A craft project related to "Huckleberry Finn" that can add to fourth-grade pupils' understanding and enjoyment of the novel is to build a model of the raft that Huck and Jim used. Pupils can locate passages in the book that refer to the raft and use those passages to create a written description. Working with a partner, they can use the details in the description to construct a model of the raft the two friends used as they made their way down the Mississippi River.
When Pap, the town drunk and Huck’s father, comes back to town, he kidnaps Huck from the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson and holds him to get his hands on the money Huck received with Tom Sawyer. Huck runs away to Jackson’s Island. Chapters 8 through 11 contain references to Jackson’s Island, and pupils can use these references to map out the island as a craft project, using construction paper and markers. They can include such elements as the cave where Huck and Jim waited out the storm and the houseboat they raided.
Using the Mississippi River as the “line” in a time line, pupils can create a sequence of events as they happen in the novel. The story begins in the fictional town of St. Petersburg along the Mississippi and continues from there. Students can use blue reflective foil for the river, and perhaps create a legend indicating the major plot points in the story, like the incident with the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons and the Duke and the King. Pupils can use an atlas to supplement information about the river contained in the book.
Pupils can complete a craft assignment by creating a picture book that continues the novel past its ending. Pupils can work in small groups to imagine where Huck goes when the novel closes and why, his mode of transportation, several new adventures and how they changed Huck. The picture book can have an interesting cover, limited but focused text and a profusion of appropriate illustrations. Pupils can be instructed to come up with a creative way to bind the book pages together, like using yarn or ribbon.