Character 1st Grade Unit

Lessons & Units

Lesson 1: Actions Identify and describe the actions of a character.

No, David!

David Gets in Trouble

Lesson 2: Feelings Identify and describe the feelings of a character based on the events in the story.

No, David!

David Gets in Trouble

Lesson 3: Looks, Actions, and Feelings Identify and describe a character’s physical appearance, actions, and feelings.

David Goes To School

Use picture clues and the text to make a list of a character’s actions in additional books. As students become more proficient at this, they should rely less on the picture clues.

Compare the actions, feelings and appearance of David in multiple books of the series (e.g. David Oops! or Oh, David!).

Students can create a “Character Feelings” poster in which they list four feelings that the character experiences in a read aloud book. They can then write a sentence and draw a picture showing the character experiencing the feeling. (See Additional Activity A Chart in Teacher and Student Materials below.)

After reading a story aloud, have students complete the “Character Map” Graphic Organizer. (See Additional Activity B Chart in Teacher and Student Materials below.)

Continue to use the text and picture clues to determine a character’s feelings. It will be important to point out how a character’s feelings affect a character’s actions (he was feeling sad so he wanted to sit by himself).

Have students create stories with clear characters (with actions, looks, and feelings). It may be helpful to have them illustrate their characters as well.

Have students compare one of their favorite character’s feelings, actions, and looks to themselves. Students can write sentences, create a chart, or use a Venn diagram to compare the character to them.

Students can write a letter to their character giving him/her advice about their actions or feelings. You may want to read aloud Arthur Writes a Letter by Marc Brown and have students write a letter to Arthur.