Character Traits and Winn-Dixie

* Disclaimer...  Please excuse the lack of photos these days.  We have just been so very busy I keep forgetting to snap pictures as we go.  But you all have great imaginations I'm sure! :)

We just finished a treasured book called Because of Winn-Dixie.  We zipped right through this read aloud because the kids were SO into it.  It's such a delight to see my sweet students get wrapped up in great stories!  This novel lends itself to rich meaningful conversations and the characters are so special.  Yesterday we learned all about character traits and played a little game involving the characters from Because of Winn-Dixie.  I created cards that shared things that the characters said and did in the story.  The students then matched the actions and words to the correct character and then told what character traits describe that character and why.  They had to have support for each character trait they selected and I was so impressed by their insight!  My favorite moment was when someone shared that a person's character traits can change over time.  What an important life lesson to learn!

After we talked all about the characters from the book, I then asked the students to think about the character traits that best describe themselves and why.  They took this task very seriously as they got to writing in their writing spiral.  Next week we are going to take these character traits and make make a very special project.  Stay tuned!
 

This lesson is available at my TPT store. :)