This week our Reading Adventure is all about characters. Characters are the lifeblood of any story. They make or break it! The comings and goings of characters drive the plot, conflict and resolution.
Discussing characters in stories is the first step towards creating your own real, believable storybook characters. Explore how adjectives can describe appearance, mood and personality. Discussions that surround storybook characters help to develop an understanding of how authors create their own characters.
Some would call this character analysis
It is really, but that sounds a little deep and literary, to be honest – I would rather talk about being a story detective–let’s discuss what we know, and let’s find out about the characters from the text. Exploring texts together is a crucial part of the learning to read process. Learning to decode the words on a page is a crucial part of learning to read – it is the bread and butter of literacy development, without it children often struggle. Reading stories together and learning about story elements will help your little reader hear what a fluent reader sounds like. This will provide many hours of storybook language and this will help your little one develop a wide vocabulary.
Picture books are a marvellous way to delve deep with characters. Stories often have a rich vocabulary that you can use to discuss the characters. As children get older, novels that have a central character or are from the character’s point of view are the best choice.
Characters influence our stories in so many ways.
Find out about:
What characters feel?
What characters say or think?
Who they are?
What do they do?
What do they look like?
This will help your children to find out more about the story, and this will help them to develop their own characters.
Use the character profile printable as you discuss your favourite characters.
The discussion doesn’t have to be unwieldy, we often make a game of it. This fun and free printable has a character detective roll a die game that makes character analysis an activity to do together.
Roll the die, and follow the directions for each number – e.g. Roll a 1 and find evidence in your book about how your character looks. For preschoolers, this could be as simple as looking at the picture and describing it. This activity will help your child expand their vocabulary as they describe what they see.
Creating characters is a skill that develops over time. In the beginning, stories are often two-dimensional with little character development going on. It is hard enough for children to get words on a page. Discussions, games, and activities that engage your child in character development will help them gain the knowledge they need to develop well-rounded characters in the future.
This activity is part of our Reading Adventures series – all about reading together, connecting and interacting with the stories you read.