Storybook Week 3: Chrysanthemum

The book Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes, stars an adorable mouse with an absolutely perfect name. At least, it seems perfect until one day when a classmate makes certain comments...

1. Origins of a Name

Story Interest

Ask your child what his or her full name is. Together, look up the meaning of the name in a name book or dictionary or online. Some questions to consider together are:

What do you like best about your name?
What does it sound like?
What does it remind you of?
If you could choose any name for yourself, what would it be?

For a baby or toddler:

If you or someone you know has the talent or budget for it, you could make or purchase a name sign to hang in your child's room where he or she will often see it. There are many vinyl wall art companies to choose from these days and many online tutorials for decorating and displaying wood letters with materials you can find at any craft store.

Point out the picture to your child, saying the name and talking about the letters, pictures, colors, and shapes in it.  

We are extremely fortunate to have an artist in the family: my mom. Here is an example of part of a name picture:

2. Read the Book

Read-aloud

Read the book together, or watch the Scholastic Storybook Treasures story video. The video has marvelous, soothing narration by Meryl Streep.

3. Fat Orange Crayon

Arts and Crafts/Handwriting

In the book, Chrysanthemum loved to write out her name with a fat orange crayon. Set out a large piece of paper and a big orange crayon. Have your child write out his or her name on the paper.

For a toddler: Draw block letters of your child's name on a large piece of paper. Let your toddler scribble away at the paper with a fat orange crayon. It may be more fun if you join in!

4. Teasing

Emotional Awareness/Social skills

Use puppets that you have or make paper bag puppets by drawing faces and hair on the bottom of a paper lunch sack. Start a role play using the puppets in which someone is teased for something like a name or hair color. You can play the teasing puppet and the puppet being teased, while your child plays a friend of the puppet being teased. See what your child does as a friend. After a few minutes, you can switch all the roles.

For younger children, you can model the friend being helpful, saying encouraging statements like, "I like your name," or "I am sorry you feel bad. Do you need a hug?" You can talk about strategies such as telling the parent or teacher if they feel bad about something someone said or did to them.

For older children, talk about what teasers or bullies want. For example, you can talk about how reacting strongly and emotionally to the teasing makes bullies want to do even more teasing. Model calm, bland phrases like, "Thank you for noticing," or "It's interesting you think that." These, if repeated often, should be very boring and demotivating for a teaser or bully.

For even older children, or any children who use cell phones and online technology, research cyberbullying and address those issues with your child.