Preparation:  Class example, Monsters Inc or Nightmare book prepared, and Monsters Inc. McDonald Happy Meal toys, pictures of wooden doors.

Vocabulary:  Texture, environment, and descriptive writing.

References:   Monsters Inc. ©Pixar/Disney, Nightmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer

Artist/Period:  Halloween Season

Objectives:  Students will be able to…

1. Invent a unique monster creature.
2. Develop their monster’s surroundings in a closet environment.
3. Create a descriptive paragraph of their monster illustration.

Procedure:

1. Read book or show movie clips to students that involve monsters, the sillier the better.  Ask how they might react if they were put in a similar situation as the main characters in the story.  Why are people afraid of things in their closets, under their beds, or in the basement?
2. Students will take the large dark brown paper and fold it in half, horizontally (12 x 18).  On the outside, students will use a white and black crayons to decorate the outside of their doors in the style of a 4 or 6 panel door.
3. Students will draw their unique monster and its surroundings large on the white paper, then color it in with crayons.
4. Students will glue their monster pictures vertically inside the closet door on the right hand side, as if they are opening a book with the picture of the door as the cover.
5. With the lined paper, students will write about their creature’s environment, description, starting with “The monster in my closet has…”  Check students for spelling, grammar and accuracy.  Encourage students to fill the page with words using leading questions.  Use their picture for inspiration.
6. Glue writing paper to a piece of construction paper to display beneath the students closet monster, or glue the writing to the inside of the closet door opposite the monster image.
7. Have students share their descriptive stories with the class.
8. Clean Up: Approx 5-6 min

Possible Adaptations:  Make 3-D monsters, paint monsters, and sculpt maché monsters. Monster Exchange

Evaluation:  Did students follow project directions, complete objectives, give their best effort and follow posted classroom rules?  1=Outstanding, 2=Satisfactory, 3=Needs Improvement, ✓=Unsatisfactory

Evaluation after the lesson:  Students loved creating and naming their own monsters.  Stressing the details of the monster’s surroundings (the closet) students got very creative using socks and hangers and boxes to really create a total environment for their beasts.  The writing part of the project involved much help and support from the teacher to emphasize spelling and writing complete sentences.  Overall, these were very successful and excited the children about writing.

I had saved an email from Carolyn Bonomi about her monster exchange project. She was disappointed working through the web site...You could have your own monster exchange from class to class instead. It might be fun to do it via technology - learning the PC Paint software - teaching drawing tools, brush
and fill. Have students write up their description using Word. Once descriptions are finished - exchange with another class and have them draw the monsters only from description.... You could set up a series of prompts - like "Has the head of a...." body of a.... tail of a...Is patterned like... With the texture of.... colors of.... and so on....You could even design some sort of template so you could create a flip book from the monster - really mix them up. Some of you are familiar with the flip
book "Drawn and Quartered". What if students described the monster head and put that in a hat (can/box)- described the body and put that in a hat (can or box) - described the tail and put in a hat...Then each student got to pick one from each hat/can/box. Write a complete description of the monster - then create a monster.... and do the exchange to create one from another class -- or create their original own descriptions.

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