Hatchet Through the Eyes of Forest Animals

Hatchet Through the Eyes of Forest Animals will be the culminating activity after reading Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen.

Throughout the reading of Hatchet students will meet with literature circles to discuss and analyze the story.

When students have finished reading the book they will make a list of 8-10 events that they think are the most important from Brian’s time in the Canadian Wilderness. After creating their list students will share their ten events in small groups and then work together to come to a consensus on 6 events and create a 3-4 minute video.

After deciding which six events they think are the most important the group will then choose from which animal’s perspective they will tell Brian’s story. The script will then be written to share the animal’s observations, thoughts, and emotions of the six events from his plane crash arrival to his rescue.

Following the writing of the script each group will use a storyboard to plan their video. On the storyboard they will sketch what is going to be in the scene and where the scene is going to take place. (At our school we are blessed to have a large wooded area on our school property. There will be many different locations that will be appropriate for the groups to record their videos). Each group member will be required to run the camera, narrate the animal’s point of view, and act as Brian at least two times. They will include on the storyboard what each group members’ role will be in the six scenes.

After video recording has been done students will add titles and credits using video editing software.

To conclude the activity students will share their videos with the class and then upload the videos to our class’s YouTube page.