Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is a story of bravery and love for what is right! The genre of this book is historical fiction and gives readers accounts of actual events which took place in Denmark during World War II. Ten year old Annemarie Johansen lives in Copenhagen in 1943 and is having a very difficult time getting used to the changes that the Nazis have made and with the separation between her and her best friend.
Number the Stars uses symbolism throughout the novel which is a great concept to teach in the classroom. With themes such as bravery and true friendships, motivational activities would be easy to include as well.
Questions I would ask before reading this book would be:
1. What do we know about the events that took place in Denmark during World War II?
2. How would you feel if you were Annemarie during that time?
3. What group was Annemarie's family a part of and what was their purpose?
One motivational activity I would use with this book would be to do a symbolic poster where they would choose symbols to represent each chapter they read, then write why they chose that symbol. Another activity would be filmstrips. Each students would have a partner and they would create a filmstrip for one of the chapters. In each film strip the students would include illustrations and small captions each details.
There are so many activities that could be included after reading this novel. It is very educational and the cover is also illustrated by Lois Lowry.
Hello Comec'ko,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your analysis. This sounds like a great book, it is a bit similar to the Book Thief, a book I presented in my own blog.
Two response activities could be the following:
The first would be to have the students write a composition where they would describe what their everyday reality would be like, if they lived in 1943 Copenhagen.
Another activity would be to have the students do some research on danish culture and history, and present their findings to the class.