Paper Bag Characterization

My students presented their Paper Bag Character assignments today.  LOVED it!!!  They worked so hard on these projects, and it definitely paid off.  Their final projects were awesome!  When the students finished presenting their 10 items inside the bag, we set all the projects up in the nutrition area outside my classroom, and had a gallery walk-through.  This is the first time I've done the gallery walk-through with these projects ... but not the last.  Next year I'd like to invite a few classrooms to see our fabulousness.  I was so excited about these projects I stayed for a bit after school to get them hung on the bulletin board.  I'm just waiting for a few more projects to come in, then I'll hang our learning goal - and I'll be one happy teacher!  (As you can see, I've got some Suzanne Collins fans in my class - I had 5 different projects on Katniss (but from all three books in the trilogy), and 3 different projects on Gregor the Overlander (a five book series from Suzanne Collins).

I've never been one for traditional book reports - we usually only do one a year, just to practise the writing form ... whenever possible I try to give my students fun variations to share their reading with the class.  


For this project students must illustrate the front cover with a picture of their main character.  I also had them add the title and author of their novels.








One of the side panels is for the character's likes and dislikes, and the other panel is for how other characters react to and interact with their main character.  


The back panel has the character's growth throughout the novel.  Students have to provide supporting evidence and their own thinking for all the panels.  











But my favourite part is the inside - students must place 10 objects in the bag that symbolize something important about the character.  They also present this information to the class - making sure they give a deep explanation about why the object is significant to the character - not just how it is connected to the book.

My students had such amazing insights this year ... hard to believe some of them are only in grade 5!  

If you're interested, my Paper Bag Characters assignment is a product at my TPT store.  You can view it here.  I also have this assignment included in a larger Characterization bundle which you can view here.

And now, if you'll excuse me ... I must go read.  My Fifty Shades trilogy arrived today and I've already started the first book.  I'm thinking it's about to get a little hot in here ...

(and no, I won't be doing a paper bag character assignment on this one).  ;)

Happy FRIDAY!!!  Cheers to the weekend!!!