Creative Teaching Resources for
by C.S. Lewis (1950)
This classic fantasy adventure story is one your kids will remember all their lives, along with its important themes of forgiveness, selflessness, and the ultimate triumph of good over evil. (You can read more about it in our Learning Links section, farther down.)
Our activities help bring these themes to kids' hands and hearts, but reading the book JUST FOR FUN is the first and most important step. Don't skip it! And this means you too! It's perfectly okay to listen to it being read, but watching the movie doesn't count.
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Our short video explains how C.S. Lewis grew up, and what made him tick. It's a great discussion starter, and we've got a worksheet for author note-taking. This helps them notice how his life shows up in his book, as authors always do.
Includes author worksheet
A LitWits activity from the Exposition
A wardrobe project
If anyone knows anything about this story, it's that it all starts with a magical portal into another world—a portal given in the title itself. What kid hasn't dreamed of walking into their closet and finding a fairyland behind all the clothes? We know we did! Sadly, all we ever found was the wall. Lucy's closet was different though, and her find (and Edward's scoffing disbelief of her) is what gets things rolling, AND gets us hooked!
So we had to recreate that magical experience. And you can too!
YES. Come with us and see! (Turn your sound way up first!)
Includes artwork for this activity
A LitWits activity from the Conflict
A taste of the story
BookBites is the part of our literary experience when we get to “taste the story.” We choose a food right out of the book, and it has to meet at least one criterion:
it’s important to a plot point
it has thematic significance
it’s unfamiliar for reasons of culture, era, or location
Another of the most memorable scenes is that of naughty Edmund gobbling down "several pounds" of the White Witch's Turkish Delight—so we had to recreate that magical, fateful, life-changing experience for our workshop kids, too. There was absolutely nothing in it for us. Oh no no no. It was all for the kids.
INSPIRATION
The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious. —Ch. 4
So of course, we had to serve it up in "a round box, tied with green silk ribbon . . ."
SUPPLIES
SEVERAL POUNDS OF THE BEST TURKISH DELIGHT!! (or however much YOU need)
round silver-colored tins
green ribbons
While gobbling, we all thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie clip of Edmund's temptation—keep an eye on the dwarf, too. 🤣
A LitWits activity from the Rising Action
A charades activity
This activity recreates that moment when Edmund sneaks off to the Witch's house and sees all the creatures the evil queen had turned into stone. You might want the kids to do the vocabulary worksheet about mythical creatures in this excerpt too, either before or after.
INSPIRATION
As he got into the middle of it he saw that there were dozens of statues all about—standing here and there rather as the pieces stand on a chessboard when it is halfway through the game. There were stone satyrs, and stone wolves, and bears and foxes and cata-a-mountains [wildcats] of stone. There were lovely stone shapes that looked like women but who were really the spirits of trees. There was the great shape of a centaur and a winged horse and a long lithe creature that Edmund took to be a dragon. They all looked so strange standing there perfectly life-like and also perfectly still, in the bright cold moonlight, that it was eerie work crossing the courtyard. —Ch. 9
Read that excerpt aloud, then
TELL THE KIDS . . .
From that spooky description, we want you to choose a creature - a satyr, wolf, bear, fox, wildcat, tree-spirit, centaur, winged horse, dragon, or some other mythical being - and pretend you’re IT for a minute. Make the face, do the claw thing, point your horn, whatever you gotta do to be that creature!
Now FREEZE!! You've been cursed by the White Witch! FREEZE until ASLAN BREATHES ON YOU!
Okay now you’re free. As you were.
A LitWits activity from the Rising Action:
An artsy, theme-symbolic booklet
This flower-blooming, bee-buzzing project lets kids “be Aslan” for a few minutes, and change a cold white world of despair and hate into a warm colorful one full of hope and love.
SETUP
The Witch prefers perpetual cold in an all-white setting—but that's not going to hold up under Aslan's presence. As he nears, her harsh world starts to melt. The slush forces her sledge to stop, and as her prisoner Edmund walks, hands tied behind his back, he sees beautiful flowers and birds, and then the trees shake free of snow too.
INSPIRATION
The trees began to come fully alive. The larches and birches were covered with green, the laburnums with gold. Soon the beech trees had put forth their delicate, transparent leaves. As the travelers walked under them the light also became green. A bee buzzed across their path. —Ch. 11
Aslan's return is causing a thaw—but no! "This is no thaw," as the dwarf says, "This is Spring!"
MEANING
What a transition, and not just in the weather! It's also a symbol of Edmund's transition from his wounded, seemingly cold-hearted state to forgiveness, redemption, and renewal. And it's a turning point in the plot, as Aslan's return begins the conquest of the witch and her evils. In the bigger picture, of course, spring is ALL about the return to life, and beauty, and ever-ongoing change.
Includes templates for this activity
A LitWits activity from the Falling Action
A planting activity
To go with the other ideas of renewal and the power of life over death, we had our kids fill their own little vial with poppy seeds and crocus bulbs, which were among the first signs of healing in Narnia. Then they sealed the vial with "wax" and stamped it with the official seal of King Aslan.
SETUP
Edmund redeems himself in the battle against the White Witch's forces and saves the day, but now he's pale and weak. Aslan reminds Lucy of the special present Father Christmas had given her, and she uses it to save her brother, and others too.
INSPIRATION
[Father Christmas] gave her a little bottle of what looked like glass (but people said afterward that it was made of diamond) and a small dagger. “In this bottle,” he said, “there is a cordial made of the juice of one of the fireflowers that grow in the mountains of the sun. If you or any of your friends is hurt, a few drops of this will restore them.” -Ch. 10
SUPPLIES
small vials with stoppers or lids
Optional: vials and/or crocus bulbs can be placed in 4x6 muslin bags
The worksheets and printables used for our activities are sold as a complete set. Activity instructions and CCSS for the comprehensive use of our teaching ideas and materials is also included for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6.
We read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as kids, and like every other young reader, we had to go into our closets, push through the clothing and feel for the cold wintry air of Narnia. With such certainty that it could be there, it was terribly disappointing to come up against nothing but stucco. But the residue of this experience has been a lifelong fascination with portals, both real and imagined, and a deep belief in the magic that lies on The Other Side.
So we chose this fine book for one of our experiential workshops. It's packed with great takeaway topics, which we're sharing below. In our workshops, we did our best to make these teaching points tangible, meaningful, and memorable in the kids' hands. It's amazing how much kids can learn while they're "just" having fun!
Happy teaching,
Becky and Jenny
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Takeaway 1
Though this story is packed with Christian concepts, there's an umbrella theme here of right conquers wrong—not only in the ongoing war between the witch and Aslan, but in the way that war plays out in Edmund. Long before he's tempted by the Queen of Narnia, we know he's dealing with dual forces inside.
The takeaway for kids is that while his choices make us grit our teeth, we're rooting for him to do better. As he finds his way there, we feel with him. We too have felt his emotions, had his poor judgment, and made his mistakes. But his own efforts, like Aslan's sacrifice, serve everyone collectively too. In the end, we realize that if he and Aslan can triumph over evil, we too can hold out against the forces that tempt us each day. As long as one of them isn't Turkish Delight.
Takeaway 2
Though none of Lucy's siblings believe her at first, it's Edmund who makes her most miserable. But whose problem is meanness, really? Doesn’t it do even more harm to the one who’s being mean? That would be Edmund. And remember, we’re told near the end that he started to be mean when he went off to a certain school. Maybe mean kids were mean to him there, and he got mean too.
The takeaway for kids is that we can’t wait for him to get BETTER, and his redemption, not only by Aslan's sacrifice but by Edmund's conscious choices to do the right thing, makes us ALL feel much better. That's the nature of redemption, to give someone, and everyone in relationship with that someone, a fresh start, full of brand new chances to do the right thing.
Takeaway 3
A remarkable human being and legendary author, C.S. Lewis provides models of living and writing to which children and adults alike can aspire.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is chock-full of other subjects to explore, too. Scroll down to see our curated Learning Links for more tangential teaching opportunities.
Set includes all worksheets and activity printables
Explore these links to supplement your reading experience, research points of interest, and prompt tangential learning opportunities.
About the Book & Author
"The Lion King: C.S. Lewis' Narnia isn't simply a Christian allegory" - Slate
C.S. Lewis Research Collection - Wheaton College
Journal of Inklings Studies - Oxford
American poet and writer Joy Davidman, Lewis's wife - Wikipedia
Eagle & Child Inn (pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien often met) - Oxford History
About The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe including synopsis, allusions, religious themes, and adaptations - Wikipedia
Reviews for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Story Supplements
"Children from Overseas" - 10-min 1940 film - National Film Board of Canada
Article and photos of children sent away from London during the Blitz - DailyMail
"Childen and World War Two" - History Learning Site
Images of antique English wardrobes - Google search
Magical creatures in the Chronicles of Narnia - Wikipedia
"The Story Behind Turkish Delight" - Deraliye Restaurant
"How Two Armenian Immigrants Made Turkish Delight an American Hit" - NPR
Set includes all worksheets and activity printables
Set includes all worksheets and activity printables
Set includes all worksheets and activity printables