Chrysanthemum: Self-Acceptance Inclusion and Respect SEL Lesson

By: Breanna Miller

August 6th, 2024

I Love My Name! is the perfect beginning of the year Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lesson. It promotes, confidence, acceptance, inclusion, and respect amongst peers. This lesson was created around the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henske and encourages students to love their identity while learning to respect and appreciate others too.

At the beginning of this lesson, students are asked to write their name in the center of a heart. Around their name, they are instructed to write the things they love about their name and/or reasons why they love their name. This activity was created to help students feel empowered about a piece of their identity. As well as, to deepen their understanding of the next part of the lesson by making it more personal to them. Next, the students engage in a group reading session of the book Chrysanthemum written by Kevin Henkes. During the read aloud, students are instructed to crinkle their heart whenever someone says something mean about Chrysanthemum's name and try to flatten out their paper whenever she feels good (or positive) about her name. After, students engage in a class discussion around the purpose of crinkling their hearts and trying to flatten their paper out. The teacher facilitates a discussion about how when we crinkle the paper and then try to flatten it out, it's still crinkled - representing how we cannot take back our words once they are spoken and even if we apologize their heart is still crinkled. We go even further by inquiring with students whether they can still read the writing on their paper listing all the reasons they cherish their name. Naturally, the students answer affirmatively. Subsequently, we question them if they can perceive it as distinctly as they could prior to the paper being crumpled, to which they respond negatively. We illustrate how there are occasions when we feel assured about our identity, but when faced with unkind remarks from others, it can challenge our initial confidence, making it difficult to understand why we were so self-assured in the beginning.The lesson concludes as students craft a Name Certificate featuring their name, its meaning, origin, and notable accomplishments. This activity fosters feelings of gratitude, respect, and self-assurance among students, particularly as they present their Name Certificates to their peers. Click the link to purchase in our TPT store.

This lesson was created specifically for intermediate grade levels. The package includes a detailed lesson plan divided into 15-minute segments, intended to be spread out over 5 days or taught in a single class period. Additionally, the teacher will be provided with all necessary materials for teaching the lesson, including worksheets and discussion questions aimed at fostering deeper comprehension and engagement during the read-aloud session.

In order to ensure that our SEL lessons are purposeful, significant, and focused on students, we provide activities in this package that can be completed during reading rotations or integrated into the lesson. Students are actively participating and showcasing their comprehension of the lesson through a variety of activities, such as writing prompts, comprehension questions, and sorting scenarios between teasing and bullying. These assignments have the potential to serve as assessments aligned with the standards specified on our TPT page. Find parts of this lesson sold separately on our TPT page.

We appreciate you incorporating SEL into your students' learning journey!