A theme is a central idea, subject, or message in a story. Many stories have more than one important theme. For this activity, students will identify and illustrate 2 of the themes in The Wild Robot. Teachers may want the students to identify and illustrate 2 themes, one for each cell, or identify one theme and show two examples of it, one example per cell.
In this story, family members may not look alike or even be in the same species, but that does not matter. Being a part of a family is all about love, trust, and loyalty.
Although Roz does not eat or breathe, she is seemingly very much “alive”. She has emotions and the survival instinct that she learns from observing the animals. Although a manufactured robot, Roz also has the ability to feel compassion, empathy, and love.
When Roz first arrived on the island, the animals were immediately afraid of her and called her a “monster”, even though they knew nothing about her. Without even trying, Roz taught them all the important lesson to accept others, no matter what they look like.
Although at the beginning of the story the others were afraid of Roz and did not want her there, when it came time to help save her from being taken away, everyone pitched in. This sense of cooperation made everyone closer and more like a family.
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Due Date:
Objective: Create a storyboard that identifies recurring themes in The Wild Robot. Illustrate instances of each theme and write a short description below each cell.
Student Instructions:
Remind students that another way to say theme is lesson, and a theme in a story or novel is the lesson that students learn after reading it. Stories often have more than one theme, and readers learn something about life after they read the book.
Once students understand the definition of theme, discuss the lessons learned in any book or movie as a class. This can help fast learners to take some leadership, while struggling learns can see a lot of examples that will help them.
Visual aids assist students in learning. Using a storyboard that shows the theme and an illustration will help to cement the ideas for students, especially those who are struggling.
A theme is what the reader learns about life after reading a story. Therefore, themes are very important because learning lessons about life is one of the key reasons people read, especially young people.
There are several important themes in The Wild Robot that students can learn about. For instance, it teaches children to accept others who are different than they are and it teaches about the importance of family.