Character Analysis: Charlotte’s Web
Doing character analysis is a great way to add a twist to the arts. For this project, we did one with characters from the famous children’s book, Charlott'e’s Web. This is a classic that dates back many years and still continues to be a go-to in classrooms today. Many people may stop at simply reading good books, but projects like this show that there is much more you can do with them.
What is character analysis?
A character analysis involves interpreting a work of art using the characters within it. It helps students look for visual clues to understand motives, actions, and thoughts of the different characters. Using a well-known story like Charlotte’s Web, students are able to search for these by both pictures and reading about them.
Character Analysis: Charlotte’s Web
This art project was fairly easy because all the students needed to do was draw the character and create a collage of character traits using watercolors.
Materials and Supplies
white paper for drawing the character
black construction paper for the background
scrap paper (we used newspaper)
printed character traits (can use a computer and printer)
Directions
Start by having your students think about the character they’d like to analyze. The main characters most students go for are Wilbur the pig, Charlotte the spider, Fern the little girl that adopts Wilbur, Templeton the Rat, and other farm animals. Make sure the students choose a character they are familiar with. You may have to review parts of the story to help them come up with different character traits.
This is where brainstorming comes into play. Try not to do the assignment for the students rather than allowing them time to put these together themselves. Have them write them down on a piece of or type them on a computer and print them out.
Then, lead your students through drawing the character of their choice. It doesn’t have to be perfect but having a few printed out for them to mock draw will help. Using the watercolors, let them paint their character of choice. Once it dries, have them glue it to a darker piece of paper and cut around it to create a border.
This can then be pasted to scrap paper (again, we used newspapers) and the character traits glued above the character. Everything doesn’t have to be symmetrical. In fact, allow them to be create with their character analysis posters.
Final Thoughts
This is a great art project to do if you’re looking to combine several subjects into one. It’s also fun for the students because they can be creative with it. There's an alternative way to do this project (shown below). Instead of the paper collage, they created a word cloud on the computer. This will help with working on your student’s typing skills as well!
Remember to let me know if you do this art project with your students.
