Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes

Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes

by Roseanne Thong

Illustrated by Grace Lin 

Published by Chronicle Books in 2000

40 pages

Genre: cultural (China), picture book

 

The title of this story caught my glance right away. What is a mooncake? I wondered to myself. This story is about a little girl exploring and finding different shapes in her Asian culture. There is a glossary explaining the cultural significance of the objects.

 

Grace Lin presents her new style of art work combining oil painting and Chinese painting She uses techniques in mixed media with oil, ink, and watercolor. The illustrations bring the story to life and help the reader understand what the objects in the story are. For example, the picture above helped me understand what it meant to see lanterns outside. 

This book is appropriate for Kindergarten or preschool. It would be great as a read aloud or as a one on one reading. I would use this book as a way to start talking about China. I would show my students China on a map and talk about the objects in the book during social studies. On the sheet of prepared chart paper with the question "What other round things do you see?" create three columns with the following headings: "Book," "Classroom," and "Outdoors." Send a note home to families explaining that the children have been learning about circles, squares, and rectangles. Tell parents that the students have been asked to draw pictures of round objects that are found in their homes. Request that parents encourage their young ones to draw their pictures by themselves. Parents can assist with writing the names of the round shapes they have drawn. Provide the children with drawing paper to complete their take-home activity. Invite them to share their drawings during meeting time. Compare differences and similarities. Compare round items found in their homes with round items found in the book. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/round-mooncake-lesson-plan