Where the Wild Things Are

Author: Maurice Sendak

Illustrator: Maurice Sendak

Genre: Modern Fantasy

Sendak, M. (2015). Where the wild things are. London: Red Fox.

Annotation
A little boy named Max is sent to bed without dinner. Max falls asleep and his room turns into a forest surrounded by an ocean.

ELA Content Standards
Craft and Structure- Grade 2
6.) Acknowledge differences in the points of view in characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character while reading dialogue aloud.

How it Connects: The story is told from the boys point of view. The students can relate to his imagination because they are still young and have big imaginations. They are able to hear the story from someone they can easily relate to.

Key Ideas and details- Grade 3
3.) Describe characters in a story (traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

How it Connects: The students can relate to the boy in the story and discuss what emotions they think all of the characters are feeling when they discover the forest in his dream. They can also discuss the traits each of the characters have.

Tier 3 Vocabulary
gnashed, rumpus, tumbled, tamed, mischief

Classroom Usage
Independent Reading: Students can read the story to themselves and work on their comprehension. They can also observe all of the pictures they see and write down all of the different animals in the story and learn about them.

Small Groups: When the students split up into small groups they can share different dreams they have had and talk about what they think the dreams meant. They can also talk about their imagination or if they have ever visited a place where they were able to see a lot of animals or plants.

Centers: Students can split into four groups
1.) Draw an animal in a forest that they know about- share with the group any facts they know, and show their drawing. The students could also create their own character in the story and share with their group.
2.) As a group, create a forest on a big poster board. Everyone in the group can add whatever they like to it.
3.) Talk about the plot of the book. Discuss what they thought about each of the characters.
4.) Take turns reading pages in the book. Use different voices for each character to see how each student in the group thinks the characters should sound like.

Differentiation
Gifted students can use this story to talk about their imaginations, and feel comfortable doing so. After discussing the characters emotions in the story, they can talk about their emotions, what they thought of the story.