EarlyEdAdventures

In the early months of kindergarten, I like to spend time focusing on names. Students need to learn how to spell their names, respect others’ names, and appreciate their own names. Learning the names in the class also helps students with phonemic awareness. I will be sharing some of the books that are related to names that I have used in my class this year. 

“Chrysanthemum” by Kevins Hawkes is a classic name book. A mouse named Chrysanthemum loves her long unique name until others begin teasing her at school about it. The other students teased her for days and Chrysanthemum left school everyday wishing that her name was anything else. Things took a turn when the music teacher shared that she also had a very long name and was named after a flower. The music teacher also shared that if her baby is a girl, she was considering naming her Chrysanthemum. After hearing this, the other students changed their attitudes toward Chrysanthemum and they even started giving themselves names that were based on flowers. Chrysanthemum went back to loving her name after this.

“Millions of Maxes” by Meg Wolitzer is a fun story that focuses on the fact that other people can have the same name as you. This is a great story especially if you have doubles of the same name in your class! In the story, Max’s parents call him “the one and only Max”. Max’s room has his name written on everything, from blankets to rugs to artwork. So when Max met a few other Maxes at the park, he was beyond surprised that more than one person could be named Max. Max got to know these other Maxes a little bit and learned that every one of them has something different about them that makes them special, even though they all shared the same name. That night, Max dreamt about a million Maxes.

“Becoming Vanessa” by Vanessa Brantley-Newton is a story that starts out with a young girl who likes to dress in an extravagant fashion. When she wore her fanciest outfit on the first day of school, she didn’t get the response she had wanted. Her classmates had said that it all was all too much, even her name was too long. This got Vanessa second guessing her outfit choice and even wishing that she had a shorter name like Bella or Megan. Once her mom told her the meaning behind her name, Vanessa got her confidence back and appreciated her long name.

“Alma and How She Got Her Name” by Juana Martinez-Neal was another class favorite. The story is about a young girl whose full name is Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela. She complained to her dad that her name was too long. Alma’s dad then went on to tell the story of how she got every part of her name. She was named after many loving relatives, but when it got to the meaning behind ‘Alma’ her dad said that Alma was her own special name that will carry her own story. After learning the meanings behind her name, Alma appreciated her long name. My students loved this book and were able to make connections to their own lives, sharing stories of how they got their own names.

“That’s Not My Name!” by Anoosha Syed is a story that focuses on pronouncing names and what to do if someone does not pronounce your name correctly. The story is about a young girl named Mirha. Mirah is excited to start school, but once she was there, her feelings changed as no one was able to say her name correctly. This had Mirha wishing she had a different name. Mirah’s mom told her the meaning of her name and why it was special. This had Mirah determined to help others learn how to pronounce her name correctly. In my class, I have some names that took me a little while to pronounce correctly. This story helped my students with tricker names learn how to approach a situation when someone says their name incorrectly.

“My Name is Elizabeth” by Annika Dunklee is a story about a girl named Elizabeth who does not like it when people call her anything other than Elizabeth. People call her Lizzie, Liz, Beth and she is sick of it. One day she goes around correcting everyone who does not call her by her full name, Elizabeth. This story opened up a great conversation about nicknames and calling people by the name that they wish to be called.