Title: Why the Banana Split and Other Personifications

Created by: Daniel Baumgardner

Target Age : Fourth grade
Target Length: 50 minutes
Content Areas: English comprehension, Theatre, Literacy
Goals/Learning Objectives:
Students will understand the concept of changing parts of speech
Students will explore creating characters through personification
Materials:
Why the Banana Split by Rick Walton
Matching worksheet with columns of objects and what they are used for (examples in text)
Crayons, enough to share
IPod, CD, MP3 player, some sort of music
a CD player, speakers, something to play music through.
Engagement/Hook (10 mins):
1) Ask the students to find their own place throughout the room
2) Have the students become an object that they love, be it a toy, a stuffed animal, sports
equipment, book, etc.. The only exception is that the object must be an inanimate object. Once
in this static position, have the students first think about what it is that that object does, what its
function is. If the object is normally stationary, have the students imagine the object being used
by a person.
3) On the count of five, have the students act out what it was they were thinking that their object
does at half speed, or slow motion. Side coach as necessary. If a student is having trouble being
a book without a reader, become a reader and improvise for a moment. Encourage the students
to work together, but to use only their movements and not their voices. This could be a perfect
place for a short bit of music.
4) On the count of five, have the students return to normal. What were they? What was their
function? Was it easy to animate something that is normally stationary?
Process/Presentation:
Section 1 (10 mins):
1) Seat the students in a circle in the middle of the room.
2) Pass out the matching worksheet to each student and allow them to grab one crayon.
3) Explain to the students that the object of the worksheet is to match the object listed in the left
column to what the object does in the right column.
4) Once the students have completed, or almost completed, the worksheet, ask the students to
volunteer and act out one of their favorite matching answers. Continue this until each volunteer
has been able to participate.
5) Now ask the students to think if there is anyway to alter what they have done without changing
the words they originally worked from. Give an example such as, 'The tape stuck around' could

mean that the tape was stuck, or that it stayed around to play with its friends. Have the students
volunteer to act out their examples like before, but in this different way. This can also be
accomplished in small groups of two to three.
6) Back in the group circle, ask the students if they could see the differences between the two
meanings of the same phrase. Could they see how changing the type of speech of one of the
words could drastically change what the sentence said? What were the parts of speech being
altered?
Section 2 (10 mins):
1) While the students are still in the circle, begin reading Why the Banana Split.
2) Once the story has been read, ask the students what their favorite page of the book or favorite
term from the matching sheet was. Why was this their favorite? If the objects weren't being
personified, what would the sentences on the page or worksheet be explaining or showing?
3) Ask the students if there are any objects beyond what was on the worksheet or in the book
whose functions could be personified in this way. If there are few suggestions, look around the
room and choose random items. Ask the students what their functions are, and if they could be
turned around in this manner. A volunteer can act out what the group has said about each object.
Section 3 (15 mins):
1) Ask the students to find their own place throughout the room.
2) Have the students imagine their favorite page of the book. Tell them, Begin becoming that
character and slowly transform over the count of five. Make sure to tell the students to only
participate with their bodies, and not their voices, even if in the book the object used their
voices. How can you become the shoppers without making a sound?
3) You may now ask the students if any of them have any other ideas for objects that could be used
and their actions. Ask the students with ideas to become those characters, while others remain
characters from the book.
4) Have the students go about a normal day as their character. How would a jump rope greet a
jackhammer? Encourage the use of voices now if they can be maintained at a healthy level.
5) Teacher in Role, come in as the dinosaur from the story. Ask the students how they would
respond, but to try to escape in slow motion or half speed. The teacher may chase also in half
speed.
6) Bring this activity to a rest by sitting and asking the students to create the circle one last time.
7) Ask each student what it was they became and what it was they did to escape. Did anyone use
teamwork to escape? Since the dinosaur only ate fruit, were there any students that became
something that could not have come back into town?
Reflection/Closure (5 mins):
1) Ask the students to reflect on the activities that they did today. What was it like to become
something that normally doesn't move? What happened when we changed the type of speech of
one word in each of these sentences? Did that help you create your characters? What will the
students take away from these exercises