Curriculum › English Language Arts ›Grade 3

Grade 3 English Language Arts · Level 5, Research, Discuss, Listen, and Present

Write and Format a Simple Script

Use basic script conventions to tell a complete story, reveal character through dialogue/action, and advance the plot; treated as enrichment rather than a universal Grade 3 requirement.

How the lesson starts: Write and Format a Simple Script

1. Otis's puppet theater

   Otis the octopus runs a puppet theater. With eight arms, he can work eight puppets! But the puppets need a script. A script tells actors what to say and what to do. Let's read one!

2. A tiny script

   Here is Otis's script. It opens on a windy beach, one sunny morning. Pip holds a kite, and the string snaps. Pip says, my kite is flying away! Lola says, grab my hand. We can catch it! They leap and catch the kite.

3. Let's sort the lines

   Scripts have two kinds of lines. Dialogue shows a name in capitals, a colon, then the words the actor says. Stage directions sit inside parentheses. They tell where and when, and what actors do.