Help students use written text to determine the setting of a story with a drawing game. Read a story to your class but do not show them any pictures. After reading the story, talk to students about where and when the story takes place based on clues in the text. Provide paper and markers and encourage students to draw a picture of the setting of the story based on the clues from the text. Show student the pictures from the book and see whose drawings are the closest to the actual setting.
Test students' abilityies to put a plot in the correct sequence with a game. After reading a story, ask students to choose the five main events of the story. Give each student five large blank index cards and ask them to draw the main events that they chose. Ask students to shuffle their cards and swap them with a partner. Encourage the partners to try to put the cards in order based on the story.
Use picture books to help students guess the setting of a story. Choose a few picture books with clear settings that your students have not read before. Cover the text in each book with black construction paper. Ask students to work in groups to determine the setting of a book based on the pictures. Encourage students to guess where and when the story takes place; for example, on a farm, on an island or New York City. After students have made their guesses, ask them to remove the paper and read the story to see if their guesses were correct.
Encourage students to act out the plot of the story. Place students in groups. Encourage students to read the story again, then ask them to pick out the main events of the story. Ask students to work together to act out the main events of the story for the rest of the class. Invite the rest of the class to guess which book the group is acting out and give a prize to the best or most popular play.