While we read this story, we used a large paper heart to symbolize Chrysanthemum's "heart," or her feelings. Whenever a character did something that hurt Chrysanthemum's feelings, we crumpled the heart a little bit. Whenever someone did something nice for Chrysanthemum, we tried to smooth the heart out a little bit.
By the end of the story, although Chrysanthemum's problems had been resolved and the other characters were nice to her, Chrysanthemum's heart was still pretty wrinkly. We used this time as an opportunity to talk about how our words can really hurt someone's feelings in a way that can't totally be fixed. The students read the phrase, "Before you speak, think and be smart. It's hard to fix a wrinkled heart." We put our names on band-aids and affixed them to the heart as a symbolic promise that we would try to use our words to heal hearts.
Since mean words can make a heart "wrinkly" and hurt someone's feelings, we discussed the alternative - heart words! Heart words are words and phrases that can help heal broken hearts. They are words that can solve problems and help someone feel loved.
We brainstormed some "heart words" that students could use. Here is what we came up with!
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