Characters and Setting

We have been learning more about fiction story structure this week in reading.  Specifically we are working on characters and setting.  We have learned that characters are the "who" in the story and setting is the "where".  We used our Jack and the Beanstalk field trip to delve into this a bit more.  First, we read "Jack and the Beanstalk" by Matt Faulkner.  We named all the characters (Jack, his Mom, Giant, Giant's Wife, Old Man, Harp).  Then every child made the characters and cut them out.

After we saw the play, we revisited the story, a picture of the stage at the play and thought about WHERE it took place.  We decided there were two settings:  Jack's House and the Giant's House.  Each child created a setting page with these two places represented then put their characters in the setting.

Finally, we labeled all of them.

Here's our learning in pictures:

I HAVE to share the bus photos:

Then we arrived at the theater and saw the beautiful stage:

 And we got to hear from the actors...

When we came back, the next day, we added our characters and setting together to be able to retell the story.  There was a great deal of thinking that went into our work and I am VERY proud of our readers for being able to identify these important story elements!