Smurfy Traits

Anyone who knew me as a child would not find it surprising that I have found a way to bring Smurfs in to my classroom teaching!  They'd probably be more surprised to find it took me this long to figure it out :)

While working on character traits in class, it dawned on me.  My favorite childhood cartoon and toys were all based on character traits!  Greedy Smurf, Handy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Lazy Smurf, and the list goes on and on.

I have taken the opportunity to capitalize on this and the kids are loving it!  We've begun charting different traits we have found in smurfs, in stories we've read and in ourselves.  Why the emphasis on character traits?  Well, when students begin understanding personalities, they can begin thinking deeper about the characters they read about and why they behave the way they do.  I hope this will easily cross over in to their writing also.  We'll begin seeing them develop characters who act a certain way to display a personality.

In the process of looking at different characters, our classroom has been overrun by Smurfs!  They are all over the place and it definitely makes me smile as it reminds me of my childhood fun!

How I'm feeling after this long day!