At the beginning of the year, I like to do a lot of fun art projects that tie into stories. One of my favorite books to read to the kids is called, "The Name Jar" by Yangsook Choi. With a very diverse class, this book shows the kids that having a "unusual" name is special, not weird or embarrassing. This story is about a young Korean girl who moves to America and is feels so embarrassed by her name she wants to change it. Eventually, the kids in her new class convince her to keep her Korean name and she embraces it. It is such a sweet story and I've used it in my 2nd grade class, and also in my 4th grade class during student teaching.
The activity we did following a discussion of this story was to create a hanging name mobile. I cute 4x4 squares of construction paper in all colors. The kids chose enough squares for each letter of their name in whichever colors they wanted. Then, they created each letter of their name and we joined the letters together using yarn.
I hung the names from the ceiling and ta-da! Super colorful and cute addition to our classroom. If I do this activity again next year, I may have the students create two of each letter so they are double sided and can be seen when the yard twists.
Another story in the "name" category is "Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes. I'd say this is more appropriate and easier for younger students to understand.
