Monsterlicious

Title:  Monsterlicious

By Erk Jon Slangerup

Illustrated by John Sandford

 

 

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Subjects: Drama, Language Arts, Writing, Art

Objectives: Comprehension, Sequence, Setting 

Grade(s): 2-4^th, but can be adapted to other grades 

 Description: Mosterlicious  is a book about a little boy who can’t seem to make any food recipe right.  His father owns a nice restaurant, and when he goes out of town leaves his son, Bingle in charge.  Bingle makes crazy recipes, which scares away the human guests, but is perfect for the new guests- the Monsters.  It is a fun book, and I used it to teach comprehension when I was teaching 3^rd grade. 

Remember this is not a complete lesson.  It is ideas on how to integrate the arts into Language Arts and other subjects that have to do with the children’s book.  Use and adapt as you like!

 Lesson:

1.     HOOK: (Get the students interested…) A great idea to get the students interested is to make a funny creative food recipe using nasty ingredients, like a shoe, sticks, spiders (fake of course), and dog food.  Make the concoction in front of the students, and then offer it to them to eat!!

2.     Read the book!  (The Drama Integration Activity requires you to read the book while doing the activity.  See below for details). 

1.     Another HOOK idea: While the children are away from the classroom, set up a “Bangdoodle Restaurant.”  Pretend to be the server, and serve some weird looking food.  You choose if you want it to be edible or not, and if you want the children to actually eat it.  You can use your “fake” restaurant as your setting for the story.  (You can also use this idea when teaching about setting).  

Choose one or more from the following activities: 

3.     Drama Integration Activity: Have the children sit in a big circle with lots of space in the middle.  As you read the book, you will basically have the children act it out.  For each character you pick a student to come to the center to be that character.  As you read the story, you tell the student what to do.  Basically, the student does what you say as you read.  Make sense?  For example- on the 3^rd page of the book, Bingle’s father talks to him about being nervous and unhappy.  After you have two students in the center (on the stage)- one being Bingle and one being his father- then tell the student who is Beingle’s father to say- “I am a nervous and unhappy person, and I need a vacation…” The student can repeat the words you tell him to repeat.  In the book the father shakes his head and lets out a big sigh.  Tell the student who is playing the father to do just that.  Continue doing this throughout the book adding new characters.  This makes the story long, but it is so fun for the kids, and a great way to teach comprehension and /or sequence.  Of course, when you are done with the book or during the activity, you can ask questions to assess if the students are comprehending.  I did this with my 3^rd grade students.  They loved it.  At first they were hesitant to “act” out the parts, but by the end of the book they really had a great time, and were able to answer all of my questions! 

4.     Drama/Writing Integration Activity: This activity especially works well if you did the previous Drama integrated activity.  It can still work if you didn’t do the previous activity, but it may take some preparation in getting the kids to act out the characters.  For this activity, you put the students in groups, and have them rewrite the ending of the book.  Give them guidelines, such as Bingle’s father doesn’t return, or Bingle’s father is not happy with what he did to the restaurant. Then, after the students perfect their rewritten ending, have them act it out in front of the class.  

5.     Art Integration Activity:  After reading the book, have your students design a monster.  You can use any element (colored pencils, paint, markers, etc) that you want to have your students design with.  To integrate writing, have the students write about their monster.  Depending on the grade level, you could have them write a character analysis, a story, or just sentences like, “My monster’s name is _________.,  and “My monster’s favorite color is ______________,” 

At home Activity: A great activity at home for this book is to create a funny, crazy recipe.  You can do it as a family, or have a competition to see who can create the weirdest food that tastes the best.  After the food creations have been made, have a fun family Monster restaurant, and take turns serving each other the crazy food.