Students can use what they read about a character's personality to create a wanted poster. Give students a poster board or piece of construction paper on which they create a drawing based on how they think a character looks. After showing them a wanted poster, such as ones used in the Wild West, explain to them that wanted posters tell the things a person did wrong. On their posters, older elementary students can write a paragraph that talks about what the character could possibly be wanted for. Have them use clues from the story to determine what kind of traits a character had. What kind of person was he? What were his interests? What makes him different from other characters? Younger elementary students with emerging writing skills can draw pictures instead. The finished poster should have a picture of the character and a paragraph description detailing his activities, or pictures that show some of his character traits.
The mood of a story can be hard for children to understand. Find stories that are obviously happy, sad, scary or silly. Young students can determine a story's mood by talking about how they felt during a story. Did it make them feel scared? Or perhaps they thought it was funny? After reading the story, provide students with several options of dress-up clothing. Ask them to dress in the way the story makes them feel. For instance, if the story was scary, they could dress in all black or possibly a witch's outfit. Ask them to explain their choices. Ask them what happened in the story that made them feel that way.
Studying the plot can help children learn how to summarize the story. Older students can create a plot diagram that places the story's events in order, showing the rising action, climax and falling action. They can draw pictures to represent the story in a linear fashion and label these elements or write descriptive phrases. Younger students who will not be able to understand actual parts of the story can simply draw what happens in the story in order.
Point of view is an advanced story element. Children should learn to distinguish who the narrator of the story is. Tell students that the narrator of the story is the person who is telling the story. After reading a story, have them discuss who the narrator is and think about how the story would be different if another character told the story. Younger students can illustrate the story from different characters' points of view, while older students can write several diary entries from different characters' points of view.