Book

Character Day
An Exciting Celebration of
Favorite Book Characters!

Common Core Aligned Laura Candler

Reading Standards ©2012 Teaching Resources
RL 3.3, RL 4.3, RL 5.3 www.lauracandler.com
 Book Character Day
Teacher Info

Kids always want to dress up in costumes at the end of October, but

many families don’t celebrate Halloween. Book Character Day is a way
to allow kids to participate in the fun of dressing up while meeting
curriculum objectives. In fact, the activities in this packet are aligned with Common Core
Reading Standards for Grades 3 - 5! You can find the complete details on page 9. Be sure to
send home a letter about this event at the beginning of the month so students have plenty of
time to prepare. On Book Character Day, involve your students in a variety of activities
dealing with characters and character traits. You can create centers and have students rotate
from one center to the next, do the activities together as a class, or allow students to choose
two or three activities from a menu of options. On page four you’ll find a sample parent
letter, and on page five I’ve included a sample rubric. The last page has a blank rubric that
you can customize by writing in the blocks before duplicating it. Book Character Day is a fun
way to celebrate reading any time of the year, not just in October!

Suggested Character Day Activities

Character Word Clouds

Students create digital word clouds after analyzing character traits. You can
find this activity and video tutorial on the Read Aloud Page on Teaching
Resources: www.lauracandler.com/strategies/readingaloud.php

Book Character Diary Entry

Students pretend to be the book character and write a diary entry about
something that happened in the book. They should find a specific event in the story and
reread it just before writing their diary entry. They may want to start with the words, “Dear
Diary, Something really incredible (strange, awful, etc.) happened
today ….” and then write from the character’s perspective.

Character Interviews and Introductions

Great way for students to share with the class! This is a two-part
activity. During the first part, the students are meeting privately with a
partner and interviewing them. Then following the interviews, allow
class time for the introductions. Here’s what to do:
1. Private Interviews - Students pair up and take turns
interviewing each other. One person asks basic questions about where they live,
when they were born, what they enjoy doing, and any other details relevant to
the character. The other person responds from the perspective of the character.
The interviewer jots down enough notes for a 30-second introduction and then
they reverse roles.
2. Class Introductions - Next each person takes a turn introducing his or her character
to the class or to a group of students. For example, “I’d like to introduce you to
my friend Harry Potter. He recently discovered that he’s a wizard and began
attending Hogwarts School to learn how to use his powers.”

©2012 ~ Created by Laura Candler ~ Teaching Resources ~ www.lauracandler.com 2

 Suggested Character Day Activities (Continued)

Character Stick Figure Drawings

Students start with a plain stick figure drawing and add the details of the
character including facial features, hair, and outfit. Then they add bubbles
around the outside of the character to describe aspects of the character
that can’t be seen. See student example.

Bubbles near each of the following body parts can include these details:
 Head - what he or she might be thinking about
 Feet - where the character is going
 Hands - what the character likes to do (include props or tools if
appropriate, such as wand for a wizard)
 Mouth - what the character is saying
 Heart - who or what the character loves, or emotions the character feels

Note: You can download this pattern from my Graphic Organizer page on
Teaching Resources: http://www.lauracandler.com/filecabinet/literacy/litgo.php

Create a Character Map

Students choose three character traits and use details from the book
to create a character map. This printable can be downloaded from
the Literature Circles page on Teaching Resources:
http://www.lauracandler.com/filecabinet/literacy/litgo.php

Mystery Character Bingo

Mystery Character Bingo works best as a Character Day wrap-up
after the students have been introduced to each character in turn.
1. Give everyone a blank bingo board, either a 4 x 4 board or a 5
x 5 board depending on the size of your class. You’ll find blank
boards on pages 7 and 8 of this packet.
2. Have everyone write the names of all the characters that
participated in character day with one character per block. If
there aren’t enough blocks on the board, they will have to
choose which ones to leave out.
3. Ask everyone to write a short description of their character on
an index card. They should put the character name at the top
and their name somewhere on the card.
4. Collect all the cards and shuffle them. Read aloud a description
of the mystery character but don’t reveal the name of the
character or the student who dressed as that character. Ask
your students to guess which character is being described and
cover the appropriate spot on their board. Then ask the character to stand and take a
bow. Allow students to move their markers to the correct location before moving on.
5. Continue using regular bingo directions.

©2012 ~ Created by Laura Candler ~ Teaching Resources ~ www.lauracandler.com 3

 Book Character Day
Dear Parents,

I’m excited to announce that our class will be having Book

Character Day in a few weeks on the date shown below. On that
day, each student should come to school dressed up as a character
from a favorite book. The character must be from a book they have read recently (not
just from a movie or cartoon they have watched), and your child should be prepared to
describe both the character and the book.

Please work with your child to plan a simple homemade costume and then have your
child fill out the form below. I need to know the name of their character. the book in
which they found the character, and a description of the character. Please do not buy a
book character costume! Just do your best to gather an assortment of hats, clothing, or
other props to create a homemade costume. Your child should bring a copy of the book
to class that day. He or she will take part in several character -study activities that day.

Please return this completed form by ______________________. We look forward to an

exciting day! Thanks for your support with this activity!

Date of our Book Character Day ________________________________________________

Student Name ________________________________________________________________

Character Name __________________________________________________

Book Title ________________________________________________________

Briefly describe the character. Include a description of how the character looks, acts, and
feels. What character traits can be used to describe the character?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Parent Signature __________________________________ Date _____________________

 Character Day Evaluation Grade

Name _________________________________ Teacher _________________________

Title ________________________________________ Character _______________________________

You will receive a rating from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) in each area with comments added as needed.
Your overall grade for the Character Day will be based on those ratings.

Activity Description Rating Comments

Character Day Letter

Outfit (including Book)

Character Interviews and Intros

Character Word Clouds

Character Map

Character Stick Figure

Diary Entry

Character Day Evaluation Grade

Name _________________________________ Teacher _________________________

Title ________________________________________ Character _______________________________

You will receive a rating from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) in each area with comments added as needed.
Your overall grade for the Character Day will be based on those ratings.

Activity Description Rating Comments

Character Day Letter

Outfit (including Book)

Character Interviews and Intros

Character Word Clouds

Character Map

Character Stick Figure

Diary Entry

©2012 ~ Created by Laura Candler ~ Teaching Resources ~ www.lauracandler.com 5

 Character Day Evaluation Grade

Name _________________________________ Teacher _________________________

Title ________________________________________ Character _______________________________

You will receive a rating from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) in each area with comments added as needed.
Your overall grade for the Character Day will be based on those ratings.

Activity Description Rating Comments

Character Day Evaluation Grade

Name _________________________________ Teacher _________________________

Title ________________________________________ Character _______________________________

You will receive a rating from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) in each area with comments added as needed.
Your overall grade for the Character Day will be based on those ratings.

Activity Description Rating Comments

©2012 ~ Created by Laura Candler ~ Teaching Resources ~ www.lauracandler.com 6

 Character Bingo

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 Character Bingo

©2012 ~ Created by Laura Candler ~ Teaching Resources ~ www.lauracandler.com 8

 Common Core Aligned
Reading Standards

The literacy lessons in this Book Character Day activity

packet are perfect for helping you teach Common Core
Literature Standards in Grades 3 through 5. The character
development component of each standard below can be
taught using some or all of the materials in this packet. However, in order to
teach all aspects of each standard, you’ll need to find additional resources for the
other topics described by that standard such as story settings and events.

Grade 3 - 5 Standards That Reference Character Development

 Grade 3 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.
 Grade 4 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).
 Grade 5 RL 5.3 Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or
events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how
characters interact).

You can find more character trait lessons in the Analyzing Character Traits Mini
Pack on Teaching Resources. You can preview it online from this page.
http://www.lauracandler.com/books/minipacks.php#literacy

©2012 ~ Created by Laura Candler ~ Teaching Resources ~ www.lauracandler.com 9

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