The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name

Connecting to prior knowledge

Making predictions

Present the front cover of The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name, written by Sandhya Parappukkaran and illustrated by Michelle Pereira. Read the title aloud. Ask students to consider what events might occur in the text, asking questions such as:

• Who might this story be about? What makes you think that?
• What do you notice about the image on the cover? What draws your attention?
• What does it mean to ‘shrink’ something? Why might the boy want to shrink his name?
• What kinds of emotions could he be experiencing?

Provide each student with a sticky note. Ask them to write or draw their initial ideas about the text on the note and add it to a piece of butcher’s paper entitled ‘Our Predictions’.

Read the heading on the back cover: ‘No-one should ever have to shrink themselves down to fit in’. Invite students to think-pair-share about what this means, then invite individuals to share their thoughts with the class. Focus on the idea of ‘fitting in’ and develop a shared understanding together. For example, ‘To fit in means to feel like you belong in a group’. Prompt students to ponder whether ‘fitting in’ requires everyone to be the same. Record any important points from this discussion on the class predictions poster.

Invite students to change their predictions if needed. Ask them to consider how and why their predictions might have changed since reading the blurb.

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Making connections

Together learn how to pronounce the boy’s name: Zimdalamashkermishkada. It might help to play StoryBox Hub’s teaser video (reducing the playback speed if needed) so that students can hear the name spoken aloud. Discuss where to place syllable breaks to assist with pronunciation. To identify syllables, students can place a flat hand under their chin. Every time their mouth opens to make a vowel sound, their chin will touch their hand. This equals a syllable.

Now read The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name aloud. Afterwards, pose questions that deepen understanding of the key themes, such as:

• Why did Zimdalamashkermishkada want to shrink his name?
• Did he feel like he belonged at his new school? When did this change and why?
• What made Zimdalamashkermishkada feel more confident and proud at the end of the story?

Form a discussion circle so that each student can share how they connect to the text (e.g. ‘I sometimes find it difficult to make new friends, too’). Give the first person a ball of yarn to hold while they speak. When they are done, they will take hold of the loose end and pass the remaining yarn to the next speaker. Repeat this process, building on each person’s ideas while passing the yarn around. Once each student has shared, draw their attention to the ‘web’ of connections between them as a way of demonstrating how people are all unique, but still belong together and share important similarities.

Invite students to write down their connection and describe it in one or more sentences (e.g. ‘This story reminded me of my best friend. She is kind like Elly’). Provide time for students to share their writing. If needed, provide the following sentence starter:

This story reminded me of …

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Exploring the text in context of our community, school, and ‘me’

Name research

Draw students’ attention to the significance of names within the story. Ask them:

• How did Zimdalamashkermishkada feel about his name at the beginning of the story? How do we know?
• Did these feelings change throughout the story? Why?
• What makes Zimdalamashkermishkada’s name so long? How many syllables does it have? How many syllables does your name have?
• The name of Zimdalamashkermishkada’s teacher is Miss Clarity. What might this name mean?
• What did Zimdalamashkermishkada’s Mum tell him about his name?
• Why is a person’s name important?

Direct the discussion towards ideas about identity, friendship, belonging, and culture within the text. Explain that names are an important part of a person’s identity.

As an optional activity, arrange device access for small groups of three to four students. Demonstrate how to research the meaning and origin of a name using Behind the Name. Model strategies for finding key words on a web page and deciphering unknown words.

Alternatively, students might ask their parent/carer about the origin of their own name and why it was chosen for them. Following this discussion, they can complete an art activity by writing their name on an A3 piece of paper and decorating it with illustrations or words about what their name means and why it was chosen. Prompt students to add anything they learned about the origin and meaning of their name from their research (if undertaken). Display these artworks in the classroom.

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Personal symbols

Introduce identity and culture as two important ideas (themes) in the story that give the reader a strong message. Prepare two pieces of butcher’s paper, one labelled ‘Identity’ and the other ‘Culture’. Create shared definitions for each term and add them to the posters. For example:

• identity – who you are as a person
• culture – special practices and ideas belonging to a group of people

Ask students to contribute ideas about Zimdalamashkermishkada’s identity and culture in the story, and add them to the posters. For example:

Provide each student with TWO sticky notes and invite them to draw or write a response to each theme. This could be something they feel comfortable sharing about their own identity and culture; ideas from the text; or their own definitions of what the terms mean.

Arrange for each student to bring a special object to school that tells the class something important about their identity or culture. If the object is too precious, they could bring a photo instead. In a discussion circle, allow each student to introduce their object to the class and explain where it came from and what it means to them. They may be able to explain how the object reflects their identity or culture. This could be done in one session OR over several days. Focus on the way students use gesture, volume, and pace when speaking.

Once each student has shared their object, lead a whole class brainstorm of what students learned about their classmates and why this activity was important. Jointly construct a sentence that captures some of these ideas and ask students to draw and/or write their own reflection on the activity.

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Rich assessment task

Students will create a self-portrait and connected piece of writing (TWO TO THREE sentences) about what makes them special and unique. Prompt them to consider ideas that are important in the story, such as name and culture, and how these contribute to identity. Give each child an opportunity to share and talk about their portrait and display them in the classroom.

Be mindful of students who may not feel comfortable being on display, and allow them to opt out if that is their preference.

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Responding to the text

Making inferences

NOTE: For the purpose of tracking page numbers, the first page of the story is considered p. 1.

Focus on the beginning of the story, when Zimdalamashkermishkada starts at his new school. Ask students to think back to their first day of school. How did they feel? How does this compare to Zimdalamashkermishkada’s feelings? Direct students to think-pair-share.

Now prompt students to think about things that made their first day of school easier. They may have already visited the school, met their teacher, or known some of the students in their class (from preschool, after school activities, family friends, etc.). Ask them to think about Zimdalamashkermishkada’s experience at a new school where he didn’t know anyone.

• Why else did he feel nervous about his first day?
• Is it difficult when you feel like you are different to everyone else? Why/why not?

Explain to students that they are learning to think more deeply about the way characters might be feeling in a story. This involves background knowledge, i.e. things we already know or have experienced before. Arrange students in groups of three to four and assign each group member a role:

1. a new student at school;
2. their class teacher; and
3. other students in the class.

Also assign each group a different school-related setting (e.g. playground, classroom, sick bay, computer lab, school hall).

The groups will create and act out a scenario involving a new student in a school setting (e.g. first day in the classroom; going to sick bay for the first time). Prompt students to act out ways that they could make the new student feel safe and welcome. You could model this to the whole class before breaking into groups. Give students a chance to swap roles and act out different scenarios within their groups.

Afterwards, ask students to identify actions that were helpful to the new student, and the reasons why these actions were important.

Explain that the previous roleplay activity required students to think about how Zimdalamashkermishkada may have felt on his first day of school. Introduce the term ‘inference’, which involves combining our own knowledge and experience with information in a text to make an informed guess. Re-read The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name and draw students’ attention to pp. 1–14. Use think-aloud statements such as:

• The author doesn’t tell me exactly how Zimdalamashkermishkada is feeling. I wonder what other information from the story I could use.
• I can see he has an interesting expression on his face here (p. 5). I wonder if he is feeling worried.
• I wonder why Zimdalamashkermishkada is carrying an orange piece of string. What might it represent?
• Zimdalamashkermishkada describes his name in interesting ways. I wonder what feelings might be behind these words.

Divide students into groups of three to four. Assign each group a double-page spread from pp. 1–14. Ask the groups to carefully examine the words and illustrations on the pages, then draw and write their ideas about the following questions on a piece of butcher’s paper:

• How do you think Zimdalamashkermishkada is feeling?
• How do you know? What clues are you given in the words and illustrations?

Invite each group to present their ideas to the class. Jointly construct a quality inference that draws on the children’s background knowledge and information from the text. For example:

We infer that Zimdalamashkermishkada felt worried on his first day of school. We think this because he wished he could shrink his name in the dryer before he got there. This means that he wished his name wasn’t so long.

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Exploring plot, character, setting, and theme

Character profiles

Ask students to consider the purpose of the text. Is it to provide information, persuade the reader, or tell a story?

Invite students to share how they know the text is imaginative (e.g. illustrations, characters, figurative language). They can also think about other imaginative texts they know. Emphasise characters as an important feature of imaginative texts, explaining that authors create characters to build a story and share important messages with the reader.

Ask students to consider the main characters in The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name: Zimdalamashkermishkada, Elly, Mum, and Miss Clarity. Using Zimdalamashkermishkada’s Mum as an example, model and record on butcher’s paper the language required to describe her appearance and actions (e.g. black hair; wears a sari; comforted Zimdalamashkermishkada; reminded him of his culture; cooked food to share with Zimdalamashkermishkada and Elly).

Place students in small groups and assign each group a different character for a character profile (PDF, 51KB). Prompt students to describe the character’s appearance and actions in the story, as well as draw a picture. They will then consider the question: ‘Why was this character important in the story?’ Direct students to record relevant points, reminding them that authors put thought into the characters they create to convey special messages. Then give each student a sticky note and ask them to write a message that they feel the author was trying to share with her readers. Attach these to the character profiles and discuss as a class. Finish by considering how these ideas relate to identity and culture.

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Comparing texts

Explain that being able to compare texts and identify how they are similar and different is an important reading skill. Read Amma’s Sari, another book by Sandhya Parappukkaran and Michelle Pereira (if you do not have a copy, you can watch and listen to a reading from ABC Education Story Time – also available in Auslan). Invite students to think-pair-share about parts of the text they appreciated. Ask:

• Who were the main characters in this text?
• How did Shreya feel about Amma’s sari at the beginning of the story? Why did she feel this way?
• Why was Amma’s sari so special to her? What did it remind her of?
• When did Shreya’s feelings about Amma’s sari change?

Create a Venn diagram, labelling one side Amma’s Sari and the other side The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name. Ask students to identify information about Amma’s Sari and record it on the relevant side of the diagram (e.g. the main characters are Shreya and Amma; the story tells us why saris are special in South Asian culture).

Tell students they are going to practise comparing the characters, plots, and themes in the two texts. Recap the themes of identity and culture (see Literature > Exploring the Text in Context of Our Community, School, and ‘Me’ > Personal Symbols) and how they were presented in The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name, adding relevant ideas to that side of the Venn diagram. Remind students of key elements of the plot, like Zimdalamashkermishkada’s first day of school, learning to skateboard with Elly, sharing his Mum’s food with Elly, and having the confidence to accept his name at the end of the story.

Now arrange students in groups of three to four and assign each group a different topic: character, plot, identity, or culture. Ask students to talk about the similarities between Amma’s Sari and The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name in relation to this topic. Encourage them to record their ideas throughout the discussion by writing or drawing.

Following this, rearrange students into jigsaw groups. Each group should contain at least one person who originally discussed character, plot, identity, or culture. Students will share the ideas from their first group discussion with this new group and think about how the texts compare.

Invite each jigsaw group to share their ideas with the class and record key points in the centre of the Venn diagram. Finish by pointing out that Amma’s Sari and The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name are both imaginative texts about young people learning to accept their Indian cultural heritage as part of their identity. Zimdalamashkermishkada learned to accept his name, whereas Shreya learned to embrace Amma’s sari; both were special and unique to their culture.

You might also like to discuss how Sandhya Parappukkaran was inspired to write The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name based on her own experiences (see her 2022 Readilearn interview). Review the previous discussion about the text’s purpose. Ask students to consider whether it is still an imaginative text if it is inspired by the author’s experiences. Remind students that, although it reflects events in Parappukkaran’s life, Zimdalamashkermishkada is still an imagined character in an imaginative story.

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Rich assessment task

Using information from the previous lesson, prompt students to write TWO TO THREE sentences about how The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name and Amma’s Sari are similar. Students can choose to write about the characters, plots, themes, or a combination of these elements.

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Examining text structure and organisation

Sequencing the text

Re-read The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name to the class. Then choose five to ten sentences from the text and read them aloud in a random order. As you do so, ask students to place each sentence on a timeline in the correct sequence. Once the timeline is complete, ask students:

• What happened at the beginning of the story? How were we introduced to the main character and setting?
• What was the main problem in the story? In what part of the story were we first told about this problem?
• How was the problem solved? When did this become clear?

Explain that since The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name is a narrative text, it is structured with the key features most narrative texts share. Such texts usually contain an orientation (introduction), complication (problem), and resolution. Emphasise that this can be done in a number of ways. For example, an author may introduce the main character on the first page, followed by the complication on the second page. Prompt students to think about the orientation, complication, and resolution in Amma’s Sari or a similar text. What do they notice?

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Exploring the use of colour

Ask students to share what they noticed about the colours that were used in the text. Explain that illustrators, like authors, use techniques to share important messages within a text. When these techniques are used within a picture, artwork, or film, they are called visual techniques. These often create additional meaning within a text.

Using what they already know about Sandhya Parappukkaran’s inspiration for the story, ask students to infer what the use of orange, green, and white throughout the text could mean. Explain that these are the colours of India’s national flag, which reflects the author’s cultural background (Kerala Indian):

• The saffron (top) band represents strength and courage.
• The white (middle) band represents peace and truth.
• The green (bottom) band represents growth and prosperity.
• The navy blue wheel represents the Dharma Chakra, a symbol associated with law and progress.

Ask students to consider why these colours are important and why they may have been used in the illustrations. Emphasise that colours can have many meanings in different cultures, and that flags are designed carefully to represent what is important to people of a particular country.

Arrange device access for pairs of students and give each student their own author booklet (PDF, 79KB). Explain that they will be researching the flag of a country that reflects their cultural background so that they can use similar colours in their own illustrated picture book. Ask them to access Flagpedia and look for the name and flag of a country that reflects their cultural background. Prompt them to complete the ‘Flag Research’ section of their booklet. They may need to look beyond Flagpedia to find additional information. You could model this to the class beforehand using a relevant flag as an example.

Arrange time to conference with each pair to guide them in noting down key points about the colours or symbols used in their flags. Encourage students to think about how they might use these colours in a story about their life.

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Exploring the use of symbolism

Guide students on a picture walk through the book by displaying each illustration without reading the written text. Ask them to focus on the symbols that are used to represent Zimdalamashkermishkada’s name (shoelaces, string/ball of yarn, pufferfish, thunder, folded paper, small bird, flying peacock). Write these symbols on a whiteboard or shared writing space as students notice them. Ask:

• What do some of these symbols have in common? How are they similar?
  • Before Zimdalamashkermishkada’s Mum explains the importance of his name, the symbols show his embarrassment/discomfort. Many of them are things that can be shrunk or take up too much space.
• When does Zimdalamashkermishkada’s name become a different kind of symbol?
  • Once he starts building the courage to say his full name, it starts to take the form of a bird. The bird grows with his confidence until it becomes a peacock that takes flight with Elly’s support.
• Why do you think a flying peacock was used as the final symbol? What do birds symbolise?
  • Birds can represent freedom because they soar high in the sky.

Emphasise that authors and illustrators use techniques like symbolism to share special messages, and that the peacock is particularly important. Display this 2025 Times of India article and read the first paragraph, which explains that the peacock is India’s national bird. This tells us that, by the end of the story, Zimdalamashkermishkada is not only proud of his name but also the cultural heritage that his name reflects.

Prompt students to consider what animal they might select to represent themselves and why. Invite them to draw and make notes about this personal symbol on the ‘Symbols’ page of their author booklet. Allow time for students to share and discuss their chosen symbol with the class.

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Examining grammar and vocabulary

Exploring figurative language

Draw students’ attention to the use of metaphors, similes, and onomatopoeia in the text. This may well be their first encounter with figurative language. At this stage they are NOT expected to work independently; rather, this next activity is designed to build awareness.

Use examples from the book to introduce metaphors, similes, and onomatopoeia. For example:

Emphasise that similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeia are examples of figurative language, which is often used by authors in imaginative texts. This helps create rich pictures in the reader’s mind. Ask students to consider how the story might have been different if such language had not been used. Would we have gotten the same understanding of Zimdalamashkermishkada’s feelings?

Place students in pairs with a piece of butcher’s paper and a simile, metaphor, or example of onomatopoeia from the text (see suggestions below). Ask each pair to illustrate their example of figurative language. When they have finished, invite them to present their work to the class. Alternatively, facilitate a gallery walk in which students roam the classroom and view their classmates’ illustrations.

You can also direct students to fill out the ‘Figurative Language’ section of their author booklet.

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Exploring action verbs

NOTE: This lesson focuses on action verbs only.

Ask students to consider what makes a complete sentence. How do we know when we have written a complete idea? Introduce the clause as the ‘building block’ of sentences that contains a main subject (participant, shown in [square brackets]) and a verb (process, shown underlined). Using simple sentences from the text, have students identify the subject and verb. For example:

Prompt students to experiment with changing the verbs in each sentence to create their own. How does changing the verb change the meaning? For example, ‘Miss Clarity smirks’. Students might say that smiling is a friendly action, whereas smirking suggests that someone is being sly or tricky.

Authors use action verbs to describe what characters do at different times. Discuss the following sentences with students, identifying the subject and verb in each one:

Ask students to select ONE of these sentences, change the verb, and illustrate the new meaning. Is it the same or different in their new sentence? Facilitate a gallery walk for students to view their classmates’ work. Add these verbs to a class word wall or similar for future reference.

You can also direct students to fill out the ‘Action Verbs’ section of their author booklet.

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Rich assessment task

Students will select ONE technique explored in this sequence (i.e. metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia, action verbs) and incorporate it into a short piece of writing about an important part of their identity, such as their family, hobbies, friends, school, or cultural heritage. They might also add illustrations to demonstrate their ideas.

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Planning a narrative

Recap the previous activities around Sequencing the Text (see Examining > Examining Text Structure and Organisation). What did students notice about the orientation, complication, and resolution in The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name? Emphasise that the orientation was on p. 1 and the complication was on p. 2; the reader was aware of Zimdalamashkermishkada’s problem from the beginning.

Explain that students are going to create their own narrative in the form of a picture book. They will be writing about a personal challenge they have overcome (e.g. starting at a new school, learning a new skill) OR a theme discussed during this learning sequence (e.g. identity, culture). They are to use simple sentences with action verbs, plus symbols and colours in the illustrations.

Model completing the ‘Story Map’ in the author booklet (PDF, 79KB) to identify key themes and plan an orientation, complication, and resolution using dot points. Then select an appropriate symbol and list other language to be included in the text. Allow time for students to complete their own story map and talk about their narrative with a partner. Encourage them to draw on ideas from previous learning experiences related to personal and cultural symbols, simple sentences with action verbs, and colour in illustrations.

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Drafting a narrative

Model the process of using the story map to write a picture book-style narrative. Focus on having an orientation on p. 1 and a complication on p. 2. Model ways that students might incorporate a symbol within their narratives (e.g. representing their inner thoughts with a lion to show their sense of pride after accomplishing a goal).

Allow time for students to write the first draft of their narrative.

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Editing and compiling a picture book

Once students have completed their first draft, provide them with an editing checklist (PDF, 51KB). Direct each student to assess their own writing AND that of a peer using the criteria. Support them to make any necessary adjustments to their narrative based on their self- and peer-assessment.

Now ask students to plan the layout of their picture book by deciding the extent of written text on each page and drafting illustrations. Prompt them to review their work on symbols and colours, and to consider how they might use their illustrations to convey messages that build on their written text. You might ask:

• What are the main messages you would like the reader to understand from your picture book? How might you share these messages in your writing and illustrations?
• What colours will you use in your picture book? Why are they important? What do they symbolise?
• What materials will you use to create your picture book?

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Publishing and sharing a picture book

Make sure each student has some A4 card paper and their drafts/plans from the previous lesson. Give them time to publish their picture books by writing and creating illustrations on each page. Ensure that they have access to a range of materials to create their picture book (e.g. coloured pencils, crayons, felt tip pens, markers, watercolour pencils/paints, craft paper, other craft materials). The pages can then be stapled or bound together to create a picture book.

Arrange for students to share their picture books with an audience beyond the classroom (e.g. senior buddies, invited parents and carers, other students in their grade) and to answer questions about their work from this audience. Emphasise the importance of speaking clearly and using active listening.

Display the completed picture books in your classroom OR school library for the wider school community to read.

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Rich assessment task

Conference with each student so that they can explain the messages in their picture book AND any language and illustration choices that reflect these messages. Assess the completed picture books for evidence of:

• narrative structure
• simple sentences
• action verbs
• illustrations that support or extend meaning (i.e. use of colour and symbols)

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