Percy Jackson and The Olympians The Lightning Thief Creative Novel Activities

Percy Jackson and The Olympians The Lightning Thief Creative Novel Activities: This resource includes 19 ready-to-use activities and assignments to help students respond to Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rock Riordan. The activities in this bundle are engaging and interactive and allow students to form connections and analyze the novel. The assignments are fun and creative and will also meet many ELA skills and standards. 

Included in This Percy Jackson and The Lightning Theif Activity Bundle:

Chapters 1 - 4

➡️ The Myth of Kronos Readers Theater: In these chapters, Percy briefly retells the Myth of Kronos during his class field trip. This activity allows students to learn even more about this myth in a fun and creative way. Students will work in groups to perform a reader's theater performance of this myth with a ready-to-use script written in a modern language. The script is written in a fun and humorous way, so students will be immediately engaged while also learning about the details of this Greek myth.

➡️ Track Percy's Journey Across America: In Percy's journey to locate Zeus' thunderbolt, he makes his way to many different locations in the US. Introduce this assignment that students will use throughout the novel to track Percy's journey from across the country. He will make visits to cities in New York, Missouri, Colorado, Nevada, and California! 

➡️ Ancient Greece Art Museum Virtual Field Trip: Help build up your students' background knowledge on Ancient Greek figures referenced in the novel with an interactive museum field trip (just like Percy takes in these chapters). Click on the various art exhibits to learn more about them and then return back to the museum. A graphic organizer is provided for students to jot down what they learn about each.

➡️ Percy's Victories Assignment: Students will use what they learned about art inspired by ancient Greece during their virtual field trip to create their own work of art using the medium of their choice (paint, color-pencils, clay, digital art) that depicts the tale of Percy’s victories over Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur in these chapters. Planning pages and templates are provided.

Chapters 5 - 7

➡️ Design Camp Half-Blood: In these chapters, Percy receives a tour of Camp Half-Blood. Students will use the quotes that describe the different areas of the camp and plan out a recreation of it in the form of a 2-D architectural design. They can include drawings, images, and color to represent the different areas of the camp like the farmhouse, activity centers, woods, and the cabins. 

➡️ Camp Half-Blood Greek Gods Cabins Matching Game: These chapters provide a description of each of the cabins at Camp Half-Blood for each of the twelve Olympians, but the author does not name the god that each cabin is connected to. This fun activity includes a two-page article that introduces each of the Olympians, and students must use text evidence from the article and the novel to match up which god is associated with which cabin! 

Chapters 8 - 10

➡️ Capture the Flag Game: In these chapters, Percy and his fellow campmates play a game of Capture the flag. Bring this into your own classroom by splitting up the class into groups and having each group use text evidence to learn the rules of the game, plan and design their own flag, and actually play the game in your school gym or a large area where students can move around! Detailed instructions for how to set up, play, and win the game are provided in an interactive slideshow.

➡️ The Greek Alphabet Activity: Annabeth teaches Percy Greek in these chapters. Have your students empathize with Percy by introducing them to the Greek alphabet and having them practice writing the letters and forming their own names. 

Chapters 11 - 14

➡️ Mortal Vs. Gods Newscast: These chapters include media from the mortal world that reveal the false perspective that humans have on Percy’s quest. Students will work with a partner to take on the role of newscaster and do two newscasts on events from the quest. The first newscast will be from the mortal world, and the second will be on the same topic, but it will be a newscast for the gods! Students must consider how similar events would be viewed differently by humans and the gods or half-bloods. This can be performed in front of the class or recorded on video. The resource includes a variety of graphic organizers with prompts for preparing the newscast.

➡️ Percy Jackson Wanted Poster: Students must imagine that they are a police officer in the moral world who is creating a wanted poster for Percy Jackson for the human crimes he has committed. The resource includes a planning page with prompting questions to find text evidence and a wanted poster template to create their final design. 

Chapters 15 - 16

➡️ Design your own Camp Half-Blood Necklace: In these chapters, we learn that the counselors at Camp Half-Blood choose the most important event of each summer and paint it on a bead. Have students design and create their own Camp Half-Blood necklace that features the most important events of their life. They choose symbols to represent each bead and explain the meaning behind each. 

➡️ Writing a Letter to Annabeth's Dad: Annabeth reveals more about her difficult past with her dad in these chapters, and Percy suggests she write him a letter. Taking Percy’s suggestion, students will take on the perspective of Annabeth and write a letter to her dad (using text evidence) before they continue their quest to the Underworld. 

➡️ The Lotus Hotel Attractions: Percy and his friends become entrapped in The Lotus Hotel and Casino. Students will choose five new attractions that they think would entrap them and their peers for the longest amount of time. They will describe the attractions they would include, explain why they chose these specifically, and design a symbol to represent each one.

Chapters 17 - 19

➡️ The Underworld Death Boarding Pass: When the trio goes into the elevator with Charon to the Underworld, they notice every soul is “holding a green boarding pass.” Students will create boarding passes for different characters (Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Sally) to show their understanding of their character traits. They will need to consider each character’s achievements on Earth and the best rewards and punishments that the character might receive in the afterlife.

➡️ Similes of the Underworld Game: In this fun game, students will be provided simile starters related to the underworld. Each group member except one will complete the simile, and the other member will choose which completed simile is the best. The person whose simile is chosen gets a point! 

Chapters 20 - 22

➡️ The Hero's Journey: Teach students about all the parts of the hero's journey with a presentation, handout, and circular graphic. Then, have them apply what they learned to The Lightning Thief to determine if it follows this pattern. A detailed answer key is provided.

➡️ Final Creative Projects: Have students choose between 4 final creative project options to show their understanding and analysis of the novel.

➡️ Movie Novel Comparison & Review: Show students the film version of the novel and have them write the differences between the film and the novel version. An assignment is also included for writing a film review of the adaptation! 

➡️ Final Essay Topics: Have students write a final essay with these four essay topics that will allow them to explore a topic throughout the novel.

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