Character Growth Unit - Babushka's Doll

In kindergarten, we spend a lot of time talking about the concept of growth, especially as it relates to people and characters. In language workshop we do two growth units - a literature unit on character growth and analysis and a biography unit on how real people have demonstrated growth. For our unit on character growth and analysis, I chose a book called Babushka's Doll by Patricia Polacco. The concept of a character's growth and change as a result of the events in a story can be difficult for young students to analyze. Babushka's Doll is a great book because young students can easily see the role reversal that Natasha, the main character, experiences. Natasha is an engaging character that students can connect to. Natasha starts off as a selfish and whiny girl, but her grandmother (Babushka) has a doll that teaches Natasha a lesson about her behavior. Check out my lesson plan for Babushka's Doll to see how young students can analyze characters:

Babushka's Doll

Phase 1: We worked on the literal understanding of the story. We created a story elements chart and discussed why characters behaved in certain ways.

Phase 2: We discussed how the author repeats certain events in the story to illustrate how Natasha's perspective changes. We discussed how this parallel structure helped us truly see Natasha's transformation (of course I didn't use the words "parallel structure" with my kiddos, but they did understand why the author chose to repeat these events).

Phase 3: Now that students understand what the text says and how the text works, we were ready to tackle the lessons the author wanted us to understand. Since this unit is also about growth, we thought about how the lessons related to growth.

Patricia Polacco is a truly gifted author. I would highly recommend her children's literature, especially for intermediate grade levels. There is so much depth to her writing!