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Lesson and Unit Plans Materials for Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis

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Remembrance Day Activities
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=Playing Name Bingo with //Chrysanthemum (K-2)//=
 * Activities using Students' Names **

This get-to-know-you activity gives every student a chance to be in the spotlight as they participate in the Name Bingo Game. After reading //Chrysanthemum// to introduce the topic of names, students make Name Bingo cards by writing the name of each classmate in a different square of a blank Bingo board. Next, students brainstorm personal questions designed to get to know one another. To play the game, the teacher randomly calls out a name, and students cover that name on their board with a marker. In this twist of the traditional bingo game, after each name is chosen, the student responds by answering one of the questions designed to help students learn more about one another. The game continues until someone gets Bingo. The winner then gets to add another question to the list before a new game begins. Retrieved from: []

=Acrostic Poems: All About Me and My Favorite Things (Grades 1-3)= Students write free-verse acrostic poems about themselves using the letters of their names to begin each line. They then write an additional acrostic poem about something that is important to them. After proofreading, both poems are recopied or typed and illustrated and then mounted on construction paper for display. Several opportunities for sharing and peer review are incorporated.

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
The use of children's names in reading and writing activities can bring personal meaning to literacy work. Lucy McCormick Calkins, in //The Art of Teaching Reading//, emphasizes the value of using words that matter to children and describes a classroom scenario in which young children use their own names for a variety of literacy activities. Mariana Souto-Manning takes it a step further, emphasizing the importance of respecting students' names as part of a diverse classroom community. "By highlighting the importance of names and their many meanings and accents across cultures, languages, and places, we can create a space for acknowledging the identities children embody and move one step closer toward genuinely valuing diversity in classrooms." By using their own names as a starting point for writing free-verse poems, children are using words that are important to them while learning and reinforcing initial letter sounds."(2) Mariana Souto-Manning. "Honoring Children's Names and, Therefore, Their Identities." School Talk 12.3 (April 2007): 1-2. Retrieved from: [] = = =Investigating Names to Explore Personal History and Cultural Traditions (Grades 4-8)= "What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.""Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.""A good name is better than riches." There are lots of sayings about names, and most of them are at best only partially true. In this lesson, students investigate the meanings and origins of their names in order to establish their own personal histories and to explore cultural significance of naming traditions. Students begin by writing down everything they know about their own names, then the teacher shares details about his or her own name story. Next, students use an online tool to research their own or someone else’s name and share their findings with the class. Finally, students write about their own names, using a passage from Sandra Cisneros’ //The House on Mango Street// as a model.
 * Further Reading**

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
In "Exploring Heritage: Finding Windows into Our Lives," Jessica Matthews-Burell explains, "By investigating the etymology and significance of our names, we realize that name-giving practices vary from one culture to another" (33). When Diana Mitchell asked students to explore naming, they were "fascinated to hear how different racial and ethnic groups had different naming traditions" (65). Mitchell observed: > Many of the Latino students had been named after someone special, usually a relative who had a close relationship with the family. Many of the African American students found that their parents had created a name especially for them. The Caucasian students were often named just because their parents liked the name. In some families a close friend had been allowed to choose their name as a sign of their importance to the family. (65) Using the copy-change imitation process explained in //Getting the Knack// (90-94), students can explore all these many aspects of their own names, gaining insight on their own personal history and understanding how naming is part of larger cultural traditions by comparing their own examples to those of other writers.**Further Reading** Matthews-Burell, Jessica. "Exploring Heritage: Finding Windows into Our Lives." Voices from the Middle 10.4 (May 2003): 33-36. Mitchell, Diana. "Tapping into Family Stories and Themes to Heighten End-of-Year Engagement." English Journal 87.4 (April 1998): 65-69. Dunning, Stephen, and William Stafford. 1992. "Found and Headline Poems." //Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Writing Exercises.// Urbana, IL: NCTE.

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