Meadows first graders are diving deep into the world of realistic fiction while building important reading, writing, and critical thinking skills through character exploration.

In Mrs. Walsh’s and Mrs. Granberg’s classrooms, students are learning how to use text evidence and picture clues to better understand characters’ emotions and how those feelings change throughout a story. As they read, students are also making meaningful text-to-self connections, recognizing that characters experience changing emotions just like they do throughout their own daily lives.

As part of the unit, students are learning to identify both “inside traits” — how a character acts, behaves, and feels — and “outside traits,” or what a character looks like. Using books such as the Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant and the Iris and Walter series by Elissa Haden Guest, students are practicing how to analyze characters more deeply and predict how they may respond to challenges and new experiences.

This work will ultimately support students as they begin creating their own original characters and writing realistic fiction stories of their own — bringing together reading, writing, creativity, and imagination.