Character Traits

Teaching character traits gives students insights into what a character might do.  In the Magic Treehouse Books; Jack writes notes about the places they are going to visit and likes to be prepared.  We see this trait through out the books where he is cautious before going to a new place and as he travels around in the new place.  To teach character traits, I read the book, The Farmer, by Mark Ludy and used the anchor chart above.  I told the students that what a character does, gives us evidence to describe a character trait.  I read a page or two of the book, The Farmer, and stopped and asked the students; what did the farmer do, and what character trait would that be.  Examples from the book would be; he scratches the cow and is affectionate; he pulls the weeds and is a hard worker; he replants his crops and is persistent and patient; he takes care of the animals when a disaster strikes and is brave and caring; he gives food to his neighbors and is helpful and unselfish.
After I read the story we discussed if the farmer and the Frumps were flat or round.  Flat means the character stayed the same, and round means they changed.  We thought that the farmer was flat because he always worked hard, was loving and caring throughout the story.  We thought that the Frumps were round.  In the beginning of the story they were careless and selfish.  At the end of the story they were giving and kind.
Ex. of character traits are: silly, honest, selfish, gentle, considerate, hostile, cruel, friendly, creative, inventive, lazy, persistent, bossy, daring, adventurous, brave, timid, mischievous, wise, and cunning.
Also, discuss with your students the motivation of the character. What did the character want, and what did the character do to try to get it.  In the book Swimmy, the fish wanted to survive.  In order to survive they worked together as a team. WHEN DISCUSSING CHARACTER TRAITS AND MOTIVATION OF THE CHARACTERS, IT WILL IMPROVE STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE STORY!

Character traits from Swimmy using wordle
Next, read a different book and have students come up with character traits.  Above, the students made fish out of paper plates and wrote character traits using wordle.  Then I put them up on a bulletin board. 

Character traits of Pa Ingalls