What's in a Name? Chrysanthemum Maker Activity and BOLD Template

This is a great beginning of the year, relationship building, empathy building activity to do with any student K-12. As a middle school teacher I often read picture books to my math/science students as an engagement activity and it was wondrous. You can use the different parts of the activity to teach classroom procedures and expectations from using materials to working collaboratively, to moving about the classroom etc...

SPARK/ENGAGE/ANTICIPATORY SET and a bit of EMPATHY:

Read or watch the video below of the book, 

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Reading the book not only sets the stage for the students making their own light up name tags, but it also enables you to do one of a variety of empathy activities such as: (these are just beginning ideas)

• Quick Think: How would you feel if you were in Chrysanthemum's place? 
• Quick Write: Do you have an interesting story about your name?
• Quick Write: What do you love about your name? What is challenging about your name?
• Have the students voice type their answers to the above question in a Google Doc, or in SeeSaw, or on a Flipgrid

CHALLENGE/EXPLORE/DISCOVER/INDEPENDENT LEARNING:

Figure out how to light the LED lights:

Give each student a baggie or paper bag and challenge them to figure out how to light the lights. 

• 3V battery CLICK HERE  (to buy on Amazon it's a 50 pack but you will use them for other projects)
• 4 LED lights (blue, green, red, yellow) CLICK HERE (to buy on Amazon)

This is a discovery activity that can take 10 - 30 minutes depending on how fascinated your students are. If you do this at the beginning of the year it is a great formative assessment for the students who are risk takers and jump right in as opposed to the students who are frozen by a fear of failing and are reluctant to try. 

Side Note: I like documenting how the students are at the beginning of the year and then track their growth as learning risk takers using a Google Sheet.

Teacher Note: I encourage you (the teacher) to play with the four colors because as my students taught me last year, the colors interact with each other and the battery in interesting ways.

INFORMATION/EXPLAIN/PROTOTYPE/TEACH and MODEL:
Here are some examples of possible resources you can use to teach your students about electrical circuits:

Electrical Circuits for Kids - CLICK HERE
The Power of Circuits Video - CLICK HERE

• Ask the students what they notice about the 3V battery  (they should notice a plus sign on one side)
• Ask the students what they notice about the LED light bulbs (they should notice that the wires are different lengths)
• Ask the students what they notice about the different colored bulbs and how they light when you put two on the battery

APPLY/ELABORATE/IDEATE and PROTOTYPE/INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
Now it is time for the students to take what they have learned and make a Name Tag that lights up. They will take their battery and pick two LED lights, write their names and use stickers to create their light up Name Tag.

Name Tag Supply List:

3.5 x 5 Note cards (I get these at Dollar Tree)
Cut up stickers (I buy sheets of stickers from Dollar Tree)
Colored Pens for writing name
3V batteries (Amazon - CLICK HERE)
LED Light Bulbs (Amazon - CLICK HERE)
Lanyards (Amazon - CLICK HERE)
Electrical Tape and/or Masking Tape (I get these at Dollar Tree)

If you would like to make a name tent here is a template I received from my AVID training this summer: CLICK HERE

REFLECT/EVALUATE/TEST/CHECK for UNDERSTANDING
There are many ways to have students reflect on what they have learned and created as well as check for understanding of electrical circuits:

• Use a Google Form to ask reflection questions and as an exit ticket to check for understanding
• Use Flipgrid to have the students answer reflection questions and check for understanding questions
• Use SeeSaw to have students show understanding using the drawing tool and voice explanations and also answer reflection questions

For younger students, I would use sentence frames to scaffold their responses and have the student discuss with a partner first before individually responding.