Activity: This is a two-session activity. The purpose of this activity is to explore wonder: the joy of curiosity, imagination, and discovery, all featured in the Wonder Walkers book. In Session #1, students read the story and discuss the metaphors and personifications that compare aspects of nature to the human experience. They ponder these similarities - do they exist to help us feel close to nature, connected to all the landforms, plants, animals and everything on our planet? In Session #2, students create a picture book with captions about their own favorite parts of nature or they can make a collage with pictures, cut-outs from magazines or their own drawings, and captions.
Materials needed: drawing paper, stapler (to bind the books) markers, crayons; poster board for collages; magazines with nature photos; glue
Directions:
Session #1: Read the story. Emphasize that the story is all about curiosity and joyful recognition of our amazing natural world. Begin a discussion with a language arts lesson: define the literary terms metaphor and personification. Explain that a metaphor compares two or more objects or actions that are not literally comparable. Personification is defined as describing a thing, action, or idea as something that seems to have human characteristics. Ask students to identify examples of the author’s use of these figures of speech. Ask them about their favorite part of the story and why they liked it. Was it how the walkers looked at the trees and thought of them as legs of the sky, how the moon resembled a night light, or how the wind was like the world breathing? Tell them to share their thoughts about why the author chose each metaphor or personification. Discuss how humans and the earth’s features resemble one another and what that shows about our relationship to our planet. Lead students with open-ended questions into the realization that these similarities exist to help us feel close to nature, connected to all the landforms, plants, animals and everything on our planet.
Session #2: This activity may require more than one session. Explain the art project: students choose to either create a picture book with captions or a collage that illustrates at least five elements in nature that fill them with wonder. The book will be five pages long or more, and each page has a caption that explains what the picture or drawing depicts and why it’s wonderful. The collage will be arranged on a poster board that includes notations of why the student chose each of the five elements of nature. The session concludes with a show and tell.
Wrap it up: Explain that the purpose of this activity is to explore wonder: the joy of curiosity, imagination, and discovery. In the “Wonder Walkers” book two children take a walk and really take time to notice the world around them and how fascinating it is. The hope is that students will do the same, take time to look at nature and wonder about it - ask questions, find answers, be amazed!
Related resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdvpkmmvw8A&t=145s
Activity: This is a two-session activity. The purpose of this activity is to explore wonder: the joy of curiosity, imagination, and discovery, all featured in the Wonder Walkers book. In Session #1, students read the story and discuss the metaphors and personifications that compare aspects of nature to the human experience. They ponder these similarities - do they exist to help us feel close to nature, connected to all the landforms, plants, animals and everything on our planet? In Session #2, students create a picture book with captions about their own favorite parts of nature or they can make a collage with pictures, cut-outs from magazines or their own drawings, and captions.
Materials needed: drawing paper, stapler (to bind the books) markers, crayons; poster board for collages; magazines with nature photos; glue
Directions:
Session #1: Read the story. Emphasize that the story is all about curiosity and joyful recognition of our amazing natural world. Begin a discussion with a language arts lesson: define the literary terms metaphor and personification. Explain that a metaphor compares two or more objects or actions that are not literally comparable. Personification is defined as describing a thing, action, or idea as something that seems to have human characteristics. Ask students to identify examples of the author’s use of these figures of speech. Ask them about their favorite part of the story and why they liked it. Was it how the walkers looked at the trees and thought of them as legs of the sky, how the moon resembled a night light, or how the wind was like the world breathing? Tell them to share their thoughts about why the author chose each metaphor or personification. Discuss how humans and the earth’s features resemble one another and what that shows about our relationship to our planet. Lead students with open-ended questions into the realization that these similarities exist to help us feel close to nature, connected to all the landforms, plants, animals and everything on our planet.
Session #2: This activity may require more than one session. Explain the art project: students choose to either create a picture book with captions or a collage that illustrates at least five elements in nature that fill them with wonder. The book will be five pages long or more, and each page has a caption that explains what the picture or drawing depicts and why it’s wonderful. The collage will be arranged on a poster board that includes notations of why the student chose each of the five elements of nature. The session concludes with a show and tell.
Wrap it up: Explain that the purpose of this activity is to explore wonder: the joy of curiosity, imagination, and discovery. In the “Wonder Walkers” book two children take a walk and really take time to notice the world around them and how fascinating it is. The hope is that students will do the same, take time to look at nature and wonder about it - ask questions, find answers, be amazed!
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