Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Character Traits

We are just beginning to study character traits.  I am using all the cute anchor charts from Pinterest...I'm sure you've seen them!
Here's one...
 


I am also teaching the kids to really understand not only what a character trait is, but how we figure out what the character's trait is and why it's so important to know that. 

These are the essential questions we go over EVERY DAY when teaching character traits:

*How do you learn about a character's traits?
 
*Why is it so important to learn about a character's traits?
 
 
I am using the FAST acronym to help the kids answer the first essential question: How do you learn about a character's traits.
 
Pay attention to the character's...
Feelings
Actions
Sayings
Thoughts
 
I'm sure you've seen this before... I saw it on Pinterest. I made this little page to add to the reader's notebook.  I plan to use it after read-alouds so we can write down our evidence that helps us figure out a character's traits.  Write the character's name in the diamond and the evidence in each section.
 
 

I also plan to have the kids make this little flip book to add to the reader's notebooks.  They will write down the answers to the essential questions under the flap.
 
 
Under the first flap: How do you learn about a character?
We will write:
Pay attention to the character's:
Feelings
Actions
Sayings
Thoughts
 
Under the second flap: Why is it important to learn about a character's Traits?
We will write:
To understand the character.
To understand and connect with the story.
 
 
A few of my favorite read-alouds for character traits are:
 
*Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters
by- John Steptoe
 
*The Memory String
by- Eve Bunting
 
*A Day's Work
by-Eve Bunting
 
*Stellaluna
by-Janell Cannon
 
*A Bad Case of Stripes
by- David Shannon
 
 
 
Here's a short little quiz over character traits that also includes the essential questions.
 
 
 
 
 
My kids love to use the QR codes to check their answers, so I made another activity using QR codes.  They choose a character traits that describes the character in the short passage.  On some of these, they also have to list the clues that helped them figure out the character trait. 
 
 




I hope you find something useful here!