Students learn the literary term "foil" by describing someone who would be a foil to themselves and then creating an aluminum foil representation of that person.

Materials:

• aluminum foil
• construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• crayons and/or markers

• cardboard
• yarn
• popsicle sticks
• felt

It's probably a good idea to make a model foil of your own ahead of time to show the students.

Plan:

1. Students fold a sheet of notebook paper in half. On the right side they list sevreal characteristics that describe themselves.
2. Then they write the opposite of each of those characteristics on the other half of the paper.
3. Explain to the students that the left side of the paper describes someone who is their "foil."
4. Students use aluminum foil to create a person, and they decorate that aluminum foil character to represent their foil. They may choose to represent several characteristics or just one.

Comments:

I would model each step by first listing things about myself (organized, sensitive, responsible, etc.). Then I list the opposite of each of these.

I would suggest making a model "foil" ahead of time. For mine, I might give her a backpack made of construction paper with lots of stuff coming out of it to represent disorganization and messiness.

Copyright (c) 1999 by Sheryl.