Character Trait Activity

Character traits give the reader insight into what a character might do next in a story. As I  read the book Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, students wrote down what Ferdinand did and said in each box. Then the students came up with character traits for Ferdinand. My students came up with; peaceful, gentle, happy and unique. When I got to the part of the book when the men choose Ferdinand for the bull fight, I had the students infer what they thought Ferdinand would do.  Since he displayed peaceful traits, many students inferred that Ferdinand would not fight.

Students drew pictures of the character on a sheet of paper with 2 cut lines.  Then they wrote what the character did and said.  Lastly, they came up with character traits. Students can pull sheet with the words through the sheet with the picture as shown on top.

Story Map Bulletin Board

Chalk by Bill Thomson is a wordless picture book.  I used this book with 3rd and 5th grade students. In the book, children find chalk at a park.  Whatever the children draw, it comes alive.  This is a great book to do inference with.  Then, the students drew pictures of the characters, setting, conflict and resolution.  This bulletin board is easy and meaningful. 

Students used artist pastels to draw pictures that were inspired by the  book Chalk. We also wrote letters to the author and added it to the bulletin board. Wow, I got a lot of compliments on it!