Everybody’s a Character!

Everyone has a favorite cartoon character but that is not what this exercise is about. Each person needs to pick the cartoon character that they either want to be like or one that they think they are like. You can switch it to people in current commercials or sit-com characters if you wish. Preface the activity with picking a few well-known characters and having the group choose adjectives (preferably positive character traits) that describe them. Then let them think on the traits of other characters they know and pick one they want to be like or are already like. After each person has written down who they pick and why, pair up the people and let them share their pick. You can pair up the pairs and let them share again only this time the original pairs are introducing their partner as their character. You can do this pairing as many times as you wish. At the end, have everyone share quickly their character’s name and quality.

To process the activity, ask these or similar questions:

• Was it fun to pick a character or hard to pick a character?
• Did anyone have the same character as you?
• Did anyone pick the same quality but a different character?
• Did anyone pick the same character but a different quality?
• Did anybody pick a character that people didn’t know?
• Did you learn something about yourself or others?