Using Animated Shorts to Teach Theme

If you are looking for some high-interest activities to enhance your theme lessons, try using animated shorts to teach the reading skill theme. This post contains the animated short film “Mater and the Ghostlight” found on YouTube and inserted in this post.

Teaching Theme with Mater and the Ghostlight [7:10]

Mater pulls a number of pranks on the other cars in Radiator Springs including moving Red’s flowers and jumping out of tires to frighten Guido and Luigi. He also dresses up as a cone vampire to scare Sally. After a while, the cars pull together to teach Mater a lesson.

Part 1

Part 2

This version uses different music.

The Handout

In this animated short, students will determine the theme for the short film. Click the button below to get the student handout and answer key.

I WANT THE HANDOUT.

What people are saying about the full unit…

Kristin

A FANTASTIC way to introduce, review and access third grader standards for CCSS. My third graders LOVED this resource during ELA time. It was engaging, easy to use and really helped engage my learners. Some videos were very short and some were 10 minutes but regardless of the length of time, my learners were glued to the video.

The handout includes the following information:

Theme

The author wants the viewer to believe in the “Golden Rule.”

Proof

Lightning McQueen states that he sure hopes Mater isn’t waiting around to scare him. This tells the audience that Mater’s pranks are commonplace and not liked.

Proof

Lightning and Guido attach a lantern to Mater’s towing cable to teach him a lesson. Mater drives up and down the road thinking he is fleeing from the Ghostlight. When Mater gets tired and slows down, he sees the light is just a lantern.

The joke teaches Mater a lesson. He now knows what the others feel like when he pulls pranks.

Theme

The author is trying to convey the message that you should be kind to others because what goes around comes around.

Proof

Mater teases Lightning McQueen when he jumps by saying he must be afraid of the Ghostlight.

The other cars decide to frighten Mater with the very thing that he was teasing McQueen about, the Ghostlight.

Proof

Mater is easy to fool. When the other cars set him up to think the Ghostlight is chasing him, Mater quakes and runs away. Later he states, “I knowed this was a joke the whole time.”

The audience knows that Mater was really afraid. He learns what it feels like to be in the center of a joke.