Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

3rd Graders have been enjoying our current class read aloud for our study of China, the Newberry Award winning book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. This beautiful story, written and illustrated by Grace Lin, is a fascinating and heart-rending tale of Minli, who goes off to ask the Old Man of the Moon how to change her poor family's fortune. The story draws from  traditional Chinese folktales and evokes many of the values and beliefs from the history of the Chinese people. Each chapter has intricate artwork accompanying the story and third graders have been getting a rich sense of culture and heritage that has been passed down through storytelling.  In addition to enjoying the story and learning about Chinese culture,  we have had deep conversations thinking about character and roles.  

We've also been delving into character traits and talking about whether certain traits are sometimes positive, negative, or even both at times!  Minli's adventures are keeping us on our toes as she journeys through forests, mountains, cities, and unknown lands.  We've been coming up with ideas and predictions during each reading period for what we think might happen next based on the new developments in each chapter.  We hope to use our discussions  as a model for practicing our comprehension and inferential skills.   We've loved interacting and connecting with the characters in the story and can't wait to get to the end  in a few weeks!