a year of many firsts: It Was the Perfect Setting!

This upcoming week we are learning all about the importance of settings in stories!

To help my kiddos fully grasp what setting is, here’s what we’ll be doing:

First, we’ll receive a special delivery package from a “ kid world traveler” named Sam. Inside the package, we will find a letter from Sam and many photographs. Sam is a photojournalist, or someone who likes to tell stories through his pictures. In small groups, my students will look closely at his pictures to see if we can figure out where or when his photos were taken. This is where I’ll introduce them to the vocabulary word: setting.

Then, we’ll record some of our observations on this little “Sam’s Setting Snapshots” page.

Afterwards, I’ll explain that, just like Sam, authors and illustrators also use the setting to help them tell their story, and although we can’t travel around the world today like Sam, we CAN “visit” different settings through books.

After modeling how to identify the setting in a big book story, I will provide each student with their very own “Storybook Travel Journal.” They’ll read their own leveled-text, identify the setting, and record their observations using the pages below. I plan on having them add more pages to their Storybook Travel Journal as they “travel” (aka read) different books throughout the year.

Then, we’ll complete some of these fun extension activities!

I know these “See the Setting” cards are going to be a class favorite. This is a partner activity game. One student will describe the setting and the other student will draw a picture based on the description (similar to Pictionary).

Read and Draw is another fun one! Students have to read the short text and use the important words in the text (and their visualizations) to help them draw the setting.

Draw and Write is the last extension activity. I KNOW this one is going to be a major hit! I plan on copying a few of each of these pages for my Work on Writing station. Students will look at the character given and draw a setting for that character. Then, they will write their OWN story to match the character and setting. So much FUN!