Main Character Vacation
Suitcase Book Report Projects

$4.99

Vacation Suitcase Book Report Projects: Are you looking for a creative book report project idea for your elementary school students to complete that also involves research skills?

Engage your students in reading by using this suitcase book report project that combines unique writing templates with unique writing topics. Your students will find this reading response activity fun and challenging to complete!

This set of teaching resources focuses on creative writing responses about the story's main character. At the same time, this project involves students in researching information about a country that students choose to visit with their main characters.

Based on what they have learned about their main characters from their books, students select a country that they think their characters would enjoy visiting. Your students will then plan to go on a vacation to this country with their main characters.

Prior to their vacations, students have to research the following information about their selected countries: flag, population, capital city, currency, languages, and the price of an airline ticket.

Students also have to plan what the main character will pack in his or her suitcase and the main attractions that they will visit in that particular country.

Next, students write about their favorite places that they visited in this country, items that they bought when they went shopping with their main characters, and the types of food that they ate in restaurants in this country. Finally, students explain why it is was fun to take a vacation to their selected countries with their main characters.

These fun creative writing responses are written inside unique suitcase shaped templates.

The unique suitcase graphic organizers and creative writing responses that are required for this project will make your students think about their main characters in a whole new way!

These suitcase book report projects are also a great way to add research and library skills into your reading lesson plans.

This uniquely shaped book report project contains four worksheet templates that assemble into a large suitcase. There is a fifth template that is the handle for the suitcase.

The finished vacation suitcase book report project measures 11 inches in width and 16 inches in height. Including the handle, the height of the project is 23 inches (see example on the right.)

Everything that you need to complete these vacation suitcase book report projects is included in this set of teaching resources. All that you will need is scissors, glue, tape, and coloring pencils.

There are 16 printable worksheets and template pages in this set, as well as a 5 page color bulletin board display banner.

These finished suitcase projects will make a colorful and dynamic bulletin board display of your students' work.

In addition, this set of reading resources includes 40 bulletin board accent pieces of international children carrying their country flags that can be used as accent pieces for your classroom bulletin board display.

Traditionally, requiring students to write about the main characters in the stories that they have read is a task that most students find quite boring. By using these extra large suitcase templates and planning a trip to a foreign country, your students will be excited to begin these fun book report projects.

Vacation Suitcase Book Report Projects
What's Included?

This set of teaching resources includes assembling directions on how to prepare and assemble this vacation suitcase book report project. Below is an example of the assembling directions worksheet.

A book report grading rubric is included in this set of teaching resources.

I believe that it is important for students to evaluate their own work, so my book report rubric contains an assessment section for both students and teachers.

When students evaluate their book report projects, they color in the faces on their grading rubric worksheets. When a teacher evaluates the projects, the teacher circles the small numbers inside each box on the printable worksheets.

Below is an example of my vacation suitcase book report grading rubric.

I believe that the writing process is important and that teachers should use process writing whenever possible.

For this reason, my students never begin their book report projects by writing on their final draft newspaper templates, instead they write on first draft worksheets.

Next, my students edit and revise their written work on their own, with a partner, or in individual writing conferences with me.

This vacation suitcase book report project is
divided into the following creative writing sections:

• Researching the country, flag, population, capital city, currency, languages, and price of an airline ticket
• The main attractions that we plan to visit are...
• I think that ____ would enjoy visiting ____ because...
• Packing our suitcases
• Our favorite places that we visited together
• Shopping and Restaurants
• Traveling with ____ was fun because...

Due to spelling differences in English, there are two separate sets of teaching resources for the printable worksheets and final draft suitcase templates.

You can select the version that contains the spelling that is used in the country that you live in. (Examples: color / colour and favorite / favourite)

Vacation Suitcase Book Report Projects
First Draft Worksheets:

This set of teaching resources contains four printable worksheets for students to write their first drafts on.

On my first draft worksheets, I have designed the writing line spaces to match the spaces allotted on the final draft suitcase book report templates.

First Draft Worksheet #1: Students fill in the following information.

• Name and Due Date
• Title of Book, Author, and Genre
• Draw the design for the country's flag inside the small flag
• Character's name
• Flying from _____ to ______
• Airline and the cost of the flight
• Country
• Population
• Capital City
• Currency
• Language(s)

First Draft Worksheet #2:

• Main Attactions: What are the main attractions that you and the main character from your book want to see? They can include different cities, historical sites, famous sites, amusement parks, leisure activities, and general site-seeing.
• Packing Our Suitcases: What items will you and the main character need to pack in your suitcases for this trip? Try to think of items that you would need to bring for the places that both of you are traveling to. Use your imagination! Think about your character, what personal items would he/she want to take with him/her? What hobbies and interests does the main character have?

First Draft Worksheet #3:

• Our Favorite Place That We Visited Together: What was your favorite place that you visited during your vacation? Explain why this was your favorite place, and what you and the main character did while you were there together.
• Shopping and Restaurants: What did you and the main character buy on your holiday? What kinds of foods did you enjoy eating at this country?

First Draft Worksheet #4:

• Traveling With ________ Was Fun Because: Explain why it was fun to travel on a vacation with the main character from your book. Give examples of some fun or adventurous times that you had together.

Vacation Suitcase Book Report Projects
Final Draft Templates:

This set of teaching resources includes 5 worksheet templates that are glued together to form a suitcase.

There are 4 templates that are glued together to form the rectangular suitcase shape, and the fifth template is the handle for the suitcase project.

Inside one of the boxes, students draw and color a picture of a place that they visited with the main characters in their books.

The finished vacation suitcase book report project measures 11 inches in width and 16 inches in height. Including the handle, the height of the project is 23 inches

• Top Left Template: draw and color the country flag, character's name, traveling from, traveling to, airline, price of ticket, country, population, capital city, currency, and language(s)
• Top Right Template: write and draw a picture about the main attraction, write your name in name tag area

• Bottom Left Template: packing our suitcases and our favorite place that we visited together
• Bottom Right Template: shopping, restaurants, and traveling with the character was fun because ...

When I am first introducing my students to a new book report project, I believe that it is important for them to have a visual example of what a completed project looks like.

I always complete an example of this vacation suitcase book report project before I introduce this assignment to my students.

Before my students begin writing their first drafts, I show them my finished suitcase project. This visual example immediately grabs my students' attention and they are excited to start working on this project from the very beginning.

My students also enjoy hearing about the book that I chose to do my book report project on. This is also a wonderful opportunity to share a book that I would like to encourage my students to read.

To save you time in coloring your example that you show to your students, I have included color suitcase templates in this teaching resources set. I display my finished suitcase book report at the front of my classroom so that students can refer to it as they are completing their own suitcase projects.

I know that it takes teachers a lot of time to design and assemble their classroom bulletin board displays.

Many teachers spend their valuable time cutting out large bulletin board display letters or making a banner at home on their own computers.

In order to help save you time in assembling a bulletin board display featuring your students' suitcase projects, I have designed a 5 page banner that is included for free in this set of teaching resources.

If you have access to a laminating machine, I recommend that you laminate your banner so that it will be more durable and you can use it again in the future.

EXTRA GOODIES: This main character suitcase book report set includes 40 different bulletin board accent pieces of international children carrying their country flags.

These flag decorations can be used as accent pieces on your suitcase bulletin board display.

Besides using these 40 accent pieces for this suitcase project, I am sure that there are other times during the school year that you may need displays of country flags.

I hope that these EXTRA GOODIES that are included in this set of teaching resources help save you time in decorating your suitcase bulletin board display.

There are 40 different country flag accent pieces included in this set of teaching resources, and four of them are shown below.

You will be able to design a colorful and dynamic classroom bulletin board display using your students' finished vacation suitcase book report projects.

These suitcase graphic organizers are a unique and fun way to get your students excited about completing a writing assignment about the books that they have read.

The writing responses that are required of your students will make them think about the main characters of their books in a different way.

Based on their main character's personality and interests, students have to choose a country to visit that the character would enjoy, think about what that character would pack in their suitcase, what that character would enjoy buying, and other creative responses. In addition, this book report set requires your students to complete research about a country.

This vacation suitcase book report has been one of my students' favorite projects and I hope that your students enjoy completing this fun activity as well!

$4.99

Please click on the different links below
to view the fun book report projects that
are available on Unique Teaching Resources:

I hope that your students have

completing these one of a
kind book report projects!

If you are interested in reading about ideas for more than 25 different book report projects, please click on the underlined link to go to my Book Report Templates and Projects Page.

Are looking for fun ideas for book report projects? On this page, you will find examples and pictures of the unique projects that I have designed and used with my own elementary school students.

If you are looking for some ideas on how to engage your students in reading, please be sure to visit my Book Reports page.

On this page, I describe how I have used book report projects and sticker charts to motivate my students to read books on their own.

You can read about how to engage your students in reading so that they will be excited to read books independently and enthusiastic to complete their fun book reports!