamaBook.com)


Felt and Apple Seed Counting. (By Oopsy Daisy Blog)


Ladybug Activity (By Making Learning Fun)


Did they survive? As you can tell my midnight projects are in need of some TLC. I used Self-Adhesive Paper to "laminate" them. They lasted through the tugging and pulling of the children fighting over them and crumbling them. But, right now they are bent up and look worn out only after two days.
Help I am running out of ideas for this RED/Letter A week!  (I haven't done any ONLY RED activities - besides an apple coloring.)
Most of the children are under 5 and need loads of attention. (A classroom of high energy students - imagine.) For a lot of them this is their first time around other children, and in a classroom setting. We can't passed the not sharing and tattletales to have a smooth activity.
I need to think of some team building activities for toddlers.
What are some good attention grabbers for toddlers?
Can you tell I'm new to this?

Where The Wild Things Are - Reading Comprehension

Hi! Happy Thursday! I am starting my literacy unit with Where the Wild Things Are!! I am sharing reading comprehension ideas to provide an enriching story time. Hope you find this helpful and can have fun with this book. 

Vocabulary

• mischief - cause trouble
• vines - climbing plants, grapes grow from vines
• private - personal, only belonging to one person; secret
• gnashed - grind their teeth together
• tames - gentle; trained; calmed
• frightened - scared; intimidated; terrified
• rumpus - making a lot of noise; causing disturbance
• lonely - feeling sad from being alone; feeling alone and wanting company
• terrible - awful, horrible 
• feelings - an emotion like happy or sad

When saying the definition of vocabulary words try to add it in naturally. "Max was causing mischief; he was causing a lot of trouble around the house. He is... (provide examples supported by pictures of mischief)" 

Try using the words consistently in conversations outside of story time to enhance vocabulary and expose the words more than once. 

Understanding Sequence

  Use "Max Head" -with feelings written on one side and a facial expressions on the other- to discuss his feelings throughout the story and how they change from beginning-middle-end. Place a "Max Head" where he was feeling mischievous, mad, happy, lonely, etc in the story. Incorporate other characters' feelings like Max's mom and the monsters.

You can expand literacy skills further by introducing cause and effect. Max was causing mischief so his mother got mad and told him to go to his room.

Questions to Ask Before/During/After Reading

What are feelings? Explain some feelings and when/why you may be feeling a certain way.
What are monsters?  How do they look like? How might they act? What kind of noise do monsters make?
Brainstorm - What is a wild thing? What are their features? Where do they live? How do the wild things get around? Some can have wings.

Why did Max's mother send him to his room?
Have you ever got sent to your room? How did it feel?
Why do you think a forest grew in his room? (Introduce real v. pretend.)
Why did they name Max king of all wild things?
What is a "wild rumpus"? What are they doing?
How do you think Max or monsters are feeling?
Why did he wants to go home?
Why do you think his food was still warm?

What would you name the forest where the wild things live?
What would your name be if you were a wild thing?
Have you ever pretended that you were an animal?
How do you think the wild things sound when they talk to each other?

Ask about meaning of certain words and see if the child/children can repeat back the definition. 

Take a picture walk and have the child/children retell the story. 

Along with asking questions, provide comments about ideas like emotions, pretend, setting, wild things and summarize text/pictures. 

*I found the Max template about a year ago. I am not sure where but I will link it when I find it. 

I have a few lesson plans to share, activities including other subjects and arts and crafts ideas.