daisysaffron

This lovely Kevin Henkes book has been one of my favorites since I was a kid. I really connected to Chrysanthemum- even though I wasn't bullied because of my name, I did hate my own, wanted to be called "Lily", and mac & cheese was/is my favorite food just like the main character of the book. "Chrysanthemum" is a great book to use in the classroom because it talks about feelings, bullying, and being nice to people. Because this book is very well known, there are many resources available for it.

An activity that I have done in the past is this: I printed out large versions of positive (happy face, heart eyes, etc) and negative (crying, frowny face, etc) emojis and glued one of each to a popsicle stick- enough for each person in class. While the book is being read aloud to them, the students react using their emojis. This is great for younger grades, but can be adapted to older grades by having students fill out an anchor chart of positive/negative emotions that go further than the usual "happy" and "sad". The anchor chart can then be used during writing so that the students have a mini thesaurus to look at. 

Guided Reading: L

Lexile: 460L

Scholastic Discussion Guide:

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=32395