Keep reading for some fun Chrysanthemum activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. These activities are sure to be a hit with your little one!
We are a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post contains affiliate links. Click HERE to read our full disclosure.
Our August Story of the Month is Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. While we love reading this book anytime of year, it is especially important at the beginning of a new school year! If your little one is off to preschool or kindergarten this fall, this is definitely one story you’ll want to share with them.
Click here to check out the song I sing before reading this book!
Chrysanthemum loves her name and thinks it’s absolutely perfect…until she goes to school. After she’s teased for being named after a flower, Chrysanthemum has to learn to love her name again and appreciate her uniqueness!
Click on the picture to learn more about this awesome book!
Looking for more books to get ready for the first day of school? Check these out!
After reading this story, try these fun Chrysanthemum activities that include a Name Snack, a Name Tissue Paper Collage, and a FREE Name & Letter Sort.
Not only will these activities help your little one appreciate their own name, but they will also help reinforce a very valuable skill…how to read and spell their own name! You can check out more ways to practice names in this post or by watching this video.
Adding these activities to your back-to-school plans, either at home or in your classroom, will help bring learning to life for your little one!
Want a FREE printable pack that includes all the Story of the Month directions? Click here!
NAME SNACKS
I have to admit, I sort of cheated with this month’s snack…I couldn’t pick just one! There are so many easy ways to incorporate your little one’s name into a snack. Below are a few simple ideas.
Ingredients:
- Blueberries
- Goldfish
- Any other small snack you have!
- You’ll also want to write or print your little one’s name on paper. I created a FREE Editable Name Template that you can read about in this post or download from our FREE Activity Library.
Directions:
- Have your little one use blueberries (or any small snack you have) to trace the letters in their name.
- Your little one can also use goldfish (or any small snack you have) to make the first letter in their name.
Other Ideas:
- Get the delicious alphabet cookies from Trader Joe’s to spell out your little one’s name before eating them!
- Use a letter cookie cutter to make cookies in the shape of your little one’s name.
- Make letter-shaped pancakes to spell out your little one’s name.
- The possibilities are really endless!
NAME TISSUE PAPER COLLAGE
Another fun way to help your little one become comfortable reading and spelling their name is by turning it into an art project!
This Tissue Paper Collage is a great Chrysanthemum activity for so many reasons…it helps your little one recognize the letters in their name and gives them some fine motor practice when they’re tearing the tissue paper and gluing it on.
You can also sneak in some color and/or patterning practice, too!
Supplies:
- Your little one’s name written or printed on paper (it needs to be pretty large…these names are printed on half a sheet of paper)
- Tissue paper (any colors you’d like!)
Directions:
- Cut the tissue paper into strips.
- Have your little one tear the tissue paper into small pieces and ball those pieces up (great fine motor practice!)
- Then have your little one glue the tissue paper onto the letters in their name.
- You could take this up a notch by working on color recognition or patterning, too!
Want a fun idea for a back-to-school sensory bin? Check out this post!
FREE NAME AND LETTER SORT
To continue with our Chrysanthemum name theme, this month’s FREE activity is a Letter Sort that can be used at home or in the classroom!
This download comes with four different letter-sorting mats:
- In My Name vs. Not In My Name
- Uppercase vs. Lowercase
- Holes vs. No Holes
- Straight vs. Curvy vs. Both
It also comes with a set of colorful alphabet cards (both uppercase and lowercase) that you can print and use for lots of different activities! Or you could use letter manipulatives you already have, or you could put the mat in a plastic sheet and use a dry-erase marker to practice writing the letters after you sort them. So many possibilities!
This activity (along with all of our freebies!) can be downloaded from the Free Activity Library. If you’re already a member of our email community, you can click HERE to head to the Free Activity Library, enter your password (it’s on your most current email from me), and download your copy!
If you’d like to join our email community & receive the password as my way of saying THANK YOU for joining, you can click HERE to subscribe. Once you enter your information, the password will be emailed to you within minutes.
Have you read Chrysanthemum? Do you have any Chrysanthemum activities for preschoolers or kindergarteners that I should add to our list? Let me know! You can comment below or find me on Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] to share!
Want more book-inspired activities and printables? Check out the Storytime Club!
Did you miss any of our past Story of the Month posts? Click HERE to check them out!
love these ideas? pin for later!
Happy Learning!
