Lesson plan and printables to accompany reading Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. This lesson relates to satire and is suitable for younger grades as well as middle grades. I used it with my 2nd grader and my 5th grader.

The book that we are using is Treasury of Illustrated Classics.

We read about a chapter a day. It's a nice break from math or maps, both of which cause tears.

I've tried using this as a read-aloud opportunity, but some of the words are hard to pronounce. Also, I find that my kids tend to not pay attention to the content and focus merely on reading. So, instead, I do all the reading - pausing to explain as often as needed - and leave their read-aloud practice for less complicated stories.

The kids are really enjoying the story. Who wouldn't enjoy a tale about a man who found a country of people the size of Barbies?

After reading several chapters, we began discussing the meaning of satire. I handed out these printouts (which I trimmed to size and folded so that they could read the name, but had to open it for the definition).

Types of satire handout

I created this sheet to lead my discussion with the girls: Satire Lesson Plan for the Teacher

This satire lesson plan takes elements from every language, Dr. Seuss, Gulliver's Travels, and the Disney TV show, So Random. Just follow along with the Satire Lesson Plan for the Teacher, asking questions and getting input from your kids.

Next, we watched Shrek 2. You can really watch Shrek or Shrek 3, too. We just happened to have Shrek 2 on hand. (It was actually in its case.) This was the best part of the lesson! =)

We discussed how the movie satirizes fairy tales. The girls each filled out the third square in their types of satire handout.

Next, I asked my girls to come up with their own satires. They could write a book, make a movie, do a music video or do whatever creative project that they wished. They did so amazing!

My 2nd grader wrote a Barbie book. But instead of Barbie turning into a mermaid or a fairy, she turned into a pig. Excellent! My 5th grader filmed a commercial for "Peepkinz," People Webkinz. She totally satirized commercials. I will post on my blog their projects when they are completely done. So check back at Making Homeschool Fun.