Class Activity
Class: Two first grade classes
Activity: Paper bag puppets for wild things
Role playing with a mom and king costume -retelling the story

I read Where the Wild Things Are aloud to my first grade classes. They loved the story and we had a discussion of disobedience, punishment, and imagination. The students made paper bag wild things and we used them in the role playing activity and to retell the story. One student dressed as the king of the wild things and one dressed as the mother. It was a bit chaotic until they got the sequence of story. Of course, they all had to take turns being the king of the wild things.
 
 

Class: Three Classes of Second Graders
Activity: Choral Reading with book
Making their faces with a crown on them and writing from king of the wild things point of view
Writing and discussing what we do about anger
Making monsters

After a thorough introduction of the vocabulary, my students began reading the book as choral reading. Then they wrote sentences about what they would do if they were king of the wild things. The sentences were written on crowns that decorated a round face drawn to look like them. On the shape of a ship they completed the sentence, “When I get angry, I_____.” Last of all each class worked together to make a monster. One child volunteered to lay down on bulletin board paper and be traced. Students chose different parts of the monster outline to complete (head, arm, leg). Then the entire group worked together to clothe or cover their monster as they decided on.
During this week, the students were highly motivated and eager to come to class. They worked together as a unit and I had no discipline problems. The finished monsters, kings, and ships were displayed in the hallway for Halloween. They brought their family and classmates by to read their sentences to them and show off their artwork. From the choral readings, they still quote sentences and phrases to tell others the story of the wild things.