Characters and Their Feelings

Active learning helps students move beyond surface-level reading by engaging their bodies, voices, and critical thinking. When children physically represent emotions or analyze visual cues, they internalize how feelings drive actions, not just words on a page.

• 1st Year
• Foundations of Literacy and Expression
• 3 activities
• 15 min–25 min

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze how specific word choices and illustrative details reveal a character's emotions.
2. Explain the sequence of events in a story, identifying the beginning, middle, and end.
3. Compare and contrast the feelings of two characters in the same story.
4. Justify a character's decision by referencing plot events and their emotional state.
5. Identify instances where illustrations provide emotional context not present in the text.

Role Play

⏱ 20 min·Pairs

Role Play: The Emotion Mirror

In pairs, one student reads a sentence from a story while the other acts out the character's emotion using only facial expressions and gestures. The class then guesses the feeling and points to the specific word or illustration that gave them the clue.

Prepare & details

What can you learn about a character from the pictures in a story?

Facilitation Tip: In 'Changing Feelings,' ask students to refer back to their notes from the 'feeling thermometer' to support their explanations.

Setup: Open space or rearranged desks for scenario staging

Materials: Character cards with backstory and goals, Scenario briefing sheet

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Gallery Walk

⏱ 25 min·Small Groups

Gallery Walk: Character Clues

Place large print-outs of book illustrations around the room. Students walk around in small groups with sticky notes, labeling the 'clues' (like a slumped posture or a wide smile) that show how the character is feeling in that moment.

Prepare & details

How do the events in a story go from beginning to middle to end?

Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter

Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Think-Pair-Share

⏱ 15 min·Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Changing Feelings

After reading a story, students think about how a character felt at the start versus the end. They share their ideas with a partner, focusing on the specific event that caused the character's mood to shift.

Prepare & details

Why do you think the main character made that choice in the story?

Setup: Standard classroom seating; students turn to a neighbor

Materials: Discussion prompt (projected or printed), Optional: recording sheet for pairs

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Teaching This Topic

Teachers should model how to look for 'micro-expressions' in illustrations, like furrowed brows or slumped shoulders, and connect them to emotions. Avoid asking students to guess feelings without evidence, as this can lead to assumptions. Research suggests that when students discuss emotions in pairs first, their individual insights become more nuanced during whole-class sharing.

What to Expect

Students will explain why a character feels and acts in a certain way, using both textual and visual evidence. They will recognize that emotions are complex and can shift throughout a story.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During The Emotion Mirror, watch for students who assume a character has only one feeling from start to finish.

What to Teach Instead

Use the 'feeling thermometer' during the read-aloud. Pause at key moments to ask students to rate the character's emotion on a scale of 1 to 10, then discuss why the number changed.

Common Misconception

During Gallery Walk: Character Clues, watch for students who ignore the illustrations and focus only on the text.

What to Teach Instead

Cover the text during the 'picture walk.' Have students observe the character's posture, facial expression, and background details first, then discuss what emotions these visuals suggest.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

After the Gallery Walk: Character Clues, give students a picture of a character from a familiar story. Ask them to write two sentences: one describing the character's facial expression or body language, and one stating what emotion they think the character is feeling and why.

Discussion Prompt

After the Think-Pair-Share: Changing Feelings, read a short passage aloud. Ask: 'What words did the author use to show how the character was feeling? What details in the illustrations helped you understand their emotions? How did these feelings change from the beginning to the end of the passage?'

Quick Check

During The Emotion Mirror, pause at a moment where a character makes a choice. Ask: 'Why do you think the character chose to do that right now? What were they feeling that might have led to this choice?' Have students give a thumbs up if they agree with the explanation.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge: Ask students to rewrite a scene from a story, changing the character's feelings and adjusting the dialogue and illustrations to match.
• Scaffolding: Provide a word bank of emotion words and sentence starters for students to use when describing facial expressions or body language.
• Deeper: Have students research how illustrators use color, light, and composition to convey emotions, then apply these techniques in their own drawings.

Key Vocabulary

Emotion	A strong feeling such as happiness, sadness, anger, or fear that a character experiences.
Illustrations	Pictures in a book that help tell the story and can show how characters are feeling through facial expressions or body language.
Infer	To figure something out based on clues in the text and pictures, rather than being told directly.
Facial Expression	The look on a character's face that shows their feelings, like a smile for happy or a frown for sad.
Body Language	How a character's body is positioned or moving, which can show their emotions, such as slumped shoulders for sadness.