Low Prep Activities to Make Teaching Character Traits Easier

Teaching character traits to upper elementary students can be a complex task. It's more than just reading a fictional story and labeling characters with certain traits. Students must analyze how characters change over time, compare different characters and their traits, use evidence from the text to identify certain character traits, build their character trait vocabulary, and more.

The resources below offer a variety of different activities to help you when teaching character traits to upper elementary students. Use them to differentiate your character trait instruction, plan engaging lessons, and save time.

Tips and resources for making introducing character traits to your third and fourth grade students easy.

Ideas for introducing character traits to your 3rd or 4th grade students.  Includes a free character traits mobile printable / pdf.

6 ways to help your 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students build character trait vocabulary

6 low prep ways to help you build your students' character trait vocabulary. Includes a fun twist on "Would You Rather Questions."

Free Character Trait Lists to help making teaching character traits to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students easier - includes positive traits, negative traits, and character traits sorted by synonyms

3 free character traits lists - Includes a list of positive character traits, negative character traits, and synonyms for more common character traits.

36 questions you can ask third and fourth grade students when teaching character traits.

Use these 36 questions to help plan your character trait lessons while making sure you are promoting higher level thinking skills with your upper elementary students!

Tips and Ideas to help you integrate writing while teaching character traits to your third, fourth, and fifth grade students

No prep ideas on ways to integrate writing into your lesson plans while teaching character traits. All your 3rd or 4th grade students will need is a pencil and paper!

Use these 3 free graphic organizers with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students learning about character traits. They can be used with different fiction texts.

3 free character trait graphic organizers. Includes a graphic organizer that compares 2 characters, a graphic organizer that requires evidence from the text, and more.

Use this free character trait word wall template for an easy way to help build character trait vocabulary with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students

Ideas for incorporating a character traits word wall into your classroom third or fourth grade classroom. Great for building character trait vocabulary.  Includes a free template.

character trait games or centers for 3rd and 4th grade students

Help your students practice character traits in an engaging way.  These character trait centers / games are fun for 3rd and 4th grade students.

Free character traits slideshow for a no prep way for you to practice character traits with your 2nd grade, 3rd grade, or 4th grade class

A free character traits slideshow to use with your class - includes character trait vocabulary building activities!

Character trait anchor chart ideas to make lesson planning for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade easier

Trying to figure out what would make the best student reference for your character trait unit?  Check out these 8 different character trait anchor chart ideas.  

low prep character trait resource review for 3rd, 4th, 5th grade
All of the links above provide free ideas for teaching character trait activities into your classroom. If you like the activities but don't want all of the prep, you might be interested in this CHARACTER TRAITS BUNDLE. It includes task cards, no prep activities, cut and paste activities, reading passages, and more.

The character trait links above provide free ideas, activities, and printables you can use when teaching character traits to your elementary students. The activities included will work best for 3rd grade and 4th grade, although many of the activities could be adapted to reach younger (2nd grade) or older (5th grade) students.

The activities above address the following Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.3
Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3
Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).


Teaching Character Traits? You Need This Freebie!

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