Max's feelings play a key role in moving the plot forward. Students can practice reading comprehension by making comic strips of key moments in the story and illustrating his emotions through captions. For example, you could make a comic strip of Max taming the wild things by staring into their eyes, drawing his dominating, fearless facial expressions and the wild things' terrified reactions. The caption might read, "Max feels powerful." In addition to reading comprehension, students can also practice using adjectives to describe Max's emotions.
Many students will probably relate to Max when he is punished for creating "mischief" in the house. Looking at the beginning of the story, students can make a list of what Max did to be sent to his room, from his destructive antics to verbally disrespecting his mother. Then, they can practice narrative skills by illustrating times when they misbehaved, what the consequences were and how they felt afterward. You can also have them compose a brief summary of what happened to accompany the drawing, mirroring the book's style.
In the story, Max gets in touch with his inner wild thing. As a group, you can discuss what makes each of you "wild," whether it's being passionate about a sport, having a unique character trait or practicing a special talent. Then, using everyday objects like garbage bags, construction paper, streamers and pipe cleaners, students can create costumes illustrating their wild thing personalities. They can introduce themselves to the class in costume, describing how and why they are "wild." Finally, students can hold their own "wild rumpus" by having a parade around the school.
In the book, Max ultimately learns that being at home with people who love you, provide for you and do what is best for you is better than wielding power or control, and having your own way. To reinforce this moral, you can write a dialogue as a class of what happens the next time Max sees his mother. You can imagine what Max might say to her when he apologizes, what he might tell her about his journey and what he learned. By having students imagine this discussion, you can reinforce the story's themes of family, forgiveness and love.