Third Graders Study a Chinese Moon Folktale

Third graders have begun their study of Chinese culture by learning about and celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. As a class, we have been reading and discussing stories and folktales about the moon to learn about its shape, phases, and beauty.

This week, third graders having been reading one of the most famous folktales of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, the Story of Chang-E and Hou-Yi, which explains why the moon is the biggest and brightest once every month on the full moon. The tale takes place in ancient China, at a time when ten suns took turns shining on the Earth. One day, when all ten suns rose in the sky at the same time, the imperial archer, Hou-Yi, was summoned to save the Earth by shooting the suns down from the sky. As his reward, he received a magical pill for eternal life. The story goes on to explain the brightness of the moon during the full moon time, and it also introduces several important characters in Chinese culture, including the Moon Goddess and the Jade Rabbit.  

Third graders have been working hard to learn about the folktale of Hou Yi and Chang E by retelling each step of the story through their own words and artwork. Working in partners and individually, students began by helping each other think about important steps in the story, sequence the steps in a story map, and then retell the folktale in their own writing.