Maria will be going live every other week in her author page, sharing lesson plans that teachers have created around her books. You can watch the video here.

Today’s lesson was by 2 contributors, Jen Runde of Runde’s Room (who created the reader’s guide) and Courtney and Sarah of Hoots N Hollers (who created a character web template) and is about one of Maria’s books, The Potato Chip Champ. This book is all about discovering why kindness counts!

  1. Read The Potato Chip Champ with your children and/or students!
  2. Create a huge list of positive character traits (kindness, perseverance, patience, courage, etc..) with the children/students.
  3. Pair up your children/students and have them choose one of the two main characters from the book, Walter or Champ.
  4. They can draw a picture of their character in the center of the character web template. They will then choose four character traits, from the list you just made, to describe their character. Have them write those character traits in the four outlying circles on the character web template.
  5. Ask the children if they can find those character traits, of their chosen character, in the book? For example, if they said that Walter is generous – can they find a spot in the book where Walter is generous?
  6. Place that example on the provided space beneath the circle.

Remember that Maria alternates these videos between her author page and the private Empowering Kids with Character page, which provides more ideas on the monthly theme and also support from fellow parents and educators!

Don’t forget to add the Empowering Kids With Character Flash Briefing on your Amazon Alexa app or Google Play!

Transcribed by Mandy Bush, Executive Assistant