📖

Character Feelings

Comprehension: Making Inferences

Day 172of 180
Week 35of 36
25Minutes
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🖨️ Download Worksheet (PDF)
🎯 What You'll Learn

Learning Objectives

1

Understand how characters' actions show their feelings

2

Make simple inferences about story characters

3

Practice identifying emotional clues in text

📖 Scripture Connection

1 Samuel 16:7

“But Yahweh said to Samuel, 'Don't look on his appearance, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For Yahweh sees not as man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.'”

— 1 Samuel 16:7 (WEB)

Just like we look deeper to understand characters' feelings, God looks deeper to understand our hearts

📦 Materials Needed

  • Picture book with expressive characters
  • Feelings chart
  • Colored pencils
  • Character inference worksheet
📚 Step-by-Step

Lesson Plan

1Opening (5 min)

Gather students in a circle. Show pictures of people with different facial expressions and ask what feelings they see.

💭 Review Question: How can we tell how someone is feeling without them telling us?
2Teaching (8 min)

Today we're learning how to be story detectives! We can figure out how characters feel by watching their actions and words.

📌 Key Talking Points:
  • Characters show feelings through actions
  • We can guess feelings by looking for clues
  • Sometimes characters don't say exactly how they feel
💬 Discussion Questions:
  • What might a character do if they're happy?
  • How can you tell if someone is sad?
  • Why is it important to pay attention to how characters feel?
3Activity: Character Feelings Detective (8 min)
hands-on

Read a simple picture book and pause to discuss characters' possible feelings.

📝 Instructions:
  1. Listen carefully to the story
  2. Watch the characters' actions
  3. Draw or circle feelings on your worksheet
  4. Share your detective work with a friend
🔄 Variations:

Simpler: Teacher helps identify feelings

Challenge: Students write short sentences about character emotions

4Closing (4 min)

Recap how we can be story detectives by looking for clues about feelings

📝 Review Questions:
  • What did we learn about understanding characters?
  • How can actions show feelings?
  • Was being a detective fun today?
🙏 Prayer:

Dear Jesus, thank you for helping us understand others' feelings. Help us to be kind and listen carefully.

Coming up: Tomorrow we'll practice predicting what might happen next in stories!

💎 Memory Verse

Proverbs 15:30

“The light of the eyes rejoices the heart. A good report makes the bones fat.”

— Proverbs 15:30 (WEB)

🎯 Activity: Mime different feelings while saying the verse

👨‍👩‍👧 For Parents

Teaching Notes

📚 Background:

First graders are learning to look beyond literal text to understand deeper meanings

💡 Teaching Tips:
  • Ask your child about characters' feelings during bedtime reading
  • Encourage describing emotions with more than 'happy' or 'sad'
  • Model making inferences in everyday conversations
🤔 Common Struggles:

Children might find it challenging to understand emotions that aren't explicitly stated

👀 Signs of Understanding:

Child can describe a character's feeling and give a reason why

🚀 Want More?

Extension Activities

  • Create a feelings board game
  • Act out story scenes showing different emotions
  • Draw a comic strip showing character feelings

Ready for Tomorrow?

Great job completing today's lesson!

Continue to Day 173 →Back to Phonics & Reading