30: 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 this 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 their important role in a story. Through a simple puppet show, the children learned that characters are the movers within in the story.

 We learned that characters can be:

People, like David from David Goes to School

Animals, like the owl from Lacy Walker Nonstop Talker

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 stories, 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 more 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 borrowed some books to include in our unit library to reflect a variety of characters with different attributes that the children can emulate:

On being a thinker and inquirer.

On being balanced.

On being principled.

On being caring.

On being open-minded.

On being a communicator.

We also tried to imagine ourselves as characters that we would like to play in a story. 

It was interesting to see how the children envision themselves as protagonists in their stories -- some as human characters and others as animals. 

Shuyao is a princess.

Louis is a racecar driver.

Mai is a princess.

Lucky is a princess.

Luna is a princess.

Luca is a superhero.

Suzu is a cat.

Kai is a ninja.

Emma is a bunny.

YiChen is a dog.

Tamaki is a ballerina.

Daniel is a ninja.

Amaru is Spiderman.

Veronica is a ballerina.

Frankie is a dog.

I wonder what lessons the children can share from the stories they write about themselves?

We also read the book Strictly No Elephants and learned a powerful lesson on kindness and inclusion. 

The children learned that it's okay to be different -- to have different pets, likes, and interests. We discovered that if we are to show kindness by embracing our differences and welcoming diversity, we become much richer as people. We also discovered that welcoming everyone is actually quite fun. 

To celebrate our friendship with each other, the children made friendship bracelets. They were all eager to bring them home, but I explained that we would have a much more meaningful use for them next week. (hint: sharing is caring 😉)

Stories are also abundant in the daily life we live and in the connections we make with other people. To end the week, the children created new and beautiful stories during our DSKI Sports Day event while celebrating sportsmanship, friendship, family, and community.  

We also celebrated one of the main characters in Kindergarten 2, Mai, as she turned a year older this week. 

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

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