Finally dipping the toe in.  If i had realized I was reading book 11, I would have looked for book 1.  Some of the reviews indicated the series started going downhill.  If the previous ones are better than this, I'll be reading them.

305 pages, $3.00

This story is about a sweet little girl who is named after a beautiful flower. She grew to love her name. What could go wrong? Now that this little girl is in school, she has hated her name more and more. What will happen now that she is getting laughed at for her name and what will she think about her name in the end?  Lets all pick a new name out of this jar that I have written up. Each name is a flower and I want you all to research more about the flower that you drew. After we all have our information, create a name plate for your new name with different drawings and colors that make your flower extra special. 

Lexile Level: 570L

Thirteen letters make up Chrysanthemum’s name, and her bravery is just as extraordinary! Henkes’ tale follows Chrysanthemum as she grows up with confidence, only to have it broken when she encounters teasing at school. This is a wonderful story for Kindergarten through 2nd grade, Scholastic labeling it an “M” on their guided reading scale. Not only is it great for character education, but there is also a great opportunity to integrate a math lesson by numbering off the amount of letters in students’ names!

This would be a great book to implement in the classroom! There are so many ideas that come to mind when thinking about reading this to my kiddos. One activity that I think would be great for younger students is to break down their names into syllables, number of letters, and number of vowels, etc.. Also I feel it is important to make sure every child knows their name is perfect and picked just for them. I would love to read this to my class.

Lexile: 570L 

Chrysanthemum thinks she has a perfect name until she attends her first day of school, where other students start to ridicule her. This book can be used to teach students about acceptance. It is on a 570L Lexile reading level, which is a 3rd grade equivalent. When reading this story to students, the teacher can have a large heart cut out at the front of the room. Every time someone says something mean to chrysanthemum, a student can come up front and crinkle a portion of the heart. Afterwards, students will take turns trying to smooth out the heart. This is to show students that even after something unkind is said, the person may still feel upset by it. It shows students that it hurts someone’s heart, when people are being unkind to them.