Setting the Scene

Third graders just finished sharing their favorite scenes in books by creating dioramas. The students were invited to share whatever scene they most enjoyed in a book of their choosing, or a scene they thought would be fun to recreate. Students were each given a shoebox and some construction paper. Keeping the project simple with minimal materials allowed the students to let their own imaginations drive the project. How to incorporate their characters into the scene gave the students a chance to work on their problem solving skills. 
As students worked we discussed who was in the scene, why the scene was important to them and what they needed to create the scene. We will be circling back to this as we focus more on setting in the books we read in the library. This project frames what we mean by setting as well as considering what is necessary to share this important part of the story with the reader.

An additional conversation that came from this activity is how we all perceive the world a little differently. Some students chose the same book, while others chose the same series. All of the settings reflect the way the student understood the story, so all a little different. This built on the work the students did in second grade when we read the story, "They All Saw a Cat" and then created their own images. These are conversations we will continue to touch on.