Making a book based on any story that children have become familiar with is a pretty easy activity.
Choose an element of the story that could have many possible solutions and ask the students what they would do.
In this instance, using Robert Munsch’s wonderful story, The Paper Bag Princess, the students talked about how the princess in the story tricked the dragon.
They then each created a page based on how they would trick the dragon using the frame sentence, ” I would trick a dragon by …..”
Creating the book
Start by taking some time to study the pictures in the book and talk about how, Michael Martchenko, the book’s illustrator drew his dragon with sort of a chubby body and smaller wings. Ask what other ways they could draw a dragon.
Look at the different ways Martchenko changed the dragon’s expressions to show how it was feeling. Point out how he changed how he drew the dragon, sometimes sleeping, sometimes flying and sometimes scrunched up on the ground.
Teacher tip! Don’t talk too long. Little kids have to wiggle and start doing something. Choose another day to talk about the author, Robert Munsch. He had a hard time in school but is now a very successful author.
Drawing the pictures
Each child chooses one new way to trick the dragon and illustrates their own page.
Give each child one dark marker only to draw their picture. Then have them color their picture with crayons. This will preserves the details of the children’s illustrations. Using all colors of markers can quickly result in a lot of the picture being covered in dark black, blue or purple scribbles! Read more about this art method here.
Writing the stories
For this book, the children dictated their stories to me, I printed them and then glued their story on to their page. The end result was an exciting class book that the students wanted me to read over and over.
Having the children print their stories right on the page works well too. If their sentences are not yet recognizable, print the story again in one corner of the picture.
When they’re finished, assemble all the pages the students create into a, “How to Trick a Dragon!”, class book.
More Robert Munsch Books here.
The Paper Bag Princess 25th Anniversary Edition: The Story Behind the Story
