Promotion Ideas for Phantom Tollbooth
Create a Character Collage
Materials
Students will start their collages by creating a representation of their assigned character from The Phantom Tollbooth using StoryboardThat or Character Scrapbook. The character images can be printed out and used in their character collages.
Provide magazines from which students can cut out words and phrases that describe their character. Students can surround their character image with the cut-out words. Have them write a short explanation describing their character and telling why they chose these words. Have students paste these explanations to the backs of their collages.
Display the collages in a classroom gallery. Students can try to guess who the characters are based on the words and illustrations. They can check their guesses with the answers on the back of each collage.
Materials
- Drawing Paper, crayons or markers
- Pencils
- Magazines
- Scissors
- Glue
- Partners or small groups
Students will start their collages by creating a representation of their assigned character from The Phantom Tollbooth using StoryboardThat or Character Scrapbook. The character images can be printed out and used in their character collages.
Provide magazines from which students can cut out words and phrases that describe their character. Students can surround their character image with the cut-out words. Have them write a short explanation describing their character and telling why they chose these words. Have students paste these explanations to the backs of their collages.
Display the collages in a classroom gallery. Students can try to guess who the characters are based on the words and illustrations. They can check their guesses with the answers on the back of each collage.
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How to Make a Character Collage by Author Tera Lynn Childs -- click here.
Sample collages
Other promotion ideas:
Students can be given choices from among these activities at the teacher's discretion.
Students can be given choices from among these activities at the teacher's discretion.
- King Azaz had five remarkable ministers who never used one word when five would do. They each repeated the same idea using synonyms. Out in the real world, we can use a thesaurus to find the same kinds of words that have similar meanings. Using less common words can add interest to writing and allow you to express exactly the right thought. It also prevents us from overusing plain, common words. Use a thesaurus to find five synonyms for these common words, just as the king's ministers do: said, blue, round, fat, thin, went, try, saw, tall, big. Now, you should have fifty great words to choose from! Pick one from each group and work it into a sentence.
- Norton Juster has a very descriptive writing style. Find ten examples of similes and ten examples of metaphors from the book.
- The Whether Man wasn't the usual sort of meteorologist. The book's author made a play on words based on homonyms, the words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. Many jokes and riddles rely on the same type of humor. Grab a few joke books and find ten riddles or jokes that rely on homonyms for their laughs. Make a poster to show the jokes you found.
- The Mathmagician claimed to have a Magic Pencil that could perform all kinds of tricks. He made things disappear, multiply himself, and much more. Real pencils are pretty magical too, when you think about them. Write an essay to persuade your audience that pencils are the most important tools ever invented.
- What happened when Milo, Tock and the Humbug met the Terrible Trivium? Think of ten time wasters in your own life that seem to have come from the Terrible Trivium. How can you get rid of them? Write a paragraph.
Fun Fact:
In Juster's notes and drafts, there are a number of characters for which Juster had sketched, but did not use in the final drafts:
In Juster's notes and drafts, there are a number of characters for which Juster had sketched, but did not use in the final drafts:
- The doorman, who received the package of the tollbooth
- The small wild eyed little man who kept breathlessly repeating "It's here, it's here" who in early drafts, brought the tollbooth package to the doorman. In the final draft, it is not known who brought the tollbooth, or who sent the tollbooth.
- Mr. and Mrs. Flanders, the parents of Tony (the protagonist's name in early drafts). Tony later became Milo, the latter's age and last name never said. Milo's parents do not appear.
- The Chocolate Moose, who is always afraid he is not light enough
- The Star Gazer, who wonders about everything
- The Seal of Approval which was to be one of the princesses' pets.
- The Social Lion Another which was to be one of the princesses' pets, with a pun about "reading between the lions".
- The Inventor, who never leaves well enough alone and invents improvements or things that have no use e.g. straight bananas and square oranges for easy packing in a spherical car, etc.
- The Hitch-Hiker who always leads Milo into doing things the easy way and jumping to conclusions
- The Optometrist, who fits the rose colored glasses
- The Facsimile, who can be just like everyone else
- Peter Paradox, an assistant to the Mathemagician
- The Adding Machine, a robot assistant to the Mathemagician