I know teachers who have actually hung the wrinkled hearts up in the classroom as a reminder all year to use kind words with one another. It really helps establish a community of kindness. This is a great activity to do with your own family, or in a small group or in a classroom. You can smooth out the wrinkled heart as much as you can but it still is always going to look a little bit wrinkled from your mean words and your mean actions.

I talked with them about how even when you say sorry and apologize for your mean words and mean behaviors, it still has a lasting effect. We compared the paper heart that wasn't wrinkled at all to the ones we wrinkled while we were reading and noticed how different they were. At the end of the book we try and spread out the heart as much as possible and repair it either using tape or Band-Aids. Every time Chrysanthemum’s classmates said something mean to her, the heart got wrinkled a little bit more.Įvery time her parents said something kind and loving to her I had them smooth out the paper heart a little bit and try to repair it. I told them to pay attention to whether the characters in the book were using kind words or mean words.Īs I read the book, every time a character said something mean to Chrysanthemum, I had them wrinkle up a piece of their paper heart to represent how mean words impact others. Before I began to read, I cut out paper hearts for each of us, plus one extra that we would use later. In 2002 it was produced by Newvideo and Scholastic and bundled with 5 other animated stories on a 'Scholastic Storybook Treasures' DVD.The activity is simple and just requires you to read the book Chrysanthemum and have paper hearts.

In 1998 Weston Woods developed an animated story based on the book's illustrations, which was narrated by Meryl Streep. Pyrethrums are a group of flowering plants which include Chrysanthemum coccineum, Chrysanthemum 10 cinerariifolium, Chrysanthemum marschalli, and related. Twinkle gives birth to a girl and decides to name her after Chrysanthemum. Delphinium Twinkle) defends her, saying how a lot of people have long names, which makes people envy her. However, a pregnant music teacher (named Mrs.

The plot deals with a young mouse named Chrysanthemum, who loves her long, beautiful name until a girl named Victoria and her friends, Rita and Jo, tease her about it. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its 'Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children.' It was one of the 'Top 100 Picture Books' of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal. Chrysanthemum is a 1991 children's picture book by American writer and illustrator Kevin Henkes.Ĭhrysanthemum was chosen as an ALA Notable Book and the School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and it is on the Horn Book Fanfare Honor List.

Scholastic chrysanthemum