Book Character Day

Happy Book Character Day!

Can you guess who I am?

I love Robert Muncsh, the story "The Paper Bag Princess", and cheap costumes! 

Thus, this costume was a done deal the minute I ran across the idea.

A leaf bag, a few holes for my head and arms and a quick paper crown, and I was all ready for the day!

When the kids arrived this morning, they were beyond excited to see all of the costumes they had worked so hard to put together. I must admit the variety and creativity was quite impressive.

During our morning meeting we greeted one another using our character names and for our class activity we utilized our "Just Like Me" activity to think like our characters and reflect on how they are all alike or different. If you haven't played "Just Like Me" with your class, it is a great way for them to get to know one another. You simply read different phrases that reflect the kids interests, backgrounds, hobbies, etc. and if the phrase you reads pertains to them they stand and in unison with others that share the same quality they say "Just Like Me". Simple community builder, and it worked perfect to get into the minds of our characters today!

After our morning meeting, we worked to analyze our characters and put ourselves in their shoes a bit more by thinking through their thoughts, actions, feelings, etc. I ran across this great little organizer and activity idea from Laura Candler and tweaked it a bit by having my kiddos freehand their characters instead of utilizing the actual printable. They had the brilliant plan of using their iPads to looks up images of all of their characters - and I was not only on board, but amazed by the quality of work they produced!

Each of their pieces was organized utilize the following key phrases:

Head: The character thinks...

Mouth: The character says...

Heart: The character feels...

Hands: The character likes to do...

Feet: The character goes...

Yes, my friend who drew Marty from Madagascar even wore a brightly colored rainbow afro to school.

So proud of this creative bunch.

Does your school celebrate Book Character Day? What are some of your favorite activities to do?