Expose your third grade students to books about children. Mix in classics like “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens and children’s stories like the “Nancy Drew” or “Beverly Cleary” series. Include books about animals that are anthropomorphized like “Charlotte’s Web” and stories that contain characters that simply don’t exist intermingled with characters who possibly could like “The Last Unicorn.” Include a few biographies or non-fiction books for children like “LIsten to the Wind” by Greg Mortenson. After reading each book, discuss with students which characters were real and which were make believe. Discuss the difference between the stories that contain characters that could be real and characters that never could, because they simply don’t exist outside of the imagination of the authors who created them.
In conjunction with reading, engage students in story telling activities. Ask half of the class to write, illustrate and share make-believe stories about characters that do not exist in real life. Ask the other half of the students to write, illustrate and share stories about events from their own lives or from history -- stories about real people. As students share their stories, ask the class to decide whether or not the story being shared is about real or make believe characters.
Use a simple costume parade activity to further assist students distinguish between the idea of real versus make believe. Tell the students they will an entire day the following week where they can come to class in a costume. Pass out slips of paper to students so that half of the class receives a slip with a real character or person and the other half receives a slip containing the name of a mythical figure or superhero. Ask students to come to you individually if they do not know who their character is. Provide suggestions for dress up on each slip so that it is easy for parents to prepare their children's costumes for the event. Make sure that costumes can be created for $10 or less so that the exercise is not a burden to any of your students. If you are concerned about the cost of a real costume parade, have students draw pictures of their character slips instead of dressing up like them.
Play a game of “Fact or Fiction” with your third grade class. Create a grid on a piece of butcher paper filled with 40 or 50 squares. Inside of each square write a statement that is either true or false -- or fact or fiction -- to help students differentiate between real and make believe. Create four or five columns and organize statements by category into separate columns. “People,” “Places” and “Ideas” are examples of columns you could have in your game. Under the people column include a mixture of historical figures and figures you have read about in books as a class. Places should include a mixture of real places and locations they have read about or heard in stories. Ideas can be inventions and things that haven’t been invented yet such as ships with wings, human jet packs or hover boards.