Grade 8 ELA Activities

Most of us feel connected to our bedrooms. Even if we share this room with others, there are objects in it that reflect our personality traits. By focusing on the setting of her room, your child can think about how it reveals her character. Additionally, by examining how this setting has a personality of its own, your child will have to ask such questions as: How does her setting reflect her? What does it reveal about who she is or who she is becoming?

	Paper

	Pen or pencil

	Crayons or markers or paints (if she wants to illustrate her story)

Have your child write a story or a poem from the perspective of her bedroom or another room that has special meaning to her. (If your child is a letter writer, encourage her to write a letter from the room to her.)

As you talk with your child about her ideas, encourage her to think about events that have influenced the room's appearance or arrangement. Who has lived in the room? How would your child describe a time when she first felt at home in her room? How would she describe a time when her room really changed? As your child becomes comfortable with describing the room, have her imagine its personality. What are the room's moods, thoughts, or feelings about what goes on inside of it? What might the room say to her if it could talk? What does the room hope will happen in the future? By posing these types of questions, you will help your child consider her room as a type of character with likes, dislikes, and stories to tell.

By examining the features of a familiar room, your child will learn more about how setting can reveal character. (She'll also work on the critical skills of being highly observant and paying attention to details.) If your child is ready for a larger challenge, have her write a story or poem that presents relationships between different rooms in an apartment or a house. She might find that writing a letter from one room to another is an effective method of revealing the personalities of both rooms. Encourage your child to think about how the characters of the different rooms in the house or apartment come together and tell the story of the home and the family that lives there.

 Grade 8 ELA Activities