31: On Characters

" To me, characters are at the heart of great literature."

-Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A great story is often driven by characters who take you into their world and make you experience their narrative as if you were there. When characters have agency and control over their choices and actions, they immediately leap off the page and elevate the element of storytelling. Notable characters allow their readers to connect with them emotionally through their common human experiences, or simply with who they are.  The hallmark of a great character is when they become memorable to you, the reader.

As we learn about stories in Kinder 2, we discovered what a character is and the important role that they play in a story. We learned that characters can be:

People, like David from David Goes to School

Animals, like the Pigs from The Three Ninja Pigs

Creatures, like The Lorax

or Objects, like the Tree from The Giving Tree

Characters -- in whatever form they are -- have dimension and unique traits that impact their environment or the other characters in their narrative. And since we are all characters in our own story, we also have the capacity to affect our community and the people around us.

One of the missions of the IB is to develop "characters" who are internationally-minded and can help transform the world into a better and peaceful place. They value ten attributes, which can help individuals become active and responsible members of local, national, and international communities. These traits include being:

an inquirer,

a risk-taker,

a communicator,

balanced,

a thinker,

knowledgeable,

open-minded,

principled,

reflective, 

and caring.

We teach these attributes as early as Kindergarten through meaningful and relevant experiences -- and what better way to connect with them than through the stories we read. 

We transformed our unit library into one that reflects a variety of characters with different attributes:

We also made some characters come alive in the stories we read.

We had a stake-out for the book Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems.

 In the story, the bus driver had to go somewhere and asked the readers to make sure that the pigeon will not drive the bus. Of course we had to keep our promise to the driver!

So we waited,

And investigated,

Whew. We made sure that the pigeon would not drive the bus at all!

"That would be silly and dangerous, Ms. Pam!"

"It is silly and dangerous. But why do you think does 

the pigeon want to drive the bus anyway?"

"Maybe it wants to go somewhere!"

For the book My Monster and Me by Nadiya Hussain and Ella Bailey, we reflected on our emotions and thoughts, and transformed them into our own monsters:

Kitty, Eimi's Monster

Isabella, Arisa's Monster

Khai Minh, Diego's Monster

Michel, Michel's Monster

Heart, Rino's Monster

Snabercut, Jae Hee's Monster

Moss, Haruto's Monster

Ariel, Mana's Monster

Alia, Eda's Monster

Panda Milky, Atsuharu's Monster

Emi, Emi's Monster

Pokey, Jinnosuke's Monster

Emma, Sophia's Monster

Cookie Monster, Yanchen's Monster

Morcar, Ren's Monster

All of the children described their monsters as kind but have different eccentricities that reflected their own. 

In the story The Word Collector by Peter H. Reynolds, the children shared their collection of words and used them to create a story together. 

The children also shared their favorite words amongst all their collection of words.

iPad

"I like it because I like playing games." - Haruto

Lego

"I like it because I like building things." - Diego

Princess Room

"I like it because it is cute." - Emi

Flower
"I like it because I like giving Mommy and Daddy flowers." - Rino

Swimming

"I like it because I want to be a mermaid." - Sophia

Ms. Pam

"I like it because I like Ms. Pam." - Eimi

Princess

"I like it because it's nice." - Mana

Food

"I like it because food makes me sleepy." - Ren

Space

"I like it because I like stars." - Yanchen

Jungle

"I like it because I like swinging on the tree." - Jinnosuke

Water

"I like it because it is cold." - Atsuharu

Book

"I like it because I have seven pigeon books at home." - Jae Hee

Dress

"I like it because I like drawing dresses." - Arisa

Eda

"I like it because I like myself." - Eda

I wonder if we could string them all together to make a whole story. 

It would be interesting what the children will come up with. 😊

In the story Lacy Walker Nonstop Talker by Christianne Jones, the children learned to value of listening and the numerous new things we can learn if we do.

The children paired up with a new friend and had a chance to have a chat with them about the things they liked. They discovered new things about each other, such as their favorite food, color, and animal, and why they like them! It was amazing to see the children's reactions when  they found out that some of them like the same things. 

We also had some rainy days this week so when the sun was out, we made the most of it by turning some of our toys into shadow characters.

Characters are the heart of a story. The most beautiful ones are those who are just as human as all of us are -- whether they are animals, things, or creatures. The stories they tell teach us more about ourselves, and what we are capable of becoming. They don't just make stories come alive, but they empower us to become better versions of ourselves, too.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

Your Kindergarten teacher, 

Pam

P.S.

This week, the kindergarteners practiced for our Sports Day event next week, April 29. 

For the Early Years, it will take place on our school yard from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. 

Please let your child wear their DSKI shirt for the event. 

You are all invited to come and join us in the fun!

See you soon.