Character Traits Lesson Idea

We all love children's books...come on, we are teachers right?  No matter what the grade level, children's books can be a great way to introduce a literacy concept from basic to advanced.
In Liesel's class, we are starting a unit on character traits and motives.  Students need to move beyond basic character description (the pigeon is blue) to more advanced description focused on internal traits (the pigeon is persuasive).  More importantly, students need to be able to back up their thoughts by using evidence from the text such as what the character says, does, or what the author says about that character that exemplifies that trait.
Kids love the story, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems.  Just be prepared that if you are going to read it, you must really read with LOADS of expression! 

After reading the story once, we discussed character traits and how to identify the traits of characters in a story.  We visited a few examples from the story, making sure we always gave specific evidence to back up our answers.  Example:  "The pigeon is angry.  I know this because he hopped up and down screaming."   Here is a picture of our anchor chart...please remember no judgements on the quality of the artwork!

 After reading the story one more time, I sent the students off with the task of drawing the pigeon and recording at least 5 traits (with evidence!) that describe him.  Here is what they came up with:

Overall, I think they understood the concept.  Especially for a class of English Language Learners.  Now we are ready to jump into our required text to continue developing these concepts on a grade level piece of writing.  Again, did I mention how much we all LOVE children's books!
If you have a great character traits lesson for any grade level let us know!