Who? What? When? Where?

Learning Centre Activities

Students can choose to select any of the following activities:

Cause and Effect Charts
Cause and effect charts are especially valuable after reading narrative. They encourage students to think 'into' a story and the events which lead up an follow on from actions. After reading and discussing a story students can work in groups, in pairs, or individually to record main events and show how actions lead to the reactions as the plot develops. 

Setting	Episode 1	Episode 2	Episode 3 etc.	
Who	 	 	 	
Where	 	 	 	
When	 	 	 	
What	 	 	 	
Initiating event/problem	 	 	 	
Reaction	 	 	 	
Resolution or outcome	 	 	 	

Story Maps

·	Divide your sheet of paper into 8 squares. 
·	Think about the 8 main episodes in this book and draw a picture in each square. 
·	Locate the sentence or paragraph in the story where one of these events took place. 
·	Use your map to retell stories to the rest of the class or to a friend. 

Character Profiles

·	Make a police file for your character. 
·	Write a radio interview - your character is being interviewed. 
·	Write a positive C.V. for your character. 
·	Write a list of positive aspects of the character, then a list of negative aspects. 
·	Write a diary for a week for your character that covers one part of the story. 
·	Design a wanted poster for your character. 

Change the Ending

·	Did you enjoy the ending of your book?
·	Do you think you could do better?
·	Imagine you are the writer of the story. Think about what happened in the beginning and the middle, then use this to help you write a final chapter. 

Readers' Theatre
Drama Dance Action Imagination
In groups or individually:

·	Select a story. 
·	Choose a part of the story that appeals to you and that you think would appeal to your audience. 
·	Write a script, include a narrator (keep to the point) be creative.  Use music or sound effects. 
·	Perform (the play could also be presented using finger puppets or filmed using the video camera). 

Video Presentation

·	Select a story. Think about and choose 6 or 8 main episodes in the story. Draw a frame and illustrate each part of the story. 
·	Make a frame from black paper. Insert the pictures one at a time in sequence and use the video camera to take a "still" of each one. Students record the voice-over. 

Use Kidpix (see kidpix.rtf) to make a slide show with voice over. Use a storyboard to plan the sequence - or phrases showing the key ideas for each frame. 

Story or Pictureboard 

Timelines - a sequence of events in a story or the activities of a particular character in a story. 

Board Games - introduce the activity by talking about board games and their features eg. Snakes and Ladders. Students create and design their own format for a board game. 

Webbing - demonstrates the relationship between characters in a story. It can include two or more characters. 

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)