Character Trait Video - 5th Grade

I wanted to do a project that dealt with character traits since our fifth graders were having some problems with kindness, caring...there was just too much drama.

The first thing I did was asked the class what the owrd charater meant to them. I had students talk about a person in a play, someone who is goofy, etc. After I got several ideas about what they thought, then we talked about a person who had moral integrity. I explained to them what their assignment was that they would be using a Mino Flip camera with there partner and they had to pick a character trait that they were going to make a video about.

We then watched a cd from the company www.values. com - The Foundation for a Better Life. This cd had short little movies (like commercials) that showed examples of characters traits. After we watched the cd, the students got with their partner and they discussed what character trait they were going to do their movie on. Students had to approve the word with me and this also made sure that I didn't have several groups doing the same word.

The students were given several class periods to film their movies, create a song in Audacity (if they wanted to) and create their movie. The students loved this project and were very engaged.

We watched the videos and discussed as a class what trait the video was showing. The students had some wonderful feed back and I am hoping that this will open their eyes and help them display these traits to their fellow students.