As we have entered the month of August, every teacher, whether she likes it or not, starts thinking about school. Some of us have dreams (or nightmares). Some of us go on a Pinterest spree. We walk through Target and ask ourselves "What do I 'need' from the dollar section?" You don't do this? Okay, maybe it's just me. Anyway, we are also thinking about what were some of our students' challenges last year, and how we will address them this year. My third and fourth graders had difficulty with vocabulary and making inferences, which was evident in how they would describe their characters: Nice Mean Sad Oh my. So late last school year, I developed this chart of character traits with the intention of helping students organize their thinking when selecting a character trait. Traits are arranged in alphabetical order in the following categories: nice/mean/sad, confident/nervous, and does a lot/does very little. The rest of the categories are partially alphabetical and having a corresponding opposite. This year I will be teaching second graders, so I'm thinking how I will adjust this chart to better suit their developmental abilities: Less words? Words that are more relevant to a second grade schema? Some pictures or graphics to support the vocabulary? Some food for my thought... Many teachers or parents who have downloaded this chart seemed very happy, and I'm happy that they're happy!! Update: Hello there, long time friend! If you found this resource useful for your students, please check out my Character Feelings blog post and TPT product!
Analyzing character traits is a key fiction reading skill that is needed for successful comprehension. In most cases, authors do not just come out and tell readers the traits that a character possesses. By teaching
Understanding characters can be tricky! Learn my favorite strategies for helping students master character traits and changes.
Writers Write is your one-stop writing resource. These lists will help you select the character traits you need for the characters in your books.
Time for another freebie! This one gives you organized lists of over 200 character traits words! Sorted for you by synonyms and by positive/negative, these handy lists take all the guesswork out of expanding your students' character trait vocabulary!
Understanding characters can be tricky! Learn my favorite strategies for helping students master character traits and changes.
Ready to help your students move beyond "nice" and "mean" when describing characters? Here are 6 ways to build their character traits vocabulary!
Writers Write is your one-stop writing resource. These lists will help you select the character traits you need for the characters in your books.
This poster is the perfect reference for teaching your students to distinguish between character traits and physical traits. The posters are offered in different colors and with different clipart kids. This set of posters includes color and black/white choices. Just choose your favorite, print, an...
Understanding characters is an essential part of reading comprehension, so today I’m going to share part one in a two part post on how to teach character traits. Watch the Facebook live video about this topic here. (Click here to skip to part two.) Like many lessons, I start with a hook. I ask my students to partner up…
Grades 1-5 are all in the midst of a character unit in Reading Workshop. This week, I thought I might focus a bit on what a character trait is. According to Yourdictionary.com, character traits are "all the aspects of a person’s behavior and attitudes that make up that person’s personality. Everyone has character traits, both good and bad. Even characters in books have character traits. Character traits are often shown with descriptive adjectives, like patient, unfaithful, or jealous." They have a nice post that analyzes them a bit. http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples/character-trait-examples.html If you think about character traits and feelings like the weather in Chicago, it can be a helpful metaphor. Around here, the day can start sunny, turn into a cloudy, rainy day, and then end with snow. Those are all examples of a character's feelings. They change like the wind (quite literally, in this metaphor). Character traits are more like the climate. The general type of weather we have in the winter last for a long time. That is more like a character trait. Traits don't change nearly as often as feelings, just like climate doesn't change as often as the weather. This teacher does a nice job explaining how she teaches character traits, with the common core in mind, in third grade. I especially like the scaffolding she does with her kids. She has them start with just finding examples of a single trait in their reading. Then, she moves on to finding support in the text to show the trait using her read alouds first, before releasing it to the kids independently. They even think about their own traits in the process! This is hard work. Giving the kids scaffolded release will really help them become more independent. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/11/teaching-character-traits-readers-workshop Here is a pinterest board on both character traits and feelings. Really, they are both lessons on inferring. Inferring feelings AND character traits are important. It is just helpful for the kids to know the difference. There are some good ideas to help with this on the board. http://www.pinterest.com/julia_burrows/character-traits-and-feelings/ Have fun exploring character in your classroom! It will really boost the level of the conversations you have with the kids when they take the time to really understand character traits.
Dig deep to really get to know the characters.
Writing your next book starts HERE
Anchor chart inspiration for elementary teachers. Use my Not-So-Pinteresty Anchor Charts for Reading, Math, Grammar, and Writing.
These books are the perfect mentor texts and books to teach main character and character traits in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.
Character Traits Worksheet Pdf. Character Traits Worksheet Pdf. Characterization Worksheets
Ready to help your students move beyond "nice" and "mean" when describing characters? Here are 6 ways to build their character traits vocabulary!
Anchor chart inspiration for elementary teachers. Use my Not-So-Pinteresty Anchor Charts for Reading, Math, Grammar, and Writing.
These character traits lists can be used to help expand your students' character trait vocabulary. You can use them in a display or bulletin board, to help you create a word wall, to have students include them in their reading notebooks, writing notebooks, interactive notebooks, or ELA journals, and more. There are 4 lists: 1. Character Trait Synonyms - This list includes common character traits and their synonyms - especially helpful for getting students to use words other than "nice" or mean" when describing a character. 2. Positive Character Traits - A list of character traits that are generally considered to be desirable. 3. Negative Character Traits - A list of character traits that are generally considered to be undesirable. 4. Neutral Character traits - A list of character traits that are more neutral, or can be positive or negative depending on the situation. The preview shows all 4 lists and the words included in the lists. Help your 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade students build a better vocabulary! Save over 30% when you buy this as part of my Character Traits Bundle! If you are trying to expand your students' character trait vocabulary, then you might like my resource Building Character Trait Vocabulary. Kalena Baker, Teaching Made Practical
Looking for a list of positive character traits? Here's a list of 100 good character traits and qualities with examples.
These books are the perfect mentor texts and books to teach main character and character traits in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.
Character Traits Worksheet Pdf. Character Traits Worksheet Pdf. Characterization Worksheets
Writing your next book starts HERE
Free Printable Good Character Traits List. Free Printable Good Character Traits List that you can use to teach your students about Good Character Traits at school. The Good Character Traits List includes the 210 Good Character Traits organized in alphabetical order. Print all Good Character Traits List that you need to hand out to your children at home or students
Teach upper elementary students about character traits by having them analyze their characters' feelings, actions, thoughts, and dialogue within the story. This blog post contains everything you need for a complete character traits lesson... for free! The reading passages on the anchor chart, the sentence strip activity, and the interactive notebook foldable are all free!
These character traits lists can be used to help expand your students' character trait vocabulary. You can use them in a display or bulletin board, to help you create a word wall, to have students include them in their reading notebooks, writing notebooks, interactive notebooks, or ELA journals, and more. There are 4 lists: 1. Character Trait Synonyms - This list includes common character traits and their synonyms - especially helpful for getting students to use words other than "nice" or mean" when describing a character. 2. Positive Character Traits - A list of character traits that are generally considered to be desirable. 3. Negative Character Traits - A list of character traits that are generally considered to be undesirable. 4. Neutral Character traits - A list of character traits that are more neutral, or can be positive or negative depending on the situation. The preview shows all 4 lists and the words included in the lists. Help your 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade students build a better vocabulary! Save over 30% when you buy this as part of my Character Traits Bundle! If you are trying to expand your students' character trait vocabulary, then you might like my resource Building Character Trait Vocabulary. Kalena Baker, Teaching Made Practical
Hi all! The big day is Tuesday! That's my first day back with my little sweeties. I'm getting excited and nervous. Yeah, can you believe after all these years of teaching I still get excited and nervous! I'm starting again this year with 30 firsties and I'm sure it will increase. I guess I should be used to it but I don't think I ever will. I thought I'd share with everyone some little tools I print to have on hand when I'm working in guided reading with my kiddos. I print several copies and have a stack of each of these by my reading table so I can quickly grab some for my lessons. Let me start by telling you that I tell my firsties they are 'smart readers under construction'. We talk about what that means and I tell them I am going to help them in every way become a smart reader. I love the word 'smart' more than 'better'. It seems more positive to me. When I think of 'better', I think well maybe I'm not very good to start with and I want my kiddos the think of themselves as good reader and I'm just going to help them be smarter reader. The first is sorting pages. I have 2, 3, 4, and 5 way sort pages. I use these a ton of ways. I might have them list short vowel words, long & short vowels, word families, inflectional endings, root word and ending, suffixes, prefixes, characters and describing words, who & what, hard & soft c or g words, the list can go on and on. Sometimes I give the words, sometimes they find the words in their reading. You can use it with the low, middle and high kids. It's open to whatever you can think of to use it with. It's a fun, quick easy practice or assessment for your kiddos. I don't make them into a booklet because I want the kids to take them home so parents can see what we are doing. The next one is the character sheet. I use this one a lot especially after I've taught describing words. I can generally use this one at the beginning of the year with my high students too. Another one I use is Did You Know. This one is great for non-fiction books. These sheets don't have to be used only in guided reading. Sometimes I'll use them with the whole class like when I read Boxcar Children. We fill out a 4-way sort on the four characters and what we know about them. There are so many possibilities, just use your creativity. If you'd like a FREE download just click HERE. Oh and some super GOOD NEWS- I have a new grandson!! This is Elijah Ray Robison. Born August 15th. He was 10 lbs. 5 ounces. My daughter has BIG boys! I just LOVE all the dark soft hair! Thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone has a terrific week!
Understanding characters can be tricky! Learn my favorite strategies for helping students master character traits and changes.
As we have entered the month of August, every teacher, whether she likes it or not, starts thinking about school. Some of us have dreams (or nightmares). Some of us go on a Pinterest spree. We walk through Target and ask ourselves "What do I 'need' from the dollar section?" You don't do this? Okay, maybe it's just me. Anyway, we are also thinking about what were some of our students' challenges last year, and how we will address them this year. My third and fourth graders had difficulty with vocabulary and making inferences, which was evident in how they would describe their characters: Nice Mean Sad Oh my. So late last school year, I developed this chart of character traits with the intention of helping students organize their thinking when selecting a character trait. Traits are arranged in alphabetical order in the following categories: nice/mean/sad, confident/nervous, and does a lot/does very little. The rest of the categories are partially alphabetical and having a corresponding opposite. This year I will be teaching second graders, so I'm thinking how I will adjust this chart to better suit their developmental abilities: Less words? Words that are more relevant to a second grade schema? Some pictures or graphics to support the vocabulary? Some food for my thought... Many teachers or parents who have downloaded this chart seemed very happy, and I'm happy that they're happy!! Update: Hello there, long time friend! If you found this resource useful for your students, please check out my Character Feelings blog post and TPT product!
