Final answer:
First graders recognize and relate to objects, people, simple science concepts, and characters from stories and their immediate environment. This is due to their developmental stage, characterized by heightened inquisitiveness and the direct experiences they have with their surrounding world.
Step-by-step explanation:
It appears that your question is about what characters or concepts first graders might recognize and hold interest in, based on educational or developmental anecdotes. Since this question does not provide a specific context or text the first graders are responding to, a general response would consider the developmental stage of first graders and their typical educational content. First graders are usually between six and seven years old, a stage at which children are highly inquisitive, as noted by Carl Sagan. They might recognize and relate most to entities and subjects from their immediate environment, storytelling, and introductory education—including simple science concepts, fairy tale characters, or everyday objects and people they encounter. They recognize these the most due to their emerging cognitive abilities and direct experiences with the world around them. As children learn to read, like the individual in the statement who became inspired to teach, they also begin to recognize and relate to characters and stories they read about, further shaping their world of recognition.