Character TraitsWhen you read a story, think of the characters as real people.

CHEAP

EVIL

Friendly

Unintelligent

SillyWhiny

To identify character traits think of the following:

- What does the character say and do?

- What does the character think and feel?- How does the character look?

- What do the other characters think about the character?- How does the character make you feel?

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:

What does the character say and do?

What does the character think and

feel?

How does the character look?

What do the other characters think about

the character?

How does the character make you

feel?

Name a character trait: _____________________________If possible, name another character trait: _______________________

Identify a character trait

Once upon a time, in a small village in Russia there lived a woman called Barbara. Barbara was very proud of her house. She had the tidiest house in the village and the most beautiful garden. She was always cooking and cleaning, scrubbing and sweeping, polishing and painting.

Identify a character trait

All the villagers were out in the square talking about a bright new star that had just appeared in the sky. Everyone was very excited about the star because it brought great news. But Barbara didn’t even notice the dazzling star – she was far too busy cleaning her house.

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:

What does the character say and do?

What does the character think and

feel?

How does the character look?

What do the other characters think about

the character?

How does the character make you

feel?

Name a character trait: _____________________________If possible, name another character trait: _______________________

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:What does the character

say and do?

She was always cleaning. She doesn’t notice the

dazzling star.

What does the character think and

feel?

How does the character look?

What do the other characters think about

the character?

How does the character make you

feel?

Name a character trait: _____________________________If possible, name another character trait: _______________________

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:What does the character

say and do?

She was always cleaning. She doesn’t notice the

dazzling star.

What does the character think and feel?

She is very proud of her house.

How does the character look?

What do the other characters think about

the character?

How does the character make you

feel?

Name a character trait: _____________________________If possible, name another character trait: _______________________

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:What does the character

say and do?

She was always cleaning. She doesn’t notice the

dazzling star.

What does the character think and feel?

She is very proud of her house.

How does the character look?

She looks very neat and clean.

What do the other characters think about

the character?

How does the character make you

feel?

Name a character trait: _____________________________If possible, name another character trait: _______________________

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:What does the character

say and do?

She was always cleaning. She doesn’t notice the

dazzling star.

What does the character think and feel?

She is very proud of her house.

How does the character look?

She looks very neat and clean.

What do the other characters think about the

character?

She had the tidiest house and the most beautiful

garden.

How does the character make you

feel?

Name a character trait: _____________________________If possible, name another character trait: _______________________

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:What does the character

say and do?

She was always cleaning. She doesn’t notice the

dazzling star.

What does the character think and feel?

She is very proud of her house.

How does the character look?

She looks very neat and clean.

What do the other characters think about the

character?

She had the tidiest house and the most beautiful

garden.

How does the character make you

feel?

I like her. She seems like a nice lady.

Name a character trait: _____________________________If possible, name another character trait: _______________________

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:What does the character

say and do?

She was always cleaning. She doesn’t notice the

dazzling star.

What does the character think and feel?

She is very proud of her house.

How does the character look?

She looks very neat and clean.

What do the other characters think about the

character?

She had the tidiest house and the most beautiful

garden.

How does the character make you feel?

I like her. She seems like a nice lady.

Name a character trait: CleanIf possible, name another character trait: _______________________

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:What does the character

say and do?

She was always cleaning. She doesn’t notice the

dazzling star.

What does the character think and feel?

She is very proud of her house.

How does the character look?

She looks very neat and clean.

What do the other characters think about the

character?

She had the tidiest house and the most beautiful

garden.

How does the character make you feel?

I like her. She seems like a nice lady.

Name a character trait: CleanIf possible, name another character trait: Hard-worker

Did you notice?

- Character traits are descriptive adjectives.

- We can describe characters using character traits that tell us specific qualities of the character. - An author may tell us the character traits directly, but more often the author will show us these traits by what the character does.

Identify a character trait

A long time ago, Nyame the god of the sky gave Ananzi a huge pot which held all the wisdom of the world. Nyame told Ananzi to share the wisdom with everyone he met.

The pot was filled with wonderful pictures, stories, music and many more exciting ideas. Whenever Ananzi looked in the pot he learned something new.

Ananzi didn’t want to share the wisdom. “I will keep it for myself!” he thought.

So Ananzi decided to hide the pot of wisdom on the top of a tall tree, where no one else could find it.

Identify a character trait

He tied a rope around the pot and then tied it around his waist. But the pot was too heavy and kept getting in Ananzi’s way. Ananzi’s son watched him climb the tree. “Tie the pot to your back”, he shouted, “It will make it easier to climb.”

So Ananzi tied the pot to his back and very soon he was at the top of the tree. But when he got to the top he was very angry. “My son knows more than I do and I have the pot of wisdom,” he cried.

Ananzi was so angry that he threw the pot away. CRASH! The pot broke into hundreds of pieces.

Whoosh! The wisdom flew everywhere! People found bits of wisdom and started taking it home to their friends and family.

You could use this graphic organizer to determine a

character trait:

What does the character say and do?

What does the character think and

feel?

How does the character look?

What do the other characters think about

the character?

How does the character make you

feel?

Name a character trait: _____________________________If possible, name another character trait: _______________________

How does understanding character traits help me

understand the story?

Character Traits:

- Help us understand why characters speak and act the way they do.

-Help us understand what the characters think or why they have certain beliefs. - Help us understand a character’s relationship with other characters.

- Help us predict what characters might do next.

Since we know Ananzi’s character traits, we can answer these

questions:

- Why does Ananzi want to hide the pot of knowledge?- How does Ananzi feel about his son?- What kind of relationship will Ananzi have with the people who now have bits of knowledge?- What theme (lesson) could Ananzi learn from the events in the story?

Let’s Review!

- Character traits are descriptive adjectives.- We can describe characters using traits that tell us the specific qualities of the character. - An author may tell us the character traits directly, but more often the author will show us these traits by what the character does.

To identify character traits:

- What does the character say and do?- What does the character think and feel?- How does the character look?- What do the other characters think about the character?- How does the character make you feel?