Character Traits

Traits are words that describe you, me and characters in a story. What a character says or does help us, the reader, decide what to think about ourselves and others.

Do you Understand? Read what a character says and does in a story to locate their character traits. Traits are words that describe: Friendly, sad, selfish, funny, greedy, responsible, caring, happy, sympathetic Examples: Says Does “I will fix your lamp. After all, I broke it.” This person is trustworthy. “Tomorrow is going to be the best day ever!” This person is happy. “I want you to play with me at recess not Sara!” This person is selfish. “ No! It’s mine and you can’t have any!” This person is greedy. “I’m sorry your goldfish died.” This person is sympathetic. Sara helped Jan up after she fell running to the line. Sara is kind. Joel went to the store and bought Carl another basketball. Joel is responsible. Nick pushed Luke back and shouted. Nick is angry. Amir called Emily and asked her to the movies. Amir is friendly. Trey gave Sal his goggles because his eyes were burning. Trey is giving.

Apply Your Character Trait Skills Says and Does: Use these traits to help you describe the persons in the story on the right. Selfish Caring Friendly Greedy Responsible Disrespectful Sneaky Giving Can you think of more? While waiting for the bell to ring, Linda heard her friend Naome crying. “What’s wrong?” Linda asked Naome. GJ took my snack. “I’m sorry, you can have some of mine.” I said. When Naome walked into class she was crying. The teacher asked Naome what’s wrong. Naome told the teacher what GJ did. As we were putting our backpacks away I saw GJ put the chips in Naome’s desk. The teacher called GJ to talk. When she asked him what happened, he denied taking Naome’s snack. I walked over to the teacher and told her what I saw. GJ was caught and punished for steeling Naome’s snack. Naome shared her snack with me that day. What traits describe Linda? Naome? GJ? When Linda said “What’s wrong?” she was… When Naome shared her snack with Linda she was … When GJ took Naome’s snack, he was…