With my first and second grade group we read a lot of literature that fits our theme for that year. This year our theme is Community of Thinkers. To start the year off we read a book called “The Name Jar” by Yangsook Choi. This is an excellent book about a girl who starts school in not only a new city but a new country. Unhei is from Korea. She is not sure if the American kids in her class will be able to pronounce her name so she wants to come up with a more American name for herself. She takes suggestions from the class but ultimately she decides to keep her Korean name.
When we were done reading, I typed each student’s name in bubble letters and let them decorate their name. Each letter should represent something they like or tell about themselves. We hung the pictures with the cute poem I found on Pinterest.
Everybody Has a Name
Everybody has a name
Some are different,
some are the same,
Some are short, some are long.
All are right, none are wrong.
I like my name,
it’s special to me,
It’s exactly who I want to be.
For homework that night the kids were to talk with their parents about how they got their name and if it had any special meaning. We discussed their findings the next day in class.
I found a great resource on teacherspayteachers.com for some in class activities about “The Name Jar” including how to write Hello in Korean. The kids loved trying to make each character.
Another fun activity to do with the kids is The Story of My Name. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Story-of-My-Name-Writing-and-Craftivity-265034
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